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TKDshadow — Was or Is Unschooled
Published: 2010-01-26 23:43:41 +0000 UTC; Views: 850; Favourites: 16; Downloads: 9
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Description
For anyone who was, or is Unschooled, and wants to express their appreciation for not being educated in a totalitarianism environment.I made this stamp because I really wanted a stamp like this, and I wanted to use this deviation comment section to rant a bit about my experience with unschooling. Of course there is way more that I want to say about it, so I might just write an essay later and upload it. But for now, I’ll just use this deviation.
I will also make a plz stamp for this later.
Template: [link]
Of course I got the saying from this stamp: [link] I
this stamp. ( Ok, now time for my rant
)Like I said I love the stamp, but I wanted one that said "unschool" as well as "Homeschool". Unschoolers usually try to stay away from the term "Homeschooled" because it can really confuse some people who are unfamiliar with the subject.
For example: If I said that I was homeschooled, some people may assume that it means I received my Kindergarten through 12th grade education while sitting in my house. But actually, that could not be further from the truth. I actually participated in more classes and activities in elementary school than most highschoolers have access to in traditional public high schools. Being unschooled means getting an education while out in the real world, rather than in the artificial world that is created by traditional school.
The classes I did participate in were nothing like what you would find in a traditional public school. Defiantly not a traditional classroom setting. Some of my classes didn't even need a classroom. The definition of class is "a group of students who are taught and study together". We could just as easily meet at a park, library or museum. And I had a very wide variety of classes. The directors of these classes were some of the best "teachers" I've ever had. I didn't even realize how great they were until I gave traditional public school a try. Until then, I had never experienced the "bad" or "babysitter" teacher. And I truly hadn't grasped how blessed I was to have the experience of being able to learn freely.
And I'm not saying that all teachers in traditional public schools are bad, (I've had some amazing teachers in public school) but the good ones were few.
I did attend a traditional public school full time for three years (7th through 9th grade). And I have now had my first taste of traditional public elementary school, as I have volunteered as a helper in an elementary school classroom. I could go on and on about why I believe traditional school to be a very inefficient way of learning. But that's a story for another time.
I will say that one thing that really troubled me about the public school I went to, is even if you were interested in what they were supposedly teaching you, you were limited on how far you were allowed to pursue it, no matter how interested you were in the subject. These types of limitations do not exist in unschooling.
I do not regret trying traditional public school. I'm glad I did. Now I can differentiate and weigh the pros and cons of both types of education.
Please note that I have nothing against people who attend traditional public school, or parents who send their kids to traditional public school. But I am very much against the ways of the public school system.
And lastly,
Here are some interesting things to look at about unschooling:
Here is a deviation I found that can help you understand what "unschooling" is: [link] by
Funny music video about homeschooler stereotypes: [link] 
Deschooling Society: [link] Confessions of a homeschooler: [link] Unschooling Wiki article: [link] Book about unschooling: [link]
Related content
Comments: 11
Homeschooling is unschooling and schooling both mixed together. The most ugly, gross deformed piece of crap ever!
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I only ever used the term home educated to describe myself (or occasionally homeschooled if I was feeling lazy) but you could probably consider what I did as unschooling too. Either way, it was a blast.
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Wow... It's amazing how much I can relate to Jedi-Guardian's comment even though my situation may or may not be similar.
I'm 21, live in Spain and am currently in my senior year in high school. My whole educational life has been all about the traditional school system we all know. In my life, I've had to repeat 4 times: once in 4th grade, a second time in 9th grade, a third time in my junior year and currently I'm repeating my senior year, making it 4 times.
I've been a lousy student for a long time. It started in 8th grade when I kept failing Math, and as years went by, I kept failing more subjects that I once had no problems with. My parents (especially my dad) have been urging me and pressuring me to do well in high school and go to university because life without a college degree is really hard. According to my dad, the fact that I'm dark-skinned doesn't make things easier either, especially in recent years where news of terrorism and similar stuff is shown to us constantly.
I've always hated the traditional school system. I've always hated having to wake up early in the morning, sit in school for 6 or 7 hours, be bombarded with homework and be taught a bunch of stuff, most of which will probably be of no use to me in the future. For the past 3 years everything my fellow classmates could ever talk about was how hard they're working in order to go to college while I don't even want to go and can't picture any scenario in which that decision changes.
I found about unschooling only a few months ago when I found this tumblr blog completely by accident: howtodropoutofschool.tumblr.co… I couldn't stand that the traditional school system was supposedly the only way to have a good life, that the world was so black and white. I wanted to believe that there was another way, an alternative. Discovering this blog and learning about unschoolers was a blessing, because it helped me realize I was right all along. There IS an alternative to traditional schooling. But recently I've started wondering whether it's too late to pursue this alternative. As I've said before, I'm 21 years old. In 2 months high school will be over for me. Whether I'll finish as a graduate or a drop out, I don't know. The question that for a long time had gone unanswered -whether or not there's an alternative to traditional schooling- has finally been answered. But it has now left me with a new question: Is it too late for me to become an unschooler? Or is there still a chance to embrace that lifestyle at my age?
