"Unschooling" the University

Never Let Schooling Interfere With Your Education

Unschooling is a growing trend among children old enough to attend primary or secondary school. It is a type of homeschooling that is child-directed, taking place both at home and other places where children can learn about the world.

The advantage of this method is that it doesn't require you, the parent, to become someone else, i.e. a professional teacher pouring knowledge into child-vessels on a planned basis. Instead you live and learn together, pursuing questions and interests as they arise and using conventional schooling on an on-demand basis, if at all. This is the way we learn before going to school and the way we learn when we leave school and enter the world of work. _Unschooling: Holt

In the US, with university student dept around $1 trillion, more people want to bring "unschooling" to the university level -- and make it very low cost, sometimes free.

[US] student debt now tops $1 trillion and that a third of college students drop out–with debt and without a degree. Nearly a third of the average 18-to-24-year-old’s income goes toward debt repayment, much of it owing to student loans.

...Yet if [Vivek] Wadhwa is right the student debt problem will take care of itself—at least as it relates to the next generation and those that follow. Online courses will proliferate to such a degree that acquiring knowledge will become totally free. There will still be a cost associated with getting a formal degree. But most universities, he says, “will be in the accreditation business.” They will monitor and sanction coursework; teachers will become mentors and guides, not deliver lectures and administer tests. This model has the potential to dramatically cut the cost of an education and virtually eliminate the need to borrow for one, he says.

...Wadhwa allows that there will always be students able and willing to pay for a traditional college experience and for them it will be a worthwhile investment. But for the vast majority, from a financial standpoint that kind of education makes no sense and is fast becoming unnecessary. He believes the higher education revolution is coming soon and will happen fast—perhaps fast enough to keep the next generation from finishing school with debts they may never be able to pay. _Moneyland.Time

University has become a place for young adults and adolescents to receive a political indoctrination, form bad personal habits, and avoid responsibility while spending "other people's money" for as long into adulthood as possible.

In other words, for a large number of young people, university has become the capstone on an edifice of dysfunctional education and child-raising that leaves the young person incompetent and unfit for taking meaningful responsibility in world growing less friendly to the unskilled by the day.

The problem with "unschooling the university" is that most graduates of primary and secondary public education never learned to be self-directed toward their own education. They and their parents trustingly counted on the government educational system to provide the child's education. And now, here they are, unable to pick up the ball and run with it.

We anticipate that in the future, more and more parents will opt for "The Dangerous Child" approach to child rearing, which is a type of "unschooling" -- although much more dangerous, of course.

The dangerous child learns multiple skills and competencies from an age at which most parents and educators would believe it impossible. But it is not only possible -- it is vital, if the child is to develop his full potential of dangerousness. Dangerous children must achieve high enough skill levels to be able to support themselves financially in at least three different ways by the time they are 18 years old.

Needless to say, the future would look quite different in a world full of dangerous children -- quite unlike the present world full of lifelong adolescents and incompetent psychological neotenates.

And remember, it is never too late to have a dangerous childhood.

Alternatives to a Designed, Uniform Idiocracy

When I first heard about unschooling 8 years ago I thought it seemed crazy. I thought all the things that some of you are thinking right now. What about socialization, grades, college? My children need to go to school to be “on track” with everyone else. It seemed lazy and neglectful, and I couldn’t imagine going against the grain in such an “extreme” way.

Flash forward to today and you see a very different philosophy in my home. I have spent the past 6 years homeschooling my oldest son. We have since had 2 more children, traveled with them extensively, moved to a foreign country, and experimented with almost every type of homeschooling you can imagine. Then I discovered the mind-opening experience that is unschooling, and now I can’t imagine living my life in anything but this “extreme” way. _AP_via_NewsAlert

Unschooling is a form of homeschooling which allows children greater freedom for exploration in the adult world -- the real world -- in the quest for purpose, personal identity, and a discovery of personal strengths and interests in the act of learning. But before a family can begin "unschooling," it must first learn to "deschool."

