Sometimes I get roped into conversations/debates over which method of homeschooling is best.   Most homeschoolers I know personally are much more traditional than we are, either following a set curriculum or an eclectic gathering of materials. I am  used to both defending unschooling and championing self-directed learning over other forms of home education.

When it comes down to it, though, the most important aspect of learning outside of school is that your child is learning outside of school.   No matter what the format.    Compulsory classroom schooling is so detrimental to a child’s emotional and sometimes physical state that it is no wonder the pharmaceutical industry is thriving – along with the field of psychoanalysis.   The wonder is that more of us are not on drugs or in therapy as a result of our time in school.

Paul Simon probably didn’t know the depth of the truth he spoke when he sang “When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it’s a wonder I can think at all.”

So to those of us already on this path I say – if someone you know is considering taking their kids out of school, encourage them to do it and help them along if they ask.   Don’t worry about the fact that they think they might need a curriculum or tutors, etc.    That’s small stuff, so don’t sweat it.

Even if they decide to enroll their kid in a cyber school or online high school…great!  It still allows the child to work at their own pace and do the lessons when they choose.

Great and wonderful things can (and usually do)  happen when a child is not in school.

For example