Sara Schmidt is not just talking about changing education, she is actually in the trenches. She is unschooling her daughter and she has given us a wonderful essay about it.
School’s Out for Summer; School’s Out Forever
By Sara Schmidt
When I was in high school, my then-boyfriend, now-husband wrote in Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” on his ballot sheet for choosing our class song. I applauded his choice as a joke; like most other people, I did not like school and was happy to escape it for “the real world.” Of course, had I known then what I would discover on my own journey toward being a teacher, and subsequently deciding not to be a part of that twisted system, I would have appreciated the gesture much more.
Though I’d been a good student and received mostly A’s throughout my entire life, I’d been bullied—by both teachers and students—and I was often bored. I was overwhelmed with memorization work and extracurricular activities, as well as the fast food job that I worked every night to pay for my school clothes, supplies, trips, and food. We were a lower-middle class family of hard workers who could never seem to get out of that pit, and I lived in the town’s worst trailer park—one of the many things I was made fun of for. By all accounts and averages within that environment, I should have been pregnant by sixteen with my own trailer and a yard full of metal. To escape that neighborhood—well, it just didn’t happen often.
But I was the first person in my family—aside from a cousin—to attend college, and my parents and my sisters escaped the park not long after I did. I knew I wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to teach junior high and high school so my classroom could be a haven for those who were bullied, who didn’t fit in. I would be “that teacher”—the one who goes the extra mile to care for her kids. And they would be my kids, too; I didn’t plan on having my own biologically. Every school seems to have at least one teacher like that, at least before burnout sets in, and I wanted to be the one who made a difference.
This illusion was quickly shattered as I made my way through college. My teaching classes seemed to be a joke. Controlling the children, often through circus tactics like whispering to a wall, seemed to be the main priority. We talked less about children and learning than we did about discipline methods and business dress codes. All I could do was think back to my jeans-clad teachers in our small town and wonder what this had to do with anything. Most of my college career was spent on basic classes that wouldn’t have much to do with my job at all.
Then, when I was able to student teach in Spain on a very fortunate scholarship, I was shocked to my core. The classes were so much more relaxed. The kids were so smart—they did long division without “showing their work” and didn’t get in trouble for it!—and the classes were much shorter than ours at home. They also weren’t as uptight, with actual discussions and creative time replacing rote memorization and note-taking. Granted, I taught in a special education class for at-risk children, so it wasn’t demonstrative of every classroom—but even the brief times I spent in other classes, from the primary grades up to the high school, convinced me that our systems were quite different.
Around that time I started reading the works of John Taylor Gatto, Grace Llewellyn, John Holt, Alfie Kohn, and many other philosophers who were often not in favor of reforming school, but of getting rid of the entire paradigm that we have altogether for something better—the living that we did as families and communities prior to the establishment of compulsory schooling.
Gatto’s Underground History of American Education, which traces our system back to the one established in Prussia in order to create controllable, uniform soldiers who were obedient and unquestioning, really opened my eyes, as did his Dumbing Us Down, a brief but essential book that I would encourage anyone—especially parents—to read. (Note: both of these links present the full documents, available to read online immediately. Holt’s Growing without Schooling magazine for unschoolers is also now freely available online.) Erica Goldson’s post and eye-opening high school graduation speech can further enlighten those who are interested in learning more about the dangerous compliance and zombie mentality enforced in public schools.
When you learn that our school system was not established in order to educate the masses for better opportunities, but instead to ensure that they are obedient soldiers and workers who do not know how to think critically or even for themselves, you can’t just unlearn it. And you certainly can’t help perpetuate it. Oh, I suppose I could have done what Gatto himself did and subvert the dominant paradigm from within, constantly fighting the administrations he was under and helping children while being fired or challenged on a daily basis. But by then, in my junior year of college, I had become pregnant, and decided that I would change my major, get a job that allowed me to work remotely from home, and possibly homeschool my daughter.
The possibility of homeschooling grew into a certainty with each passing year as I grew more confident and as I continued to research, and by the time my daughter was four, I knew we were unschoolers, for lack of a better term. I like “Life Learners” better, if a label must be used, since schooling should have nothing to do with our lifestyle. We keep records like any other homeschooler per state laws, and I usually make plans about what we will do for the day—crafts, trips, experiments, whatever—simply because she enjoys it and she’s young, so it’s my job to introduce her to as much as I can. That said, she is a key partner in this learning, as she chooses what we will do and what she wants to learn about as well. You might be surprised by the versatile interests of a six-year-old unencumbered by busy work every day.
She’s definitely not missing out. In fact, after checking standard curriculum objectives in our area out of curiosity, I discovered that my daughter knows most of the things that are expected of her at her age, as well as much more. Even so, are these objectives—randomly assigned by governments officials and elected school board members—really what’s necessary for success in life? I would say no, since most of what I learned for my work and my living was taught to me before kindergarten, when my mother taught me how to read, write, and do math. The research skills I developed on the debate team in college are another set that I am grateful for, but I now know that these are skills that one naturally develops as an unschooler.
