Life Is. | A Look Into the World of Unschooling
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- Our first feature-length documentary takes a look into unschooling, a subset of homeschooling that focuses on child-directed learning and freedom.
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What the hell is unschooled?!?!?!??!
HoboWithACamera May google help you!
If only you could watch a documentary about it... 😉
jodi newell if only you watched the first minute of the video
watch the video
HoboWithACamera
I hate that word. It should be call natural learning.
You did fantastic on this. We home-school our kids. We have 4 kids and 1 on the way. We host exchange students as well. We actually call ourselves relaxed schoolers. We are sort of in the middle. We don't control everything our kids learn and do but we give appropriate guidance. In the early years we do focus in alot on hygiene and health. We don't just tell them they should we teach them why. We go to dentists and ask questions. We watch health videos. We look at what germs are how they benefit and harm us. We look at why sleep is important. We have nights where we don't set bedtimes every once in a while so they have the opportunity to feel what it is like not going to bed until late and then waking up when they day is almost over. So we mix guidance with opportunities for natural consequences. I guide them into exploring. I ask "What are you interested in?" And then I ask "How can we find out more?" And they will suggest things like look in a book, watch a video, research online, ask someone. etc... Then I help them get access to what they need to learn it. I think you can be in the middle. You can give direction without limiting your kids. Some kids do better with some boundaries. -Tanya
I love that. Teaching your children "why" instead of telling them "because I said so". I just started homeschooling my oldest, and I really believe that homeschoolers and unschoolers are onto something great. My only concern is the student being qualified for traditional college and a traditional job, when they don't have the traditional qualifications that would be awarded with conventional schooling.
@@candieland4276 That is a common concern with any homeschooler or unschooler alike. If you join some facebook groups or homeschool co-ops you will find many parents who have done it successfully. They have kids who are doctors and lawyers and kids who are police and waiters. The truth is public education doesnt prepare kids for college let alone real life otherwise graduation rates wouldn't be so low in colleges. If you look at a college class at the start of the year you will have 50 kids by the end you might have less than 30 still attending class. We started whole countries with home education. The USA is a great example of this. It was a bunch of small towns surrounded by rural farms. If there wasn't a school being run out of a church in town the parents taught the kids at home. If we can build whole countries off of home educating with only a bible and some sticks imagine what we can do with the access to knowledge we have now and home education.
What's the parents for if not giving boundaries for their kids?
Samuel, this is a fantastic documentary. I stumbled upon it on Reddit. As someone who went through the public school system, often wishing he was unschooled, this provided some really great perspective. You should be proud of yourself and of what you’ve made, and I cannot wait to see what you make next.
Tell the cameraman I care about him.
CircadiaMicroGrow me too! ☺️
Best comment 🏆
Ditto, you matter buddy 🤟
🤣🤣🤣
Me too, man! 😂👍
It’s such a pity he reveals at the end how depressing he found it being unschooled!
I think all children need to know limitations and boundaries and it sounds like ‘radical unschoolers’ expecting young kids to find their own, is too much.
Great documentary by the way, well worth watching!
th-cam.com/video/brCfBiBt9Xs/w-d-xo.html
We’re unschoolers too. I really feel like it’s how people will be educated in the future. Look at Sudbury Schools.
Mother Bae I yeeepp I currently go to a Sudbury school and I used to be in public school and I’ve been learning a lot quicker because it’s not as shameful to like or be passionate about things nor to fail, that makes it much easier to learn.
Then again you already know that being an unschooler!^^
Mother Bae I this comment made me think of the Celestine prophecy
Too bad they don’t have Sudbury in Detroit. School never help me learn.
"Kid sleeps late, wakes up after noon misses breakfast, corrects itself"
Damn I'm 24 and been trying to correct myself this for past 24 years.
The difference is, when children learn natural consequences from the beginning, they learn very quickly how to self regulate. If a child has been forced to do something they don’t want to do, or repressed from doing something, they usually resist/rebel and this follows them into adulthood.
You’re a failed radical unschooler sorry 🤣
Shanthakumar that does not happen unless someone is on drugs or serious mental illness.
Carly Fournier Disagree. That shows the child they aren’t trusted and they grow up with self doubt. My children have all self regulated because they’ve been supported and trusted from day 1.
Carly Fournier You’re talking about neglectful parenting. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about trust, partnership and leading by example. When my children were little they saw my husband and I practice good hygiene. I took baths, they wanted to take baths. I brushed my teeth, my kids chose to brush theirs. Not to mention, I educated them on the importance of hygiene and why it’s good for our bodies. But they were never forced or shamed for the times they choose not to do those things. At one point in time, my son didn’t want to brush his teeth as much. So I didn’t force him. But when he went to the dentist and found out he had 2 cavities and had to have them filled, he started brushing and flossing again. That right there was a natural consequence.
I just really wanted to THANK YOU for your HONEST opinion. I am a mom of a 5 year old girl, making the transition to schooling at home. What that is going to look like at this point, I am trying to find out. I really was leaning HARD to radical unschool (though it's a bit unsettling) but this insight has very much helped me solidify my decision to not be radical and really push her a bit as needed and really not allow her to do EVERYTHING she wants to and it really put a few limitations on our days.
