Unschooling is one among many approaches to homeschooling. As the population of homeschoolers leaning toward unschooling has grown, the ideals and philosophy of unschooling has become further defined into subgroups, i.e., academic unschooling, Christian unschooling, and radical unschooling.
For a general overview of unschooling philosophy, see the free online unschooling course, Un/Homeschooling.
Radical Unschooling
Unschooling is a term coined by former teacher and education reform advocate John Holt. In general, unschooling is a form of homeschooling in which children follow their own interests and direct their own learning. Holt asserted that it is a child's nature to learn and that children learn all the time. He further asserted that coerced learning, as in schooling, inhibits children's curiosity and natural desire to learn. Unschooling is also referred to as free learning, life learning, and child-directed learning.
Radical unschooling, or whole life unschooling, extends the philosophy of unschooling to all of life. Whole life unschoolers extend the freedom to follow one's own curiosity and desire in learning to the freedom to follow one's own lead in all of life. The parents in a radical unschooling family approach living and learning with children as a respectful partnership. In other words, radical unschooling philosophy holds that children are not left on their own, but rather are supported as they follow their interests and make choices in life.
Many parents who have practiced attachment parenting with their children consider radical unschooling to be a natural extension of Dr. William Sears' "attachment parenting" or Jean Liedloff's "continuum concept" approaches to living with children. Children continue living in close connection with their parents and parents continue supporting their children and respecting them as individuals. Another compatible philosophy is Alfie Kohn's "unconditional parenting."
The Law of Attraction
After the release of the movie The Secret and the book The Law of Attraction by Esther and Jerry Hicks [Hay House Inc., 2007], the Law of Attraction concept has rapidly gained in popularity. From abraham-hicks.com, Law of Attraction says, "That which is like unto itself is drawn." In other words, like attracts like. In general, the concept holds that a person attracts that upon which he or she focuses, both negative and positive.
Radical Unschooling with the Law of Attraction
Unschooling advocate Dayna Martin combines the philosophies of radical unschooling and the Law of Attraction into a new philosophy of parenting. Martin maintains an unschooling Yahoo! Group for discussion and support among people practicing this lifestyle and an unschooling YouTube channel with informational videos about her brand of radical unschooling.
Homeschooling and parenting in general are approached in a wide variety of ways. Unschooling is a flexible and changing approach. John Holt's writings and Dayna Martin's videos are a good place to begin to understand the foundation of the radical unschooling philosophy.
You might also enjoy: The Unschooling Collection
Sara McGrath - Sara is a veteran homeschool mom of three, Usborne consultant, and the author of Unschooling: A Lifestyle of Learning.
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