Do Kids Need School? Inside the 'Unschooling' Movement

"School is a place where children go to learn to be stupid," said author and educator John Holt.

---

Watch the video above to learn more about the history of the unschooling movement, and to meet some of its modern practitioners, like the Rios-Sherman family. We also visited a school in Houston, Texas, that operates on the "Sudbury model," in which the kids decide how to spend their time, and vote on issues such as how to handle disciplinary matters and the allocation of school funds.

Produced by Zach Weissmueller. Camera by Jim Epstein, Mark McDaniel, Brynmore Williams, and Weissmueller.

"Float," "Ether Oar," Don't Force This," "Goodnight Shapeshifter,"Bubble," "Tides," and "Sanguine Bond" by Joel Corelitz are licensed under a Creative Commons attribution license.

"Static Shoes" by Loyalty Freak Music is licensed under a Creative Commons Universal 1.0 license.

[michaelvarney.]

As an anecdote;
Self taught here. Parents did not let me go to school, nor did they do ‘home schooling.’
They let me learn at my own pace, over my own interests.

I ended up with a PhD in physics.

However... my sister lived the exact same lifestyle, and things did not turn out well for her at all.

The key is to determine how a student best learns, not to force a learning method on a student.

[matrixman]

"Don't let schooling interfere with your education"

-Mark Twain

[samuelb]

If you want your kids to be smart and succeed teach them how to learn on their own, rather than trying to teach them everything.

[maggiesticks]

"My grandmother wanted me to have an education, so she kept me out of school." ~Margaret Mead

[jakeknelsen]

“You can’t judge a fish by its inability to climb a tree”
-Mark Twain

[peopii]

im a gen z and i have learned 90% more from the internet and it's endless chapters of information and i hate that older generations think the internet kills your brain. I'm complimented for all the things i know from my grandparents and they ask what books i read and i just give them links to scientific studies. in school, there are teachers who are lazy and are baby sitters so i waste roughly 3 hours of my day on my phone because there is literally no lesson. So, it looks like students are distracted drones when more often than not, they just want stimulating classes that (mostly) the american school system doesn't have the budget to do

[JasmineJu]

Kids know how to operate computers better than most adults, yet they've learned nothing about them in school, natural curiosity is what drives this learning and it's effects are quite profound.

[ericherrero]

Interesting. I just want to see where these kids end up in terms of employment, engineers, start ups etc. If the data backs it up then why not consider it 😃.

[AliceinJapanaland]

So... I'm a teacher. And I'm someone who would consider home schooling. There are fantastic teachers at public schools but for every great teacher, there's at least 3 that are just meh. But that's not even the biggest issue - behavioral issues as well as disruptive students and teachers unable to effectively eliminate that behavior from the classroom is a bigger problem. Also it's hard to not teach to the middle, so the advanced students are often not challenged and the lagging students just feel like dummies. And I also know teachers that do insert their own political and philosophical ideas into their lessons in irresponsible, propaganda-like fashion. I want my kids to be able to think critically for themselves and make up their own ideas about the world, not be force fed someone else's party line.

[argentumf]

Wow - what a bunch of crazies. This coming from someone who did home school for most his life. What's presented in this video appears equally as bad as formal education approaches, just in the opposite direction. Why do people always go to extremes when the answer is almost always somewhere in the middle? I agree with all their criticisms of traditional schooling, but learning does require work and discipline as well. I think the best approach is to let your kids explore their own interests, but you have to encourage them to work at it to excel in those interests. You also have to push them fill in the gaps. For example, unsocial kids (like I was) still need to learn how to socialize. Math nerds (like me) need to spend some time doing art/music. Everyone needs to learn math and writing skills, whether it interests them or not. Too much discipline crushes individual strengths, spirit and the natural desire to learn. Too little discipline and no one reaches their potential.

[emilyg.]