Again, just thank you so much for all the honesty.
Good luck on your many great adventures. 💖
Thank you for making this incredibly informative, objective and honest documentary. And I feel very grateful to have been able to look into a part of your life to know what obstacles to avoid in the home education journey.
Clearly you're very smart and capable. As one of those parents that aren't labelling our version of homeschooling but implements a lot of unschooling philosophy, I think you're exactly right about some kids needing certain pushes. I went to public school but I was still addicted to video games, played for 8 or more hours every evening, and didn't get involved in anything productive or useful to myself. Graduated with ultra high GPA but never did anything with it. One of those "aspie" kids as the one mom put it, who took longer to learn socializing and hygiene. I wouldn't have wanted to be pushed but I would have enjoyed an invitation to something that had value. Now I feel like I'm too old to experience things normal kids do and it took me too long to learn to take care of myself.
You’re never too old.
His response was so honest and true . Not every aspect of anything is completely glorious .
Samuel, this documentary is exactly what I needed today. I am an unschooling mom (not radical) and was feeling very unsure of myself today. Thank you. This helped me a lot.
Hey! I loved it!
I loved it so much that I now understand what is radical unschooling, and I have to say that I don’t want to do that. I want to teach my kids math and reading and writing, first of all because I love this stuff, I think it’s awesome! And it’s a fundamental skill that you have to have. And my kids will brush their teeth and hair (sometimes they might opt out ) and take baths, I simply thought my kids (8 and 1year old) to love bath time, because it’s playtime, so they love it.
So we live learning and teaching and so our kids will have a whole bunch of freedom and a whole bunch of loving guidance. For example, I love music dancing and languages, and reading and math! So I will give that to my kids so they can enjoy that too, plus whatever else they want and like. We have limits on screen time, and we’re fine with that and our kids are fine with that. Happy medium.
Thank you so much and good luck! I think it’s a great topic and you should make more videos about what is homeschooling, unschooling, radical unschooling and world schooling. It’s an amazing topic to start with. My husband was homeschooled and then what I call self schooled and he is a genius and a very successful man :)
This is so well done and really helpful for a mama just starting out ~ my little one is 3 months rn.
This answers a lot of my questions regarding an intuition that some structure is helpful, what about math, and how socialization is such a crucial element.
Thank you for your vulnerability and transparency Samuel. I am glad you found some closure.
This film rocks. And I am sure it will continue to impact for many years to come. and Thank you for this film. Its a gift to humanity.
I thank you young man for this documentary. You have truly inspired me and encouraged me in knowing that I have made the right decision in unschooling my children. Keep up the great work and may everything that you do be successful.
This was such a good doco and for him to be 18 when he made it!.. incredible!
I think that unschooling can work in conjunction with something more structured. Kids thrive with structure.
I also think that playing video games all day is NOT preparing kids for real life. We have enough adult men who are addicted to video games. Why let that begin earlier?
ETA: radical unschooling is nuts.
th-cam.com/video/brCfBiBt9Xs/w-d-xo.html
The conclusion was very well put. Loved this documentary!
He’s gonna be alright. I hope the cameraman and his friend are well these days.
I am so glad I found this video... I wish there were more videos like it!!
This documentary is goddamned amazing. The kid who made this is goddamned amazing. Of all the things I've researched about unschooling this is the MOST informative I've found. I know that kids welcome discipline, as they seek structure and want to make parents/authority figures in their life happy. This is a basic human need, and there are domesticated animals that also fit in this category. So I don't discard natural behavioral tendencies when I comes to making decisions for my children. For this reason I would consider at least a slightly structured homeschooling regimen, rather than going completely radical. Otherwise the kids are raising themselves, and that's not want for them.
Thank you Sam. Great documentary.
How do the parents tell the school district they are unschooling their kids??
The woman who talked about socialization was right on. Most homeschooled children are in so many clubs and interact at conferences or homeschool groups, church, community sports, 4-H, Boy Scouts etc. I only encountered one homeschooler who was so overprotective that she didn't want her son to interact in any environment that didn't go along with her viewpoints.
Last comment: We love being with our kids!!!!
Great insights. Very good documentary! The conclusion was really interesting.
You could technically find games that teach you stuff and play those all day... This is the stuff i dreamed of as a kid.
Beautiful!!
As a homeschooling parent of 3 and now an UNschooling grandparent of twins I fail to see how GTA or any gaming can possibly be beneficial. "Dopamine Addiction" and worse, that addiction being leveraged by its creators for who knows what agenda, is ignoring that trap and IS going to be a lifelong problem for THEM. Same with sugar consumption. Tooth decay is one thing, insulin resistance, and diabetes is another and both are problems THEY will be stuck with, not YOU. ADULT SUPERVISION is very much the parent's RESPONSIBILITY and for good reason. Heck, why not just let them be raised by wolves? The "radical" aspect is not for me and appears to be irresponsible and lazy. Do some research on dopamine addiction and refined sugar consequences before you poison YOUR kids.
