The New York Times ran an interesting story today about unschooling, a little-known and often misunderstood offshoot of the home schooling movement. As someone who was raised in an unschooling family, I was thrilled to read such an informative and well-written article on the topic in such a mainstream publication. I urge you to read the article and leave me a comment letting me know your thoughts!Before you go, let me leave you with one of my favorite quotes relating to the deficiencies of school-based learning, by one of the greatest and most famous teachers of all time:
"I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built upon the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think. Whereas, if the child is left to himself, he will think more and better, if less showily. Let him go and come freely, let him touch real things and combine his impressions for himself, instead of sitting indoors at a little round table, while a sweet-voiced teacher suggests that he build a stone wall with his wooden blocks, or make a rainbow out of strips of coloured paper, or plant straw trees in bead flower-pots. Such teaching fills the mind with artificial associations that must be got rid of, before the child can develop independent ideas out of actual experience."
-- Anne Sullivan
photo, Michael Falco for The New York Times
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