As someone who was homeschooled for a large part of life, my experience was terrible. I learned at a much faster rate than others my age (when I was at a first grade age, I was doing eighth grade academics), but I was completely alone and developed debilitating depression that I still suffer with as an adult. I was severely socially underdeveloped, and it took years to even be able to comfortably talk to other people. I still have difficulty leaving my house because of it. I'm all for independent learning if it helps the child, but please make sure they can still socialize with other children on a regular basis to develop normal and healthy social bonds.

[AreYouFinnished]

I like the idea of this but it seems like there is an absence of self responsibility and productivity. Doing "what you want" is not what life is about. It's moderation between responsibility and relaxation. I'm sure the kids will learn, the information and possibilities are there, but no direction can bring a shallow understanding. Why apply ones self, dig deep, master a subject. The school system is broken as well, with a lack of relaxation and motivation. It seems like blending the two with a greater degree of fiscal responsibility and minimal administrative employees would be a successful solution

[lukecunningham]

i love homeschooling/ unschooling, but setting kids down in front of mine craft all day is the most degenerative thing you can do. Youre teaching them how to be consumers, not creator or innovators. take the phones, give them books, give them tools to create, give them access to courses on coding or something. Kids will naturally learn, but if they are distracted with instant gratification, they wont. kids dont know the benfits of delayed gratification. it is learned. kids will learn to love to create, it will eventually be even ore fun than video games. take it from a teenager who is unschooled, and hasnt touched a video game in months. I spend my day learning, and making. its more fun and gratifying to me than minecraft.

[BLUEGENE]

all i learnt at kindergaten thru grade 12 was reading, writing, and a bit of math basically. Something i could of knocked off in two years, and the rest was fluff that basically killed my spirit for about 10 years. I was lucky i got my love for science n stuff back, most people don't.

[dontlietome]

Teach a child how to learn, not so much what to learn.

[alicemattioli]

I used to be Unschooled but then I decided (By myself) to go back into school in first of secondary. When I tell the other kids this they are like "but then you never learned anything?" "What did you learn" It kind of makes me sad, that they don't know how much I learned through my own passions... I also do quite well in school, I just get upset because I feel like I don't have much time with my family anymore...

edit: They also ask me if I had any friends. I have my two best friends who are sisters and a few other kids, it's not much but they mean more to me than all my new friends at school, they don't feel the pressure to grow up, we like climbing trees, drawing, playing games, etc. I socialized more with them than any other girls I met.

[ClarkMoore]

My 5-year-old son is 'unschooled', and he:

1) knows colors/alphabet/basic math (add/subtract and some mult/div)/DoW/MoY/etc.
2) reads fluently, including some words usually reserved for middle school readers
3) can talk about planets/dwarf planets/moons/stars/other celestial bodies in detail (the Kuiper belt is his favorite)
4) can identify the first two rows of the periodic table by atomic number, can tell you what type of element it is (alkaline metals, transition metals, halogens, noble gases, etc.) - Beryllium is the current favorite
5) knows the Russian alphabet (can speak and write) and can pronounce some Russian words correctly
6) knows and can describe all 2D shapes and most 3D shapes (and can build them)
7) knows many Chemistry/Biology-A&P/Physics concepts at a high school level

My 3-year-old daughter actively gleans knowledge from her brother and frequently plays word games and build stories together based on that knowledge - all while literally standing on their heads/tumbling/swinging from a trapeze...or just sitting :*)

If I were to put either of them in a classic kindergarten/classroom, they would implode from boredom and most likely become disciplinary issues for the teachers who believe children should remain in their seats, sit quietly, and listen to the information being given.

Simply put - Unschooling works. Learning becomes the awesome game you always play unless you are asleep.

[Desertpuma]

"The only thing that damaged by education was ... my schooling." -- Winston Churchill

[sebastienledoux]

The only thing I learned in high school is to smoke weed with a soda can.

[SarahnatorX]

School was depressing and demotivating for me. I learned way more outside of school than in because I felt more free and enthusiastic than just copying things from a text book and being forced to try to learn things that don't interest or benefit me in any way.