“We might think of human life as a sort of curve… for every human
being that curve is a single curve, a wholeness.” (P. 25)
This is something that most home educators come to realize somewhere in
their career. But it is easy to understand how parents who send their
children off to school for 12 or more years do not see it.
“We do not, like some insects, suddenly turn from one kind of creature
into another that is very different.” (P. 25)
For those who endure ‘traditional’ school, it must seem that we do. It
certainly did for me. Not that I felt that much different, but that I
had finally escaped the cocoon. If only this were said at every prom
and graduation ceremony. It wouldn’t hurt to have it said at weddings
either. Even though I had unconsciously dropped giving much credence to
the ‘important dates’ with which our society segments life, the above
statement had never really occurred to me.
“Here the fact of childhood ends and the institution of
childhood begins. Childhood as we now know it has divided that curve of
life, that wholeness, into two parts – one called Childhood, and the
other called Adulthood, or Maturity. It has made a Great Divide in
human life, and made us think that the people on opposite sides of this
divide, the Children and the Adults, are very different.” (P. 25)
A little over two years ago, I wrote a paper called “Unschooling for
Adults” for an adult ed course I was taking. In addition to my
experience teaching at a college level, I had brought years of
homeschooling experience to the class. The basic argument that I made
in the paper was that, even though educational experts distinguished
and separated discussion of childhood and adult education that I had
not found their needs to be a lot different.
If you are so inclined to take a course or two in the discipline of
adult education, what you will find is that virtually nothing that is
recommended for adult learners is implemented in the typical child
learning environment. Due to length restrictions, most of “Unschooling
for Adults” described the basics of a productive learning environment
for adults. The final few paragraphs explained what unschooling was and
how it fit the learning environment for adults.
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