Lesson 1: Natural Learning
Homeschooling Types
Homeschooling philosophies and practices range from ‘school at home’ to radical unschooling. Most homeschooling families fall somewhere in between and will likely change over time to suit the interests and needs of individual children.
‘School at home’ practitioners follow a curriculum in imitation of school with subjects, units, tests, grades, etc. ‘School at home’ programs may be provided by public schools, private schools, or commercial companies. Practitioners may follow a particular educational philosophy such as Montessori, Waldorf, or others. A curriculum determines what and when subjects are taught. Parents follow lesson plans and children are regularly tested. Some curricula emphasize unit studies in which parents follow a set of projects in which several subjects will be covered under one theme (such as a specific time period or location.) If a curriculum is followed, this theme-based, or project-oriented style may be more interesting to children since it is a closer imitation of real life. It is important for homeschooling families to know that school practices are designed to manage large numbers of children.
“As a public-school teacher and a homeschooling parent, I find myself moving between two worlds almost on a daily basis. School is the world of the fixed curriculum, an inert body of knowledge and skills to be disseminated on a fixed schedule. Its content is ultimately in the hands of professionals who have acquainted themselves with state and district guidelines and who exert themselves to stay in touch with the needs of the nation and community. They must also take into account the immense complications of large scale schooling and adapt both curricula and methods to it so that the content of education can in fact be transmitted, ro at least partially transmitted, against the odds. Thus the schedule of the day and year is made routine, because no other timetable lends itself to an institution of such unwieldy proportions, and content is tailored to a sense of what the group needs rather than the individual. Creativity is limited by the sheer size of the student population and by the individual teacher’s resolute commitment to meet the needs of the many, to commit to one method that has limited effectiveness but is at the same time the lesser of many evils. School is about delivering instruction, learner outcomes, mastery of content, and feedback with correction. It is in many ways an abstraction and ultimately a weariness of the spirit. Children, in the majority of cases, adapt to it against their wills.” - David Guterson, former high school English teacher and homeschooling parent, author of Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense.
Unschoolers rarely schedule time or strictly follow a curriculum, but instead trust learning to occur spontaneously during the course of daily life. They may utilize educational materials or any other tools or available resources for learning as the children desire.
“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 we enter school and the way we learn when we leave school and enter the world of work.” - John Holt, unschooling advocate and author of many books on education.
From the outside, it may appear as if a ‘school at home’ student and an unschooling child are doing the same thing when they both sit down in front of a workbook, but the difference is that the ‘school at home’ student is directed and evaluated by the parent-teacher while the unschooling child personally chooses to use the workbook. It’s not unusual for an older unschooler to choose to use formal educational materials or to follow a curriculum at least some of the time. Those products are, after all, all around us.
”Unschooling is easier than more structured approaches to learning because there is far less formal work required. There are no lessons to plan, no lectures or assignments to give, no tests to write and grade. Unschooling is also more difficult in that everyone is always ready to learn; anything and everything may turn out to be an ‘educational’ activity. Far from ‘doing nothing,’ as some critics of unschooling accuse them, unschooling parents are heavily involved with their children’s learning. But the process is not one that’s imposed on them; it is a highly collaborative process.“ - Mary Griffith, author of The Unschooling Handbook.
A structured school-like approach to homeschooling may feel more time-consuming and like more effort to both parent and children than an unstructured unschooling approach, not because more learning work is done in the structured approach, but because both parent and children will feel more pressure to meet performance expectations. Unschooling parents and children may consider from time to time the importance, or lack of, to them of academic standards and preparation for college or work life, but these considerations will likely lead, not to worry, but to focused, self-directed learning toward meeting their chosen goals.
The ‘school at home’ approach to learning is often easier for parents to understand because it is similar to the experience most of us had in schools. Unschooling, by nature of being unstructured, may be more difficult to grasp, but I will describe its possibilities in greater detail as this course progresses.
I encourage homeschooling parents to explore the many educational and parenting philosophies to support and challenge their own beliefs about how best to approach learning and living with their children. Even among unschoolers, no two families, or even two children within the same family, will learn in quite the same way.
“But rigid or flexible, progressive or traditional, true education always begins with the child and with an understanding of her individual needs. The choice to put before her a fixed curriculum or a mastery learning program, or to nurture, ‘access to more and more of the real world,’ is a function of the child’s unique requirements as a learner. No curriculum or method is ‘best,’ and no philosophical premise about education supreme or universally applicable. Endless diversity is called for in the face of the endless diversity of children. Our methods and curricula are implied by who the children are and by what they individually need.” - David Guterson, former high school English teacher and homeschooling parent, author of Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense.