Wonderful!
Govt schooled peeps: “But socialization!” Me: * laughs in homeschool *
Just curious, how do these kids fare in college ? I like this concept, just curious.
Cherry picked a few uber successful cases, what about the thousands who legit sit around and choose to play video games and eat chicken nuggets and pop tarts all day and don't know what 6×6=?
You pretty clearly didn't watch the video. Watch the kid's conclusion at the close of the film... he speaks directly to your point.
@@shsummers I watched until 39 minutes out of 47 and couldn't stand it anymore frankly but it's not as if I didn't watch it at all! Just went back and finished it and yes, you're right- he did. However, that's NOT the overall tone of the doc at all so his "bow" on it at the end strikes me as disingenuous. He presents unschooling in a very positive light in totality whilst at the end basically saying most are doing it out of laziness and it verging on neglect.
@@jenniferh7297 I agree that the summation provided a different takeaway than did the rest of the documentary; I'd call it incongruous vs. disingenuous, however. His admonition at the end is aimed squarely at "radical" unschooling though, not unschooling as a whole (a distinct difference), and he states that from his experience he suspects a small minority, not "most", are doing it out of laziness. No doubt this is true. On the other hand, many stay at home parents send their kids off to school because they're too lazy to educate them themselves even though they could...this is self evident.
@@shsummers I feel what he was doing was getting the parents' perspective on what they "think" they are doing .... and thinking it's all good, but then shedding his own perspective as an actual PRODUCT of unschooling and showing a sort of disconnect there (the parents' view vs. the actual unschooled kids' view). I also feel that having a few parents brag about their unschooled kids in college (and specially in the field of math) was aiming to show that success in a traditional sense can still happen (college), but that the confusion of being an adolescent is there regardless of being in public school or unschooled. Lots of different things/perspectives going on, but that is what made the doc great!
Let's call it by its real name... Natural Schooling/Education...
A ten year old Einstein would have been on an X box 24/7 in an unschooled household
43:34 Look up “Albert Einstein plagiarist of the century?” ;)
Well said beautiful black Goddess.
2:28 man has acne cause he keeps touching his face!
You must have gone to school because you’re a bully.
@@thecatholicunschooler6507 That's a true statement
It's interesting that some of these parents still seem to think that college is the ultimate goal. As someone who went to school (and college) I am still unsure if college translates into 'success' in life-whether financially, spiritually, or emotionally. It's really just more school.
Don't get me wrong, I couldn't agree more! However; these home(un)schoolers are still going to need to make money one day and support themselves...how is that going to be possible when any job that makes any sort of money, requires a traditional college degree!?? Like, you can't revolutionize education without simultaneously changing what qualifications jobs expect for those kids to one day make money and support themselves....
To go to college only if it will help achieve a goal.
i dont feel like college is a good investment anyway except if you're studying medicine or a position that needs some sort of license, otherwise everything can be learned for free online, or classes on certain skills, also I believe most jobs will turn into AI, so most of these degrees would be useless, unless it promotes innovation in a certain industry
also for them to be financially independent maybe learn how to save and invest money at an early age, anything is possible, college isnt everything, you can be more successful just using the internet in the right way for you
@@misa-olive so true.
@@misa-olive unfortunately many jobs that are creative and enjoyable are only accessible during interview process via that piece of paper saying you attained certain degree. Jobs now offering equivalencies to education but that takes work on part of employer and they won’t do it if it’s inconvenient.
Homeschool mama here. I've put off watching this documentary for a long time because most unschooling documentaries fall into either self-congratulatory hippy or mocking the idiot families and their poor kids who can't count to 10.
But wow, I was so pleased with how you put this together, especially giving your perspective as an unschooled child. It actually addresses, in a respectful way, a lot of the concerns that get brushed off by unschooling parents. Very well done.
I am extremely impressed with this kids level of maturity and how he can even articulate his thoughts and have such a deep understanding of himself and his experience as an unschooled kid. Just wow. I have no doubt that he has the brains to figure his life out and have “success” and fulfillment.
Shining Light that is how most unschooled kids are!
Crystal Autumn That’s really cool!! 💙
It's not a coincidence. We're capable of so much more than the status quo.
I'm 14 and unschooled and I find most unschooled kids have a deep sense of self and personal drive. Especially once we start to become teenagers then a lot of us, like the guy in this film, become passionate about unschooling on a wider scale. :)
Supports the thought that unschoolers turn out this way generally.
Feel like he would have had an improved experience if he went to a democratic school
Samuel, your conclusion really touched me. Your honesty, insight and maturity is very much appreciated. We've been home educating for six years and we're yet to settle on what feels 'right' for our family, though I feel like we are getting closer. This REALLY helped xxx Wishing you all the best!
Great documentary!!! Maybe you would never have made it if you were in school being too focused on getting into college to get a job and be a slave to it...instead you had time to hone your passions and interests and make something as great as this! Excellent work!!!
