Freedom or Anarchy: A Look into the Home Schooling Unschooling Method

The most unstructured approach to home schooling would be the unschooling method. As the name suggests, unschooling is the belief that education should not be tethered to any sort of structure or curriculum at all; a child must be allowed to explore any interest at any pace and at any order of their choosing.

There are two views of child development that encompass this basic concept.

Children have a natural curiosity. Almost from the time of their birth, children are exploring their world. They reach out and try to discover the lengths of their own powers and see what they can accomplish. As they learn to speak, children tend to ask many questions about everything they can think of. Children are also naturally interested in some aspects of the world, but not so much in others. Each child from early life has the ability to make his or her own value decisions.

Using these fundamental facts of human development, advocates of unschooling believe the best approach is to allow a child to choose his or her field of study, what, when and how. There is no set curriculum, just whatever the child is most interested in at any given time.

There is even diversity within the unschooling community on how much if any guidance is or should be given to child. Some believe in a hands off approach, providing nothing in the way of guidance or suggestions. Some parents like to share the excitement of learning with their children and provide answers or assist with solutions.

The results are mixed with a method as experiential as this.

For children that are highly self motivated or independent, this method works well for them as they seek out subjects that grab their interest at the time and use the knowledge later when they need it. Children with such abilities have a life long love of learning and have gone to Ivy League schools and excelled.

Other children take more of a tunnel visioned approach in which they acquire deep knowledge in one or a few subjects and little to no knowledge in others. Whether or not those subjects of little interest in important in a child's life is a matter of some divisiveness among the home schooling community in general.

For example, many children are predisposed to dislike math and science; it either doesn't come easily to them or they take no interest in such subjects. For some, this isn't an issue, but for most, even the most elementary ability with mathematics is becoming increasingly more important as society is more and more technological.

On the other hand, there are others who excel at such subjects and math and science, but find no interest in any kind of humanities areas like art, music, literature or history. While this mindset can lead to a happy life for some people, home school advocates argue that such lopsidedness in education robs a child of learning about the richness of humanity.

Some argue that balance is essential in educating their children, but those who ardently support the concepts of unschooling rely solely on allowing the child to choose his or her own education, and this doesn't lead to a balance unless the child wills it.

In the 1960s, John Holt was the biggest advocate of the unschooling approach of home schooling. His methods of unschooling are still being studied, and any long term effects of this approach have not been conclusive. The only true judge or guide of this method is the personal view or experience of a student who was home schooled using the unschooling method.