My sister-in-law pointed me to a great blog post today that was written by a kid who was unschooled his whole life, and then decided to try going to school. I really love reading experiences from unschooled kids so I thought I would share it. I found the comments about socialization interesting since often that is the biggest concern others have when they hear about unschooling or homeschooling. (Which I find funny, since the point of school shouldn’t be socialization.) His comments about friends echo what I’ve heard from many others, that unschooled kids actually have more time to socialize and spend time with friends, and their time is better spent since they don’t have to worry about homework. (There is, of course, a distinction between structured “school at home”-type homeschooling and unschooling.) My cousin has a few friends who are homeschooled and she says they all have tons of friends and feel sorry for the kids who have to go to school lol. One of my other cousins is a public school teacher and she told me she doesn’t blame parents who decide to homeschool one little bit.
I’m lucky too in that I know a couple of close friends who plan to unschool as well, and there is a large homeschooling network in Victoria where we can meet other kids too. Socialization is the least of my worries. (How my mom will react is one of the biggest concerns. She will flip. Oh well, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. 
) Luckily, my sister-in-law is considering unschooling as well, and if her parents are okay with it I think that may help my mom at least give it a chance. She doesn’t like to be the odd one out.
We’re not even 100% decided yet anyway, we still have lots of time, but it’s definitely what we’re leaning towards. I would have loved to be unschooled as a kid. I know my sisters say they enjoyed school and would have hated homeschooling though. (Though, there is a huge difference between unschooling and homeschooling. I think I would have hated homeschooling too, besides getting to do things at my own pace.) And my children will always have a choice. If she decides she wants to try school, of course we would let her try it out. And if she decided to stay, well that would be okay too.
I’ve included some quotes, but if you’re interested in reading from a teen’s perspective, the whole article is a good read.
The one thing I noticed the first day though, was how little “socialization” time there is. That’s one thing all the kids say, “I get to hang out with my friends!”. Definitely not the kind of “hanging out” I was used to. At that point it seemed like a stupid reason to want to be there.
I also understood why public school kids act like they do. It’s called loss of motivation.
Some personalities are different and can endure 12 years of school plus college, most cannot. Between teachers telling them they’re not good enough, and wasting years of their life on something that doesn’t really matter, they get fried. Most of the time it goes unnoticed too, you just kind of evaporate. I started to feel the same thing happening to me just in those nine months. Every thought you have, dream you want to fulfill, inspiration that strikes you, it all goes on the back burner, and eventually you just forget how to live any other way altogether.
From Kevin’s mom in the comments:
He was also very disappointed at how little socialization there actually is in school and he felt that he could better use his time at home or doing other things. He wasn’t able to pursue his own passions and interests because of all the busy work at school. He missed being able to pursue things on a whim when interest in something struck him. He was overall bored with the experience and felt that it zapped his curiosity about the world. I think it is good to look at all the angles before you make the decision to go to school but you also have to remember that everyone’s experiences with it are different.
And this comment is the type of thing I hear all the time and one of the things that really motivates me to unschool:
And if you ever had the privilege of being around a group of unschoolers you would know how incredible most of these kids are; the most well-rounded, passionate, interesting, kind, open-minded, free-thinkers that I’ve had the pleasure to be around!!
My dad traveled a lot when he was done school. On one of his travels he met a kid whose parents had pulled him out of school to travel with him and he was basically unschooled. My dad tells me that that kid was one of the most interesting eight year olds that he’d ever met and could hold his own on all sorts of topics with adults. I’ve sort of talked a bit with my dad a bit about unschooling, and while he’s worried about the socialization aspect (of course, who isn’t? 
I can’t believe how often that comes up), I think in the end he will remember that eight year old and be really supportive. I only hope the rest of my family will follow suit!
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