EDITORIAL – Unschooling isn’t the answer

Juli Walter doesn’t send her children to school, and they aren’t home-schooled, either…. Juli Walter doesn’t send her children to school, and they aren’t home-schooled, either. Walter’s children pretty much do whatever they want. There are no textbooks in their house. These children are the masters of their own destiny when it comes to their education; there are no lesson plans or curriculum, and that’s perfectly fine according to their mother.

“I learned early on that when I do things I’m interested in, I learn so much more,” Walter said in a New York Times article.

Walter’s family is part of what this article describes as a subculture within a subculture. “Unschooling” is a subset of home schooling, a subculture that has grown 29 percent in the last few years to 1.1 million American children.

And while many parents are content to let their children explore their own education, even if it means that they lag years behind their schooled counterparts in reading and math skills, we’re not surprised that people are concerned about this method of education.

“It’s not clear to me how they will transition to a structured world and meet the most basic requirements for reading, writing and math,” Columbia professor Luis Huerta said in the Times article.

The article also points out the lack of data available regarding the thousands of unschooled students in the country. Without conclusive data, it’s hard to evaluate the effectiveness of this method. Unschooling proponents argue that their children will leave their formative years with better-developed, real-world skills.

“It’s more real world stuff,” Walter said. “How many kids get out of high school and don’t know how to balance a checkbook?”

That’s all well and good, but if your kids can’t get a job because they lack the basic education fostered in school environments needed to perform in the “real world,” then they won’t have much need for a checkbook.

We understand that many parents believe that their children will benefit from a learning environment that encourages curiosity and creative freedom. This method may work very well for some students. However, it doesn’t work for everyone, and even the most successful unschooled students will probably encounter problems becoming part of the real world. These kids won’t be able to “think outside of the box” as their parents are hoping, because they won’t even be able to find the box in a structured world that they can’t properly navigate.

The United States has a long way to go. Our schools are not where they should be, and we’re lagging far behind many of the world’s educational systems. However, home schooling, and certainly unschooling, is not the answer. People looking for better education for their children often don’t have the resources at home to make this happen, despite the best intentions. Rather, these people should not leave schools, but become more involved in reforming their local education and fighting for higher standards across the board.

Unschooling isn’t an impressive concept, and an unstructured environment does not lend itself well to an easy transition into a structured environment like college or the working world. Parents shouldn’t abandon the school system for these methods — it’s not helping children. Children lack the reason, knowledge and experience to make decisions for themselves. How can we expect them to properly navigate their own education?