Friday, December 01, 2006

Unschooling does not mean unparenting

I have seen this phrase more than I care to *I'm an unschooler not an unparent*

It bothers me on many levels mainly because it implies that unschoolers are unparenting, that couldn't be further from the truth. To truly unschool you have to parent differently than the main stream, many many public school kids are unparented because they drop the ball on the system.

Truthfully it's the parenting part of unschooling that is so challenging, I parent my ass off and don't like it implied otherwise. We are whole life unschoolers, radical if you will, I have no misgivings about how children learn naturally and in a rich, loving environment conducive to learning will learn everything they need when they need it. It's the parenting that I'm consumed with, trying to do it respectfully and mindfully. I don't care about math and science and any other subject because that is all part of everyday life. I care about the inter personal relationships, and learning how to get along in this world.

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