Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Unschooling: An Option?

Tidbit goes to school in 2008. I am not happy about this at all.

I hated school. Still do. It's a ridiculous institution, in my opinion. Where else do we lock human beings up for eight hours, give them 20 minutes to eat lunch, repeatedly tell them not to talk or socialize, and won't let them go to the bathroom when they need to? As my husband said, the big difference between schools and the military is he was given a modicum of respect in the military.

So, I'm considering homeschooling. Except, really, I don't want to be a teacher who uses workbooks and does all the same dull stuff school teachers do. I figured it was out of the question, until I found out about unschooling.

It's about stepping away from the traditional means of teaching and letting kids direct their own learning. Sure, you introduce them to things. You can even throw calculus books in their path. But it recognizes that we learn best when we're motivated to learn a subject - and that motivation doesn't always come right when you enter 8th grade and it's "time" to learn, say, Algebra.

Very intriguing stuff, and I think it could be a great fit for tidbit, who's very self-motivated, but also refuses to learn anything she's not interested in learning.