Little Red Schoolhouse, Talbot County, MD, Author Shopkins91, (CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported and GNU Free Documentation License)
Unschooling (to be distinguished from homeschooling) is a controversial educational philosophy which has gained rapid popularity online, and allows children to direct their own learning [1][2]. A rosy picture is painted of care-free learning, without pressure, stress, structure, or restrictions.
The assumption is that children pursuing only the subjects which interest them will learn more naturally and easily. The corollary assumption seems to be that subjects of little immediate interest to them will be of no later use.
Some parents are not even teaching their children to read or write, and are actually proud of that fact.
The Rousseau Connection
Whether its proponents are aware or not, unschooling derives loosely from the writings of an 18th Century philosopher. In his work Discourse on Inequality, Jean-Jacques Rousseau proposed that human beings in their “natural” state were inherently peaceful, egalitarian, and good. They had simply been corrupted by civilization.
This idea has great appeal to those who believe wholeheartedly in Darwin’s theory of evolution. It suggests that a return to Eden is possible, a return to innocence and union with nature. All we need do is discard the trappings of civilization – trappings like law and formal education.
Unfortunately, this is nonsense, spiritually and otherwise. Innocence and ignorance are not the same.
Literacy Highlights
Literacy has been prized by civilization for thousands of years [3]. We denote pre-history as such because literacy did not exist. All knowledge had to be passed down orally.
The Sumerians wrote on clay tablets. The Egyptians wrote on papyrus. The ancient Greeks and Romans wrote on almost anything to hand: papyrus, wooden boards, wax tablets, and leather scrolls.
During the Dark Ages and long after, literacy was confined to an elite. Those who could not read or write labored or plundered. They signed contracts with an “X” and were bound by their terms.
The Bible was first translated from the Latin Vulgate into English by John Wycliffe around 1382 AD, and was significant in spreading the Gospel to the English speaking world [4][5]. William Tyndale completed a translation from the original Hebrew and Greek in the 1520s, and was martyred for it [6].
The prevalence of literacy in William Shakespeare’s England is reflected in his plays and poems [7]. Reading skills were common, though writing less so. Shakespeare, himself, had read the Greek biographer Plutarch, the Italian poet Giovanni Boccaccio, the English chronicler Raphael Holinshed, and many others [8].
Literacy played a critical role in political discourse before and during the American Revolution [9][10]. Books, pamphlets, newspapers, and other writings were used to spread the idea of independence, as well as lay the foundation for that concept.
Anti-literacy laws existed in many slave states before the Civil War which prohibited teaching blacks to read or write [11]. Punishment ranged from fines and flogging to imprisonment.
Following the Civil War, there was tremendous effort by freed slaves to establish black schools, hundreds of which were burned during the Reconstruction Era [12][13]. There was a reason for this violence beyond the hatred and revenge of former slaveholders. It was a political tactic. llliterate people can be more easily controlled.
Not until 1954 did the seminal and hard fought Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education finally hold that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional [14]. That is an achievement which should not be lightly discarded.
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[1] Healthline, “What Is Unschooling and Why Do Parents Consider It?” by Eleesha Lockett MS, 9/27/19, https://www.healthline.com/health/childrens-health/unschooling.
[2] PureWow, “Unschooling Is the Latest Controversial Parenting Trend on TikTok, But Does It Actually Work? Experts Weigh In” by Alexia Dellner, 5/1/25, https://www.purewow.com/family/unschooling-trend.
[3] Encyclopedia Britannica, “Education in the earliest civilizations”, 10/26/25, https://www.britannica.com/topic/education/Education-in-the-earliest-civilizations.
[4] Evidence for Christianity, “When was the Bible first translated into English from the original languages?” by Dr. John Oakes, 12/27/09, https://evidenceforchristianity.org/when-was-the-bible-first-translated-into-english-from-the-original-languages/.
[5] Wikipedia, “Bible translations into English”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_translations_into_English.
[6] Encyclopedia Britannica, “William Tyndale”, 10/2/25, https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Tyndale.
[7] Bardology, “Literacy in Shakespeare”, https://www.bardology.org/literacy-in-shakespeare/.
[8] Thought Co., “Shakespeare’s Sources” by Lee Jamieson, 5/11/25, https://www.thoughtco.com/main-shakespeare-sources-2985252.
