Once in a lifetime, every day! Unschooling Explained
Have you ever had one of those once in a lifetime events? Something where everything just fell into place perfectly. The right people, in the right place, at the right time. One of those events you talk about for years. It was magical.
And then you try to do it again. If it was this good, next time it will be better. In fact, we should schedule it weekly, monthly, annually. This was great when it just happened spontaneously. Imagine how good it could be when we plan it. Let’s get commitments from everybody. Let’s assign duties. Somebody needs to be in charge. Maybe a planning committee.
How’d that second, third and fourth annual super fantastic once in a lifetime activity turn out? Wild and reckless? Full of life and spontaneity? Or stilted, managed, controlled, a facade. It looks like the first one, but it lacks the spirit?
Unschooling is the first one. It just happens. It’s not planned or controlled. The right pieces fit together at just the right time. It’s carefree. It’s reckless. You play a game and learn to read. You go to a park and discover science. It’s not planned. It’s not controlled. It’s wild.
School is the second, third and fourth versions. Everything was unschooling the first time. Somebody somewhere discovered something and told people about it. Then people decided to structure and organize that discovery for everyone else. Exploration was reduced to a formula. Discovery was replaced by a system. It was no longer unique to the individual, it was consistent. If someone could learn “by accident” imagine what they could learn by “planning”.
We take life and put it in a box. We manage it and control it. We kill it. In our attempts to create a system, we destroy the discovery. They no longer experience their own adventure, but instead memorize someone else’s.
We unschool in order to give our kids the spark that most adults only dream about. It was there at one point, but the light went out over time, and we are helping to turn that spark into a fire. Our kids learn through living and doing what they love, every single day.
