The Myth of the Lazy Unschooler

Lazy, according to Merriam-Webster is defined as being "a: disinclined to activity or exertion : not energetic or vigorous b : encouraging inactivity or indolence" It's a term I've heard used quite liberally by, of all people, homeschoolers, when talking about their objection to unschooling. Or, to use the word in a sentence: "Unschoolers are just plain lazy because they don't want to do the work to educate their kids." I will note that most of these homeschoolers aren't speaking from experience unchooling or by being acquainted with unschoolers. They are talking about a concept that they have no familiarity with. Like..."all Martians are green" kinda familiarity.

While I am sad that curriculum-based homeschooling (School-At-Home) ever used to be a part of my life, it does give me background knowledge of how the system works. As someone who has come out of that system to embrace unschooling, I know those critics who claim that unschooling equals parental laziness are dead wrong.

It's very easy to let someone else do the thinking for you and pay for their curriculum. I daresay it's lazy - you know, the part that's defined by "encouraging inactivity"? What activity does the parent do aside from pull out the wallet and pay for it? Oh, that's right...wait until the kids are done with the lesson and check their answers against the key. Sure takes a diligent parent to do that now, doesn't it?

As an unschooling parent I actually get off my butt and get out in the world with my kids. Rather than faking wisdom I don't have, I admit "I don't know, let's find out" and then go to the library, the computer, the community or the backyard to seek the answers. I learn Japanese, Mandarin, Arabic, Spanish and Turkish. Because my kids are interested in them and/or want to know more of their heritage. I learn anatomy, physiology, herbalism, allopathic practice. Because my kids want to know what's going on in their father's "mutant" body. I learn fractions, geometry, volume and metric. Because my kids want to build with cob, change a recipe, create outbuildings for animals and learn how to communicate with and understand family and friends. (and did you know that the United States is only one of three countries that haven't adopted the metric system??!) I learn veterinary science, wildlife behaviour/habits, human and animal nutrition and earth science. Because my kids want to take care of their rescue animals, be kind to the animals that share our property, live with the seasons and eat to nurture their bodies. I learn ancient history, Asian history, military history, American history and state history. Because my kids want to know how we as a human race got where we are and be aware of where we're going. Because they want to know why the country they live in is the way it is. Because they see the state and want to know why a name is a name. This is only a fraction of what each day is like for me. Learning, exploring, living life and gaining wisdom for continuing on as we go.

We prefer to find out the answers ourselves and experience things first-hand rather than believing what someone else has to say about it. For every textbook that claims to have the answers, there are double that with different ones. Truth is what you find when you live it yourself, talk to the people involved or see it in person. Accepting for truth what's read in textbooks doesn't encourage action, it encourages laziness. It doesn't encourage the student to see the facts or truth for him/herself. You're not being an active, involved parent because you compare curricula, haul your kids to Homeschool Play Day and get them involved in Scouts or Awana. That's sitting on your butt, letting other people do the hard work. Really.

As I've said before, my kids never say they're bored; my kids are never bored. Period. The only kids I've ever heard say they were bored were School-at-home kids, kids who were educated "on the outside" (public and private school) and homeschooled kids whose parents insisted on feeding them every bit of "learning" they got. That encourages laziness, that encourages inaction and unwillingness to seek answers or life for themselves.

Rather than buy into the myth of the lazy unschooler, I hope you'll either give unschooling a trial run -summer's the perfect time to give it a shot if you're one of those curriculum-happy folks- or get to know some unschoolers in person before making a judgment.