Unschooling Teens: Freedom And Education

What is Unschooling?
Unschooling: learning without structure in a non-school environment.

Unschoolers learn by following their interests using real-world experiences. This doesn't mean that if you want to design video games, you should play video games for eight hours a day. No, it means you should start pursuing video game design - whether by reading trade journals, using software to learn how to animate, or working on your plotlines.

What do unschoolers do?
Everything! Some unschoolers start businesses, others do internships, some volunteer or work, some work on building their portfolios for college entrance. Others still use the time to figure out what they are passionate about.

I knew an unschooler once, and they were lazy!
Some families use the word "unschooling" to have an excuse for laziness. True unschooling with never get you a scandalous expose in Time Magazine.

I'm in high school. How can I start unschooling?
The laws are different in every state, and every country. School districts are often not terribly helpful about this, but try anyway. Use the internet, call the family lawyer... The information is out there, just be persistant. Also, states have laws about "drop-outs" - you can "drop out" in some states at 16. You can take advantage of these laws. Just don't call yourself a drop-out. =]

But I want to go to college!
Unschooling is a fantastic preparation for college. Scroll down to the bottom to see my guide to the admissions process!

What is it that you like to do?

As a high schooler, I loved theatre. So I applied to a local invitation-only playwriting group (and got in). From there, I submitted my plays to festivals and drama teachers. After a couple years in the playwriting program, I asked my mentor for an internship and became the first high schooler ever to intern at that theatre. Then I interned on a touring production. After it seemed like I had lived at the theatre for four years, I had a pretty nice portfolio!

Another teen I knew took a ton of horseback riding lessons, horse training lessons, and every other type of horse lesson she could. At the stables, they called her "The Horse Whisperer". She worked her way up to a teacher in her own right, and it gave her an in to equine biology at a local university.

What's your passion? It's probably something you already do! If you're a Scout, think back to the badges you loved. Maybe you love catching tadpoles in the creek - you could volunteer at a nature preserve or the zoo, start a frog breeding business, or teach classes about amphibian biology. Love skateboarding? How about teaching lessons, working in a skateboard shop, painting custom pieces on skateboards, or training to do extreme sport competitions?

With anything you're interested in, there are things you can do. Keep track of what you're up to - take pictures, blog, whatever - and if you decide to go to college, you'll have done the hard work of putting together a portfolio!

I strongly encourage you to check out Grace Llewellyn's "The Teenage Liberation Handbook". You can find it at the library or in stores. It's full of ideas and suggestions.

I started a network on Ning.com for unschooling teens!

Unschooling Teens on Ning

Check it out and let me know what you think!

"So, what do you do all day while normal kids are at school?"

"Are you Amish or something?"

"It's going to be very difficult for you to get into a good college, young man."

"Oh... how do you meet people?"

"I couldn't stand being with my parents that long!"

"But if you were homechooled how did you become smart enough to get into a private college?"

"Do you really know 7 different languages?"

"You don't LOOK weird."

"Oh...you're one of THOSE kids"

"But you must have missed out on so much!"

"Do you resent your parents for doing that to you?"

It happens all the time. In the grocery store, at the post office - anywhere you go during the day, people ask why you aren't in school.

How can you appropriately deal with these famous responses? The way I always did was to smile and excuse myself. How about you? Post your answers below.

You want to unschool but you don't to miss out on the traditional high school scene of Friday night football, prom, and graduation?

No problem.

Sports - spectator
If you have friends in school, go with them to see the game. Or just ask them when the game is. Or go see a college game.
Most colleges have football teams, so you may decide it's okay to wait until college, anyway!

