How Children Learn at Home & why we don't unschool

A review of the book by Alan Thomas and Harriet Pattison:

I finished reading this book a week or so ago and am finally getting around to doing a review. This book is the result of research into homeschooling which follows the "natural learning" method, aka "unschooling", "child-led learning", or in the terms of the authors, "informal learning". It consists primarily of comments from interviewees (either parents of families who unschool and occasionally the children who are unschooled) accompanied with a running analysis by the authors. The book is organised into discussions of the informal curriculum, the ways in which the informal curriculum is accessed by children, and the role of parents. The utility of play is also examined, before the authors progress to analysis of the learning achieved by children informally at home in the academic disciplines of reading, writing and numeracy.

The main thesis of the authors is that informal learning by children along the lines of their own interests, and spurred on by their own desire to know, is sufficient for these children to learn all that they need to know. I am not convinced. In the fifth chapter the authors describe such learning methods as purposeful observation, conversation, exploration, self-directed learning (experimenting, self-directed research, pursuing hobbies), practice and also "doing nothing". In the sixth chapter the authors describe the supportive actions of parents as role model and mediators (providing circumstances and tools for learning), in answering questions and learning along with the children and in having high but reasonable expectations. The main feature of the "informal learning" pedagogy is that it is initiated and sustained by the child's own interests and enthusiasm, as guided by the child's perception of needing to know or wanting to do.

In the fourth chapter, "The informal curriculum", the authors argue that while learning informally at home, children are able to access a "curriculum" which is tailored by their social and family experiences to their personal needs for knowledge and skills. I can accept that children learn from their parents in the ways described and even agree with the premise that the vast bulk of their social knowledge is able to be learnt simply by children being involved in everyday family activities and events. Chaos theory does tend to suggest that even a model unschooling family will be unable to produce children who perfectly reflect their model, however.

My problem is that I do not believe this "curriculum" is sufficient for life in the post-modern, western world. Yes, my children will learn about life in our family by living as a member of our family. They will learn the language we use (English), our religious beliefs (Christian), our values (such as love for others shown through respect and service), songs we sing regularly, prayers we say aloud together, how to relate in a family of four siblings, how to grow vegetables in a back yard garden... They are also likely to learn those things which perhaps I would rather they did not learn, such as my icky habit of biting my fingernails, my rude tendency acquired in teacher days to raise my voice rather than walk across the room and speak directly to a person, my bad temper and lack of self-control.

Of course children will learn these things from their parents. Given exposure to the interest and enthusiasm of others around them, they will also (perhaps) be driven to learn sophisticated carpentry skills or PhD-level biochemical engineering. But I wouldn't want to bet on it. My central criticism of homeschooling via "informal learning", one which I have never yet seen satisfactorily rebutted by its proponents, is that the informal curriculum is insufficient to address the future needs of children. Children cannot simply be left alone to somehow find their own way to "learn how to learn in the future". They would be left at the mercy of those who would seek to convince them of things (advertisers, politicians, religious advocates, friends, enemies...). Unless those who know the truth deliberately pass it on, the children will be in no position to later determine which of two - or more - options is the truth, because they will have no basis upon which to make a decision.

Not only is an informal curriculum insufficient to transfer a knowledge of the basic ideas of truth, it is inadequate in anything more than the basics of everyday social life. So what if my children learn to speak English adequately? Does this ensure that they will later be able to master the languages of the people with whom they want to communicate in future life, whether those people be alive around them or dead with their ideas accessible only through books? So what if my children learn the words of the songs that we sing regularly? Does this ensure that they will have an appreciation or love for the beauties of music and song or a skill in vocal expression? Will it develop an understanding of the use of the mechanics of lyrics and tune to inspire emotional and intellectual assent to the message of the song, sufficient to ensure that they are swayed neither by advertising jingle nor emotive H*llsong chorus? So what if they learn to be wonderful backyard gardeners? Will this given them an understanding of the economics of supply and demand or the advantages and dangers of collective bargaining by employees and co-operative selling by producers? Will it make them wise, just, honest and merciful in their ways as employees or employers, or even in matters of self-discipline? Of course not!

The reason why I choose not to rely upon informal learning methods in our homeschool is that I don't think the product is good enough. I want my children to learn so much more than I am able to expose them to in everyday life. I want them to learn more of mothering than how to fold washing, and more of carpentry than how to make replicas of Daddy's tools with Duplo. I want them to know more of God than what they learn through listening to my prayers and overhearing me sing. And so I choose to direct their learning myself, with guidance and direction from my husband, and covered by prayers seeking wisdom from God. I aspire to my children knowing something more than how to live life as their parents do. I aspire to my children being "equipped to do the good works which God has prepared in advance for them to do."