An important factor that often goes unconsidered in these discussions are how much one size does not fit all. Unschooling seems great for very smart kids with stable and conscientious parents. How would you describe your background and capabilities, and do you think any aspect of your situation was more critical than others to your success?
At what point did you become involved in the decision to remain independent vs changing to a more traditional schooling? Especially around high-school ages, what did you do to decide that continuing unschooling was better than other options, specifically for college prep.
I absolutely agree. My parents both have graduate degrees, worked part time throughout my childhood, and our family/housing unit was relatively stable. This helped a lot. If you look at r/HomeschoolerRecovery many stories there are of kids with parents who have no experience teaching and used homeschooling to justify controlling and often abusive behavior. That said, I don’t think this is a sufficient condition for homeschooling, especially unschooling, to work well. Like you said, I think the kid’s learning style needs to be compatible with that level of independence, and the parents need to be confident in their abilities to provide the vast set of resources schools can provide.
An important factor that often goes unconsidered in these discussions are how much one size does not fit all. Unschooling seems great for very smart kids with stable and conscientious parents. How would you describe your background and capabilities, and do you think any aspect of your situation was more critical than others to your success?
At what point did you become involved in the decision to remain independent vs changing to a more traditional schooling? Especially around high-school ages, what did you do to decide that continuing unschooling was better than other options, specifically for college prep.
I absolutely agree. My parents both have graduate degrees, worked part time throughout my childhood, and our family/housing unit was relatively stable. This helped a lot. If you look at r/HomeschoolerRecovery many stories there are of kids with parents who have no experience teaching and used homeschooling to justify controlling and often abusive behavior. That said, I don’t think this is a sufficient condition for homeschooling, especially unschooling, to work well. Like you said, I think the kid’s learning style needs to be compatible with that level of independence, and the parents need to be confident in their abilities to provide the vast set of resources schools can provide.