You are demonstrating an incredible amount of maturity, insight, and critical thinking ability. Which is interesting because you are utilizing those abilities to analyze the very institution (or lack thereof) that was uncomfortable for you but that also may have nurtured those abilities in the first place. I can see where that could create some semi complicated internal dialogue.
I’d say I’m a homeschooling/unschooling parent. We have some structure but for the most part it’s free. I’m here to guide my children to make healthy choices, to encourage learning, and help them become the best person they can be. To become the person they want to be. So in our home we have bedtime, we eat healthy meals, we limit sugars, we have chores... we have age appropriate activities. If my kid doesn’t brush her teeth and get a cavity, it’s not her fault, it’s mine because I am her mom. I’m her teacher, her role model. If she’s smelly and, eating unhealthy and her teeth are falling out... I’m neglecting her. I’m not doing my job as a parent.
Thank you for this balanced look at unschooling. Have you given any thought to what you would create as an ideal unschooling experience? I'd love to hear your thoughts on that!
This is a GREAT Documentary! This is my opinion of your ending explanation about how you feel having been unschooled.-- I have to tell you that I think no matter what your background is, you will feel this way as you enter adulthood. I know I felt the same way you do now after I graduated from high school many years ago. No one at school studied math 8 hours a day. We were shuffled in and out of classrooms and half the time in class was spent with the teachers trying to keep everyone quiet and getting everyone to pay attention. (Not many students did, by the way.) What I see is a young man who is intelligent, well spoken and honest. You have made a very interesting and intelligent documentary. I hope you make many more films! Best of luck to you!!
Thank you for your honesty and perspective at the end of the video. THAT is what I have been looking for from the “unschooling”/homeschooling world. I do plan to be an intentional parent and let my son lead his education. And I see that being present, engaging, and encouraging (as in getting him to think outside his comfort zone) will be very important as he grows. Very engaging and informative. ❤️
I wasn't unschooled, but i had parents that were way to lax on my hygene, and i consider that neglect and abuse to be perfectly honest. All that aside, i feel Academic unschooling sounds great. Radical unschooling on the other hand sounds like child neglect. Not on an educational level, on a hygene, nutritional level.
As someone who is about to embark on unschooling with my kids this is incredibly helpful. Thank you for sharing, I think radically unschooling sounds crazy, never heard of it before.
Thank you so much for making this video! I home school my child and have always worried that we should be unschooling. This has brought me such comfort because I feel like she is getting the best of both worlds. We have structure, but it is child lead learning.
This is exactly the perspective I needed on unschooling. I don’t necessarily want my son to enter the public school education that teaches to the test and all that nonsense. But I will never be the kind of parent who just steps back and says “GO! Do it and if it works great, if not you will correct it”. In our house we will brush our teeth 3 times a day. We will observe bed times. We will have at least structure for iPad/video game usage. There will be intentional learning times, clubs, sports etc. I feel really good hearing from not just a homeschool student but from an UNschool student. You have made an incredibly important contribution. I hope you find a groove you are happy with and feel able to pursue your passions. And just for the record, I’m 34 and still paying for my undergrad education. That’s the most I got out of college. It was fun. I lived with my friends etc. and I left school with enormous debt! Yay college!!!!! 🙄 oh and I work in a field that had nothing to do with eduction I got. But that debt. It sucks. Keep doing what you are doing! You have a gift!
I definitely needed to see this today. I Unschool my 12 year old. And the pressure of Unschooling was stopping me from pushing her out of her comfort zone. Thank you for being transparent about the ups and downs.
Hi! Curious about your situation, if it is still current😊. I would love to be able to help out some unschooling families if they need feedback or brainstorming from an experienced unschooling parent.
I know we learn better when we are not being forced. I have 3 children two graduated. My youngest is unschooled it wasn't my choice. I wanted to do homeschooling. The thing is some kids would rather die than continue to be harassed or bullied. Listen to your kids and validate how they feel. Is this why the Bible says in the last days a child will lead them? Is this new generation gonna blow the top off all of the secrets of how public schools are now and the disadvantage they serve our kids? More and more kids suffer from mental illness too and a lot of it is the pressures from performance level in school!
That’s exactly where the debate of “will this keep the child in line or rather hurt the child in the long run”. And honestly, it depends on the child who is being taught.
That’s only when it comes to the education of course, the pupils in which they grow alongside are a whole different stories when it comes to helping and hurting the child. Personally, I see school as my second home. I know this may be an unpopular opinion but, I feel as though it acts as my second home for me because of the opportunities to make friends and the teachers who help me thrive.
I’m a radical unschooler and agree it’s not good. You have to give some structure especially if you’ve ever sent your kid to school. Everything has fallen apart giving kids too much control and they are not mature enough to handle it.
I think you can radically unschool but you have to have a near perfect environment without much for the kid to distract himself with.
But even just an hour or two of “book work” a day is enough. You don’t have to do “school at home” to homeschool.
