nostr:npub1cly0v30agkcfq40mdsndzjrn0tt76ykaan0q6ny80wy034qedpjsqwamhz is an unschooling parent.
Discussion
Yep, seen her notes. My guess is she’ll have nice things to say.
As an adult after being a schooled kid. I wish my parents had the time to homeschool me, they would have been good at it, but they both worked full time just to put food on the table and a roof over our heads. I hated school, the teachers, the uniform, the conformity, the bullies, the greyness of it all. Did you have a good experience? Are you considering unschooling/homeschooling?
Not considering currently. My school experience was not great but also wasn’t too terrible. I was never bullied, though there have been assholes here and there. I hated the classrooms. That being said, I think some of the experience may have been necessary and even useful. Dealing with unpleasantness in itself is a useful life skill.
Schools are run by the state. I know plenty of parents, teachers and pupils who would all rather private education. Life has plenty of unpleasantness even without school. Homeschooling is a luxury and I understand why people accept “free” state schools.
Hey 👋
Of course I'm going to chime in! 🤣
There is an overwhelming exodus out of the government school system. Daily, people are asking questions about #homeschooling and #unschooling which I think is fantastic for the kids. They are sooo lucky their parents can see an opportunity to do better things with that precious time as a child. ✨
In all of this, over the 8 (almost 9) years I've home educated, the most common sentiment for families leaving the school system is "I wish we did it sooner." 🫶
Each family operates differently and some might just not be able to make it work. It does take a lot of sacrifice as one parent will need to be around a lot of the time which may result in a one income home or the second income part time or weird hours.🧡
The only really negative experiences I've heard about tend to be from people who had parents who neglected them and didn't offer any educational experiences or people whose parents may have had significant and likely untreated/unmanaged mental health issues. 💜
What I like to ask people is, in your adult life, how much do you use that you actually learned in school? 😅
Usually, only teachers use the stuff they learned in school. Most office positions need the skill of LEARNING. And learn you tend to do on the job. School most often erodes the LOVE OF LEARNING. Whereas unschooling encourages children to follow their interests and go deep. 🥰
We teach our children that it doesn't matter if you change course when you're an adult. The most important skill is knowing how to learn and enjoy the process. 💫
Some books on the topic I've read / listened to that are fantastic are:
Hold on to your Kids - Gabor Mate
Free to Learn - Peter Gray
Weapons of Mass Instruction - John Taylor Gatto
My end point is, school takes 5-8 hours a day, five days a week, 40 ish weeks of the year for 12 years of their lives. So they can learn stuff they could learn in 10 minutes a day while they are small up to an hour or two a day as they are older (or on the job as an adult). And this time is essentially taken from the parents, often contributing to the breaking down of society as kids need their parents... Now days parents are constantly working. Kids are raising each other and it's a bit like Lord of the Flies. In much of the developed world youth bullying and suicide is at all time highs. 😭😭😭
I prefer to self custody my children's education & keep this valuable, precious time with them for myself rather than leave them in the custody of strangers who are trying to teach 10-30 kids in a classroom where it's set up that less than 10% will actually thrive. 💛💛💛