[9] Encyclopedia.com, “Literature and the Arts in the Revolutionary Era”, https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/educational-magazines/literature-and-arts-revolutionary-era.
[10] National Children’s Book and Literacy Alliance, “Literacy and the American Revolution” by Renee Lyons, 6/30/23, https://thencbla.org/2023/06/30/literacy-and-the-american-revolution/.
[11] Wikipedia, “Anti-literacy laws in the United States”, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-literacy_laws_in_the_United_States.
[12] American Experience, “Schools and Education During Reconstruction” by Eric Foner, Clarence Walker, Ed Ayers, Russell Duncan, Ted Tunnell, and David Blight, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/reconstruction-schools-and-education-during-reconstruction/.
[13] The Reconstruction Era, “At Least 631 Black Schoolhouses Were Attacked During Reconstruction” by Patrick Young, 12/20/21, https://thereconstructionera.com/at-least-631-black-schoolhouses-were-attacked-during-reconstruction/.
[14] Encyclopedia Britannica, “Brown v. Board of Education”, 9/26/25, https://www.britannica.com/event/Brown-v-Board-of-Education-of-Topeka.
This series will conclude next week.
The Federal Govt. has frozen childcare funds to all 50 states in light of an ongoing fraud investigation in Minnesota.
See, https://abcnews.go.com/US/hhs-freezing-child-care-payments-minnesota-after-fraud/story?id=128793851.
FOR MORE OF MY ARTICLES ON POVERTY, POLITICS, AND MATTERS OF CONSCIENCE CHECK OUT MY BLOG A LAWYER’S PRAYERS AT: https://alawyersprayers.com
ANNA WALDHERR A Voice Reclaimed, Surviving Child Abuse and More 
I had never heard of this before. As someone that has had more than my fair share of negative experiences with a terrible public school district, nobody will get judgement from me on a desire to go to private school or take up homeschooling. However, “Unschooling” seems a fundamentally flawed side-show to legitimate grievances. If literacy isn’t even prioritized, I’m not sure what possible beneficial outcomes any advocate for it foresees! No pun intended, but this has been quite an education for me!
I hope your 2026 is off to a great start, Anna!
May 2025 be a good year for all of us, Scott.
Challenging subject, Anna, with lots of nuance. I only went to school a couple of years growing up. I am totally self taught. My parents believed no education at all was best. It was not good. I was desperate to understand the world around me, why I was here, what other people experienced, and I had no access to any of that, not to mention there was no socialization.
However, later when my own kids went to public school we eventually pulled them out and did alternative home school hybrids and self taught programs. It was wonderful.
I guess I’m a big fan of self directed learning which is a bit different than unschooling. I think there are some real misconceptions in this country like if we don’t send kids to get educated, kind of like a software download, they are just going to be illiterate. Shoot, we know that’s not true because half the time we send kids to public schools and they come out barely able to read.
So I lean a bit towards the natural learning, self directed camp. Of course, a big part of it probably has more simply to do with the amount of energy the adults around put into it. If you’re reading, your kids are going to want to be reading. If curiosity is embraced and kids have access to the resources they need learning will happen.
I am a great believer in education — whether via public school, private school, homeschooling, or self-education. Lincoln was largely self-taught. Too often our public schools today are inadequate or, worse yet, politicized. But unschooling is not the answer.
I agree
Unschooling like gentle parenting is NOT effective at creating productive members of society.
satan’s lies are many and varied. I believe he was self-educated. Therefore, I suppose it depends on who the teacher is and who the student is. Everybody is going to get an education in life of some type. It depends greatly on what the personal agenda is. I think the choices are greater now than at any other time in history. However, opportunity and interest may drastically reduce choice. A very interesting article.
wow I learned things from this
I’m glad. Too many are swallowing wholesale whatever they find on social media. Trending “must” be good.
There’s so much problem with social media and information and misinformation!
I agree that freedom in education sounds appealing, but completely abandoning basics like reading and writing can lead to serious consequences. Another interesting article Anna!
Many thanks, Anna.
Unschooling sounds rather extreme to me. It is well established that overloading children with excessive amounts of knowledge can dampen their interest in self-education later in life and even hinder their ability to apply what they have learned. That said, some degree of structured schooling remains necessary.