The place where I depart from the radical unschooling is the junk food and the gaming. The gaming has programming that changes the brain. We already know what manmade chemicals to do our bodies.
I believe book work can happen at any age.
Well put. I think everyone should approach radical unschooling with EXTREME caution and care. I’m actually not sure what kind of environment would be good for an unschooler.
th-cam.com/video/brCfBiBt9Xs/w-d-xo.html
I know several radical unschoolers. One family i know their children's teeth are destroyed. Unfortunately their adult teeth came down pre rotted. They will carry that for life. They literally let their kids eat junk food all day long. It's completely irresponsible behaviour.
Georgina Jannings
Well I find with child led learning, but not with that.
I have a Masters in counseling... I was a good student but school was dreadful... I just can’t bring myself to expose my child to school... it’s basically say prison. I just discovered the term unschooling 10 min ago 🤣 i didn’t even know this is thing
I love this documentary! I am getting ready to pull my second grader out of public school!
Don't ruin your kid's life.
Same
Melon Productions I agree
@@melonproductions1471 Public school ruins a lot of kids' lives.
We UNschool all 3 of our kids and we live it! It’s crazy to see them learn to read mostly in their own and spell and do math without the traditional classroom! Kids are not born dumb and we don’t have to fill them with information that we see fit. I live in a very school driven area where 99.%of people send their kids to traditional schools. I also work in the public and get the same annoying question everyday when they find out my kids don’t go to school ...”how do you do that if you’re here ?” -(meaning at my job) insert eye roll 🙄 now I just say they do school online so I don’t have to answer a million questions! One patient I spoke with seemed offended that I didn’t put my kids in school and asked me how they would get into college. I told her we are showing them how to run a biz and be entrepreneurs since dad and myself both are. (My job is capital for my new venture). But that’s a while other story! My kids are super happy, love life, love making TH-cam vids and playing video games. Let them be I say! Life is too short to spend it in an unnecessary brick box gazing out the window!
Samuel, well done work! Congratulations on bringing this work out and unveiling the curtain a little bit on your fascinating life. I know parents can’t learn everything from just this one video, however I like that you discussed the main conflicts we face, and the different views on this educational model. Thank you also for allowing us parents to share our views on the topics too. Best of luck!
That was definitely an interesting take! I'm a homeschool mom who is trying to figure a lot of things out about homeschool right now. I'm curious if you think it would have changed your situation if you were academically unschooled, but still required to do certain chores or responsibilities and also had screen time limits? That's definitely something I can't get on board with (no screen time limits), because my young boys will definitely spend alllll day on screens if I let them and that just isn't a life imo and not something that has been part of the human experience until verrrry recently. Thanks for sharing your perspective! I always love to hear from people who were actually homeschooled ❤️
We only unschooling in reference to school. My kids have chores and they have to do some school related tasks. Its child led. They pick their subjects and fill out a book that has all subjects around the subject they want to learn. So we do something very in the middle.
I dropped out early into high school to try and pursue radical unschooling, and consider myself an RU advocate. There’s things said in the video I’m obviously going to agree with, but surprisingly there’s things that were said (and in the comments section) that I also disagree with.
RU is a partnership-based paradigm. I understand if some unschooled kids feel they were robbed of more “structure”, but that is something the parents should’ve facilitated. Not by force, but by other means. There are healthy, positive ways to expose kids to things. The point of RU is to change the conventional parenting paradigm along with the conventional schooling paradigm, and, like the latter, is also authoritarian-based and can break a child’s spirit.
I also think we’re doing a disservice to society if we keep perpetuating these talking points like “kids crave structure”. Uhhh, no, no they don’t. What they crave is their curiosity. Kids are naturally curious and have their own rhythms. It’s up to the parents to be involved as much as they can and support their natural curiosities and rhythms. Of course you should make things like structure and conventional academia available, but always continue to voice to your kids, and foster, an environment of options and facilitate what works best for them.
At the end of the day, the answer is facilitation. It’s ok to “push”, namely encourage, your child to do something they may not like or that’s out of their comfort zone. However, we learn better, live better and do better when things aren’t forced.
Totally agree with this. On the point of structure. I picture it as evolving from a drive for follow curiosity and to maximize your available exploration time. So that rather than structure being a facilitator of curiosity it should be a supplement or consequence. So if you go camping or want to film a documentary you might want to wake up earlier to get more done before sunset. This are examples where just by being exposed to something your drive is what makes you create structure. So I grew up in a farm in Kenya(Africa) and we woke up early not because we were hardworking but because we didn't want to go to the farm in the midday heat so to avoid that we scheduled our day around avoiding it. No one gave us structure we created it to maximize our free time or leisure time.
Boi created an essay
Hi, very interesting point. Do you have any literature recommendation on the structure topic. I find it interesting because I always heard the " kids needs structure" notion.
Just found this. The problem I see is that the video games, tv, etc. are too additive and the early effects on the brain are largely unknown. I'd be more comfortable with unschooling if they would toss the screens out til a certain age. Screens are also a huge baby sitter, so I wonder what percentage is of kids are getting just baby sat. However, satistically speaking kids who are unschooled are doing very well in the ways society measures such things. You can be miserable in school too. I was. It took me decades to get over the amount of bullying that I encountered.
