We continue our examination of unschooling, a controversial educational philosophy praised on TikTok and elsewhere [1][2].
Literacy in the US
The current literacy rate in the United States is no more than 79% [3]. Most Americans can read at a 7th or 8th grade level. Approximately 35 million read below a 6th grade level.
But 66% of 4th grade children cannot read proficiently. Statistically, 2 out of 3 children who cannot read well by the 4th grade end up on Welfare or in prison.
One teacher recently lamented that 3rd graders do not know their parents’ names or phone numbers; do not know their home addresses; do not know the year they were born; cannot use a dictionary; cannot count physical money; and have difficulty following multi-step directions…all of which makes them enormously vulnerable to kidnapping and trafficking, not to mention difficult to teach [4].
Scientific Literacy
The issue of scientific literacy adds another layer of complexity. A Pew Research survey found that many Americans can answer at least some questions about science concepts [5]. But other concepts are more challenging – and this in an age of explosive scientific growth.
Moreover, scientific literacy requires more than a simple knowledge of the facts [6]. It requires thoughtful analysis and judgment. These are the same processes required for life decisions.
Tastes and Talents
It is unquestionable that children have different innate tastes and talents from one another. Depending on those tastes and talents, some school subjects will be more or less interesting to them, and more or less difficult for them to grasp.
But children are not in the best position to determine what is for their long-term benefit. Left to their own devices, they would eat candy and play video games all day.
A child who enjoys mathematics may later become an engineer or astrophysicist. Yet he or she needs a knowledge of history not only to understand the development of engineering practices and scientific thought, but to function as an informed citizen in society.
A child allowed to focus exclusively on science would miss out on great works of literature which are among the highest achievements of human civilization. A child allowed to focus exclusively on literature would not recognize the DNA molecule or realize that planets orbit the sun.
All children, of course, need instruction in morals and ethics.
Broadening the Mind
None of this is to suggest that academics should be “forced” on a child to the exclusion of other endeavors. Most will thrive as adults outside the halls of academia. Many will make a lucrative living in the trades.
Education is though meant to broaden the mind, not limit it. The more clearly we understand our world, the less likely we are to be ruled by our passions or misled by demagogues for purposes of their own.
Unschooling does a grave disservice to children. If widely adopted, it will do irreparable harm to society, in the long run.
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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] Prosperity, “US Literacy Rate 2025 — Updated Statistics and Data” by Alvin Parker, 9/4/25, https://www.prosperityforamerica.org/literacy-statistics/.
[4] Upworthy, “Teacher lists the 10 basic she says 3rd graders no longer have, and it’s eye-opening” by Heather Wake, 11/19/25, https://www.upworthy.com/10-skills-kids-dont-know.
[5] Pew Research Center, “What Americans Know about Science” by Brian Kennedy and Meg Hefferon, 23/28/19, https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2019/03/28/what-americans-know-about-science/.
[6] National Public Radio (NPR), “Scientific Literacy: It’s Not (Just) About the Facts” by Tania Lombrozo, 9/14/15, https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2015/09/14/440213603/scientific-literacy-it-s-not-just-about-the-facts.
Part 1 in this series was posted last week.
FOR MORE OF MY ARTICLES ON POVERTY, POLITICS, AND MATTERS OF CONSCIENCE CHECK OUT MY BLOG A LAWYER’S PRAYERS AT: https://alawyersprayers.com
A Voice Reclaimed, Surviving Child Abuse and More 
Major nations like the United States and China face the problem of social inequality.
Resolving this is extremely difficult.
Europe has many masterpieces of Youth Literature, but America has few. Could this also be a reason for poor literacy rates?
Being able to encounter wonderful literature as a child is a fortunate and privileged experience.😊🍀
I am sure it’s a major factor.
In my opinion, schooling (or education) has become more of an indoctrination. Schools do not seem to teach anything useful or practical, and instead are misguiding children towards ideologies and philosophies that drift farther and farther from the way of Light and Truth. (My opinion).
There is a great deal of truth in what you say, Francisco. That is probably the reason homeschooling (to be distinguished from unschooling) has increased to such an extent.
But children allowed to focus solely on their area of immediate interest do not know enough to realize what else they may be missing.
I could not know as a child that I would become interested in archaeology and anthropology. Certainly, my parents (whose educated was sharply curtailed by WWII) were unfamiliar w/ those subjects. I could not know that I would come to love great art, and enjoy a wide range of music until exposed to those things. I could not know that I would love the literary classics, and draw life lessons from them. I could not know that I would ultimately go into the law. There were no lawyers in my blue collar family.
