Instead of Education by John Holt
“If you are one of the millions of walking wounded still staggering from your own encounter with forced institutional schooling, and trying to spare your own kids from its damage, this book will be your guide and a good friend.” — John Taylor Gatto, Former New York State Teacher of the Year




Deschooling: The Mental Vacation You Didn’t Expect
They’re not trying to drive you nuts. Really. Rather, they’re unconsciously letting you know they need time to decompress.

DE-Schooling
The first time I felt how great my own deschooling needs were was during those first few shaky months of homeschooling. I asked Christopher one night, “What have you learned today?” Then I stopped to wonder: why did I need proof?

Deschooling for Parents
Stop thinking schoolishly. Stop acting teacherishly. Stop talking about learning as though it’s separate from life.

Being “Schooled” means all those things they teach you in kindergarten and keep reinforcing for the next 12 years – how to wait in line, sit in a circle, raise your hand to go to the bathroom, learning only what adult strangers deem appropriate for you to learn, spending your time off doing “homework” [because apparently no one in the world learns anything unless they repeat it 188 times], straining to memorize a list of facts/dates/names/whatever so you’ll pass the test on Friday (promptly forgetting the whole litany immediately afterwards). In between, you participate in class activities you may or may not be interested in, suddenly stopping/starting/changing to a completely different activity because a bell rang or the teacher told you to.

And, if you don’t do these things — and do them well — you’ll be punished. By your teachers, your parents, your future employers, society as a whole. You’re not an “A” student. You’re not “taking your student career seriously.” You’re a rebel. A slacker. A bum.

Not very empowering, is it? You have no control over your own education. Everyone else controls it. You’re totally left out of the loop, as if you don’t matter. But since it happens to be your education, your life, and your opinions, why are you the least important part of the decision making process? What kind of sense is that?

When you begin taking matters into your own hands by homeschooling, the first thing your child (and you) needs to do is to shake off that “Being Schooled” mindset. We call the process “de-schooling”. Children need time for their brains to recover from the major psychological damage of never being in control of their own learning. Parents need to stop equating “Schooling” with “Learning”. School is school, and learning is life itself. It doesn’t take place in any particular building, or during certain hours or by separating everything into Subjects. I’ll expound on School vs Learning as time goes on. In the meantime, dive into these thought-provoking essays and, if you have a minute, let me know what you think.