Ivan Illich first coined the term "deschooling" in a controversial book called Deschooling Society, published in 1971. In this book he enlightens his readers to the fact that “universal education through schooling is not feasible." He goes on to explain that the institutionalization of education means an institutionalization of society as a whole. And that until we change the way we view education we won't be able to change the way all institutions function. There is a corrupting impact at the institutional level, but it is particularly damaging to society when this happens in schools; and it is happening in schools as we speak. _AP

All children learn differently, and rather than fighting against natural differences, unschooling adopts tools which allow children to develop their own natural "learning instinct." Tools such as Singapore Math (also Saxon Math).

In contrast to the most common math programs in the United States, Singapore math devotes more time to fewer topics, to ensure that children master the material through detailed instruction, questions, problem solving, and visual and hands-on aids like blocks, cards and bar charts. Ideally, they do not move on until they have thoroughly learned a topic.

Principals and teachers say that slowing down the learning process gives students a solid math foundation upon which to build increasingly complex skills, and makes it less likely that they will forget and have to be retaught the same thing in later years.

And with Singapore math, the pace can accelerate by fourth and fifth grades, putting children as much as a year ahead of students in other math programs as they grasp complex problems more quickly. _NYT

The number of tools being adapted for homeschoolers and unschoolers is accelerating rapidly, as the number of homeschoolers rises. The crisis in the failing system of government education is no secret to parents who are paying attention.

If you want obsolete children who will grow into a perpetual, lifelong incompetent adolescence, send them to a government school. Or send them to any kind of school where you can leave their education up to professional educators. Take a "hands-off" approach, like your friends are doing for their kids. Then open your arms, and embrace the Idiocracy.

Homeschooling Becoming Just Another Option

The increase in homeschooled students, has given rise to two major things: more educational resources for homeschoolers and more support for their parents.

Several publishers, museums, parks and communities are capitalizing on the need for homeschooling curricula and programs. And parent-formed support groups that provide social interaction and opportunities for shared learning for homeschooled children are sprouting up in diverse communities. _ImpactLab

Homeschooling in the US has doubled over the past 10 years, with well over 2 million active homeschooling families. The resources to assist a parent to provide quality schooling to children have never been more widely available or of such high quality. And an ever-larger number of institutions of higher learning are catching on to the fact that homeschooled students are often among the best applicants available.

Back-to-school time for Heidi Pair of Milford means enrolling her two children in online classes, scheduling 4-H meetings, karate classes and Lego League, picking out math curricula and planning field trips. Pair, 40, is a homeschooler -- one of an estimated 2.3 million in the U.S., a number that has doubled during the last 10 years, according to the National Home Education Research Institute.

With a sea of available resources and a ballooning network of supporters, homeschooling is becoming more mainstream.

...A report in the summer 2010 edition of the Journal of College Admission showed that homeschooled students had higher ACT scores, GPAs and graduation rates when compared with traditionally educated peers.

Cotter said that it might be because of the homeschooling mastery philosophy -- with time and autonomy, students can keep at a subject or topic until they fully grasp it.

Although most of the past homeschool applicants have typically used a religious curriculum, Cotter said, the recent applicant pool of homeschoolers is split between religious and secular backgrounds.

...Pair said her kids are constantly around other children of all ages, from different backgrounds. They also are often out taking field trips and classes in the community.

"Teachers often work to create activities that teach kids about life," Pair said. "Homeschoolers do the same -- it is just easier for us because our kids are already in the real world observing adults in real-life situations. It is fairly easy to add in classroom experiences and test deadlines." _FreeP _via_ImpactLab

Government education is becoming a high priced ticket to perpetual failure for more and more attendees. While unionised teachers go on strike for ever higher wages, benefits and pensions -- which threaten to bankrupt municipalities, counties, and states -- students are at the mercy of a system which cares more for its own size and political clout than for the future of the children entrusted to it.

For parents who are working from home or fortunate enough to not have to go away from home every day to work, the options available for homeschooling in the internet age are making the process much easier, and not so very expensive. For parents who go that route, at least they have an excellent idea what their kids are being taught and how they spend their time during the day. Opportunities for building close family ties in such a situation are much more frequent. And if you want to teach your children practical competencies which you suspect will stand them in good stead -- but which government schools are not teaching these days -- teaching them at home would offer a good opportunity.

