Education Revolution

Report from the 13th International Rethinking Education Conference

October 29, 2009 at 5:27 am | Posted in AERO, Education Events | 1 Comment
Tags: AERO, Barb Lundgren, Brent Cameron, Daniel Quinn, Dayna Martin, James Bach, James Marcus Bach, Lisa Russell, Maria Stowe, Quinn Eaker, Rethinking Education, Rethinking Education Conference, Sarah Parent, Unschooler, Unschooling

by Lisa Russell

The 13^th annual, international Rethinking Education Conference (www.rethinkingeducation.net)was held at the Marriot Solana in Westlake, Texas. The conference is designed to foster communication, enrichment, inspiration, motivation and networking for unschooling families. Unschooling is often lumped into the “homeschooling” category, but proponents of unschooling contest that it is an entirely different ball game. Indeed, the denim-skirt meter was close to zero.

Instead, photographers, actors and actresses, farmers, painters, world travelers, web designers, political analysts, musicians and business owners showed up. With their parents, of course, since they’re all school-aged.

The annual conference is unlike any other gathering. Free-spirited families from all over the world descend upon the hotel to “Rethink Everything” including education, health care, sustainability, child discipline, elder care, spirituality, economics and nutrition. Speakers presented radical perspectives on everything from raising children without rules to raising families without jobs or western medicine. Central to the unschooling philosophy is that everyone makes their own decisions and that children don’t need to be trained how to live their own life, they just need to do it.

Throughout the hotel, printed quotes about freedom, education, parenting, love and success were tacked up in bathroom stalls, elevators and anywhere else they might inspire someone. The conference is designed to empower families. Veteran unschoolers were on hand with their grown children, so visitors and newcomers could see that “They turned out normal.” Normal isn’t a goal of unschooling, though. Many of these parents aren’t the slightest bit concerned with test scores, state standards or fitting in socially. It’s a tenet of unschooling that the children’s interests and preferences guide their education, instead of a list of tasks and requirements.

Children participate in the planning of the conference as much as adults. Perhaps that’s why, from 10:00 a.m. To 10:00 p.m. kids had free access to the video game ballroom, filled with game consoles and televisions brought in by the attendees as well as a “Fashion lab” with sewing machines, hundreds of pounds worth of fabric, beads, yarn, patches, fringe, sequins and other embellishments. On a table covered with butcher paper, toddlers, teens, parents and grandparents signed their signature, doodled pictures or wrote their favorite inspirational quotes and poems. Another ballroom was filled with wigs, dress up clothes and costumes in all shapes and sizes. At one moment, an eight year old walks out dressed like a mermaid; at another moment, a teenager emerges looking quite a bit like Elvis Presley.

While the adults wandered in and out of workshops designed to help them open their minds to new ways of thinking, or open their hearts to new ways of parenting, the children got their faces painted, covered themselves in shaving cream by the pool, went on pony rides, made jewelry, practiced swimming or simply strolled the halls, chatting with friends.

This merriment isn’t reserved just for conference time, this is just what radical unschoolers do. Every day. Whatever they want. On purpose.

Following the lead of John Holt and Joseph Chilton Pearce, these families are quite literally allowing the children to lead their own education.  The basic idea is that learning is fun. Instead of having homeschooling parents who try to “make learning fun” an unschooled child has parents that allow them to have fun, knowing that they will learn everything they need to know through their own research, experience and curiosity. Unschooling parents trust that their children are eager explorers who want to taste, smell, feel, discuss and experience life, always seeking that which brings them joy.

An appreciation for children’s explorations and experiences can look quite rowdy. “Rethink” discipline for a minute and ask yourself “Is there a logical reason NOT to let the 5 year old push the luggage cart? So what if something falls of, just put it back on. So what if they bump into the corner of a wall, periodically touching up the corners is done each month, each week at some hotels. Is a 5 year old more or less likely to bump into the corner than an elderly person, an intoxicated person, or someone who is just plain clumsy? The fact is, pushing the luggage cart endangers no-one, gives them practical hands-on experience with friction, weight, trajectory and balance, plus it brings the child great pleasure. So on the first day of registration, children pushed luggage carts throughout the lobby, bringing up the gear for the whole family, because pushing a luggage cart is fun. Helping the family is fun.

In every moment of every day, children are learning. To an unschooler, the idea of removing the child from “real life” only to teach them about bits and pieces of it is preposterous. Dividing life into ‘subjects” isn’t a very unschool-y thing to do. All of life overlaps.

To compare a standards-based educational model with unschooling would be quite a challenge. A standards-based education presumes that there’s a list of things that everyone must know. The objectives on this list are vitally important, if a child doesn’t reach a certain level of understanding in time then they could fall behind. A standards-based education, from an unschooling perspective, strives for mediocrity by trying to fit each child into the standards instead of helping each child maximize their best skills.

Conversely, an unschooled education is based upon no standards, other than the child’s own inner guidance. No one teaches babies to walk or talk, they’re guided by their own inner sense of adventure and a desire to participate in the world. Unschooled children, even in their teens, can be seen exhibiting that same enthusiasm for exploration. Many of the kids at the conference owned their own businesses, had their own garage bands and designed their own websites or video games. These pursuits are undoubtedly educational, but aren’t found on any list of standards. Without “schoolwork” kids have the energy and time to throw themselves into their passions.

Raising self-driven and self-motivated kids can be more work than many people predict. Some families enter into unschooling secretly believing that their kids might want to watch television or play video games all day long.  Surprisingly, the veterans on hand said “let them.” Perhaps it’s reverse psychology or perhaps even a child can see that there’s more to life than television and video games. Or perhaps, they’ll grow up to be a successful software tester, like James Bach, the son of bestselling author Richard Bach, a keynote speaker. Or perhaps they’ll look back at the month they spent playing video games and wish they’d played in the snow. You never can tell. Either way, it’s the child’s decision.

Once the novelty of video games or sleeping in in the morning wears off, many unschooling families find themselves visiting museum after museum helping their kids explore the historical time periods or works of art that they find fascinating. Unschooler and entrepreneur Quinn Eaker, 26, actually did play World of Warcraft for an entire year and when he decided to put the game down, he’d experienced a life-changing epiphany about the nature of business and economics that he proudly shares in his workshops at the conference. Dayna Martin of New Hampshire spoke at the conference for the second year in a row. Her son, Devin, was fascinated with the Ancient Mayans, so her family is organizing a cruise to the Caribbean with a stop off in Mexico. Unschooling mother Sarah Parent was amused when her children decided to turn a mid-morning snack into a produce stand. While another parent may have said “Oh my goodness, just eat” Sarah embraced the opportunity to play with the children and gathered the supplies they asked for in addition to being one of the first customers. While there was certainly money counting, vegetables to weigh, change to make and receipts to write, they weren’t “doing math” or “occupational education” or “health education” they were simply playing, because that’s how children learn.

There’s a fundamental difference between following dreams and interests as part of a passionate exploration instead of being trained to learn the things someone else has deemed important, regardless of whether or not a student is interested. Lundgren quotes Galileo Galilei in a conference newsletter; “You cannot teach a man anything. You can only help him discover it within himself.”
-Lisa Russell is a freelance writer and mother of six daughters. In 1993 she dropped out of teaching school to unschool her own children. She blogs at http://www.lisarussell.org