HOORAY AUSTRALIA!

"If the child is left to himself, he will think more and better."

~ Anne Sullivan

This past week I have read two (count them two) articles about home education in Australian publications. This is quite a big deal as discussing home ed at all in Australia is incredibly rare, I have found it is still quite a taboo subject.

The first article I read was by Earl Stevens titled 'What is Unschooling'. The article discusses the rigidness in traditional schooling, a child's resistance to textbooks and quizzes and the like as well as the freedom of unschooling. The final paragraph states...
"Unschooling provides a unique opportunity to step away from systems and methods, and to develop independent ideas out of actual experiences, where the child is truly in pursuit of knowledge, not the other way around."
The magazine this came from is called Kindred, it's an alternative kind of magazine and this was my first read of it. I will however be buying it in the future.

Righty, the second article I read was in this morning's Sunday Telegraph. It featured in the Body + Soul section and I was rather surprised to see it in such a big paper HOWEVER the article wasn't completely complimentary. Comments were made about socialisation and lack of equipment as the child grows (things like science labs). I have to admit I was rather concerned about Mr. T's social skills as he is an only child but he does have the opportunity to interact with other children and doesn't seem to have a problem so I am no longer worried. The lack of equipment really does depend on the child's interests who says my son will want to use test tubes and Bunsen burners? I know I hated science. On the other hand these things are available to the public so if test tubes is what he wants test tubes is what I'll get.

Personally I unschool for many reasons my own experiences with school are included. I can remember by the time I had left school pretty much every subject required an oral assessment, that is each student was forced to speak in front of their peers for a certain amount of time on a specific topic. I absolutely hated it (despite the fact that I loved performing in my drama class). I would feel sick in my stomach on the morning of the oration, my hands would shake, my eyes would blur, my face would turn bright red and I would have difficulty enunciating - I'd have to say that I would come quite close to a panic attack and I am certain that I am not the only one who has experienced this.
Unschooling allows my child to develop his intellect without unnecessary trauma.