Meredith has been really interested in dinosaurs lately. We’re going to Calgary at the end of the summer for my sister’s wedding, and so we thought we’d go to the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller while we’re there. Looking around the site at all the cool programs and camps they have really got me thinking about the future and unschooling in general. They have high school credit courses, where you learn biology, geology, physics, and chemistry specifically as they apply to palaeontology. There are summer camps for kids and families, guided walks, distance learning courses, and tons more. If either one of my kids were ever potentially interested in palaeontology in the future, that one spot has tons of resources we can turn to for learning and, with a little planning and some travel, some hands-on experience. What a cool way to learn about science by doing something you’re interested in anyway!
It really got me thinking, that likely no matter what my kids are interested in, we can find resources to help them really experience and learn about their interests. It really does make me wonder why some people still think public school is necessary. I’m not trying to start a debate about public vs home school, that’s been done many times, but more to comment on how easy it is for kids to learn anything they need to know just by doing things they love to do.
I remember in grade 11, I adored genetics. To me, it was the coolest part of school. I looked forward to my biology classes when we were doing the genetics unit. We did one unit in Bio 11 and one in Bio 12 (I did both courses in grade 11), and I couldn’t get enough. (And, though I got really good grades, I wasn’t a good student by most people’s definitions. I skipped a lot of school and procrastinated until the last minute on most of my homework. But I never skipped bio.) I read the textbook during lunch periods, and even asked my teacher if there were other things I could do or read to learn more about it. He told me I’d have to wait until university. And that was basically the end of that. By the time I got to university, my interest had waned somewhat. I would have had to take a bunch of prerequisite courses that weren’t even relevant to genetics before I could begin to take the actual genetics courses. I never did get to them. I had no support or help in pursuing my interest outside of school, even though at the time I thought the best job in the world would be to be some sort of geneticist or gene researcher or… But alas, I had school work to do and as far as my parents and teachers were concerned, that was far more important than my interest in genetics. I wonder sometimes how far I would have taken that interest had I had the time and resources to pursue it further.
Kris and I were talking recently about how we think it’s good for the kids to see us pursuing our own interests too. I want to take a class that’s held locally about local herbs and plants and in the end you end up with your own herbal tea made completely from local plants. He’s thinking of taking some drawing courses. I’d love to do photography and guitar lessons in the future. I believe it’s important for our kids to see that learning happens all the time, and at any age, and that any interest is worth pursuing, even if the only real point is that it’s something you enjoy.
I can’t afford photography or guitar lessons right now, so I’m teaching myself both. Photography by taking lots of pictures and practicing on friend’s children, guitar lessons through books and online courses. I want to learn cello in the future, and one day we’ll have a piano again and I’ll likely play almost every day. I hope to play flute and/or piccolo in an orchestra or band again. Kris sometimes goes for walks just to sit somewhere quiet and draw. I think it’s great for Meredith and Fiona to see us doing things just for our own pleasure.
I have to be honest, I’m really looking forward to a few years in the future when my kids really start having these separate interests and hobbies and wanting to learn about new things. I think it will be really interesting for all of us to find resources: courses, people, games, books, movies… Basically whatever we need is likely out there. And I love that my kids won’t be restricted to learning only what someone else feels it’s necessary they should learn, or feeling they don’t have time to do what they want because of school and homework.
Related posts:
In my psychology of creativity class I learned that the really great “creative” people (scientists, artists, atheletes) generally were exposed to a wide range of things which allowed them to find the thing they were great at, which I think is a great strength of unschooling. Also the ability to learn multiple things from one activity without even being able to realize it. Seeing as the kids like dyeing I have been looking into natural dyeing which actually encompasses a huge amount of chemistry. It is pretty exciting to think about.
I am excited to be getting to that point of starting to see interests forming. I have always seen Ant as a little follower of Sam, but recently I was surprised to see just how different they are becoming suddenly. Ant is really developing some strong preferences and likes.
One of our friends said this weekend that it wouldn’t always be this easy to homeschool. Eventually I would actually need to plan and teach things because they are not going to learn algebra on their own and they need to be prepared for post secondary just in case. I tried to explain the idea of if they are interested they will learn it and if they aren’t interested it won’t matter, but I think that it will have to be something that is seen happening vs something that I can tell people.
Have you read “And the Skylark Sings with Me” by David H. Albert (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0865714010/ref=nosim/librarythin08-20). It is an awesome book about what the parents did to help the kids persue their interests.
I was also going to say that the research shows that the most important thing to encourage reading in kids is for them to see their parents (adults) reading for pleasure. If they see reading as an adult activity rather than something that we do to/for kids they will do it because it is not a waste of thier time. I would think this would transfer over to other activities as well. The kids might develp similar hobbies, or may generalize to seeing hobbies and creating as important.
Jen, that’s neat about Anthony developing a lot of his own interests apart from Sam. I have been sort of wondering about things like that myself; wondering what Fiona will be like and how unschooling will look with more than one child. I haven’t read that book but I’m going to see if our library has it, it sounds really interesting. And I totally agree about reading and the hobbies. I think it’s mostly important for kids to be exposed to a wide range of hobbies and activities (and I’m not meaning structured classes or groups or anything necessarily) so they can decide what they want to do.
Passing through again
There’s a school in the states that has no curriculum. Clearly ‘alternative’, they are run completely by the students’ desire to learn. If kids want to play, they play, for days, months, it doesn’t matter. But, the moment they express any interest to learn more about something, the faculty is there to do everything they can to help that student learn more about their new interest.
It’s fascinating! I love the concept and the school does really well. Kids learn through living, as you talked about, and in this case, are then provided with all kinds of resources and guidance to learn as much as they want.
In an interview, a math instructor there said that on average it took students 6 months to learn traditional grade 1-12 math. He said that once the student is interested, they absorb the info quickly and easily, no school bells, forced classes or boring topics.
The graduates from the school, and all graduate, are so creative and inspired that they have a very high success rate of students moving on to prestigious universities. (for those who find that a landmark
The only difficulty students tend to have is when they introduce kids from public schools into this school because the kids don’t know how to make their own decisions, they are so used to being told what to do and when. That part just blew me away. It took those kids a few months to rediscover their own inner guidance and feel inspired to learn new things.
Neat heh? I’ll have to try to find out what the name of the place is, I’m sure you’d love it.
Have a super day!
Guessing you’ve probably seen this..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lp7W5TQ3HaA&feature=player_embedded#!
Hi Brigitte!
I have heard of that school (or similar ones) before. There’s a similar school here in Victoria (Oak and Orca) which is one of the only schools I’d consider sending my girls to if we did choose to send them to school. I read an article called “Learning without Coercion” about something that takes place at a Sudbury Valley school, possibly the same one you’re talking about, though I can’t find a copy of the article. The students asked to learn math, and the teacher taught it to all of them in a very short time frame.
Here’s a description I found of the article:
“12 children, ages 9-12 asked for a math class. The adult they asked initially tried to discourage them (something I would never dream of doing) and then insisted that the children act responsibly (appear on time, etc) or the math classes would stop.
The class met twice a week for half an hour for 20 weeks, for a total of 20 hours of instruction. The class was structured, but any child was free to leave at any time. There was homework, quizzes, the whole nine yards. The children set the pace. They used a primer written in 1898.
Daniel Greenberg wrote the article “Learning Without Coercion: Sudbury Valley School”. It appeared in Mothering magazine, No. 58, Winter 1991.”
All 12 children passed at the end with flying colours.