Free Range Learning

Free Range Learning: How Homeschooling Changes Everything by Laura Grace Weldon is a welcome addition to homeschooling literature. Starting from the point of view that “Natural learning happens all the time,” Weldon cites many familiar, and some new, books, research, and data to support that claim. This information can be useful to present to skeptics, if they are open-minded, but it is probably most useful to any parent wondering how much teaching they need to do with their child at home. In short—don’t teach unless the child asks a question. If you create a relaxed, open atmosphere at home the questions will flow from the kids, as the families in this book show and the parents of healthy, pre-school-age children can attest. Dr. Raymond Moore used to say that he could determine a good learning situation by who was asking the questions: if the teacher is asking the questions, it isn’t good; if the children are asking the questions, it’s a good learning situation.

Most important, Weldon fills this book with first-hand accounts by homeschooling parents and children that not only add much meat to the research bones presented, but also add much humanity. Rather than issuing lists of “do this but don’t do that” to fit your homeschooling into, Weldon lays out a full palette of options that families use, often stories told in their own words, and asks the reader to mix and match them to develop their own homeschooling palette.

The first half of this book is an overview not just of natural learning, but also of many related philosophies and theories about learning, such as Flow, authenticity, play, technology, interpersonal relationships, and community building. Her last chapter in this half of the book summarizes her idea that “homeschooling changes everything” and she does a very good job of showing the reader why that is so. I particularly enjoyed her section on “Homeschooling as a right,” because she steers clear of calling for laws or professional groups to protect homeschooling (both laws and professional groups are constantly subject to revision based on who is in power and their agenda) and instead calls for us, the citizens and parents, to protect our rights ourselves by not giving that power up to others. We currently, and always have had, the right to homeschool in the United States, subject to local laws and regulations if they are present. But Weldon is sharp in noting that corporations seeking to make money from homeschooling often help shape legislation or regulations that allow state funds to flow to their companies in exchange for “homeschooling” children enrolled in their programs (typically computer-based, distance learning programs). She writes:

We cannot permit entrepreneurs selling education as a product through our school districts to co-opt our hard won freedoms or use the term “homeschooling.” We must continue to define homeschooling ourselves.

No matter what changes are made to the educational systems in the wider culture, the right to homeschool must be protected. This is the oldest and most successful form of learning known to mankind. It’s also the most natural form of learning. Children playing, learning and growing up with close family ties in a community where they gain experience among people of all ages—this is how nearly every one of our ancestors learned. This works. Learning does not have to be regulated and legislated. It does not have to be a for-profit venture. If we don’t defend homeschooling, our right to define homeschooling for ourselves can be lost.

Most homeschoolers embrace the freedom to use whatever works for their children to learn and, as you’ll read in the second half of this book, there are many, many different ways to help children learn besides computer-based instruction. In this part, Weldon provides not just first-hand accounts of learning all the standard school subjects, and lists of resources and books to help you along the way, but also sound advice for getting children into the world by using adventure travel, field trips, volunteerism, spirituality, and current events not as secondary offerings—as they are so often in school, if they are there at all—but as the primary course for helping children grow and learn. If you are considering homeschooling, or are in the thick of it, this book will inspire and help you. If you are a teacher or a parent with children in school, this book will show you many new ways to think about learning and how you can help children.

John Holt Speaks to Swedish Teachers About How Children Learn

Though there aren't many videos of John Holt, there are numerous audio tapes of him speaking since John was an audiophile who recorded most of his own talks, as well as Boston Symphony Orchestra rehearsals (he had permission) and many other daily sonic events. This is my first effort at transferring an analog cassette tape to digital format; I had to further format it to fit into YouTube's 15 minute limit. I also added a few photos so you aren't staring at a blank screen for an hour while John talks.

This is a talk John Holt presented to Swedish teachers in Gothenberg, Sweden on March 22, 1982. As John notes here, he was revising How Children Learn during the time he was doing his Scandinavian tour, so these are pretty fresh thoughts and ideas that John was working with in light of his connection to homeschoolers (I didn't hear him say "unschooler" at all in this talk, FYI). What else is noteworthy is how Sweden, in 2010, banned homeschooling on the grounds that a professional education was available from the state and families therefore had no need for homeschooling. As Holt notes forcefully on this tape, unasked for teaching actually impedes learning, particularly for young children, a lesson confirmed by research that Holt notes in 1982 and quite recently confirmed again by new research cited in the Boston Globe (Front page, 3/29/11). However, a point often lost among today's unschoolers is that when a child of any age asks to be taught then "Go for it!" John provides an example of how a baby or toddler might ask for or invite teaching from an adult.

Like most of the audio tapes I have, this was recorded by John while he spoke, so the quality is a bit rough. I've removed as much hiss as I could, and the entire speech is here, though part 4 ends abruptly during the Q&A section. However, you are able to grasp John's final point, one he made often: schools should be more like public libraries, in spirit and in organization.

Correction on Spain and a Conference About Ivan Illich's Work

I have learned that though my first post about the situation in Spain was correct, my second, where I claimed homeschooling was officially illegal in Spain, is not correct. This is due to my misreading of the information I received and I apologize for any distress this may have caused anyone. The situation in Spain is that the courts did not find a constitutional basis for homeschooling to be a right that families can exercise, but the courts noted this right could be added to the constitution. Obviously this is a big task for the small number of Spanish homeschoolers to accomplish, but one that is possible. In the meantime, Spanish homeschoolers are in the gray zone of homeschooling versus government authority, a situation familiar to homeschooling veterans in the US in the 1970s and 1980s: the Spanish families I know are still homeschooling but no one knows if they will be prosecuted for doing so. Time will tell, and I hope that during that time Spanish homeschoolers are able to rally public opinion, as well as polticial and educational support, to make homeschooling a constitutionally-protected practice.

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Ivan Illich is certainly one of the most controversial philosophers and social critics of the twentieth century. His influential canon of work includes penetrating analyses of schooling (Deschooling Society), medicine, (Medical Nemesis), public policy (Energy and Equity), literacy (In the Vineyard of the Text), and so on. His influence on John Holt's thinking about school is well-documented, but like Holt, Ivan often worked, in his own words, "on the fringes of academia." I often feel that Illich's work is more appreciated in other parts of the world  than in the United States, so I was very pleasantly surprised to learn about this upcoming conference, sponsored by the Western New England College School of Law, on April 1, 2011 (I hope this is not an April Fool's joke!):

Radical Nemesis: Re-envisioning Ivan Illich's Theories on Social Institutions

I look forward to being a member of the audience for this all-day event.

The More Things Change the More They Stay the Same

I recently transferred this video interview with me about homeschooling and unschooling that I did for Christian Science Monitor television in 1991. It is almost exactly 20 years ago to the day (2/16/1991) when I filmed it, but since so much of the information is still relevant I thought it would be of interest. I'm struck by how in those 20 years we went from the estimated 500,000 homeschooled children in 1991 to nearly 2 million today, and yet we are still being asked the same questions, particularly "How will homeschooled children be socialized?" What I like about this interview is how thoughtful and prepared John Parrott, the interviewer, was. He handled the socialization question differently than I expected and I was pleasantly surprised.

More free online learning resources for adults and children

I just learned about this great list of links to over 100 places where you can learn everything from college-level math and science to foriegn languages, business courses and high school math. The blog writers note that "All education is self-education.  Period.  It doesn’t matter if you’re sitting in a college classroom or a coffee shop.  We don’t learn anything we don’t want to learn." With that spirt in mind, I hope you enjoy this incredible list.

12 Dozen Places to Educate Yourself Online for Free