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I've never heard of unschool until I accidentally came across this stamp... You know... whenever I get kids, I'm gonna unschool them too. Before I entered school, I was excited to learn and now that I'm in a community college, it's almost a chore at times, but I'm able to pay for classes that I want to learn in and expand my whole world.
Thanks for making this stamp!!
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I wish I found out about unschooling before I graduated; High School was a hellish experience that (as cliche as this sounds) left me a shell of my former self. Before it, everything fascinated me! I wanted to know how this worked, or what made that move; I was surrounded by a treasure of wonders. Then my parents told me about school, needless to say I was excited.
Heh, the foolishness of a child.
As I was exposed to a number of subjects, I eventually (by my last year in Jr. High) discovered that I wanted to be a writer. But they wouldn't let me learn, the said I needed to take more courses before I could. So I did, but I cared not about these meaningless subjects; how is the location of an Egyptian burial ground going to help me write a book? Do I have to exhume a dead Pharaoh and ask him to edit my work? The worst part was the pacing, it just would not stop! They threw it all at me way too fast, and deemed me defective for not completing the work on time. So I was "diagnosed" with a learning disorder just because I didn't meet expectations set by a group of people towards an entire generation of diverse individuals.
That's when my social life began to die.
Because of my label, I was outcast by my peers in school who translated it as "mental retardation", despite my IQ measurement being above average. As a result, I was the subject of ridicule either for being "slow" (which was not true) or working too hard on school work (which wasn't going well anyway). Both my grades and my sanity hung by a thread, I didn't care about learning anymore...I just wanted it all to leave me alone! The bullying instigated my aversion to social interaction, I began to prefer isolation. High School drew to a close, relief enveloped my bleeding heart.
Then I discovered Unschooling.
I broke. I cried, well into half an hour. My resolve to become a writer momentarily vanished for the first time ever. I missed out on a great education, and instead got stuck with...with...this! Thanks to school I can't function well enough with others, the very idea of collaboration terrifies me without cease. The fact that all this loss could have been avoided all along is absolutely maddening!
But thankfully, you and many others weren't exposed to school for as long as I have been. I cheer for you, but my heart aches for those still being forced through that Hell. I'm in collage now, and my wonderful family is attempting to help undo the damage school did to me. I doubt I'll ever get better, but thank God people are taking better alternatives to school.
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Similarly, if I had to describe school with one word I guess I would say “disappointing”. Like you, I was excited to give school a try. I thought I would be given opportunities to learn so many things. But it was the opposite. Instead of giving me opportunities to learn, I felt that school really confined and limited me. Learning is such a wonderful thing. It’s something that we do naturally every day. And it’s amazing and tragic how school can take learning and make it into something terrible. Before I tried school I would describe myself as a child who loved science. But in school “Science” was one of my least favorite classes. I don’t even remember if it had anything to do with the content of the class or not. They just made the environment so miserable. Also like you, during my three years as a full time traditional public school student, I stopped caring about what they called “learning”, as it became more of a chore than something natural and fun. And it was a chore because the school made it that way. And most learning disorders (I was diagnosed with some as well only after starting school of course) are just a way of saying that if you don’t do everything the exact same way as everyone else then there is something wrong with you.
------------ “ how is the location of an Egyptian burial ground going to help me write a book? Do I have to exhume a dead Pharaoh and ask him to edit my work?”--------------
You’re right. How can we ever become great at something if we are forced to equally peruse other things that are unrelated to our interests?
I’m sorry you had to experience what our society calls “school”. But please don’t let it hinder you or stop you from doing anything you want to do. Don’t say things like “I doubt I’ll ever get better,” because that’s not true. You will. I know school is damaging but you have the choice to move on, forget about what happened to you there. Yeah the past could have been different, you could have avoided school, but don’t dwell on that. It’s not that big of a deal really. Please don’t let it limit you. School just made you think you can’t function well enough with others. The truth is you can. You can choose to do whatever you want. Don’t let school win! God bless
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Go Unschooling, go! (and Deschooling too) :-D
I have been to school, homeschooled, then unschooled cause the rest was boring. ;-D
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I was unschooled until I was supposed to be in High School
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FINALLY! An UNSCHOOLERS stamp! I'm utterly ecstatic about this. -flail- I'm an Unschooler, too! ^__^
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Awesome! I was hoping there would be an unschool-stamp xD
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