School-Free: Letters From Unschoolers

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Letters From Unschoolers

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* A Letter From Nick

Though I doubt I'll ever lose them completely, my memories of what I endured in high school had slowly begun to fade over the last few years... the "Hellmouth" articles brought them flooding back. Schools are designed to crush a student's spirit, and they do an excellent job of it. I recall in my last few years of attendance I would often wake up feeling physically ill, in reaction to yet another day of hell.

Somewhere in junior high I discovered computers, and with them the Internet. My immersion into this world kept me partially sane, and preserved enough of my spirit that I was able to hold out for another two years, but my fascination also caused me to lose even more interest in official studies, and eventually I reached a point where I didn't think I could survive another day. Then, through some miracle, I chanced upon an unschooler's Web site. In all my frustration and hatred for the system, it had never occurred to me that it was actually possible to simply -not go-. What a revelation!

As the page's author suggested, I checked out a copy of the Teenage Liberation Handbook. I read everything but the reference section that day. I gave it to my parents, and they were quickly convinced as well. I did a little legal research (with the help of the 'net and the TLH), and filed the appropriate paperwork with the school district, and in less than a month from having found that site, I walked out the school doors for the last time.

I'm now about to turn 19, and have been employed full-time for over a year, doing tech support and development for a successful ISP/Software company (as well as some Web design and consulting on the side). I recently moved out into my own house, which I share with another unschooled geek. My employer has offered to pay for my furthered 'official' education (more and more colleges are accepting homeschoolers), but at the moment, I'm not too worried about 'preparing for the real world'... I'm already doing quite well in it.

Nick Blanchard-Wright
1999
nickbw@nbtsc.org

* A Letter From Eireann

For those of you who feel school oppresses you, obstructs your learning, and (sometimes) takes over your life, you are absolutely right! I feel that the best thing you can do is get out. I am fifteen years old and an "unschooler". I have been homeschooled all my life, and took a high school course that I got done with in two years. Now I am pretty much free to pursue my personal happiness and the things that I'm passionate about in life. The unschooling movement is growing, and more and more teenagers are dropping out of school and learning on their own every day. A wonderful book to read is the Teenage Liberation Handbook by Grace Llewellyn. You can get it out of the library or order it through Amazon.com. Everyone should read this book, whether you are a teenager who is being oppressed by the school system, an adult who has survived the system, or even a teenager who has already left school. Good luck!

Eryn
1999
wanderlust@nbtsc.org
http://www.camenaworks.com/Eryn/

* A Letter From Lucy

For me, the TLH was like a beacon of light in a dark sky. I left school when I was almost 12 after bad experiences with a teacher, and this book has often kept me sane in insane moments. It reminded me that it is okay to have bad days, and that deschooling [Ed: the adjustment period after leaving school] takes time. Now it supports me in helping other teens who are either out of school, or planning to leave soon. The TLH has been a bibliography, a bible, a testament and an inspiration to me for over 7 years.

Lucy
1999
pall@ts.co.nz

* A Letter From Noam (updated Jan. 12, 2000)

I have been an unschooler for most of my life, although I attended a Montessori school for kindergarten and the first two grades. School wasn't so bad the first two years, but I hated it during the third year. Every morning when I was woken up for school I was extremely grumpy. When I came home after school, I needed a few hours to just sit and vegetate and de-tox from school before I felt up to doing anything else. This is how I lived my life for most of the second grade. Meanwhile, my mom had been reading John Holt's books and researching homeschooling for many years. She had been seriously considering taking me out of school, especially as she saw how school was affecting me. Near the end of the school year I came down with pneumonia. It's not normal for an otherwise healthy 7-year-old to come down with pneumonia, and what my mom realized was that the stress of school was the cause. I hated school so much that I needed an escape route and getting sick was the only way I could do it. At seven I wasn't verbal enough to express my unhappiness, and I'd certainly never heard of Grace's Teenage Liberation Handbook!! What really prompted my parents' decision to withdraw me from school at that time was seeing how happy and carefree I was at home when I didn't have to attend school, even though I was extremely sick at the time.

