Homeschooling in Singapore

What is unschooling?

What are the pros and cons of this method?

tks

'Unschooling' is a rather woolly concept; there is a wide spectrum of meanings.

The basic premise of unschooling is home education that does not mimic school. In the case of Singapore, many home-educators will simply buy the standard textbooks and duplicate the school syllabus in preparation for the PSLE. Of course, the interaction between teacher (parent) and pupil (child) will be different at home than in the formal setting of a classroom. Nevertheless, significant elements of the classroom have been transplanted into the home.

Unschoolers believe that the child should decide what to learn and how to learn. There is the belief that a child's natural curiosity and learning abilities should be given free rein, unstilfled by prescribed curricula and teaching methods.

In my opinion, there are several American writers, of whom John Holt readily comes to mind, who seem to advocate unschooling because they view schooling as an institutionalised pathology. They are overly optimistic; unschooling comes across as utopian.

I would consider unschooling to be of limited value, especially for primary-school aged children. For children who have been bullied badly at school (and so traumatised about learning) or have been completely dulled by rote learning (and so had the creativity and curiosity knocked out of them), then unwinding from that with unstructured learning at home is a lovely respite and worthwhile on a temporary basis.

Longer term, I believe that children need boundaries and structure in their learning; they are not little adults who can be relied upon to make competent choices with regard to their education.

Many unschoolers and home educators believe in child-led learning, but it depends how far you want to take it. Some believe that children should only learn those things that they find interesting. However, I reject this. I believe that in life we sometimes have to learn things we find boring. The boring things are necessary to provide access to the interesting things! And eventually to get a job!

I also believe that the role of the parent is as a teacher, not simply a 'facilitator'. Children cannot always distinguish what is and what is not relevant. Also, children cannot always 'discover' things for themselves. For instance, some subjects, such as mathematics, have a hard core body of knowledge. This content has been 'discovered' over several hundred years by cleverer people than most children.

Martin

Hi!

I suggest you check out http://joyfullyrejoycing.com/
It has a lot of useful information on Unschooling.

You will also find lots of links on Hema's blog http://thebharadwajknights.blogspot.com/

Hope this is helpful!

Littly

I agree with Martin, very young children need a lot of structures and directions from parents, it will be unthinkable if they are left to pursue their own whims and fancies.

LOL -- Funneee!

Littly: What's the joke?! What's the joke?! Some people say my jokes are as bad as a dental extraction ... so I could not have cracked a joke.

Lamp: Thanks for agreeing with me. The world is a happier place when people agree with me. Ha! Ha!

Hema: Congratulations on the blog.

Cheers
Martin

http://www.organiclearning.org/resources.html

Is a site I keep having recommended. Worth a visit for those interested in alternative schooling.

Littly

Hi everyone,
Thanks for the links. I'm sure this particular thread will eventually be jammed full of opinions! hee hee
I'm all for unschooling personally. Many parents live in fear that their children will be left behind and not have an all rounded education, and many times that fear will simply envelope the learning process.
Talking about child-learning in the first place is something of a paradox. Children ARE learners, learning is not a subject that has to be attached to them. Children can't help be anything but learners!
Take a baby for instance. The baby CHOOSES when to "learn" to walk, to grab, to speak, to eat on their own, to wave goodbye etc etc. Sure parents and adults can mimic, encourage, coax but ultimately the action is done when the baby is good and ready. Any effirt to try and advance the process will lead to tears, frustration and an uncertainty with their own sense of self and the world around them. You will hear some parents talking about the speed of their babies development, worried they are being left behind or glowing that they have an advanced walker/talker/scribbler - yet all babies learn to walk, to potty train, to talk - at their OWN time.
Taking this natural cue of how children attain certain development milestones leads nicely into some aspects of "unschooling".
There are many opinions even within the unschooling movement, so to find a definitive view is impossible and a "right way" just doesn't exist.
For me personally just like when my daughter was a baby and learning at her own speed, I try and listen and watch her cues as to where her interest lies at any given time. She has periods of being totally involved in exploration or investigative subjects and other times she just cruises along playing like the child she is. I'm in no hurry to force her to gag down certain subjects, I am enjoying a much more holistic and individualised approach to her learning.
As there are almost 7billion souls on this planet I think its safe to say there are 7 billion learning styles. Finding your child's INDIVIDUAL learning style must be the key to their development whether they are schooled, home schooled or unschooled.

SarahJaynee said:

Despite being 'natural-born learners', it does not follow that babies will learn when they are good and ready, and that as parents we should wait for their lead. For instance, blind babies will neither show an inclination nor learn to stand up until they are explicitly instructed. You might think that blind babies must be an exception to the rule, yet for generations people have thought that the act of standing on two feet is instinctive and basic to humans; in fact, it is taught behaviour.



There are many opinions in the unschooling movement mainly because the proponents are against something rather than for something, and because the proponents do not look at hard scientific evidence informing us about learning. The understanding of learning has moved signficantly towards the science end of the Science versus Art continuum. Differing learning styles is a contested concept. What is certainly true is that most people's brains work in remarkably similar ways, including innate capacities for language acquisition, reasoning and moral development. It is a matter of degree rather than kind.