Homeschooling? More Like World-Schooling

Twenty years ago, parents who homeschooled were pioneers, persisting despite hostile reactions from neighbors, relatives, and local school officials. Today's homeschoolers, with the Internet's vast resources, can form online support groups, read homeschooling blogs, download curricula, or subscribe to cyber-courses for their kids.

"Now a new family that begins homeschooling has a zillion options - weekly homeschool classes at church, chess teams, volleyball leagues, museums and zoos that offer homeschool programs," says Susan Richman, who, along with her husband, Howard, heads Pennsylvania Homeschoolers, a network, newsletter, and Internet bookstore. "People don't have to feel as isolated." _Philly

Conventional government schooling is more like a day-prison and concentration camp for children than a preparation for a full and satisfying life. Lock the kids up in a dungeon for several hours every day, pump their minds full of programmed bigotry, and dump the ravaged, poorly developed kids onto the street at the end of the grisly process with a worthless credential intended to make everyone involved feel better about themselves.

Enter Barak Obama and the teachers union syndicates, and the entire process gets put on steroids in perpetuity -- the institutionalised mind-death of entire generations of children, with no end in sight. Millions of parents want off this treadmill of government mis-education.

They are learning that the only way for their children to learn about the real world that they must face, is to throw away the government indoctrination and misinformation, and go directly to the source. And as more home schooled (world-schooled) children grow up to be parents, most are eager to give their own children the same advantage of bypassing the mind-stifling dungeons in favour of what is essentially "unschooling".

A brief generation ago, homeschooling surged across the country as state after state made the practice legal (in Pennsylvania, that happened in 1988; before then, permission to homeschool depended on local superintendents).

Now, the children educated in the late-'80s homeschool swell are themselves the parents of preschool and school-age kids. And many are opting to carry on the family tradition; after all, they say, they are living proof that homeschoolers can not only function in society, but thrive.

In a 2004 survey of 5,000 home-educated adults, published by the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI), 74 percent of those with school-age children said they had homeschooled at least one of their kids for at least one year. _Philly

Homeschooling and Home Learning

Impact LabHomeschooling these days has less to do with religion, and more to do with wise parents who want to give their children better opportunities for self-development than government schools are willing to offer.

Home schooling has grown most sharply for higher-income families. In 1999, 63.6% of home-schooling families earned less than $50,000. Now 60.0% earn more than $50,000.

Cate says many highly educated, high-income parents are "probably people who are a little bit more comfortable in taking risks" in choosing a college or line of work. "The attributes that facilitate that might also facilitate them being more comfortable with home-schooling."

Among the other findings:

• 3.9% of white families home-school, up from 2% in 1999.

• 6.8% of college-educated parents home-school, up from 4.9% in 1999.

Michelle Blimes home-schools her three daughters in Orem, Utah. Initially it was for academics, and now she sees social benefits. "They should be able to enjoy playing and being kids before being thrown into the teen culture," Blimes says. _USAToday_via_ImpactLab

Another interesting article on child development from Impact Lab deals with exposure to an "always on" television in early childhood.

Parents talk less to their children if the TV is on and youngsters also speak less, American researchers have found.

A study of children and babies from two-months-old to four-years-old found that for every hour the television was on, parents said between 500 and 1,000 fewer words to their children. _Impactlab

Very young children crave face to face contact with other humans -- particularly their parents. If parents delegate the responsibility of helping the child's mind grow to a television set or other disinterested party, the child is likely to suffer.

The developmental windows of brain development pass very quickly in early childhood. Modern methods of child-raising tend to ignore these passing windows, thus dooming future generations to live as only fractional versions of what they could have been.

Free Online University Lecture Video Central

Google has created "YouTube EDU", a You Tube channel that provides thousands of free online university lecture videos from over a hundred universities.

This robust collection gives you access to lectures by professors and world-renowned thought leaders, new research and campus tours. At the moment, you can access over 200 full courses from leading universities, including MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, Yale and IIT/IISc. And it’s all searchable within YouTube EDU. SimoleonSense

Be sure to bookmark the link. While you are at it, bookmark "LectureFox" and World Lecture Hall as well. And don't forget Merlot.org, the granddaddy of autodidact online educational resources.

