Asking Questions

One reason unschooling works for our family is that I've never loved the idea of following a set curriculum.  Instead, I like to ask questions, listen to my kids' questions about the world, and look for answers, which usually lead to more questions.  Until we get to a point where the answers are more like theories or opinions - of which there may be many.  Then we can start coming up with our own theories based on what we know.  Sometimes we can test our theories, sometimes we just discuss them.

Some Examples:
Ollie was interested in the Grand Canyon.  He had heard it was a huge hole in the ground and that lots of people visited it.  His questions were:
"How did the canyon get made?"  and, "Why do so many people visit it?"

We started researching the Grand Canyon online, in books and asking family members.  We did and erosion project with different colors of sand in layers - I had read about it and it sounded like fun to me.  The kids got a kick out of it too.

We also did a project involving freezing and thawing wet rocks repeatedly to see how they changed.

We read about metamorphic, sedimentary and igneous rocks and tried to identify them based on what we read.

 We visited our Natural History Museum and found more rocks.  Finally, we went to the Grand Canyon.  We actually saw and talked about the layers, about what minerals could make the different colors in the rocks, saw a movie about the first known European expedition to canoe it, and talked to staff who knew so much about its history.

We got a lot out of these "lessons," but there was no set curriculum.  We had questions and we found different ways to look for answers.  I know that not everyone can take a week-long field trip, but you can still get a lot out of asking questions.

Around the same time Julian was interested in the Eiffel Tower.  He wanted to know, "Why was it built," "What was it made of,"  "How did they build it," and "How big is it?"  In looking for the answers to these questions, we found out that the guy Eiffel (who designed the tower) also designed and oversaw the construction of the inner skeleton of the Statue of Liberty.

Caring and Relationships in Education

The education philosopher and writer Nel Noddings asserts that “schools should encourage the development of all aspects of whole persons: their intellectual, moral, social, aesthetic, emotional, physical and spiritual capacities.”  One would have to agree with this view, even if only because children spend a majority of their waking hours in school.  If school doesn’t attend to their development as “whole persons,” then when are they to be tended to?  In the brief morning rush to get dressed, eat and get everyone to school and work?  Or the precious little time children might have to themselves between extra-curricular activities, homework and dinner?  Or if a student isn’t so lucky, they may be more concerned with food and shelter, rather than developing any personal aspects of themselves. 

This view of education would require schools to put the care of children first (rather than their education), how they exist now, not in the way they “should” exist in a theoretical future.  It would also require the system to assist students in discovering what they are actually good at and what they enjoy doing, which one could argue is essential to happiness.  However, this is not the prominent view of education in the United States.  Politicians have argued for every student being “college ready,” but many jobs essential to our society don’t require a college degree.  These jobs are considered “unskilled work” however, from my experience, there is no such thing as “unskilled work.”  As a society, we need people to pick up trash, keep our infrastructure intact, and keep streets and buildings clean.  These jobs don’t require a college degree, but we should be grateful for those who perform these tasks.  Unfortunately, by and large, we are not. 

This expectation that college is the only way has led to misappropriated academic demands on teachers and students that mandate everyone use the same curriculum, without thought to individual aptitudes or interests.  Many of these curriculum purport to be “teacher proof,” meaning they take the individual teachers out of the education “equation.”  Without teachers there can be no teacher-student relation, there is only content and student.  But if Noddings’ assertion that “every human life starts in relation, and it is through relations that a human individual emerges,” then one must wonder what will emerge from this focus on results and accountability.  And if it’s true that individuals emerge through their relations, then it must follow that this is how communities and whole cultures develop, But, what happens to communities when relationships are severed in the name of test scores?  A feeling of isolation and separation from fellow humans results.  Eventually, a feeling of separation from one’s self will occur because importance has continuously been placed on test results rather than on the development of one’s inner world, the inner world that a person needs in order to cultivate the perseverance it takes to do anything worthwhile.