Those of us that have gone to school know the drill.

Literally.

Students have to go through an endless amount of repetition. Teachers bring up the same topic, again and again, in an attempt to cram their students with the right recipe of information. It’s just part of the way schools work.

When it comes to lifelong learning, focusing on repetition and drills is a bit like trying to build a pyramid from the top down.

A dictionary will tell you that memorizing something means you’re learning it by heart. Resourcefulness comes from using a number of resources and aids, instead of just relying on your memory.

Memorization and resourcefulness are the differences between someone who knows what he’s been shown in the past and someone who knows how to learn more in the future. Knowing how and where to find information is important.

Let me go back to the pyramid I spoke about. Like I said, memorization alone is like building a pyramid from the top down. You might’ve guessed how it should be built: from the bottom up, with a sound and solid foundation.

In learning, our solid foundations come from our resources. If all our learning comes from the same resource (school, for example), then our pyramid’s foundation will be small. Instead, our learning is best when it comes from a variety of resources.

I like to call my way of remembering information “knowing it exists“.

It’s a lot like remembering your favorite recipes. After finding a resource useful, you keep it at hand. When you want to know something, you use your new resource. The more you use a resource, the more you remember.

Would you prefer to have a resource prove itself to be useful, or spend days memorizing something you might never need to know again?

Compared to unschooling, schools require dozens of teachers and faculty, all with their own specializations, to make sure the school runs properly. The same level of complexity is impossible to replicate at home. There’s simply too much to do for one family to be responsible of.

The truth is the complexity is unnecessary, and even harmful.

Schools Create Educational Dependency

Schools accept responsibility for their students in several ways:

- Organization. Schools tell students what to learn and when to learn it.
- Control. Through an endless list of rules and regulations, schools limit activity to what is necessary for the school to run efficiently.
- Assessment. Students are graded, evaluated, judged, rewarded and punished according to their performance. It’s up to the school to tell others whether or not the student is learning.

Most importantly, schools take responsibility for the student’s learning. Schools base themselves around that responsibility. How will they control what the student learns? How will they know when the student is learning? How can they prove the student’s progress?

The tricky thing is that whether or not schools have good intentions, they can’t tell you what a student knows or what a student has learned. Only the student can. The only thing schools can be certain of is what the student has known at a given point in time, and what the student has been exposed to while in school. Schools cannot guarantee a student’s knowledge. No one can.

However, that lack of guarantee itself isn’t the problem..

By accepting responsibility for the student’s education, schools effectively take that responsibility away from the student and his or her family. Instead of empowering students, schools tell them they can’t be trusted with their own minds and their own knowledge.

Students are dependent on schools for their education.

Unschooling Empowers Learners

Unschooling gives responsibility to the learners. Unschooled children are told they can learn what they want to, when they want to. That responsibility creates a crucial contrast to schools. Instead of passively receiving information, unschoolers know what they learn and when they learn it is their own responsibility. They aren’t afraid to ask questions. They openly seek knowledge.

Knowing you’re in charge of your own education affects your learning in a number of ways:

- You’ll be more curious and excited about your learning. It’s what YOU want to learn, so why wouldn’t you be?
- You’ll be more in-depth. You might focus on a shorter list of subjects than what you’d be exposed to in school, but your learning won’t be focused on answering a handful of questions. You’ll learn for the sake of wanting to.
- You’ll be more relaxed. You won’t be focused on meeting curriculum standards, competing with other students, and making sure you meet expectations. Learning will be natural.
- You’ll realize learning never stops. Being aware of your own learning will make you realize that it happens all the time, at any given moment.
- You’ll enjoy learning. You can’t dread learning if you’re learning what you want to. Learning will be an enjoyable experience, like it should be.

Learning happens naturally, from the day we’re born. Creating an environment capable of stimulating learners both intellectually and creatively is easy, even on low budgets. Humans are naturally curious. All we need to learn is the ability to find answers to our questions.

Giving children responsibility for their learning lets them trust themselves. Their own interests and judgment are listened to. Having the power to control their own educations empowers unschoolers in a positive way. That same responsibility can help adults, too.

Instead of creating dependent students, unschooling empowers learners. Intuitive and natural learning isn’t lazy. It’s just the way it should be.

As an unschooler, I’m responsible for my own education. It’s up to me to know when I’m learning, what I want to learn, and how I’m going to learn it. I’m asking questions, not just answering them.

The only one that can control what you learn and when you learn it, is you. How has being in charge of your own education affected your learning?