Absolutely! But do not forget the constraints, legal aspect and regulatory framework of the society in which you live.

Cheers
Martin

Yes of course there will always be exceptions with disabled children - and maybe a post in that section of the forum would be more helpful.
On the pros and cons of unschooling as the OP asked there are many pros and many cons.
You are right to mention society. Society needs the 9-5'ers who toil away at a job for 50 years and in return they are to be grateful for the monetary reward they receive in order to buy shelter and food to survive. Schools are perfect models in creating these model citizens.
I personally created an "extra" ordinary life for myself and I wish for my children also to have an "extra" ordinary life. For that they need an "extra" ordinary education.

I think there is this notion (based on fear) that unschoolers sit around all day watching TV or idly wasting their time. That simply isn't true in our experience and for many other unschoolers that I know. On the contrary there usually isn't enough time in the day to cover all the activities and learning paths that my 7 year old daughter wants to explore.
For instance now she is discovering archeology, that takes a HUGE amount of prep on my and her tutors part.

Here is an example of how one thread of interest developed into an EXTRAordinary learning experience.

I loosely follow the British Key Stage 2 curriculum for my 7 year old. When I say loosely it means I personally read it and try and bring up topics that her fellow Brits might be touching upon in school. 2 years ago I bought a book on pirates and we learned a couple of pirate songs. The "pirate" topic was a real buzz for her, she started googling for info and just as she thought pirates may all be a hoax we were "blessed" with some real life pirate sagas in the news.
So we began to explore the world of pirates "then and now". As an "unschooler" I used this interest to create a host of activities and experiences around the pirate theme. We bought books and toys, ancient maps and treasure chests. Eventually my husband and I decided to culminate the project with a real life pirate experience. We made an ancient map and devised a whole day of treasure hunting with various maps taking her to other maps hidden across 4 deserted islands. throughout this whole day she was reading maps, using a compass working out math problems as well as having an enormously fun and adventurous experience. Eventually the treasure chest lay in a rocky outcrop that could only be reached via snorkelling - which she did and gained her treasure.
Afterwards we scrapbooked the whole event where of course she had to use reading, writing and presentation skills.

As you can see unschooling is NOT for the lazy! It takes motivation, inspiration and plenty of out-of-the-box thinking. It can cost a little or a lot depending on how far you want to go.
Our next stop is Venuato to see a real-life volcano in action as I feel my kitchen has been obliterated enough with model volcanoes to tell me she really has a natural interest with the science of volcanoes!

Sometimes I fall flat on my face just like any other teacher, preparing something I thought she was interested in only to realise I was wrong. In those instances I put away my prep and maybe use it later or maybe not at all - her education in not about MY ego!

She learns piano and violin and they are subjects where she needs to learn solid rules and she is happy to move with it whilst it interests her. If she wanted to quit tomorrow forever then that is fine, if she wants to quit tomorrow and take it up again at another time then that is fine too. My thinking is there is no reason to think she wont live past 80, 90 or even 100 so she has PLENTY of time! lol

Anyway this has turned into a long post, but I hope it can balance some of the "pros" for unschooling enquiries.
Good Luck, Have Fun and Life is Easy.xx

Dear Martin,

We unschool our 10 year old son and 14 year old daughter. I use the term “unschooling” not to defy the traditional terms of schooling, nor become militant and pooh pooh the rest of the parents and children who teach their children at home following some set syllabus. If I were to define what we do, I tend to feel that we do natural parenting which encompasses education as one of the core focuses in our life. Even so, we have great respect for any parents who are brave enough to take the initiative to remove their children from school, or decide to avoid traditional schooling from the outset of their children’s life. It has been and still is a great struggle for us.



Do correct me if I am wrong but the first sentence in your paragraph, learning, refers to cognitive behaviour and the second, standing up, refers to a reflex action connected to the nervous system. I know that they are not exclusive of each other but one deals with consciousness while the other with our genetics. The theories by Jean Piaget comes to mind as well as the works of Moshe Feldenkrais. Piaget believes that a child develops according to how old he or she is, and Feldenkrais put that down to the genes. So, a child would automatically learn when the time is right. My own experience confirms this.

Natural learning occurs when the mind has attained a certain level of consciousness, which makes understanding theories and concepts much easier. The level of consciousness increases as we age, and if we allow our adult minds to cast off the shackles of unpleasant experiences, I believe our consciousness will improve as well.



Unschooling is a doing thing, or actually refraining from doing something detrimental to our children’s development. Unschooling is about giving our children a chance to develop their self esteem, a chance to be who they are and a chance to grow into someone who will be happy with themselves. It is not a perfect utopia, but it works towards that ideal.
This is the crux of our unschooling/natural parenting stance which seems to be working for us –

We believe in allowing the creativity to flourish and when it comes to the left brain stuff, we structure the studies for our children. Oh, the computer/TV time has been regulated for years – digital natives need time for other human activities too!
From years 0 to 12 or 13 years old – the right hemisphere of the brain should be allowed to develop. Creativity has only this limited time frame to develop. This is the time we read to them, encourage them to do whatever sports and music that they like, and basically allow them to do whatever they want. We do not teach them how to read or write – both our children learned to read by themselves, it just happened naturally. They didn’t do much studying during this period – it was mainly sports and music.

