Unschooling brings up a lot of choices. You choose what you learn. You choose when you learn it. You even choose why you learn it.
What does choice really mean, though?
It means you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. Whatever you’re doing, you’re doing the things you want to do. Yes, even chores. Yes, even painful, embarrassing experiences.
How does that work?
We do things that we aren’t passionate about for the same reasons we do anything else. We do what we do because we want to. You want clean dishes to eat your food on. You want clean clothes to wear. You go through painful experiences to mourn, forgive, apologize and get over your fears. Because you want to. Because you choose to.
A lot of skeptics question unschoolers and their ability to discipline themselves to learn what they have to. The question is, when you see the world through the eyes of wanting to vs having to, do we still need self-discipline?
What do we have to learn that no one wants to learn? Is there something we need to know, that we can’t motivate ourselves to learn without strict discipline and force?
I doubt it. Whatever we need to know, we’ll want to know.
What does choice mean to you?
April 20, 2010 at 5:52 am
This is excellent, Anna. And you are so talented at getting your point across with only the words that are needed. Overall your blog is great, but this is really a key entry. “Choice” is the essential unschooling principle.
April 20, 2010 at 6:06 am
Thank you! Sometimes the best way to say something is to highlight the main point and get people thinking. I’m glad you’re enjoying my blog. :)