Unschooling and the Blue Sky

At Home Learning

Natural Learning From Your Home Environment

Unschooling and the Blue Sky: Colorful Possibilities

My most important learning did not take place in the classroom, nor in the school yard, nor even on field trips or commutes to and from school, nor while waiting for the formidable yellow school bus. My education happened quite apart from anything even remotely associated with institutionalized learning. Learning happened mostly on a dead-end street surrounded by strawberry and hay fields, flanked by a stretch of deep forest. Learning happened by the ditch running along the railroad track. Learning happened incidentally--at times, it happened slowly and subtly. But, learning happened quite deliberately.

Life was my school, and the neighborhood was my laboratory of learning. These bore no resemblance to the sterile classroom environment crowded with appropriate-aged children, outnumbering a well-meaning teacher. The barren schoolyard bore no resemblance to the abundant woods near home. My school experience felt contrived. School’s simmulative laboratory contrasted the user-friendly neighborhood. Moreover, the school "laboratory monitors" could not convince me of their own love of learning, let alone help to cultivate mine. I persevered through high school, largely because of an auditory learning style favored by the educational system, and because I was a people-pleaser. I did what I was told -- until I had a child of my own . . .

I first entertained the idea to home school when our son turned two years old. Despite many career opportunities, I couldn't bring myself to surrender our toddler to a daycare center, a child’s first exposure to institutionalization. Instead, I chose part-time work teaching adults and part-time day care in a family setting. In February, notices arrived about kindergarten. Turning five in August, our son was just in time for the new full-day kindergarten program. I remember keeping the registration form for all of two days before tossing it into the recycling box. A tug of war was happening in my mind; in my actions the self-determining side of the thick heavy rope was leading. Disagreeing with sending a five-year-old away for a whole day as an initiation to school, and furthermore, as a way of becoming educated, firmed my resolve.

September arrived and so did the first day of school. Determined to keep in step, our first curricular item was shoe-tying using a shoe box threaded with a boot lace. The lesson, like walking, talking, eating, and just about every life skill and intellectual learning our son had already assimilated, took several days to practice and master. The next task was to get him through a kindergarten workbook dealing with a variety of age-level skills. We worked diligently from the time the cold weather made outdoor play unappealing, until February, when we finished the book. We abandoned our half-hearted attempt at the grade one workbook by April, as the weather became enticing. Perhaps we would pick it up again in October, perhaps never, because learning from a workbook was so similar to the simulative learning in the school classroom. Instead, we may garden, play, grocery shop, use the computer, bake or merely chase the family cat.

The pages in the grade one workbook will yellow. The book just may find its way into a "Garage Sale" box. However, learning will continue, unadulterated. And the love of learning will endure. This love will not necessarily be inspired by a teacher--not even by me--nor by a school, nor by a workbook. The love of learning will be inspired by inspiration itself.

The little boy who earnestly asks why the sky is blue will keep searching for new answers until the sky’s blueness becomes part of his grown-up soul. Already he knows that school is not about someone telling him why the sky is blue; real education is about seeing for himself the colorful possibilities in everything. Education is about his journey through lifelong learning. Natural curiosity motivates and directs this journey, providing many opportunities for positive learning experiences. Some people call this unschooling, and rightly so. In unschooling, learning develops beyond any confines imposed by the human-created structure we call the education system. The homeschooled child lives the sky’s blueness, for its colorful possibilities transcend any classroom learning.

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