In my view, the most effective way to teach children is to awaken their curiosity. There is also the matter of individuality: every child is different. Ideally, there would be one teacher per child for each subject—but that is clearly unrealistic. At the other extreme, a hundred children per teacher might make sense from a budgetary perspective, yet it would be devastating for educational quality.
My personal approach with my children is therefore simple: rather than urging them endlessly to acquire new facts, I encourage them to learn how to connect and combine the knowledge they already possess. But frankly, I have never been completely sure about the soundness of this my strategy, which is in a process of constant development. Thus I’m open to new advice.
I attended a parochial grammar school. It was difficult for my working class parents to afford even the meager tuition. But they considered a religious education important. I now realize why.
There were something like 63 children in my first grade class, so discipline was strictly enforced. I loved school as a girl but rankled at the authoritarian aspects, especially as I grew older. There was a public library a mile or two away from home, and I read voraciously which expanded my horizons and greatly enriched my education.
My foster daughter (who, also, loved learning) attended a public high school in Philadelphia without books her final year there. False alarms were common, since the possibility of fire got children out of class. There were so many teen mothers that childcare had to be provided on site, in order to prevent the girls dropping out. Despite that, some 22% of Philadelphia high school students do drop out. Only 44% of those who graduate go on to college. Half of them never finish (left with nothing but student loan debt for their efforts).
No school is perfect for every child. Much depends upon the individual teachers — their love for children and learning, and the resources provided them. There is no question that school discipline too rigidly enforced can be stifling, and worse. But children learn self-discipline from this, something vital to their success in life.
To deny children an education is, in my view, a crime. Every child will be drawn to the things that interest him or her. But no child can make an informed decision, if he or she is not exposed to a variety of subjects. And no child can become a well-rounded adult without that.
Education is meant to enlarge the mind; to increase our understanding of the world, and the way it functions. It involves more than memorizing certain facts, whatever the subject. It requires the development of reason and judgment.
I will be saying more about this in my next post. But — for what it’s worth — I think your approach with your children is precisely the right one, Hubert.
Wishing you always the best,
A.
It sounds it must have been difficult, Anna. My parents were far from wealthy as well, but at least in Germany tuition is largely free. Even so, your experience helps explain the origins of the resilience I’ve come to admire so deeply in you.
Your comment also filled in some gaps in my understanding — one of them being the role of self-discipline. While joy in life and emotional growth often arise from doing things we enjoy and that bring us fulfillment, self-discipline seems to draw its strength from doing what we do not enjoy. In my experience, even the most beloved pursuits contain their less glamorous parts, and only a person accustomed to enduring the unappealing aspects is able to carry them through to completion.
Life seems full of paradoxes: to achieve fulfillment in what we love, the strength to see it through is often forged in the haunted forest of daily tasks we would rather avoid.
I’m happy to hear that your foster daughter has finished school. I don’t recall seeing her mentioned in your blog, but I assume that’s a matter of privacy — which I fully respect.
Hearing about the teenage mothers, I can only imagine how difficult that must have been for them. I sincerely hope they have all found capable partners, as parenthood can be demanding even within a complete family and with established careers.
Worth mentioning is a schoolmate of mine from trade school, who trained as a car mechanic. He married in his teens, as his girlfriend was pregnant at the time. He went on to work in his trade, supporting his spouse while she completed college. Daycare consumed a considerable portion of their income. We still meet occasionally, as we live in the same city.
I wholeheartedly agree with your views on education, and I’ll continue trying to apply them with our own children. That said, they seem to be approaching puberty at a rather alarming pace — God help us 🙂
Wishing you all the best as well, Anna, and have a pleasant evening 😊
H.
I so appreciate your kind words, Hubert. 🙂 I know you have had many difficulties of your own to overcome. But you are clearly a resilient man, not to mention a wonderful father.
FYI, my foster daughter’s story (actually my first mentee, the child of my heart) is explored on my other blog A Lawyer’s Prayers, under the subheading “Like Rain on Parked Cars”. It begins at https://alawyersprayers.com/2024/06/09/like-rain-on-parked-cars-chapter-1-aretha/, if you’re ever interested.
Thank you Anna for the link – I’ll definitely find some tome to read it.
I hadn’t heard of “unschooling” as rising in popularity. How naive, and what a great disservice to children!