The current education system has been under massive critique for centuries. Statistics show that more and more people are dropping out and choosing to expand their learning through different venues. The response from within the school system is often to “problematize” the behavior of parents and children who don’t “fit in.” Instead, lets take a look at the mess that we’re trying to “fit” ourselves and our children into, and debunk some of the myths about alternative education!

Why Are so Many People Looking for Alternatives?

What are all these people talking about? What’s wrong with the current system?
When asked why they’ve chosen keep their children out of the conventional school system, or why they’ve chosen to self-direct their own education, people have a variety of responses.

Of primary concern for many parents and children is the fact that most schools do not cater to the individual. Just as each person is different so too do we have different learning needs. People learn in different ways, at different paces and react to their environments in different ways. Standardized education may be easier to deal with from the perspective of the administration, but on ground level it is often to the detriment of the student, as well as teachers. As curricculums and government tests become increasingly standardized teachers loose the leeway to be creative in their presentations of material and this in turn affects their relationships with students.
In my own experience, teachers forced to pass on the same material year after year loose enthusiasm for their vocation and thus fail to inspire students towards real learning. Memorization and regurgitation are the names of the game.
When the material being taught to someone has no relevance to their daily lives it does not stay with them and they usually have no interest in retaining it. This is one of the central tenants of acclaimed educational theorist/activist Paulo Freire.

Many students are affected by serious self-esteem and self-confidence issues as a result of standardized education. People who do not learn well in school environments or through the methods used by most teachers (lectures) are often left by the wayside of learn to consider themselves as inferior or “hopeless cases”.

With more and more schools merging across North America the size of classes and school buildings are both skyrocketing. No more are the little red brick houses of yore. With larger classes comes less personal attention and less time for questions to be addressed. It also adds to the stress level of teachers.
The quality of learning plummets. At the same time the class division between people who can afford private schools, where student teacher ratios remain low, and those who can’t, is widened. It is also the case that homeschooling and unschooling seems implausible to many working class families who do not have the time and energy to organize their children’s schooling, or who do not have supportive communities on which to lean. Thus many of the children who would be best served by alternative education, as they are patently underserved in conventional schools, are unable to consider it an option. Education is still seen by many cultures was the only way to succeed in life. Children are expected to suck up whatever injustices they face in gratitude for the opportunity their ancestors never had. While these feelings are certainly valid, it is also important to recognize the shortcomings of the education system in meeting the needs of children, and particularly of minorities.
North American schools in large do not provide any culturally appropriate education. In Canada, for example, there is only one black history class taught in one high school, and no officially recognized teachers of aboriginal history. This links back to the self-esteem and relevance issues brought on by mainstream education. Many children who do not find reflections of themselves in school materials feel abnormal or alienated, both from peers and from the subject matter.

Socialized cultural prejudices encourage students and teachers to segregate themselves within schools and to perpetuate stereotypes about the intelligence and qualities of different ethnic groups.

Age segregated schools create generational rifts. Within schools children learn to look down on or up to other people who are separated from them by a mere grade. They often learn to consider teachers as somehow superior to them—this can result in either of inferiority in the face of elders of authority figures or in outright rebellion against them.

Another major issue is that of health. That people of all ages can be expected to sit in one place for hours on end every day of the week is counter-intuitive. The lack of physical activity brought on by the current school system is affecting every facet of our society today. From obesity, to hyperactivity and depression, our bodies and minds are plagued by the result of our sedentary lifestyles. More and more children are being diagnosed with ADD- however, the fact that a child might not be able to pay attention to a day full of lectures seems more than normal to me.

Schools are becoming increasingly touch-phobic environments. Due to fear of sexual harassment many schools prohibit teachers from any physical contact with students. When we think about the fact that most children interact with teachers about as much or more often than they do with their parents, it is troubling to think that our culture is not equipped to encourage touch-positive attitudes. True, sexual harassment is something not to be taken lightly. However it has been repeatedly shown that violence, sexual violence included, is much more likely to come from people who have not received enough affectionate touch in their early years (Tiffany Fields is a good resource to look up for this). It is also the case that many of the body’s systems do not develop properly if children do not receive adequate amounts of positive touch. Levels of stress, nervous system and immune system diseases, depression and eating disorders have all been linked to lack of positive touch in people’s lives.

The list goes on.

So What Are Some Other Options?

There are many misconceptions out there about alternatives to institutional education. Many people believe that without an institutionally recognized education it’s impossible to find gainful employment.

It has been my experience that there are always ways of accomplishing what you want. Even if a person is called towards a profession where certain degrees are required, this does not mean that one must go through the school system from age 5. Most universities now accept people who have not been through the traditional system.

In going into a few descriptions I would like to emphasize that in taking on any form of self-directed learning it is always helpful (and in the case of raising children some would argue necessary) to have a supportive community around you.

Homeschooling:

Homeschooling or homelearning is usually defined as an education that takes place in the home but which follows some kind of curriculum or schedule. Homeschoolers may have no qualms with following a government curriculum , provided they can do it in a way that seems to the benefit of their children. Others may disagree with the curriculum being taught and choose to find their own alternative resources. A common misconception is that most homeschooling parents choose this pathway as a result of religious beliefs. This may have been the case at one point but statistics show that the tables have tilted.

As a result of the homeschooling boom, most universities now accept home schoolers with no questions asked. Proffessors from Harvard, and many others, are quoted as saying that home-schoolers tend to perform better, be more socially adaptable and apt students than their institutionally schooled counterparts. More and more schools are also offering distance ed. options.
Of course many homeschoolers choose to continue along more self-directed paths and not go through the university system at all.

Unschooling:

Unschooling is a form of learning that is much less structured than Homeschooling. Unschooling, in general, implies that the students follow their own interests and are almost fully self-directed in their education. Unschooling is often considered to be a subset of homeschooling but there are some fundamental differences in the two philosophies. While homeschooling acknowledges that the home or community environment is a better place of learning, unschooling puts emphasis on how learning takes place.

Unschooling takes into account that people are natural learners. Having set curricula inhibits children from exploring their full potential as creative thinkers and curious absorbers of knowledge. As John Holt, frequently credited with coining the Unschooling terminology, says “…the anxiety children feel at constantly being tested, their fear of failure, punishment, and disgrace, severely reduces their ability both to perceive and to remember, and drives them away from the material being studied into strategies for fooling teachers into thinking they know what they really don’t know.”

The Free School Movement:

The Free School movement has come to encompass a wide range of practices. The roots of the Free School movement are often attributed to the Anarchist Free School’s of 18th and 19th century Spain. These came about in backlash against the school system being controlled by the church. The focus of Free School groups is to provide education free of tuition fees, in a non-hierarchical environment. Many function on a barter or “gift economy” basis. Many function as skillshares, with all participants invited to flow between being teacher/facilitators and students.

A quote from the Santa Cruz “Free Skool” of California explains the position of many more recent groups:
“More than just an opportunity to learn, we see Free Skool as a direct challenge to dominant institutions and hierarchical relationships. Part of creating a new world is resistance …to the relentless comodification of everything, including learning and the way we relate to each other.”

You can find a list of currently active free schools on wikipedia .

Useful Reading and links to look up:

The Teenage Liberation Handbook- Grace Llewellyn
Not Back to School Camp (organized by Grace Llewellyn)
Unschooling- Ivan Illich
The Fifth Estate magazine
Socialization: A Great Reason Not to Go to School
The North Star Learning Center
Common Objections to Home/Unschooling
Unschooling.com
Gaia University
The School for Designing a Society