I don't like the part where he is judging outhers and saying that some people should been pushed more to get out and meet people or take showers. But at the same time I agree that parents should guide there kids. My experiens is that the radical unschoolers often do guide there kids, but will never force them. And I'm convinced thats a good thing. There will be kids in school, in homeschooling, in unschooling and in radical unschooling that will be those individuals that don't value the same things as the big majority of people, and I think we all need to respect everybody, it shouldn't mater if its a kid or a grown-up. But part of that respect is to be honest to those you are close, so as a parent I tell my kids if they smell funky. If they really dont want to shower, it's really not my decision.
I'm at 12:23 right now and been enjoying the video so far. I think you said at the beginning that schooling was severely lacking in it's effectiveness? If that's what you believe, it gives you even more props for how respectful you are as an interviewer. Could definitely tell you related to and understood their questions. Asking meaningful questions in response without judgement seems to encourage open and honest conversation.
You did a great job putting this short film together. You pointed out the difference between unschooling and unparenting!
I feel like after middle school unschooling would have been helpful for me and unfortunately my parents would have never agreed and I just found out about it a while ago so it’s too late for me but I told them about it and they weren’t opposed so my siblings might be doing it.
We let our kids make mistakes too, just in the kiddie pool, not the deep end.
Why do I feel like you can time travel, and have been old for quite sometime in the future?
real and true
This is a great documentary. I have had a bad experience in school myself (not horrible, just bad, I loved the friends I had, but that's about it) . The structure didn't fit me, they didn't accomadate for differences between students. I was constantly forced to put my time in to things I already could and knew. As a person with a higher iq then average, school was a gamble, you are suddenly very dependent on the teachers you are going to get and most don't really get you personally (which is true for most if not all students). I didn't get room to find a solution and I also wasn't listen to.
School can be just as uncomfortable as having to much choice and responsability at a young age.
this documentary helped me in making desciscions at how I want to raise my kids at the moment.
this makes me see possible pitfalls of unschooling, but also makes me understand a little bit more about what exactly went wrong with my own schooling.
I think - as it is with many things - you really have to look at the individual. you can't make global statements about it being good or not.
I'm sure that unschooling would have been better for me. As a young child I was foccused and motivated and I lost it at school. and only now already an official adult for 16 years now I still am fixing myself. Searching for that focus and motivation and love of learning that I had before school ruined it.
It's that experience that made me untrusting towards schools, but did send my children to school allthough the idea of unschooling is in my mind. I'd like to send them to a sudbury type of school or keep them home. But at the same time, I don't want to go to radical unschooling. I know from my own experience (at home I got a lot of freedom wich didn't combine well at all with the lack of freedom at school %-) it was confusing and stressfull.) that children, even the teenagers need guidance and help in making decisions and it can''t alway s be trusted that they will figure it out themselfes. Even if they do, we as adults can prevent unnecessary damage. they can make mistakes. but there are different degrees of mistakes. there are mistakes that you will carry with you the rest of your life. (like the choice of study in my country (belgium), we have to choose this at 12 years old. I got the freedom to choose it on my own... this was a big mistake. I chose horribly and carried that mistake the rest of my schooling days. I should have gotten more guidance. I asked a lot for it, but didn't really get it. for some reason people saw me as smart and they assured me that I would choose good %-) Why did they confuse being smart with being wise? )
It's definitely a mistake I don't want to make with my children. but I also don't want their love of learning and curiosity ruined by school. and allthough they sit on a quite alternative school that already listens a lot to the childrens interests compared with the traditional schools... I noticed my daughter of now 8 years slowly losing her love of learning already. and it distresses me. homeschooling is not an easy choice anymore in our country. And in the middle of the schoolyear I can't take them out of school without permission from a certain institution. So for this schoolyear we are kind of bound. But I'm seriously contempleting unschooling next year.
I guess I needed to get this of my chest... apperently... still... I hope somebody might get something out of my rambling :)
same experience for me
As you were able to bring out in the video, there are many reasons that people homeschool. (for students who need to be challenged academically, for kids who have had negative experiences such as bullying in regular public school, religious freedom, for students with special needs... etc. ) When we first started homeschooling in 1996, people asked "What is that?", but now when we say "We are homeschoolers." They say, "That's great." (with the regular comments of "how can you spend all day with your kids" and "how do you handle all those grade levels."
Wow. Bringing back memories of homeschooling my five children. We were not really unschoolers officially because we were enrolled in a homeschool charter school, but they really supported this style, too. However, I think that it really was more like unschooling. Most unschoolers that I met were so intelligent, but I will always remember a comment said by an unschooled teen who eventually went to college. She told her mother, "Mom, teach my siblings more about reading and writing because they are going to need it in college." It is something to think about, but most unschoolers do just fine. Thanks for the documentary. I hope that you are successful with all the films that you decide to make. I just happened to come across your film when I was searching for ESL materials.
