Sunday, January 9, 2011

Growing Up Unschooled...With Siblings

Growing Up Unschooled...With Siblings

"To me, one of the greatest benefits of unschooling is the relationships I've developed with my family, which I definitely attribute at least in part to unschooling. When in school, siblings spend every day apart from each other, in separate grades, classrooms, and even schools (though seeing as you're not supposed to be socializing in class, I suppose it wouldn't make much of a difference if siblings where in the same class, anyway). Evenings are usually spent doing homework, or spending time with other friends. There's a stigma attached to hanging out with people of different ages, and I've definitely also encountered a stigma to liking family members. To many young people, actually liking a sibling enough to spend time with them just isn't cool."

This 20 year old author expresses her experience growing up unschooled with her sister well. She seems very insightful for such a young writer.

Personally, I grew up on a mountain top with 9 siblings. We were shuffled off to public school against my parent's better judgment, but the law was the law back in the 50's, 60's and 70's. However, our time at home and out of school was spent bonding, learning lifelong skills we would truly need, and developing a camaraderie that to this day is unbreakable. Even as a child to me public school didn't make sense. What we did or learned there was useless to real life application, and relationships were solely based on the one thing we all had in common...attending public school. I've learned it's the socializing you do outside of schooling that matters most and creates the true bonds of friendship and love.

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