Sports - participatory
Schools will often let homeschoolers enroll part-time, so they can take electives, participate in athletics, use the library, etc. Personally, I was never comfortable with this option because I didn't want the school district to claim me full-time if the rules changed. (Recently in my area, a public high school decided that part-time enrollment was not an option, so you go full-time or not at all. This impacted non-homeschoolers as well - a teen I knew had to go to school full-time when she just needed to pick up one class to graduate.)
But many homeschoolers do enroll part-time and are thrilled with it. If you're in a state that requires state monitoring anyway, it may be a very viable option.
Consider joining a community team - check your local Parks & Rec Department. If your local college (community or university) offers non-credit classes, check to see if they offer athletics. Heck, if they offer for-credit classes, you can take them! For-credit classes are more expensive, though.
If you can't find a class you like, or it's important to you to be with other homeschool teens, ask an adult to teach/coach a class. Community centers often have rentable space (especially for sports like basketball). If you can get enough teens interested, you can even just break into teams at each "class". A group local to me has a co-ed basketball class that meets every week and simply splits the group in half to make teams.
The last (and probably hardest) option is to form your own regional homeschool league. Reach out to the local homeschool support groups (freebie parenting magazines often have lists) and put together a few teams. Depending on your local community, you may or may not have enough interested teens to make this practical.
Of course, if you don't care about competing, you can just get together with friends and horse around.

Prom
Often, homeschool groups will host an annual dance. For some, these are formal, others are basically costume parties, and some are completely informal. Some are teens-only, others welcome the whole family.
But let's assume you want the typical teens-in-fancy-clothes dance.
If you have a friend in school, be their "date" long enough to get in the door. Their real date can have your real date pretend to be their "date" so everyone gets in.
Or find out when the school's prom is and just show up. Hey, it might work!
If you don't want to go to a school's prom, and there are no local groups hosting them, you can organize your own!
Rent a hall (or the community center b-ball court), decorate with streamers, get a local band to play (or hook your iPod to a PA system), charge a couple bucks a piece to get in, and voila!
Sometimes, you can get a homeschooler (or their parent!) to take pictures for free, for the exposure (no pun intended!)

Graduation
Some unschoolers dream about the day they would walk across that stage in a cap and gown, and others really couldn't care less.
By this time, I'm sure you've already checked out local groups to fulfill your tradition needs. No group around? Too expensive to organize a large-scale graduation ceremony?
Consider small, quirky ceremonies. It could take place in your living room, at the park, at your favorite restaurant. Throw a party, make a speech to your video camera, or clink glasses over Chinese food.
Consider whether you really want a huge ceremony - is it because that's the 'real' way to do it, or because you really want it?
Personally, I felt that I didn't need a ceremony to express that I was an adult. I felt that, like my education, my graduation should just be a natural transition in life.

A lot of beginning unschoolers think that unschooling means ONLY living life, but not actively pursuing education through independent study or classes. I disagree.

In my opinion, unschoolers should actively pursue their education through a combination of happy accidents, independent study and classes.

Thinking about actively pursuing education seems daunting at times, right? Well, think about something you're interested in. Guitar, skateboarding, knitting, anything - was that boring, frustrating, and terrible? Or did you not even notice you were learning because you wanted to be doing it?

In my opinion, education should be easy like that. Not to say that it's easy to learn to knit or play guitar, but you should have so much fun that you forget that you're learning something.

Also, when I'm told by unschoolers about their aversion to classes, I ask them, "Have you ever asked for help to do anything?"

Taking a class is simply to learn from a more experienced person - it's easier, it's funner, and you'll learn more. When you learned to ride the skateboard, did you watch videos on YouTube, ask your friends for tips, and/or read magazines? Or did you already know how to do extreme stunts?

There are plenty of classes out there that don't grade the students. So even if you don't like grades, you can take classes.

The key here is to find a class that won't stifle you. Find a nice adult education course (the noncredit classes offered by public universities), take private music lessons, or even take a course at community college.

The other nice thing about unschooling and taking classes is that you're available during the day, unlike other teenagers and even most adults. Because of this uniqueness in my education, I was able to get art classes from college professors with a group of unschooled friends. The professor made a little extra money, my friends and I all had fun. Win-win!

Also, take a look around for homeschool-specific classes. They're often cheaper and cooler than regular classes.

When you write out your high school transcripts, you're going to come up against needing to assign grades. Some unschoolers are really opposed to that, because they didn't evaluate themselves throughout the process. After all, they were unschoolers!

