“Unschooling” is an educational method which is largely self-directed by the student and uses the natural environment as the core of what’s taught. For instance, if your child is really interested in horses then all schooling settles around horses: math pertains to it, biology is taught in reference to horses and the entire day might be taught at a stable or outside where a horse might live or board. The method has been around since the 70s but is seen as controversial. Unschooling desires to equip children with real world situations.
From the article:
“Inventor and entrepreneur of SpaceX, PayPal, and Tesla Motors, Elon Musk has set up his own alternative school for his children, describing the process as “unschooling,” after he reveled that traditional schooling was neither valuable nor interesting to him as a child. “I didn’t see the regular schools doing the things I thought should be done,” Musk said.
Taking on the more radical approach to schooling, Musk’s children will learn through natural life experiences, which present themselves on a daily basis. Household responsibilities, play, work experience, mentoring, books and elective classes that the child is interested in, will most likely be on the agenda. The intent will be to focus the child’s curiosity and exploration of activities initiated by them under the philosophy that if it is more meaningful to the child, it will become more understood, and useful.”
While unschooling may not be for you or your children, Musk is an outside-the-box thinker and has practiced that process in his life’s work. He is self-taught in a lot of fields (an an AVID reader), and has stated before that he “learns what he needs to learn to accomplish an objective.” He feels that people self limit their learning ability, “If you read a lot of books and talk to people you can learn anything.” Well said.
Speaking about teaching children, “It makes more sense to cater the education to match their aptitudes and their abilities.” We would agree, teaching children shouldn’t be likened to an assembly line, they are all different and learn differently. There is beauty and strength in that. With unschooling, problem solving is taught, and children are also given the tools they need to solve those problems. He wants his children, and all children, to reach for the stars in an unhindered and open-minded way. And we couldn’t agree more.
Source: We Are Anonymous