I'm 17 now, and I have been in charge of my own life ever since (fortunately with my parents' guidance and support). Up until two years ago I hadn't done any formal academic studies. I've pursued the topics that I've been passionate about, borrowing books from the library whenever I wanted to learn something, and reading everything I could get my hands on. Two years ago I decided that it would be helpful to complete Math 12 and English 12 in case I wished to attend university in the future (which I may or may not do). As I had had no previous experience with academic subjects, I started wish correspondence courses at the grade 10 level and worked my way up. I completed the Math 12 provincial exam last spring, and at the moment I am still working on English by correspondence, as well as Calculus and Physics. Last year I also took three computing science courses for credit at the local community college. My Dad & I talked with the Dean of the Technology Department, and after showing her the work I had completed previously (with high marks) from a course at a private computer college, she agreed to let me attend one course during the first semester on a trial basis. At the end of each semester, I obtained special permission from the dean to take another course in the following semester. At 16, I was almost the youngest student on campus (there was one other unschooler a year or so younger than me taking the music program full time). This year I've decided not to take any college courses in order to have more time to explore the world of computer consulting. Currently, I've been contracted by a friend to do some computer programming and system administration work, and I'm apprenticing with my uncle (who has his own computer consulting business) learning database development. I've also been hired as the computer consultant for a local business, in charge of keeping their office computer system running smoothly.

I'm not sure what I'll be doing in the future. I'll probably take some more college courses next year. Whatever I do in the future, I know that I'm building up a broad base of skills by gaining experience in many different areas. I believe that this will allow me to later specialize in one area should I choose to, or to simply continue learing and working as diversely as I am now. We'll see what the future brings.

Some advice: No matter what your interests are, know that you have the freedom to choose your own path in life. Being in control of your own life may be difficult at times, especially when your parents are non-supportive, but I encourage you to persevere. Follow your passions. Don't feel you must learn something merely because your same-age peers are learning it in school. Above all, take charge of your own life!

Noam Sturmwind
1999
ns@canada.com

* A Letter From Casey

I'm a teenager, and a geek. I remember well what it was like to be shunned in school for being smart. I remember being excluded and made to feel a freak: My way of coping with it was to hide my intelligence under a facade of "cool". I hung out with dumb skateboarder punks, did drugs and had a generally shitty attitude. (Not that any of those are neccesarily related.. but, they were for me.)

I'm fortunate, though: I got out. I took control of my own life and my education, and I've never looked back. I've learned so incredibly much more, just following my natural curiosities and allowing myself to learn about the things I -really care about- (math, bicycles, music, gardening, philosophy, love,metalworking, Linux, interface design.. the list goes on from here to forever). My academic portfolio and SAT score would probably have gotten me into just about any college I chose, but after careful consideration, I opted instead to just keep unschooling, living on my own, and perhaps start a business or two.

My social situation is unspeakably better, too: Ever since I left school at age 15, my friends are people I also -really care about-. I don't have to deal with peer pressure, or the oppressive quasi-fascist school bureaucracy. My friends and I have positive, life-affirming attitudes; not because it's forced on us, but because that's how we really are.

I owe this blissful existence and bright future to a radically empowering, life-changing little volume called the Teenage Liberation Handbook, by Grace Llewellyn. Grace's book showed me what school was doing to my life and what I could do about it, beginning with making an escape plan and talking with my parents. Two years later, the yearly gathering of unschoolers that Grace organises, Not Back To School Camp, gave me connections with brilliant empowered teenagers all over the continent... the beginnings of the current community of friends for which I'm so grateful.

To know what you really want and to go after it is the most difficult and most universally worthwhile thing that anybody ever does. I thank Grace for helping me to do it early on.

Casey
1999
subtext@centauri.independence.net