Is it OK for Christians to Unschool?

Is it OK for Christians to Unschool?

It has been argued that since John Holt was not a Christian, Christians cannot be unschoolers. I find this absurd. Who came up with the idea for "school" curriculum? Was it a Christian? I doubt that it was. Are the curriculums used in public institutions Christian? I KNOW not. Yet so many feel that it is OK to model THIS form of education. How many have used secular workbooks or books from the library in their children's education? How many have used secular websites or unit studies?

One of the biggest problems with Christians today is that we don't know how to think for ourselves. We just assume that because the schools have always done things a certain way, it MUST be the right way. Unfortunately, the public school systems are constantly changing their approach to education. For a time, it is phonics, then it is sight reading, then it is a whole language approach. Then the cycle starts all over again because none of it works for all of the children. Most, if not all, children do NOT learn best in a traditional school setting. Children need hands-on activities. They need to have all of their senses stimulated. The only reason that schools "teach" the way that they do is for crowd control purposes. One teacher cannot possibly monitor 20-30 (or more) kids each following their own interests and exploring their world. It is much easier to sit them all down at desks to do lifeless worksheets and read uninteresting stories in dull textbooks. Children are conditioned to respond to bells much like the Pavlovian dogs. When they hear the bells, THEN they are allowed to go to the bathroom or eat or proceed to the next "cell." Heaven forbid that they should actually find a subject interesting. For once the bell rings, they must abandon it and move on. They learn that "learning" should only be done in short intervals and that none of it should apply to the real world.

Homeschooling parents have become so worried that their children are not "keeping up." Keeping up with whom? And why? Who actually came up with the idea that all children should be reading at age 6? Or that all ten year olds should study the American Revolution? I'll bet almost nobody (including myself) knows, yet we blindly follow this example. Why should we reinforce these ridiculous methods of "education" in our homes? We so blindly follow what we are told that this even extends to our faith. We rely only on what others tell us so when we are confronted about our faith, we don't know how to respond. We can only pass on conditioned responses. If the problem requires actual THOUGHT or RESEARCH, we are at a loss. We are nothing more than sheep and if we are being led to the slaughter, so be it! Let us conform and then we don't have to think for ourselves. But I ask you, was Jesus a conformist? The answer is NO, he was NOT! Not only was Jesus a nonconformist, but He was an unschooler. Yes, He was. How much do you think that the disciples (and others) would have actually learned if Jesus had forcefully sat them all down with paper and pencil and tested them? "Read chapter 1 of the Dead Sea Scrolls and answer questions 1-15." Sounds silly, doesn't it? Thank goodness, He didn't! Instead, He made things real to the people. He used illustrations that the people were familiar with at the time (funny how the Jewish "leaders" still didn't "get it"...) and He never forced them. The people followed HIM, not the other way around. Interesting, huh?

If you think about it, we can't MAKE our Children into Christians anyway. We can teach them scripture, but forcing it into them won't make them Christians. We can only hope that our model of Christianity will make them want what we have. Unfortunately with all of the unthinking, arrogant, prideful Christians that I have come into contact with, it isn't surprising that many young people abandon Christianity.

We need to stop being followers and make our own paths! We need to raise free-thinkers who will ask "Why?" and "How?". We need to allow our young Christian leaders of tomorrow to think for themselves so that they might change the world and not merely blend in with it. I think that Christians can definitely be unschoolers. Not only that, I think more Christians NEED to be unschoolers.

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