Great documentary! So happy I stumbled upon it. We are unschooling our 4 year old in a unschooling learning center in New Orleans. She is in a school with 6 kids varying in age, race, background. I love it. But really appreciate your insight on what type of unschooler are you? We are not radical. I also love your conclusion and we will probably go back and forth with unschooling and traditional school. Thank you!
One dad said his son did not have fun in school,so he just stopped taking him there.OMG!What kind of mindset is that?!His kid is going to have a really hard life with a dad who just let's him do whatever he wants.
Samuel . Really appreciate your documentary..it puts some perspective into unschooling for me. I appreciate your honesty and level headedness towards your experience. Thanks so much for your input. God's blessing on you.
The more I research on unschooling the more I get excited about doing this with my kids
Nice job with this documentary, dude. As a psychologist/parent who is obsessed with this subject, I happen to agree with you and really admire your balanced approach.
I could never radically unschool, but my child loved the pannini setup of online schooling so now we do a mix of online and homeschool with a relaxed approach 😌 I still teach him basic life skills, how to do laundry...clean his room, load the dishwasher ect. He brushes his teeth and bathes himself. So I like our approach, lots of real world skills and interest based learning, with some structured learning in case he wants to go back to public school 😊
17:20 oh so close to vocalizing the reality. But i suppose it contradicts the philosophy and narrative to acknowledge outloud that youre allowing your kid to be in complete control of how your home operates. Much better to spin it as some kind of one upping and giving them an edge in life. That way when the only edge in life they find is the razor thin edge of neurosis and societal issues they'll be constantly running into and having to unlearn the parent can console themselves with the thought that the kid just didn't take advantage of the boons they gave them or something. Definitely not the parents job or fault or anything. Nice save.
Beautiful work. And thank you for sharing your opinion on radical unschooling. "Sparing them the pain"...I couldn't have said it better myself. As parents, it is our job to guide them (not force them of course). Yes, children are going to make plenty of mistakes, but let's at least give them some kind of boundary at least for safety reasons. To prevent cavities, to prevent obesity and diabetes, to prevent short attention spans (the result of too much screen time), to prevent depression and anxiety. As far as chores, that's just offering your contribution to the household. I wouldn't call them "chores" to my kids, but it's their contribution to the family and house. I personally live with someone who is 30 years old who has a master's degree in Psychology but still lives with his parents (never moved out) because his parents never asked him to do laundry, make food, wash dishes, sweep the floors. Video games are his life and all his friends are online. He never leaves the house or has even gone grocery shopping. We need to teach our children life skills! So when they go out into the world, they aren't carrying these bad habits they developed because they are comfortable with their lifestyle that they're parents never questioned. I put my children to bed around a certain time because I know they need the sleep. Toddlers especially don't understand that they're feeling frustrated and overwhelmed because they are tired. Children need plenty of sleep for their mental and emotional health. Same with diet. We all know that eating sugar and processed foods do not lead to a healthy body and mind. Addictions are real and can develop at a very early age and like the 30 year old "boy" I know, are difficult to break, leading to severe anxiety and depression.
cavities, obesity and diabetes don't arise because children eat whatever they want, they arise because parent's and society mistreat them constantly in subtle and not so subtle ways, many of it we wouldn't dream of even doing to our enemies nobody just eats and eats until they have a disorder without it being a vice, a coping mechanism for something, screen time is also very important not to limit, these things are more symptoms of issues not causes. Bedtime has been shown to actually increase sleep issues later in life (and when growing) because if you sleep when your body tells you (aka when you're tired) you sleep much deeper and more restfully, making someone sleep when not tired every day also conditions an attitude to see sleep as a negative thing to be avoided and resisted, imagine if we were conditioning our kids to see food or water as negative things to be resisted, how alarmed we'd be, why less so with sleep? it's just as critical to a healthy mind, not to mention it can create self esteem issues, turn them ageist against other kids (a vile form of bigotry often leads to bullying and other things) and is disrespectful, it teaches kids to be out of tune with their own bodies, not trust them to tell them when something is the case.
I just want to chime in here in the comments section, as a mom who’s been overseeing my children’s education at home for 20 years, and who believes that sometimes labels like “unschool” tend to divide folks much more than is necessary. I see it especially in families that may be new to homeschooling, or perhaps are particularly insecure about their path. They cling to their labels. “We educate according to Charlotte Mason’s philosophy” “We Unschool” “We’re doing the Classical Approach” etc. And inevitably these self segregated folks necessarily must become very particular about what really classifies and constitutes their particular denomination.
What happens to the marginalized homeschoolers that aren’t quite “unschool” “Charlotte Mason” or “classical” enough? Well, they do just fine, providing they can bravely bust out of their boxes and do what really works for them.
Thank you so much for this, especially the personal thoughts at the end. I've been considering unschooling for my kids, but I feel like there needs to be SOME sort of structure. As you said, there are certain things kids just won't do on their own and it's our job as parents to well, parent.
