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I teach at a small private school, and each year I have homeschool and unschooling applicants for my class. I must preface my comments that the parents/children who I meet are seeking an alternative to their home program, typically for social reasons. As an educator, I recognize that students develop at different paces and have different gifts which they bring to the class, and with that in mind, what I have seen repeatedly is that unschooling children are academically "years behind" the students in my class. I have had fourth, fifth and sixth graders who can not deceifer the difference between addition and subtraction, most I have seen have challenges with writing- ranging from forming letters to writing something beyond a grocery list, or reading material beyond Frog and Toad.

When I ask the parents to give me a sense of why certain skills are so far behind, the answer has always been the same: My child doesn't really like..." (math, reading, writing, etc..). Though I believe that these are more extreme "cases," I think children need guidance. Children are not like the sandpiper that hatches its shell and within a few hours stumbles from nest and peck for insects running on the shore. We have the longest childhood of any species on the planet, and I believe that children need academic guidance.

posted 4 years, 9 months ago
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