Face it: These days a Harvard education is simply a waste of time and money. More indoctrination than education these days. Smothered in grade inflation, narcissistic, ideology-blinded professors, and a political correctness that kills original thought.

Everyone has the resources available to provide a better education to high school and pre-high school students than is available to virtually any university student. Online education is relatively new, so it will take time to create the means to deliver the wide range of educational experiences that bricks and mortar campuses can provide -- at their rare best.

Homeschool coops are becoming more creative by the week. These coops take parental involvement to its logical conclusion -- and who cares more about the education of a child? Not a teachers' union, not a department of education bureaucrat, and certainly not a burned out embittered teacher barely hanging on for that precious pension. As alternative learning coops grow, expect them to network across regions, states, provinces, and nations.

Bonus update 30March09: This PLOS Biology book review of "Opening Up Education" provides several links to open source learning resources, for anyone with a more than superficial interest in the topic of open education.

Consider checking out Connexions and Scribd, two information sharing sites with rapidly expanding downloadable content.

Homeschooling as a Viable Option

Despite California's attempt to outlaw homeschooling not long ago, most states in the US are quite accomodating to homeschooling families. And the homeschooling experience for children can be just as full and varied--with a far superior type of "socialisation"--than traditional schooling.

.....The secret of home-schooling, however, is that you don’t have to be a master teacher to do it well. Energy, dedication, and good materials are what you need. Your competition, meanwhile, is a system that by design and necessity seeks the median. Public (and many private) school students have to move along in all subjects at a similar pace, and in the same order. Outliers — the talkative, the energetic, the gifted, the struggling — are labeled and interventions (counseling, special classrooms, tutoring, medication) prescribed. The goal is not a full realization of the child’s potential, but rather the system’s smooth functioning.

Saying that we home-school sometimes elicits troubled responses. Though conditions have improved since the 1970s, when public school officials routinely sicced child welfare officers on parents teaching their children at home, home-schooling is still odd to most people. That’s just the price we radicals pay. Thanks to organizations like the [1] Home School Legal Defense Association, though state authorities and teacher’s unions don’t like what we’re up to, they mostly leave us alone. Power to the people, baby.

While it’s nice to imagine ourselves living a counter-cultural lifestyle, the reality is that in Wichita, Kansas, home-schooling is widespread. Home-schoolers have baseball teams and soccer leagues. Teaching support groups. There’s even a Boy-Scout troop. Local private schools, meanwhile, offer science and other equipment-intensive courses. Churches provide facilities for home-school association meetings, and even study halls so home-school parents can join Bible studies. If a home-schooling mother falls ill or dies, there is often another home-schooling family who takes on responsibility for teaching her children. _Source

Not for everybody, no, of course not. But a lot of the reasons people have for not considering homeschooling may not actually apply.

Assembly-line factory style teaching is absurd. We only consider it the norm because we have been drowning in it for so long. It really is long past time for the whole concept of education to be re-thought and more intelligently implemented.

Why Is This Best-Selling Author and Public School Teacher Homeschooling His Kids?

Best selling author of the excellent novel "Snow Falling on Cedars", David Guterson, happens to teach English at a public high school in the Pacific Northwest. So why does he homeschool his own kids? For that matter, why do a high percentage of public school teachers send their own kids to private schools? But I digress. Guterson has recently written a comprehensive book on the topic of homeschooling, which appears worth a look for anyone who has considered that option.

...In Chapter Two: What About Democracy, Guterson addresses the concerns that home-schooling somehow undermines democracy, pointing out that "your average classroom is more like a little Kremlin than a little congress [ . . . ] more like totalitarianism than democracy. There are bells and PA systems and student cards and hall passes and classrooms where you listen day in and day out to authoritarian voices" (p. 42).

