001 Why the Cages?
“School is a system set up for the system, not the user.” -Peter Arnall, Engineer
Question the System
Before we ever had our first child we knew that marching down the mountainous road of traditional education was not for us. Being from a family full of public school educators, I had a LOT of questions throughout my life. It seemed the underlying theme of all my questions was quite simply, “WHY!?”
I eventually trusted that the adults knew something I wasn’t privy to. I believed the message that I was the problem. I was lazy, dramatic, a weirdo.
And then, when I was preparing to be a mother myself, I stumbled upon the word that changed everything. The word that quite literally made my heart skip a beat. Unschooling.
So why are we so certain about this non-traditional method of learning?
Well, we might question the inverse—how can anyone be so sure about traditional education? This “traditional” way of teaching children was born from industrialization and is a relatively new experiment in human development.
In the end, our decision was made for us—traditional schooling simply feels wrong. To quote Leonardo da Vinci, “Just as eating against one’s will is injurious to health, so studying without a liking for it spoils the memory, and it retains nothing it takes in.”
Raised in Cages
I was valedictorian of my high school class and I would always get people saying things like “Wow, you must be really smart,” and I would half-heartedly thank them. All the while thinking, but I have learned and know absolutely nothing. I can tell you with 100% certainty that I learned more during my time outside of school than I learned in school. I got A’s because I understood how to get A’s. If anything, I learned how to ignore my intuitive feelings, gaslight myself into wasting my life doing things I didn’t enjoy, and believe that my worth was dependent on my willingness to obey and disconnect. And it’s not just me. You sat in your seat when your body screamed, “MOVE”. You silenced yourself when told, no matter how deeply you yearned to socialize with peers. You stared out of the window, jealous of the birds flying by.
“We are so used to being raised in cages that we don’t question its efficacy anymore. Instead of asking how to make the cages more relevant for the new society, why don’t we ask why we even need the cages?” - Judy Arnall
Our family decided we didn’t need the cages. Everything we need, we already have; each other, the earth, and the will to learn.
So after three-plus years of working in the behavioral health field and completing all coursework towards a graduate degree in mental health counseling, I felt ready to have and unschool our first child.
HOWEVER, I don’t believe you need any of this background education or experience to successfully unschool (or wild school) your child.
What you do need:
A belief in your child’s innate genius
The confidence in your ability to form a healthy relationship with your child
The perseverance to boldly prioritize your child’s learning in a way that’s currently deemed “alternative”
What’s Next?
As this blog develops, you can expect to accompany us on our wild schooling journey. Each week, we will be dedicated to sharing with you our unschooling philosophies (and what makes them wild), our experiences, and how we integrate those things you’re worried about like socialization, reading, and mathematics. We look forward to hearing from you and growing a community of parents who are also a little “outside the box”.
You can follow along for a “curriculum” guide if you are an unschooling family (or considering it). You could also subscribe to this publication as someone simply intrigued by the social sciences… someone who wishes to observe our adventures and progress in a case-study-esque way. Or maybe you’re someone who wants to feel validated in your hopes for an education revolution?
Regardless of why you found this publication (and budding community), we’re glad you did. Hope to see you back next week!