Unschooled

Raising Curious, Well-Educated Children Outside the Conventional Classroom

By: Kerry Mcdonald, Peter Grey PhD

Narrated by: Lesa Lockford

Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins

Publisher's summary

As schooling becomes increasingly standardized and test driven, occupying more of childhood than ever before, parents and educators are questioning the role of schooling in society. Many are now exploring and creating alternatives.

In a compelling narrative that introduces historical and contemporary research on self-directed education, Unschooled also spotlights how a diverse group of individuals and organizations are evolving an old schooling model of education. These innovators challenge the myth that children need to be taught in order to learn. They are parents who saw firsthand how schooling can dull children’s natural curiosity and exuberance, and others who decided early on to enable their children to learn without school. Educators who left public school classrooms discuss launching self-directed learning centers to allow young people’s innate learning instincts to flourish, and entrepreneurs explore their disillusionment with the teach-and-test approach of traditional schooling.

©2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC (P)2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Not for parents

Perhaps I bought a wrong book...

I was looking for some ideas for how to raise and educate my kids. 1hr 20 min into listening, no sight of that. Skipped to part 5, another 20 minutes: same.

To the author: you tell us that schools switch off our minds with their methods, but this is exactly how you are presenting your material: for the first 1 hour you are hammering a single idea into the reader's head: "schools are bad" (OK, I get it, but give me something useful). I am not convinced you are qualified to "un-school" anybody: if you were, your book would sound different. As kids would say (pun intended): "Your voice is rough; you are the wolf!" A boring book for "educators".

I have never returned an audible book before, not even the ones I didn't like or considered waste of my time. This is the first one I returned.

Not very helpful

I would only recommend this book if you are already unschooling your kids and want some vindication.

If you have doubts about the traditional school system, and want to introduce child led learning to your kids at home, this book does not really offer any helpful advice.

Great book

So vindicating! I see the benefits of unschooling in my daily life, but, like everyone who takes their children's education seriously, I sometimes question the decision. How valuable to have data and references, ideas, and examples of success stories further down this road we've just begun. This is an excellent resource, I will reference it often.

Essential info about how children learn

This has everything one needs to know about natural learning, unschooling, and self directed education. It’s a good book to recommend to others who are interested in this topic.

The first half is great!

I loved the first half of the book and then it started to feel a little like a promo for different camps and groups that didn’t apply to me.

YOU CAN TEACH AN OLD DOG NEW TRICKS!!!

As a long time homeschool/unschool mom, I thought I new everything there was to know about this world. But, the world is always changing and as more people catch on and join this movement the more valuable information and resources will become available. I loved every word of this book, but I especially loved the numerous references to books and articles related to the subject. I have a whole list of references to check out.

Good ideas, new age

The author readily sees the problems with our current way of educating children and has well researched her topic. However, she tends to throw out the baby with the bath water and presents all directed and wrote learning as harmful, not just problematic. It is obvious she believes that given the proper environment children will naturally gravitate to what is beneficial to them and that the guidance of adults and parents is a hindrance to them reaching their full potential. This is a lopsided view of human natural.

amazing resource

has lots of resources in around chapters 8-10 (also before here and there). loads of great info. unschool > any other school!

Phenomenal

Articulate and impactful. To the heart of the matter. A gift to encounter this book.

Thought provoking...

so idk why the other review was so negative... 😅 I got this book to get a little understanding on the subject of unschooling. I feel like I got exactly what I was looking for. Although I wish the author gave at least 1 chapter dedicated to HOW to deschool in preparation to unschool. I feel like a compilation of stories dedicated to sharing the methods different families used to "deschool" would be most beneficial and helpful to newbies such as myself. But overall I enjoyed the book and would still recommend it.
I will note I did not like the "readers" voice... 😅 That could just be me being a jerk but I feel like she carries a patronizing tone... or one of a news anchor. 😝 However, I did not dock any stars for that. 😁