This is a really well made video Sam. You've brought up a lot of great points and did a great job being pragmatic with people you don't exactly agree with. We definitely teach our child to brush her teeth. We teach her lots of things, especially if the mistake could be costly. We try to give her stuff to chew on regularly while giving her a lot of room to explore. It certainly seems to have helped you grow a lot, but I totally recognize that no one knows what they don't know, and that's doubly true for kids.
Thank you for this documentary this is awesome, so many people are so narrow minded and fearful, open your minds! Its okay!
This is a decent introduction to unschooling. The debate over what is better radical(no limits on anything) or a modicum of limits is interesting and personally I perceive that neither is “right” in and of itself but depends upon the context. Specifically I am aware of two fundamentally different attitudes toward rules, limits, requests, demands, etc. One viewpoint is that limits are an absolute sort of situation, where there will be consequences of some sort if the limit is breached. The other viewpoint is that limits and such are more of a suggestion or guide…more like communicating how things should be so that the child(or adult) can know what the expectations are, that they have some helpful model in their head about how to do something, and this helps them in their efforts to be part of the family or community. So personally I think it’s fine to have limits and boundaries, as long as the child is the one to choose whether to adhere to that goal or not. Most of the time I see children very eager to be given a goal or task, as long as it is not forced on them😊.
Letting young children control their own technology is ludicrous. Kids can become savvy with computers as teenagers without having it in their young children. Stupid, And yes, things like letting your kids not brush their teeth means they will either be in a lot of pain or have to spend a lot of money when they are adults. It's all very narcissistic. The kid whose done the do cumentary is impressive, but the adults interviewed are very unimpressive.
The radical thing sounds too radical because it is. Every sentient creature on earth has boundaries for their offspring and teaches them some of the most important aspects of their species' health and success-as he mentions in regard to dental hygiene and health. As someone who was public schooled, but whose parents were mostly radically "unschooling" at home, I wish so greatly that I'd had more structure and guidance when it comes to nutrition. I suffered through weight issues and eating disorders because of the freedom that I had with my diet and absolute lack of guidance on health. I have many more examples, but I won't bore anyone with my life story. I've known some radical unschoolers, and while they do tend to be eloquent and intelligent (ironically, academically), they often have very poor health and hygeine and are very antisocial because of it (as well as because of their extreme screen time addiction). I'm all for unschooling when it comes to education, but I do believe that most radical unschoolers could benefit from more guidance when it comes to basic healthy lifestyle habits.
Playing GTA is unschooling))) They teach their kid about the pleasures and sorrows of life through this game)))
It’s one thing to support a child’s interests, but I can not subscribe to radical unschooling. That is like giving an adult a high level/high stress job with absolutely no job description and no training.
I believe we need to give guidance to children and help them establish good habits.
Fantastic work. Very informative and inspiring. Also gave me different ideas to think about different points of view to contrast my vision. Thank you for putting it together in a such fantastic way.
(5:30) she talks about structure and how worksheets are not for her kid . and her kid is playing fucking gta ,fighting a cop !! These parents should be put in jail !! wtf
A friend of mine is unschooling her 8 children and they don't just sit at the kitchen table and do a regular curriculum
daily. Once a week she takes the younger children to story time at the library and the older children get to pick out books to read. They take sewing classes that public schools do to teach anymore. She does have Scholastic workbooks for their grade level on the bookshelf they can do the workbook anytime they feel like it.
has word search puzzles also they do them, they go once a week for hiking and learn about nature, they watch the history channel, military channel, animal planted and the cooking channel also they watch magic school bus and learn about science and also watches science video on TH-cam. The family plays board games, does jigsaw puzzles, and learns to count money with the play board money game. Crochet and knitting they are learning. Also, watch Adventure in Oddessy or listen to it on the radio. they learn how to cook and they are learning about the garden and how to budget a household and their dad is teaching them how to work on cars and bikes. They all take piano lessons, all kids except one are taking Karate the 1 is taking Ballet. Plus they go on lots of outings monthly. Summe camps also for all children plus some of the kids go skateboarding parks while the other ones play at the park. This is just some of the stuff they do for their type of homeschooling.
This was a great video. I love the open conversations and appreciate your honest reflections on your own experience.
Im from England. We unschool and the big take away from this, that I got, is that I need to ensure my kids can get to places/people, without me. If they meet someone they can get themselves there, either on the bus or a taxi. Even making sure we know people close by. I'm lucky in the fact there are a LOT of unschooling type /home educating type families within a 10 miles radius of us.
Letting kids not brush their teeth,so they get cavity and toothache is neglect.
I’m n my eyes For someone who at the end seemed not to enjoy being unschooled he turned out an amazing very intelligent well spoken adult ❤
This was way better than I expected. Good job!
As the kid yells @13:15 "Dad I'm going into a house"...he's learning
First
Thank you so much for this documentary. I'm a new unschooling parent of a former magnet school 6th grader taking AP classes. I love hearing the varying viewpoints and opinions, personal experiences. Great documentary and I love that it was only 48 minutes! Hope to see more in the future.