What is unschooling? An educational alternative

New discoveries in education show that we have a problem treating students as disaggregated entities and not as a whole. This idea does not clash with the classic view that states that educating is extracting from the other, letting it come out and flourish, and not introducing academic knowledge.

From the paradigm of alternative education we understand that the little ones are already connected to their interior. We are the adults and the environment who, in any case, disconnect them from their true being.

He unschooling, as an alternative pedagogical option, proposes respecting what is genuine in children: their interests, passions, rhythms and even their motor needs. Next, we will delve into the proposal.

What is unschooling and where did it originate?

The pedagogical trend arose from the theories of John Holt, an American pedagogue who in his book Teach yours (Teach your own, its original title) He proposes freeing children and adolescents from formal education that, according to him, inhibits and limits the creative capacity with which they are born. Unschooling means respecting children’s natural learning processes and, above all, its intellectual and emotional rhythm.

The focus should not be on how well they execute certain actions, but on what they are doing, what motivates them, what interests them, what they are passionate about. Encouraging those passions and not quenching them should be the real role of any accompanying adult. Identifying these talents is essential, since we all have qualities that we can use to make the society in which we live better.

The freedom of any person, young or old, of choosing why, what, when, how and from whom to learn things is a key element in John Holt’s work. He unschooling It proposes natural or autonomous learning: no one would direct the child from outside, unless he himself shows interest in something specific or needs it.

An example is how children learn to speak their native language: by being exposed to it, they learn it, by immersion, not because no one is teaching it to them.

Unschooling tries to respect the genuineness of the learning processes that exist in children.

Implications of unschooling

He unschooling promotes permanent dialogue with children to define times and themes. Children, then, are encouraged to play, explore, ask questions without limits or schedules and investigate on their own, with the conscious and responsible company of their parents.

Thus, reading, adding or subtracting are not skills that are acquired at a certain age or from an overly structured system, but rather they arise naturally, when each child spontaneously becomes interested in developing them.

Therefore, it is a more radical educational method than the homeschooling. He unschooling, in its most basic form, is not home school and much less about letting your children fend for themselves. It’s about creating a learning environment based on the understanding that human beings learn best when they are interested and engaged, and when they are personally involved and motivated.

Give the child a voice

Conventional educational centers are organized for the daily lives of adults, not children.. They do not favor the display of creativity; rather they repress it. In reality, no one looks at the child or his true needs. It is urgent to give them more voice and perspective.

He unschooling revitalizes parent-child relationships and gives the possibility of living with joy and passion as a family and building healthy relationships in a environment where children are free to discover and become the people they were born to be.

The value of intrinsic motivation in learning

How does a child really learn? In order to learn, we have to awaken intrinsic motivation, that is, the one that comes from within, from the heart and not the external motivation that depends on rewards, threats and punishments.

We tend to think that to learn there has to be someone to teach and wanting to teach something to someone is not enough for that person to learn it. The true drivers of learning are curiosity and intrinsic motivation, and not the fact that someone decides what should be learned, when and at what pace; So, helping to learn is not the same as wanting to teach.

From unschooling, the protagonist is not the one who intends to teach, but rather the one who wants, desires or needs to learn.

Children outside the system

Traditional formal teaching makes the child have to follow rhythms that are not their own, since they must adapt to the group or the teacher. Everyone must do the same thing at the same time and in the same way; Teaching is directed and forced.

This depersonalization totally distances him from his true being, in short, it disconnects him from his life purpose. And so, Many children reach adolescence disconnected and without knowing who they are, where they come from and, much less, where they want to go.

He unschooling invites families and educators to trust and wait, as each moment of true learning will come. It is difficult for us adults to trust in true human potential, since few trusted ours. The great challenge for adults is to learn to trust that the child is capable of developing autonomously.

In short, in order to access each child’s essential being and innate talents, it is necessary allow them to connect with their own rhythms and pulses, in addition to providing a safe environment, emotionally speaking. That is, accompanying them from who they already are, from the place where they come from and allowing them to get to where they want to go.

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