Unschooling is not the same as democratic schooling or free schooling, although all of these educational paths, in my opinion, have some stuff in common.
Unschooling is an educational label that’s usually used by families who don’t send their child to any school. However, there’s some stretching room. For example, I consider us unschoolers, yet my son also attends a democratic school. For us, unschooling is a state of mind where we don’t accept conventional schooling as okay and we see the whole world as a possible learning experience, instead of simply seeing books, classes and school as the only way to learn.
That said, some unschoolers I know have argued that we’re not unschoolers because we send our son to a democratic school. That’s fine – we just disagree.
In the end, I don’t think the way you label your educational path matters, it’s how you live and learn that matters more. Below is some basic information about unschooling.
In the smallest nutshell I can offer, Mary Griffith, author of The Unschooling Handbook
Opinions vary about what unschooling means or should be, but most unschoolers I know have many of the same common beliefs and ideas, such as…
- Humans are born naturally curious and a healthy child who is given a rich environment and positive attention will use their curiosity to learn what they need to know.
- It’s unnecessary for children to learn certain things such as cursive or fractions at a specific age and in a set chronological order – this is an idea that society has simply arbitrarily constructed.
- All people are individuals and will learn when they are ready; such as some kids learn to read at four, some at eight, etc.
In the three ways above, unschooling and democratic schooling are very much the same. Democratic schools, like unschoolers, don’t use arbitrarily constructed curriculum or age-based learning. Democratic schools believe children are individuals, who learn when ready and willing, and that when given tools and support, kids can learn what they need to know.
How unschooling and democratic schooling differ:
There’s the space issue: A democratic school, is of course, a structure your child goes to, while an unschooling family has their home space, but not a set school space. Although, both types of learning are almost always augmented by trips outside of the school or home.
There’s the staff issue: Both unschoolers and democratic schoolers can gain support from various people in their world – other kids, adults, and such, but at a democratic school there is usually regular staff around to offer support, while unschoolers tend to set up their own meet-ups with other people.
There’s the revolving kid issue: As unschoolers, our playgroups, meetings and other events in our lives were peppered with a more flexible crowd of kids. You never knew for sure which kids would be at which place when. At a democratic school, the group of kids is more stable (in our experience).
There’s a larger democracy happening: In an unschooling family, the family, as a team usually decides where to go, what to do, how to do it and so on. At a democratic school, the body of people discussing all the decisions is larger, including staff, students, parents and more.
There are more differences, but it can depend on who you ask. For us, democratic schooling has been a better fit (which I’ll go into later). Unschooling is a big old topic – way too involved for a single post, so if you’re interested in learning more, I suggest visiting Radical Unschooling.
