This article, on the subject of unschooling, is interesting and well worth a read. Described as a "rigorous look at how the unschooling movement came about, how unschooling works, and what the experience is actually like for families", it is a review of the recently published book, Unschooling: Exploring Learning Beyond the Classroom by Gina Riley, a professor at Hunter College in the US.
There are an awful lot of preconceptions about unschooling, many of which I shared before my children led me that way. On the face of it, it goes against a lot of what we ourselves were taught; it's intrinsic within our education system that learning is presented as a task. Adults go to work, and children go to school and that's the way of the world, my dear.
But in our changing world where the internet has revolutionised life completely, it makes sense that one of the benefits bestowed by it - namely, the access to information - will change what being knowledgeable, being well educated if you will, needs to be about. Certainly, it should not merely be based on assessing the retention of facts, as that skill isn't very amazing any more. It has evolve in the light of such a vast pool of human knowledge just sitting there waiting for us to dive in, anytime, nearly anywhere.
Life long learning is a huge passion of mine, and it becomes more relevant the faster the world around us changes and the further distanced we become from the benefits that our education instilled in us.
