The Growing Population of Unschoolers

Our public school system has become a controversial issue. There are many options for schooling besides the public school system. Many parents do not agree with the public school system. Therefore, home schooling or “unschooling” has become quite popular. Many people on the other hand do not agree with unschooling. This has become a debate and struggle between those who support and those who fight unschooling. People who are supporting unschooling believe in all the benefits that it shares; higher test scores, closer relationship with your children and the ability to bring religion into the classroom. Unschooling is also an opportunity for students to become more well rounded and have more time for other activities. The people who oppose unschooling fear that it will isolate children and it is not a credible teaching method. Another fear of public school supporters is that they will lose money for each child unschooled. These people who so strongly oppose unschooling often don’t understand it. People believe these students are unschooled for the wrong reasons. People believe unschooling means students sit at home and watch television all day. The reasons behind unsc

The schools that turn unschoolers away generally do so because they lose public funding that unschooling may cause. Each year an average of 4% of the school age children learn at home (Pink, 2001, 31,32). This results in less of the taxpayer's money being contributed to the public school system. Each child who chooses to home school becomes a dollar sign to the public school system. The government has attempted to discourage unschooling by making regulations more difficult for parents to unschool their children. Some states such as Pennsylvania have begun to require teaching certification for parents to teach their children at home. They wish to discourage the rising rate of children who are unschooling. This rate is increasing by 11% annually (Cloud and Morse, 2001, 49. Maybe rather than attempt to discourage unschoolers with more regulations; they public school system should entice them to return with a better public school education more widely available.

Reason magazine recently published an article that reviewed and commented on the different forms of education for those who wish not to attend public school. Daniel Pink discusses what he calls “The Home-Schooling Revolution.” Pink strives to prove that the options other than public school provide better education. He disagrees with many aspects of the public school system. He continues by discussing the options that parents have if they do not wish to enroll their children in public school. Parents could enroll their children in Private school, home school them or even enroll them in an online schooling system. He shares the statistics regarding the rise in unschooling as well as private schooling. Pink feels that unschooling or home schooling was a great option. He describes a young girl who loves to build structures out of Lego’s. She built complex constructions. This was her passion at age five. This is a form of explorative learning often used by many unschoolers. Pink furthers his opinion by citing the Family Unschoolers Network as a resource for unschoolers. This is where the term unschoolers generated. They believe unschooling incorporates more of the home schooling process. Unschooling broadens home schooling to include online education as well as to independent study programs. Pink’s article continues by pointing out how we nationally have 1.7 million students who are being unschooled. This is about 4% of our nation’s school age children. There are even more students who have at one point in time been unschooled. In fact, one out of every ten children has been home schooled for at least part of their education. He explains that unschooling is not such a bad thing. Many children who are unschooled surpass the educational abilities and test scores of public schools. The children who are unschooled have also been found to be completely socially adequate. The majority of unschoolers tend to reflect their positive learning environments into their daily lives. How can unschooling still be considered bad? (Pink, 2001, 31,32).

Public school systems have begun to involve themselves with unschoolers. Many public schools allow children to attend special programs, participate in after school activities or to attend classes on their campus. High schools have begun to allow unschoolers to participate in athletics and attend school dances. Many school districts have unschooler classrooms and resou

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