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When Regular School Stops Being a Choice, Think About Unschooling
Article

When Regular School Stops Being a Choice, Think About Unschooling

Trusting your children to lead the way when a crisis has closed their classrooms.

Medium, 2020


Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable
  • Engaging

Recommendation

Your kids are probably living their best lives with no school but you might understandably be worried about any potential gaps that pandemic-related school closures could leave in their education. Don’t fret, says teacher and author Shaunta Grimes. Instead, embrace “unschooling,” which enables children to figure out what they care about and pursue their own interests. Parents looking for ways to cope with prolonged school closures will appreciate Grimes’s tips on how children can learn something valuable without pursuing a school curriculum.

Summary

Through “unschooling,” parents facilitate informal education by feeding their kids’ curiosity and letting them “lead the way.”

For some kids, school isn’t always the best place to learn. Unschooling offers an alternative – though perhaps radical – way that helps parents facilitate informal education. People who follow the unschooling approach leave going to school up to their children. The kids decide when to take a day off to pursue something that sparks their curiosity or is important to them.

Ruby, one of author Shaunta Grimes’s teenage daughters, normally likes school, but with all schools closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, she is unschooling...

About the Author

Shaunta Grimes is a teacher and the author of Viral Nation and Rebel Nation. She’s also the founder of Ninja Writers, an online platform that teaches how to write well.


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