Once they reach 12 or 13 or whatever age is suitable, depending on the child, we then discuss with our children what it is that they would like to study – the specific subjects with the goal of completing the IGCSE level of competency.

Quote:

“Longer term, I believe that children need boundaries and structure in their learning; they are not little adults who can be relied upon to make competent choices with regard to their education.”

That is why we absolutely subscribe to this, only with one qualification – we would ask/counsel my children what is it that they would like to study. We would expose them to as many subjects as we possibly can, and allow them to make a decision. My daughter has already started on some IGCSE subjects and we presume my son will follow suit. There was a stage my daughter was a bit worried that she was not doing enough studies and she is left behind. When she turned 13, she caught up with her studies and did 3 years of Maths in a year! She also did Grades 3 to 5 music theory in 3 months of intensive learning - her theory(left brain) needed to catch up with her practical(more right brain). We believe that when the mind is ready, the learning will automatically be accelerated, so there is less stress on the mind and emotions.



We believe that the thought of doing boring things will have a detrimental effect on us all. I think that if we are forced to do things that we do not like, these tasks may become boring. If we are not forced into doing something, and we accept without liking the boring tasks, life will be much easier.



We believe you can help children to distinguish what they should be studying. Give them a subject – see how they cope with that subject, bearing in my mind that their “consciousness” may not be ready for the subject. If they seem to resist or shut down when they are doing a particular subject, we postpone or defer this particular subject for my children. We will try at least three times over a period of time. If the resistance is high, I would question why I as a parent would like my child to do this subject (or anything for that matter), as I do not wish to tax my child’s emotional and nervous systems.

This of course, is only my opinion and based on my own experience.

Best wishes,
Dennis

Hi SarahJaynee

Thank you for your posting.

Giving personal anecdotes of your own experiences with unschooling is certainly invaluable for all us homeschoolers. However, I am still not clear what you mean by 'unschooling'. If you adopt a broad canvass to include many diverse views , then the definition becomes too woolly. Can you define unschooling in such a way that it is a positive definition [that is, what is for rather than what it is against], and that this definition clearly delineates it from other approaches to homeschooling. With regard to homeschooling, I would be quite happy to use the British term 'home-educating'.

Cheers
Martin

Hi Dennis

Good posting!


This is not a definition to distinguish unschooling from other homeschooling approaches. I suspect that all homeschoolers here, including myself, all feel that we focus on natural parenting which puts education as a core focus in our lives.

I do like your sentiments about non-militancy and not pooh-poohing those homeschoolers who follow a set syllabus. In the Singaporean context, homeschooling for citizens is strictly regulated; it is not the laissez-faire approach of 'otherwise' as for example in Britain. Given the societal context and regulatory framework, it is much more a minority thing in Singapore to homeschool than in most other countries, and so requires bravery.

Standing up is not a reflex action but is taught behaviour; that is the shocking news that comes through studying the behaviour of cases such as blind babies. I suspect that Piaget's theories are rather dated and increasingly of less value.

When you say that a "child would automatically learn when the time is right" you have to ask yourself what you mean by 'automatically' and what is it that the child is to learn. Although we have an instinct for language (Pinker's work and evolutionary psychology) for instance, the environmental exposure in the first year of life is crucial; you cannot simply wait for when the time is right lest the brain loses its plasticity for learning the phonemes of its mother tongue to be. Despite our instinct for language, it only extends to oral proficiency: reading and writing are very 'artificial' to the brain and have to be explicitly taught. You could, strictly speaking, delay teaching reading and writing until the child is ready, but you also have to be mindful that the child opens in a world which values people being able to read and write; and again you have a time limit with regard to the brain's plasticity.


What do you mean by 'natural learning'? How would you quantify levels of consciousness? However, it is true that understanding theories and concepts improves as we age. This however might be because we are building a critical mass of core knowledge as preparation to learn the more advanced stuff. It does not sound like a function of consciousness per se, unless you define consciousness as self-awareness brought on by learning - which then is a circular argument.


Again, few homeschoolers would disagree, but it does not define unschooling.


Good. Indeed, I consider an important aspect of homeschooling is to empower children, including asking them at a suitable age whether they want to join the institutionalised school system.


Again, few homeschoolers would disagree, and in Singapore most would aspire to that. However, I must say that in the Singaporean context, it is a requirement that primary-aged children exempted from compulsory education have to study certain core subjects for an examination at the age of twelve; that's the law.


I personally part company on this issue. I believe that certain activities are intrinsically boring but necessary to move on to the exciting stuff and some children have to accept it. Of course, one wants to alleviate the boredom, but it is necessary to teach children that they cannot only do things they find interesting.


See my previous point. I would argue that you are not presenting the subject/activity well to your child. If you role-model the approach that a thing is worth doing even if it is disagreeable, then half the battle is won.


Appreciate that and this is what this forum wants! There are plenty of other forums to discuss the underlying science I have mentioned: what counts is the daily experience of parents who love their children.

Cheers
Martin