Thursday, October 7, 2010

Unschooling (My Take On it as the Child)


When I talk to my friends about what they are doing this week it’s mainly, “Well…my mom wants me to do my history tomorrow. And then on Wednesday I have to do English…”

Really?

If my mom made me stay at home and do “book work” while my friends were at the mall, I would never forgive her.

Now, that doesn’t mean she doesn’t make me do work that is critically important, like math. But things like English or history, I can read and learn about in a good Dan Brown book.

About two years ago, when we were hosting our eleventh and twelfth Israeli students, we went to St Augustine to show them around “historical Florida.”

It was amazing! We went to the lighthouse, we went to the fort, the Fountain of Youth, and did some major exploring.

We even rolled down the hill in front of the fort.

Little did we know…

The hill we rolled down was actually unmarked graves of soldiers, Indians and local families that lost their lives in the war. We were rolling on UNMARKED GRAVES!

And that room we crawled in…was the torture room, where people were held prisoner...

(And we learned that from Ghost Adventures, a cheesy ghost hunting show.)

NOT a textbook.

Sure, I may not get the “whole story” this way, but when I get interested in something, I’m able to research it more, and find out what I need to know. And I’m not so bored out of my mind that I want to put it off.

And there’s always something new to learn and explore. I love that I’m not “forced” to learn unnecessary stuff.

To me, unschooling is the only way for me to learn. And I’m happy we do it this way!

No comments:

Post a Comment