...Chapter Three: Homeschoolers Among Others capably addresses the concern about socialization -- that homeschooled won't get socialized properly if they are not with their peers. Guterson points out that "Schoolchildren may be openly and consciously obsessed with their peers, but their unconscious desperation for meaningful relationships with adults can be plainly seen in their eye" (p 65). In addition, a child not tied to the school clock has the opportunity to live "as an integral part of a community, among the elderly, store clerks, gardeners, carpenters, plumbers, mechanics, and electricians in their world, [ . . . ] are apt to develop a sensitive social understanding and a sophisticated feeling for the lives of others as they are lived on a daily basis" (p. 64).

....And what does the federal Constitution say? Nothing. Why not? " [ . . . ] the Constitution doesn't mention homeschooling in part because its writers didn't have the word in their vocabulary. Learning outside of schools, back then, was pretty common. [ . . . ] In the past, governments didn't take it upon themselves to see to education. They didn't think of it as their proper role as governments do today." So in 200 years we've gone from one end of the spectrum (families are responsible for educating their off-spring) to the other (families can barely be trusted to educate their young, and even then must be supervised by a state employee and submit reports and show results lest they lose their grudgingly-granted privilege). Indeed, "Every child is entitled to a public education," as Texas Governor Rick Perry asserts, then adds, "but public education is not entitled to every child." _ADL

And so on. A nice synopsis of Guterson's book. But if you are truly interested in the homeschool option you will want to look for a copy yourself.

There are many intelligent and conscientious school teachers and administrators working in the government school system. Unfortunately, they cannot make up for what policies derived from a century and a half of poor decision making and bureaucracy building are inflicting upon today's children.

Time to wake up.

Homeschool: An Update

Between 1978 and 2003, homeschooling grew at the rate of about 20% a year in the US. In 2003 nearly 1.1 million American children were being homeschooled.

Along with vouchers and charter schools, homeschooling is now considered a true alternative to the public school system. In 2000, 3 percent of elementary and secondary schoolchildren were homeschooled; only 1 percent were in charter schools and a mere one-tenth of 1 percent had vouchers to attend private schools. On the basis of numbers alone, we can see that homeschooling is not limited to the antiestablishment, to fundamentalist religious groups, or to those in the most rural of communities, as was once the claim. It is now the largest school reform alternative.

This increased growth, interestingly enough, has not come at the expense of student performance—quite the opposite. Comparisons in achievement tests of homeschooled students with national averages for all students show that homeschooled children are well above the national average in every subject and at every grade level in the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and in Tests of Achievement and Proficiency.

...Why do homeschooled students do so well? Koret Task Force member and Harvard professor Caroline Hoxby has shown that, of the factors affecting student performance, home environment and family support greatly outweigh school inputs: “Families matter most.” In no schooling pedagogy can the home and the family have more influence than they do in homeschooling. The families of homeschooled children are clearly different from those of traditional schoolchildren. Some 97 percent of homeschooled children live in married couple households; the comparable number for public school students is 72 percent. Nearly 88 percent of homeschooling parents continued their own education beyond high school; less than 50 percent of the general population has attended college. The home environment of these students is supportive and nurturing, and it encourages diligence— homeschooled children watch less television than do typical students. Contributing to the success and growth of homeschooling are technological advances that have made homeschooling easier and provided parents with a wealth of information at their fingertips. Through the Internet, research and support systems abound, providing parents with educational tips, lesson plans, and source material.

...Homeschooling is a sustainable education alternative. The parents (the teachers) are dedicated, and the students are achieving. It is a welcome example of students and teachers working together to achieve outstanding performance....Homeschooling may not be for everyone, but it works well for most and extremely well for some.

Hoover Institution

If parents are able to devote the time and effort to the personal supervision of their children's education, homeschooling can be superior to most alternatives.

Online K-12 Education--Bypassing the Swamp

Government schools are geared to the mediocre. Often gifted students will decide that school has nothing to teach them, and simply quit out of sheer boredom. Now there are alternatives that allow children to learn at their own pace, and explore their own strengths. Here is one online K-12 school specifically for gifted children of all types.

The courses offered by The National Academy for the Gifted allow students to advance academically as far and quickly as they are able throughout the year. Unbound by grade levels or rigid guidelines, gifted children are free to learn according to their own abilities rather than having to move with the rest of the class. Rothschild believes that this unique learning structure will revolutionize the way that people view gifted education.

