by Jan Hunt

Q. My kids go to a family school. I spend a lot of energy helping them learn about the things that they are inspired by. Am I hurting my kids by letting them go to school? Why unschooling? They seem to just love school.

A. I’m glad to hear that you’re so pleased with your children’s school, and I’m especially happy that you are also helping them to learn at home. You haven’t given their ages, but my guess is that they’re still young. Even the best schools tend to get more structured, and to move further away from what children really need, as they move up in grades.

Research has consistently shown, for example, that in the early grades, most of the questions are asked by the students, but by grades three or four and on to graduation, most of the questions are asked by the teachers. This is an important consideration for two reasons.

First, the best way to learn anything is to explore whatever we’re most interested in at that precise moment. If a child is asked a question, it would be an unlikely coincidence if the teacher guessed what the child’s greatest interest was at that time, and even if the teacher could, it would be very difficult for any teacher to cover all of the students’ individual topics of interest.

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