Unschooling In The Classroom?

I wish I had discovered unschooling long before I did. I was well on my way to a career as an elementary school teacher – and tens of thousands of dollars in debt to get there – when I met and fell in love with Jacqueline and her five wonderful, unschooled children. But even before I met them, I was disturbed by the traditional methods of “classroom management” and “teaching” that I had experienced, and have since been a part of. I wanted to find a better way. Discovering unschooling, and learning the philosophies behind it, helped me to shift my thinking and discover that there *is* another way. However, it is a daunting task to do things differently from the other teachers, to make a classroom more like unschooling.

Sadly, the way schools are structured today, there is no way to bring all of the philosophies of unschooling into the classroom. (Because of expectations, a teacher can’t completely let go of control: the students still need to get to art and music and lunch at the required times, and the children also have to pass the required tests.) However, there are other philosophies that I’ve managed to adapt for use in the classroom. Most important is to see each child as a shining individual. No more lumping students and classes into broad stereotypes: the chatty girls, the challenging boys, the class from hell (yes, a class was described this way to me once!)... I completely tune out teachers who try to tell me these things about their students or other classes. Every student child is wonderful, and I am blessed to know them.

Recognizing this means that I never ever take personally any anger or “disrespect” they might show me. They have bad days like any other person, and many have learned that it is children against adults. As a substitute, I have very little time to change this paradigm, but I do try, in small ways. I listen, really listen, and connect to the students who are acting out in whatever way they’ve learned. I offer them real options, not just “behave or get punished.” I try to make every moment I am with them as fun and joyful as possible.

This doesn’t mean I am a perfect, Mary Poppins kind of teacher, but it does mean that I am honest with them about everything. I let them know the work their teacher expects us to get through, and always try to make it fun. I ask them to follow certain “rules” (raise your hand instead of calling out), but I explain *why* (I can only hear one person at a time, and I do want to hear everything they want to say!), but I don’t give rewards or punishments for following or not following them. And if I get overwhelmed, I let them know. I believe that allowing them to see me as a person too really helps us understand each other.

There are things that happen that I am not happy with, teachers whose methods I wish I could change, schools whose policies contradict my own, and yes, I come home crying some days. Days when students who two weeks into Kindergarten hate school and are already planning to drop out, days when I am an aide in a room where the teacher seems to punish & reward arbitrarily and calls the children Good Boy and Good Girl like pets, days when the hate roiling off a student is so powerful it’s almost palpable... The days I want to give up, because I feel so ineffectual. But thankfully those days are punctuated by days when I have a blast with the class, when I get hugs and drawings and hear, “Thanks for the help; you’re the best sub we’ve ever had.” Then I know, I’ve touched a student’s life and made a difference. I’ve planted the seed of unschooling, shown them that there is another way, and it’s not all adults against the children. I only wish I could somehow get this message to all the other teachers and principles and find a way to make all classrooms more like unschooling.

By: Diana Bukowski

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Diana is a 30-something graphic artist, scrapper, crafter, writer, sometimes disguised as a substitute teacher, trying to figure out how to reconcile my passions with making a living. I live in the country with my partner and our four still-at-home, unschooled kids, three cats, and a Guinea pig. Unschooling