De-Schooling Dynamics



Laurette Lynn

 Last night I listened the the HECOA teleconference with Laurette Lynn, the "Unplugged Mom".  I'm going to share the basics of what I gleaned here.

De-schooling is not related to un-schooling and unplugging is not related to electronics. 

Now that all that is settled, let's talk about what it is. 

Unplugging or de-schooling means removing the artificial reality of the school model from our minds and replace it with the family learning design which is natural and organic.  It's basically a "de-toxing" process!!

She mentioned five basic concepts that often challenge the unplugging process.  Here they are and just a few comments on each.

Home education is for you. 

Everyone.  Single. Married. Religious. Secular.

School is an artificial process that has only been around for a little over 100 years.  It was developed by industrialists (who happened to have been educated at home and within the community) in order to develop their work force. 

School is strange; you handling your child's education at home is not.

Home education is not school at home. 

Don't try to replicate the school experience at home, because you're not supposed to.  It brings down anxiety when you realize you don't have to "do school". 

You can teach your child. 

You are not on your own.  There are so many resources available.  Most importantly, you are not being a teacher, but merely doing a natural extension of your parenting. 



http://www.unpluggedmom.com/

One excellent point she made was concerning standards.  She questioned who set the standards which state your child needs to be able to do certain things by a certain age.  That standard is set by the school model!  If you are unplugging from that paradigm, why use it's standard??

We don't socialize. 

She encourages us to first be honest about what is meant by the "socialization" question.  It actually means, "Is my child going to be weird, awkward and have no friends?" 

The answer is no, because instead of socializing, we just have relationships.  Again, a natural and organic thing.  In fact, the relationships our children will develop this way are more valuable and varied because they weren't forced through mandatory demographic groupings which result in limited choices in developing friends.

Home educated kids can go to college and succeed in life. 

What was interesting was, again, to watch for the school mindset.  If you go to college just because it's what you're supposed to do, then it's probably part of the conveyor belt mentality of  "schooling".  She mentioned that college is not for everyone, nor does everyone need to go to college at the same age or same way.

So, a lot of things to think about!  I definitely still am!

Don't forget, you can still jump into the rest of HECOA's conference.  Check out my other post for more details.