Unschooling Dads

"This is an important book. I'm glad you have it and are about to read more. It will help make many children's lives wonderful. When the parents relax enough to see the wonder in their children, then their own lives will improve. As each life is made richer and more peaceful, the family grows lighter, and happier." - Sandra Dodd, from the Foreword. By current standards the world over, unschooling is a radical educational practice based on radical philosophical concepts. Should children really be given the freedom to pursue their own academic interests? The unschooling dads who have written for this book answer that question with a concerted "YES!" Discover their reasons for choosing this most unconventional of approaches to education for their children. Unschooling Dads: Alan Southgate * Art Carden * Chris Moody * Danilo Cuellar * David Friedman * David Martin * Earl Stevens * Edwin Stanton * Gregory Diehl * Jeff Till * Jeremy Henggeler * John Durso * Mike Durland * Pace Ellsworth * Parrish Miller * Peter Gray * Phillip Eger * Rob Nielsen * Ron Patterson * Skyler Collins * Terry McIntyre * Thomas Knapp Also available in Kindle, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, and HTML for free, here: http://unschoolingdads22.com

This volume explores unschooling as a growing phenomenon within the broader field of home education and considers the unique position of parents who engage in this self-directed form of education with their children. Drawing on an in-depth hermeneutic phenomenological study, the volume investigates the double consciousness of parents as they balance the costs/benefits of unschooling and navigate the roles of leading/following and parenting/teaching in the education and upbringing of their children. The author conceptualizes unschooling in the context of curriculum theory and situates it within the larger home education movement. By highlighting the fluctuating, (un)divided position that parents assume, the volume examines how learning and living are rendered inseparable in unschooling, thereby revealing unschoolers’ experience of a curriculum of learning-through-living. This book will be of great interest to researchers, scholars, and postgraduates working across the fields of curriculum studies, parenting and family studies, and the sociology of education.

Education has become synonymous with schooling, but it doesn't have to be. As schooling becomes increasingly standardized and test driven, occupying more of childhood than ever before, parents and educators are questioning the role of schooling in society. Many are now exploring and creating alternatives. In a compelling narrative that introduces historical and contemporary research on self-directed education, Unschooled also spotlights how a diverse group of individuals and organizations are evolving an old schooling model of education. These innovators challenge the myth that children need to be taught in order to learn. They are parents who saw firsthand how schooling can dull children's natural curiosity and exuberance and others who decided early on to enable their children to learn without school. Educators who left public school classrooms discuss launching self-directed learning centers to allow young people's innate learning instincts to flourish, and entrepreneurs explore their disillusionment with the teach-and-test approach of traditional schooling.

Newly expanded and revised with essential updates and insights, the third edition of this definitive guide delivers new information on sensory processing disorder and differences (SPD). “The Out-of-Sync Child has become the parents’ bible to [SPD].” —The New York Times Does your child experience sudden bursts of anxiety, agitation, or discomfort, or appear sensitive or sensory-craving without explanation? Is your child clumsier than most children, or unable to discriminate between ordinary sounds, sights, and other sensations? Sensory processing differences, in which the central nervous system misinterprets messages from the senses, are common yet widely undiagnosed in young children today. Often overlooked or undiagnosed, SPD impacts thousands of children from all walks of life. This latest edition of Carol Kranowitz’s renowned and practical guide for parents, teachers, and professionals offers authoritative, research-based information on recognizing SPD and comprehending the diagnosis, and important advice on how to help kids and families cope and thrive. Delivering comprehensive guidance and drug-free interventions, The Out-of-Sync Child is a trusted resource for parents and professionals who want to understand and ease the challenges of living with SPD.

Consequences of the ongoing pandemic have seriously affected educational systems in the U.S. and around the world. School closures and the opportunities or nightmares of remote learning have caused many parents to reconsider options for schooling their children. Alternatives to going back to conventional school are currently hot topics, strongly motivated by growing racism and the social bullying that confront many youngsters and teens in today’s school environment. (New Yorker Magazine, June 21, 2021, "The Rise of Black Homeschooling.") Jean Nunnally’s memoir of her trials and triumphs in unschooling her two children from birth to college provides an enlightening insight into the innate learning ability of humans, showing how self-esteem, trust and personal responsibility were preserved and strengthened for herself and her kids. "Unschooling," the author says, "is the way we have learned throughout time and the way adults learn when they are free to pursue their interests." Her book gives an overview of unschooling or self-directed learning, but so much more. Jean not only did the work, but her son and daughter are proof that unschooling works. They were each accepted in and graduated from prestigious U.S. colleges and testify, in personal reflections at the end of the narrative, to the happiness and fulfillment of their elementary and high school years following their passions, their hobbies, their music, their dreams, often in stark contrast to the struggles with traditional forms their peers were required to submit to. Those unfamiliar with this unique educational approach, a subset of homeschooling, often argue from misunderstandings of the process. “What about socializing with their peers?” “Do I have to be a trained teacher?” they ask. Success Without School offers Nunnally’s disputation of these and other popular myths surrounding the subject. Along the way, Jean Nunnally points out aspects of her own transformation from a traditional background and a corporate career to the lesser traveled path of alternative education. She explains how her view of school changed, and changed her, as she proceeded to unschool her children. She leaves the reader with an encouraging description of the three jobs of an unschooling parent―exposure, facilitation, and modeling; and offers her unique approach to preparing an unschooled teen for college, and the specific challenges that required.

Learn how to acquire a personalized education through self-directed learning, and meet post-secondary entrance requirements.

From the Introduction: The mainstream political, education, and parenting philosophies all have one thing in common: promoting the domination of one group of people over another. In politics, this is the ruling class, i.e., politicians and bureaucrats, over the ruled. In education and parenting, this is teachers or parents over their children. Someone's interest prevails over someone else's, and in these arenas, violent solutions prevail over peaceful ones. The purpose of this book is to question the “virtues” of human relations based on violent coercion, and to promote instead human relations based on mutual consent. For it is under one type or the other that human interaction in all arenas of life necessarily fall. From large-scale social organization and maintenance to the small-scale family unit, it is the position of this editor that peace and prosperity are most likely achieved through relations based on mutual consent. This book should prime the reader to develop an understanding and commitment to the political, social, and life philosophy called “voluntaryism.” Back Cover Endorsements: "A wonderful selection of first-rate essays on one of the most important principles of civilized life—cooperating with people instead of controlling, taxing, dragooning, bullying or bombing them. Bravo, Skyler Collins!" - Lawrence W. Reed, author of Striking The Root, and president of the Foundation for Economic Education. "This collection is especially valuable because it comes from the mind of someone who became convinced of the case for liberty -- and so we have here some of the most intellectually compelling literature of the modern libertarian world. The application to family life presents a serious challenge even to those who embrace political and economic liberty, but puzzle about how to apply these principles in their own life. In this, there is a collection about high thought and real action, and that's a beautiful combination." - Jeffrey Tucker, author of It's a Jetson's World and Bourbon for Breakfast, executive editor of Laissez Faire Books, and former editorial vice president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute. "This book contains a very useful, well-organized, and carefully selected set of essays centered around the idea of human liberty, what Hazlitt called 'cooperatism' [Foundations of Morality, p. xii] and what the editor calls 'voluntaryism.' In addition to covering the basics of politics and economics, the book contains a large number of essays devoted to education and parenting. This decision makes perfect sense, when we realize that our children and the ideas they are exposed to are the greatest hope for liberty in generations to come. I highly recommend this excellent volume, for beginners, activists, and seasoned libertarians." - Stephan Kinsella, author of Against Intellectual Property, and director of The Center for the Study of Innovative Freedom.