That is the point I am trying to make.
And a very good point Anna. I quite agree.
I had no the data on literacy was so poor! Years ago, I took for granted that, with rare exceptions, most people graduated from high school. I was surprised to find out that the real number was much lower than my expectations.
Currently, the graduation rates are increasing, while the capability is simultaneously decreasing (personally, I infer that must mean that standards have been lowered). I assume that ties in with stories like this: https://www.goacta.org/2025/12/stunning-experts-attribute-uscd-remedial-math-surge-to-dei-poor-teaching-methods/
I admire those looking outside the box for solutions–what we’re doing isn’t working. That said, there are such things as bad ideas, and those bad ideas can always make matters worse.
Have a great week, Anna!
You, too, Scott!
Kind of interesting, Anna, I’ve been having a similar debate all week with some people on Twitter (X) It’s not that I necessarily disagree, I just think education has a whole lot more to do with nurturing young minds and setting an example of life long learning that they just naturally want to copy. For example you suggest that if left to their own devices, “they would eat candy and play video games all day.” Indeed they would if they weren’t bonded with their parents, taking hikes, visiting museums, and applying math out in the real world.
You also mentioned how 66% of 4th grade children cannot read proficiently. This is an unfortunate side effect of schooling. Again, that’s a problem that could be easily fixed if we just had better nurturing going on, better parenting, someone who cares whether that kid can read or not.
I guess I’m more focused on how we have all these traumatized kids with unstable homes who aren’t even being taught their own address and you can’t fix that kind of thing by making sure they’ve mastered basic algebra. I’d much rather have a healthy, well adjusted child with some emotional self regulation and relationship skills, than one with the ability to diagram sentences.
I am certainly not arguing against healthy, well adjusted children. How many of the unschooled, however, do you believe will actually spend time “bonded with their parents, taking hikes, visiting museums, and applying math out in the real world”? That privileged few would do well in any school setting.
For each of those, there are tens of thousands without the same benefit — the children of single parents or the working poor, trying desperately to keep a roof over the children’s heads and food on the table. Algebra may not counteract the trauma of poverty. But it and other subjects like it are a lifeline to a larger world.
Education should expand a child’s world, not narrow it. And your post makes that case clearly and compassionately. Thank you for putting this together Anna!
You are very kind, Anna. ❤
Unschooling is a decidedly bad educational philosophy. But is it worse than the public education system as it exists now in the US? There are many bright spots as alternatives available to those “lucky” enough to have someone who cares. But what about those who don’t? And who is pushing this “Unschooling” conceptual philosophy?
Just asking, Anna. This sounds like a new dark spot to me in an already darkening world.
I don’t know who is behind this. The internet allows for anonymity, and far too many seem to swallow anything “trending” as gospel.
If a teenager can make several thousand dollars at the corner on a weekend night selling drugs he sees no value in wasting time going to a school and be bored by “stupid stuff” like learning. If he does get to school, he’s dead asleep from the previous night’s street adventures. I don’t put the full blame on teachers and schools as does most if our indignent adults.
There is an enormous burden placed on our schools, especially those in disadvantaged areas. As you say, Carl, teachers are competing w/ the streets.
I was in the classroom 35 years in Miami, Florida. The most dreadful matters came from administrators who felt they weren’t doing their job unless the entire staff was made miserable every day with endless contradictions and absurdities.
I can believe it. God bless you for your efforts, Carl. I’m sure there were countless children who benefited.
Thank you for speaking on this issue
If it’s feasible, parents should avoid enrolling their high-er functioning (as opposed to high functioning) ASD child in regular, ‘neurotypical’ grade school. Why? Because sound mental health as well as physical security needs to be EVERY child’s right, especially considering the very troubled world into which they never asked to enter — a world in which Child Abuse Prevention Month (every April) clearly needs to run 365 days of the year. And not being mentally, let alone physically, abused within or by the educational system is definitely a moral right.
I’m not unambiguously ASD enough to be considered or seen as disabled autism, and I’m not functional/normal enough to be employable and sociable. Thus, I’ve seemingly always been largely perceived and even (mal)treated as being inexplicably incompetent or (in more crudely inconsiderate terminology) “f—– up”.
Realistically, while low-functioning ASD seems to be more recognized and treated, higher (as opposed to high) functioning ASD students are more likely to be left to fend for themselves, except for parents who can finance costly specialized help.