....The National Academy for the Gifted is an online nationally accredited K-12 private school. Offering 120+ accredited, multimedia-rich courses, a giftedness assessment program, and high school diplomas, The National Academy for the Gifted uses cutting-edge technology to bring private gifted education into the home for the first time.

Source

Here is more from the National Academy for the Gifted:

We currently offer two different graduation requirement plans for the attainment of a home school diploma. If your gifted children plan on attending a college or university, you’ll want them to graduate using our College Graduation Requirements. This is a more rigorous and challenging education for gifted children requiring the completion of more online home education credits.

Gifted children who wish to immediately enter the workforce after finishing their online home education are encouraged to enroll in the nineteen standard credits as illustrated below.

Remember, a home school diploma is not a GED. This is an official high school diploma that is recognized by colleges and workplaces throughout the country. This document proves that you’ve been through an accredited private school program rather than just taking a test.

Source

Online education offers a broad array of alternatives to the "leave all children behind" government school approach. The most important factor is concerned parents who are able to look through the alternatives with their children, and follow through to make sure the children get the preparation they need.

Virtual Schools Win Real Victory in Court

Virtual schools won a major victory in a Wisconsin courtroom recently. The largest teachers union in Wisconsin had filed suit against Wisconsin Virtual Academy in 2004, but Judge Joseph McCormack ruled against the union.

The Wisconsin Education Association Council claimed that virtual schools rely on parents to do some teacher duties instead of using state-certified teachers.

It also said such schools misuse the state's open enrollment program.

But the judge dismissed the council's arguments, saying the School Board is within its rights to figure out how to partner teachers and parents for the best interest of students.

He also says the open enrollment program doesn't prohibit students from using the Internet to get a public education.

Virtual schools are run by several states, including Wisconsin, Texas, and Florida. South Carolina legislators are considering a bill to establish a statewide virtual school. Some universities are also running virtual schools.

This CSM article discusses some of the issues involved in virtual schooling, and how the concept relates at times to the charter school and home school movements.

For those readers who want to delve more deeply into the history, and more technical details of virtual schooling, take a look at this pdf study from one of the foremost experts on virtual schooling.

I like the idea of educational choice. Corruption in government education has become much too blatant and destructive toward students, taxpayers, and the body politic. Being able to sidestep that corruption in any way possible, is not a bad thing.

Will Next Levels Homeschool their Kids?

The answer is yes and no.

Yes, Next level humans will be the primary teachers for their children, in the early years. But no, the learning will not take place mostly at home. Next levels will travel extensively, and their children will go with them, learning from what they see and do. World travel, interacting with persons of all backgrounds and proficiencies. Travel outside the world, further out with time.

Children love to imitate adults. The can only do this constructively when they are in direct contact, and under direct supervision of learned adults. Adults who genuinely care about them, and are not distracted by the antics of twenty or thirty undisciplined children. Children do learn from each other, but too often in schools children learn dysfuncionality from each other.

Remember, by the time they arrive next level humans will have gained control of their health and aging. Next level humans know how to improve intelligence both before birth and after birth. Children of next level humans will have a lot more to learn than any child today. Their education will be taken seriously, unlike "modern" education, which is a great waste of time and resources all around.

The "modern" classroom environment is artificial. Young children should not be confined for hours on end in a classroom. Tax supported schools and other conventional schools are based on social experiments from the 19th century. Confine children to cramped classrooms for hours a day with only their age peers for companions. Do this for many years and what do you have? Loafers, delinquents, teen pregnancies, welfare mothers, gang-bangers, drug dealers, alcoholics, addicts, over-aged children. A disaster for the parent society.

From this dysfunctional society we now have, we are supposed to create next level human society? How is that possible?

Very carefully, very deliberately, and somewhat secretively. Most primitive level and between level humans are suspicious of change, of growth beyond the "normal." To these humans must be given cable television, video games, and the shallower side of the internet. For these primitive and between level humans, school will go on just as it does now. Indoctrination into dysfuncionality and inanity.

Next level humans will take the education of their children extremely seriously. They will not blithely hand over the future of their offspring to a failed experiment in social engineering. Too much is at stake.