NBC - A New Chapter In Home Schooling

Victoria Clayton an MSNBC contributor posted this article a some weeks back. Personally, the title "unschooling" is unattractive to me. So often it has been used, and even in this article, as a "up your nose, government schooling" kind of sentiment. Yet, she makes one excellent point that the, "Controversial home-taught approach lets kids take the lead in learning".

This approach was really at the foundation of the home schooling movement. John Holt, Raymond Moore, Pat Montgomery, Sylvia Ashton Warner, John Goodman, and others, all spoke to the point at one time or another way back in the 50's and 60's. While they never seemed to form a formal alliance, their informal influence on one another, and on the idea of educating at home has been priceless for all of us today.

The article adds, "In the past 20 years the number of unschoolers in the United States has grown from fewer than 2,000 to more than 100,000, says Patrick Farenga, president of Holt Associates, Inc., a Boston-area organization started by John Holt, the late education reformer who coined the term “unschooling.” That’s a conservative estimate; others in the education field put the number closer to 200,000 and say the unschooling population is growing by 10 to 15 percent each year."

Again, there are as many ways to home school as their are children, and as Cyndy says, in the climate of shootings, needless homework, and halls filled with foul language and inuendo, they are all better than government schooling. Yet, this relaxed and laid back approach, gives parents a personal balance that allows them to persist and avoid burn out. So this approach that is more student based defining direction has it's advantages.