I would also maintain that we need a new definition for success. As society currently stands, it seems to include a lucrative job that allows one to make lots of money and buy lots of expensive things. That is certainly not how my family defines successful living, and if our people want to remain on the planet, a sustainable alternative had better be adopted soon. The best definition that I can think of is a quote by David W. Orr:
“The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately need more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind. It needs people who live well in their places. It needs people of moral courage willing to join the fight to make the world habitable and humane. And these qualities have little to do with success as our culture has defined it.”
One of the best myths I can dispel about homeschooling is that it is expensive. We homeschool for free. Free! Can you imagine, a free education, when lawmakers insist it takes millions of dollars? All you really need is a library card, though a home computer is also helpful. There are even free curricula available online for those who choose to use it. Of course, you can opt to buy all kinds of expensive materials and such if you like—my daughter got a microscope and a used telescope for Christmas last year, for example— but it’s not necessary.
I can also tell you firsthand that homeschoolers are much better socialized than public schooled kids. Not only can they converse with people in their own age groups; they can also talk to adults, infants, elders, and anyone else without mumbling “Yes” and “No” answers. My daughter can discuss anything from ocean wildlife to the perils of slavery with you, and she’ll do so happily and without fear of being corrected if she’s in the mood to do so. She’s six and very imaginative, however, so she might just rope you into solving a mystery with her, or playing Viking animal rescuers instead.
And while many people assume that homeschoolers are all religious fanatics—indeed, many are, particularly since the 1990s—the reality is that unschoolers are usually people who only want their children to be truly educated, to be able to follow their own passions and interests, and to not be fit into a box and limited by the American school system. Having been told all my life how “smart” and how good of a student I was and finding out later that it all only meant that I was obedient, I can vouch for how crushing it can be when you realize you’ve wasted a good thirteen-plus years of your life. I am sure that many other people at the top of their classes could say the same thing; indeed, I know many of them. Success for engineers and marketing executives has shifted to a happy, more sustainable life of country living or mountain climbing, just as my own dreams shifted when my eyes were finally opened.
There is also simply the fact that creativity is dwindling in this country, and we need creative people to solve the problems we face. The reason we don’t have many Ben Franlklins or Albert Einsteins or Alexander Graham Bells today is because these people were homeschooled, at least for a part of their lives, and allowed to experiment, fail and try again (without the threat of repercussions, like grades), and truly delve deeply into material without the interruption of a bell or the forced preparation for standardized tests. They were also simply given time to play—something with which today’s child, which deeply pains me to say, is often not provided. Research has also shown us that whilehomework is useless, playtime is integral for child development, gaining problem-solving skills, and general age-appropriate learning.
My wish, however, is not to step on the toes of teachers (though I don’t mind doing it to government officials), who are mostly working out of the goodness of their hearts and largely do not realize what they system they work for really does. My wish is for every single child to have the opportunity to learn and grow in an individual way that is best for her or him. Ideally, every child would be able to unschool like my daughter and so many of our friends.
It can be done even in working class families; I know because I am a member of one. My husband and I work odd hours that do not overlap—in fact, I work from home, and he works in our community—in order to ensure someone is with our daughter. I also know single parents who unschool by working jobs that allow them to keep their children with them (such as nanny positions), or by exchanging childcare for free with other unschoolers while they work, which I have also done.
That said, our economic system is set up to make adults dependent on making money, often to the point where multiple jobs are needed and it’s difficult to be home for meals with children, let alone the rest of the day. Another solution, of course, would be to create a free school system within the country.
Free schools are learning centers in which adults do not act as teachers, but merely as facilitators. Children show up—if they want to or not; it is not compulsory, like the public system—and are able to follow their own interests and passions by doing experiments, growing a garden, checking out books, playing computer programs, engaging in cooperative play with other children, and more. If they have a question or need help finding information, they may ask a facilitator if they wish.
Time spent in a free school differs for each individual, as it should. There are no bells ringing or schedules to follow. A child could spend the entire day building a civilization out of Lego pieces, or simply reading a book. Art and music could be a part of the day, or children might organize a sport to play together. Every day is filled with passionate, interest-driven learning that is unique to each child and helps to further his or her education and development as a person.
Not only have free schools been proven over and over to be successful places of learning and growth; they would also render all of the millions of dollars we funnel into the failing school system as useless and unnecessary. Budgetary woes would be reconciled just as educational ones would be beneath such schools; could you imagine the kind of freedom—the kinds of critical thinkers, creative dreamers, and passionate people—that would result?
Exactly. That’s why it would be so difficult to implement free schools on a widespread basis. So many free thinkers and status quo-changers would create a shift that is much needed in our world—something that naturally terrifies politicians. But we can actually make it happen, one at a time, within our communities. All it takes is the hard work of a few parents who have had enough of the mindless homework, their mind-altered children coming home zombie-fied every day, or even the school recommendations for medication to keep their children compliant.
There are lots of examples of parents who took it upon themselves to start free schools, as well as advice about creating free schools for those who seek it. Of course, setting up your own individual center should be about taking in the ideas of all of the children and adults who will be using it democratically, not following another model by rote.
One might ask why I haven’t done such a thing in my area—and believe me, I have played with it in my head. I really just enjoy life learning with my daughter, and our daily freedom to do what we want to do. Once she is grown, perhaps I will start a free school; perhaps she will. We may even decide to do it sooner when she is a bit older, if she wants to. Who knows what we will do? The freedom we have unschooling allows us to keep these possibilities open and endless.