Perhaps not surprising, I feel that schoolteachers should receive mandatory ASD training, especially as the rate of diagnoses increases. There could also be an inclusion in standard high school curriculum of child-development science that would also teach students about the often-debilitating condition (without being overly complicated).
As a boy with an undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder, my public-school Grade 2 teacher was the first and most physically/emotionally abusive authority figure with whom I was terrifyingly trapped. Though there were other terrible teachers, for me she was uniquely traumatizing, especially when she wore her dark sunglasses when dealing with me.
I cannot recall her abuse in its entirety, but I’ll nevertheless always remember how she had the immoral audacity — and especially the unethical confidence in avoiding any professional repercussions — to blatantly readily aim and fire her knee towards my groin, as I was backed up against the school hall wall. Luckily, she missed her mark, instead hitting the top of my left leg.
Thank you for your input. My heart goes out to you for your experiences.
My foster daughter’s younger son is on the autistic spectrum. Though the law mandates that special needs programs be available to all, she has had enormous difficulty locating a program for him. Either there are long waiting lists, or the schools indicated their staff is not properly trained to deal w/ a special needs child.
Too often, children on the autistic spectrum are simply warehoused.
And thank you.
You’re welcone, and thanx.
It’s an interesting idea and in theory, I certainly think that education systems generally are imperfect, particularly for those who are neurodivergent etc. Also people are so different from one another, and so much learning naturally takes place outside the classroom.
My, take is that a learner needs more than just formal education systems,rote memorization and rigid testing doesn’t really equate to learning!
As you are well aware Anna, I am prone to attempt to break things down to their simplest form. In the case of this subject matter, one can trace the education debacle in America to the progressive breakdown of the home.
When both parents work, or if there is only one parent in the home, there is a severe lack of time spent with the child, as that time is simply not available. As you stated, providing a roof over their heads and food on the table is an all-consuming task that leaves precious little time for nurturing and training in the home.
Add to that the issue of so many young parents today who grew up in that environment have little in the way of parenting skills, and you have a system doomed to failure. My 1st grade teacher daughter could write volumes about the lack of parental involvement in the lives of their children, and the cascading effects in the classroom. Meanwhile, many of those same parents are quick to blame the teacher or the school system for failing their child.
All that to say that no government-backed program is a substitute for a parent, and until we parents gat back to actively “parenting” little will change.
Well said, Ron.
Many people will intentionally conceive regardless of not being sufficiently educated about child-development science to ensure parenting in a psychologically functional/healthy manner. It’s not that they necessarily are ‘bad parents’; rather, many seem to perceive thus treat human procreative ‘rights’ as though they (potential parents) will somehow, in blind anticipation, be innately inclined to sufficiently understand and appropriately nurture their children’s naturally developing minds and needs.
In the book Childhood Disrupted: How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology and How You Can Heal, the author writes that even “well-meaning and loving parents can unintentionally do harm to a child if they are not well informed about human development” (pg.24). … I’ve talked to parents of dysfunctional/unhappy grown children who assert they’d have reared their cerebrally developing kids much more knowledgeably about child development science.
As liberal democracies, we cannot prevent anyone from bearing children, not even the plainly incompetent and reckless procreators. We can, however, educate all young people for the most important job ever, even those high-school teens who plan to remain childless. If nothing else, such child-development curriculum could offer students an idea/clue as to whether they’re emotionally suited for the immense responsibility and strains of parenthood.
Given what’s at stake, they at least should be equipped with such valuable science-based knowledge.
Being caring, competent, loving parents — and knowledgeable about factual child-development science — should matter most when deciding to procreate. Therefore, parental failure seems to occur as soon as the solid decision is made to have a child even though the parent-in-waiting cannot be truly caring, competent, loving and knowledgeable. Because a physically and mentally sound future should be every child’s fundamental right, especially when considering the very troubled world into which they never asked to enter — particularly one in which the parents too often stop loving each other, frequently fight and eventually divorce.
I can hear the distress in your words. But there is no simple answer to abuse.
Education on parenting might be helpful. But countless people are wonderful, loving parents w/o such an education.
And education in childrearing cannot counter human nature. Those who are abusive are not abusive because they lack education.
In a world where knowledge is power, stripping that away from those who need it the most, the young and vulnerable, is dangerous indeed. For all of social media’s benefits, promoting harmful trends is one of its (many) downsides.