A friend of mine asked if the Headgates philosophy is unschooling. Hmmm, interesting question. Excuse me while I chuckle. Headgates (get the article at http://headgates.org/resources) is a far cry from unschooling. Well, maybe not. I guess it depends on how you define it. To me, unschooling means letting children do whatever they want, in terms of academics, chores, and grooming, without much adult interaction or mentoring. I don’t agree with that. I believe in expecting and teaching children to do the basics of grooming and household chores every morning and more chores in the afternoon to help with lunch and more chores in the evening to help with dinner, along with helping with vacuuming and scrubbing floors and cleaning and gardening and weeding and changing diapers and helping tend little ones and more. I also believe in teaching them the gospel of Jesus Christ, daily, through prayers and scripture study and reading stories from the Friend.

But if you define unschooling as the way John Holt advocates, then maybe I agree. He is an author of books about how children learn naturally through play and following their own desires, not forced academics. I generally agree with that, but I think there is one thing, namely math, that needs consistency over time, not cramming (okay, that’s a code word for force). I am talking about a page or two every school day, from the age of 8 or 9 or so in order to do well on the ACT and enter college. that’s not to say you force them to use a math program the child hates, but you look around and find a few good programs and let them choose one, so they have some buy-in. You also find stories and games to help math be fun, like at http://livingmath.com But I also agree that not all children should go to college. But it would certainly help them if they did. this is the one point I disagree with TJEd people on, that math can be left for the child to do whenever he’s inspired, even up until two weeks before the ACT!

I guess if you define unschooling as freedom as far as academics go, not chores, then maybe I would agree. The author of Headgates claims that children will accidentally master the 3 R’s by playing and discussing. She also says that school materials are not needed until scholar phase. So, yes that makes me think that she is advocating unschooling. But to me, making your environment so devoid of school materials (no math textbooks, no pencils, no lined paper to practice writing) and having only 15 toys, with complicated rules about what activities your child can and can’t do,  isn’t unschooling, it’s severely controlling your environment so your kids are so bored they are forced to find enjoyment in reading classics. Which actually would have appealed to me as a child, since I am a total nerdy bookworm, but I don’t think it would work for all children. 

What do you all think?