W hat’s in a name? Lots, when it comes to describing something that’s as emotionally and politically charged, not to mention as full of assumptions, as parenting and education.
In many cases, the terms “homeschooling,” “deschooling,” “unschooling,” “home-based learning,” “home-based education” and “self-directed learning” are used interchangeably. Unfortunately, there is no standardized terminology that everyone understands as describing the type of learning lifestyle that involves self-directed, non-tested, non-graded, non-curriculum, community-based learning from life.
Although “homeschooling” has become a generic term, it has many uses and contexts, some of which are not always accurate or precise. I have unquestionably helped popularize the term “homeschooling” since beginning to promote the phenomenon in the 1970s, but would rather not use it today because it has come to describe a parent-driven, school-at-home style of education. It is not accurate to describe a learner-driven style of education, which uses life and the community – even the world – as its resource, and which most certainly doesn’t look like school. (The trappings of school, such as grading, testing, labeling, compulsory attendance, one-size-fits-all curriculum, and so on, have nothing to do with learning and, in fact, get in its way.)
Some people find the terms “deschooling” and “unschooling” and even “radical unschooling” preferable to “homeschooling.” Others see them as a subset of the homeschooling movement – one end of a spectrum of styles, in effect. However, I dislike them just as much as I dislike the term “homeschooling.” If used at all, I believe, they should be used as verbs.
The late educational reformer and author John Holt coined the term “unschooling” in the 1970s and author Ivan Illich used the term “deschooling” in the late 1960s to describe the process of removing school from people’s lives, and to help people realize that school is not the best way for people to learn.
The term “unschooling” (sometimes prefaced with adjectives like “radical”) is now used by some people to describe an informal, learner-directed style of homeschooling – and I sometimes use the term in my writings and public speaking as a useful shorthand way of describing learning without school or its trappings. But I dislike using “deschooling” and “unschooling” as nouns, since they are negative, describing what this type of education isn’t, rather than what it is. Further, the type of learning I espouse is not a method of education; it is, rather, a way of looking at the world and at children…a lifestyle or even a worldview.
Unfortunately, the concepts of learning and schooling are tied together in most people’s minds, even though untold numbers of people around the world are proving every day that learning is a lifelong pursuit that doesn’t require schooling, teaching or any of the institutional formalities of formal education. That is why I believe there is a need for some new terminology. Please help me popularize the use of terms like “life learning” and “self-directed learning” because they put the emphasis on learning rather than on being taught. If you have any feedback on the use of these terms – or ideas for others – I’d be glad to hear from you.
This essay first appeared in Life Learning Magazine in 2009.
Photo by Galt Family Archives. Sam Hauka family nn their farm. Circa 1950 -1960.
After my wife and I removed our son from school in 2002, at the age of seven, he reverted to the lifestyle he’d had before he started school, which was one of maximum freedom of choice in all areas of his experience – the kind of lifestyle I frequently see described as “radical unschooling” and sometimes even as a new parenting paradigm, which I have to say I find a little irritating because my wife and I have parented the way we do since 1985 plus our son was out of school living his allegedly “radically unschooled” life for at least a year before I first read that there was such a thing as “unschooling”.
My son is 16 now and chose to return to formal education late last year and is doing well and enjoying the experience. During the time he was out of school, I described him as “home educated” if anybody asked (sometimes “self-educated under my supervision”) and what we did as “learning at the speed of thought through electronic media” (sometimes adding “according to interest and need”). Essentially, we just lived our lives and learned huge amounts of stuff as we went along. We were immersed in the opportunity to do that every day, and schools continued to do whatever they were doing without us giving them a moment’s consideration.
Personally, I’d be happy if people stopped using the term “unschooling”. In my experience at least, it triggers all sorts of anxieties and gives the uninformed no way out of making either/or assumptions that tend to result in fantasising rather than finding out.
I don’t mind describing my newsletter as “pro-unschooling” though.
Glad you find it useufl I should really do a new page here and add to it, may get round to it yet. I did weed out dead links from the old one recently.
[...] job (the first time I’ve weorkd outside the home since before the kids were born), and the new home learning experience (we were in public school last year), I actually feel like I finally have a sense of balance. This [...]
Great work ACEE! One of the key pceeis from a EE perspective is for students to learn that human activity impacts the ecosystems we depend on for social and economic well-being.
“Self-directed learning” is misleading and has caused problems, as has “self-led learning.” Learning doesn’t need to be “directed” or “led.” Given a fertile environment and enough understanding on the part of the parents (which DOES take deschooling, or else they see the world through school-colored glasses their whole lives), learning starts to happen more and more easily until it’s happening all the time.
“Life learning” doesn’t cover that, either, and so although the term is attractive, it seems more about learning for life than about changing the way one sees learning.
-=it triggers all sorts of anxieties and gives the uninformed no way out of making either/or assumptions that tend to result in fantasising rather than finding out.-=-
If that (Bob’s description) is true, then “life learning” could trigger so little anxiety that parents’ assumptions about learning would never change. And change IS necessary for the discovery and understanding of natural learning.
another dwsnoide and a reason that many do not homeschool is that it is not easy..it requires a lot of hard work and a lot of sacrifice on the part of the mom..delaying interests,hobbies,careers,…it’s a full time job. Only those that are totally convinced and committed to the idea will be able to hang in there for the the entire journey.
JazakiAllahu kayrhan for this! I’ve been playing with the idea of homeschooling my daughter and have recently become part of a homeschool co-op group with other Muslim mothers in the community. This is truly a wonderful experience and learning process for both my daughter and I. Please keep the posts coming, I’m eager to read your thoughts.