There are three options here:
1) Don't assign grades at all. Some private high schools are like this, anyway. My concern with this method is that colleges won't necessarily feel that an ungraded student could keep up in the college world.
2) Use a Pass/Fail system. This method, while satisfying the grade requirement, will take you out of the running for merit scholarships dependent on your grades. Students who chose this method often have very terrible financial aid packages.
3) Give yourself real A+ to F grades. The colleges I talked to recommended that an unschooler give themselves all A+'s (a 4.0 GPA). After all, if you failed in something, would you really want to tell your college about it?

What do you think? What method do you use?

The GED (General Education Development) is a series of tests determining if you have a basic high school education level.

There is a lot of criticism about the GED. Some say that it is too easy, others claim it's too hard. About 30% of GED test-takers fail, and nearly 70% of those who pass don't fully complete every section.

Some employers look down upon GEDs, because the test, in stereotype at least, is primarily taken by high school dropouts. The test is routinely offered to incarerated criminals and those who live on military bases. In reality, the government looks at the GED as the same thing as a diploma.

Since graduating from homeschooling doesn't give you an accredited degree, if you don't plan on going to college, the GED may be right for you. For example, if you want to go work in a daycare or play music in a bar, you must have an accredited high school diploma.

If you are going to college, check with them and see what they prefer you to do. My college didn't need or ask me to take it. Most colleges won't, either, because incoming students already have to take the ACT or SAT.

Even with the common stigma, getting a GED won't necessarily cripple your ability to achieve. Some of the most famous people in America have GEDs - including Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, David Bowie, Tre Cool (Green Day drummer), and Chris Rock.

To find a test center near you, click here.

It can be difficult to find a homeschool-friendly college.

What exactly IS a homeschool friendly college? Well, this college will treat homeschoolers the same as traditional schoolers. No extra tests, no extra hoops: just your standardized test scores, transcripts and portfolio.

Some colleges claim to be homeschool-friendly but then send you a whole list of requirements specifically for homeschoolers. One college I requested information from requires homeschoolers to complete three years of community college before admittance. But that didn't mean that you got to transfer all three years - you'd be lucky to be able to transfer ONE SEMESTER. Yeah. Not so friendly after all.

Then some colleges will have the same requirements for you as for "normal" kids, but they have no idea what homeschooling or worldschooling is all about. You might end up being the crusader there that educates the admissions staff. This may or may not be a good thing for you - you decide. It's a wonderful opportunity to make the ride easier for future students, but it can be frustrating trying to explain what unschooling is.

In my opinion, the friendliest college is the kind that counselors specifically to help you. The professors are familiar with homeschoolers. The students don't think you're a freak.

Add to the list below of homeschool-friendly colleges.

A common misconception about unschoolers is that they can't go to college. People think this for a multitude of reasons: unschoolers are undisciplined, unschoolers are lazy, unschoolers are just hippies... But it doesn't have to be that way. Just because you unschooled doesn't mean you can't go to college, and even enjoy it!

The place that snags a lot of unschoolers is the admissions process. If you haven't kept track of what you've been doing, it can be hard to explain to the officials how your education is comparable or surpasses the average student's education.

I cannot overstress the important of campus visits. You'll often know within thirty seconds of parking on campus whether it's where you want to spend four years or not.
Talk with the colleges you are interested in. Remember, on those campus visits, YOU are interviewing THEM too! Not everyone wants to be the first homeschool or unschool crusader at a school. If they do not seem open to your education, you might want to consider other colleges - if you don't want to be the crusader, you don't need to be. There are colleges out there that have counselors just for homeschoolers! How cool is that??

Transcripts
Your Transcript, for those who don't know, is a listing of the courses you took. In high school, they keep track of all that for you. As an unschooler, it can be hard to figure out what to put on this paper. As an unschooler, you probably didn't sit down with a textbook with an easy label like "Biology for Modern Students". If you studied biology, it was probably more like a trip to the nature preserve, books from the library, interviewing a vet.... All things that will teach as much or more than sitting with a textbook. But were you thinking of it as "school work"? Probably not. But know that with this process, any time you learned counts.

A big help for me with writing my transcripts was Virtual High School . This organization offers online high school courses, but their whole catalog is online! Which makes it a perfect resource for getting all that wording right!

Here are some examples of homeschool transcripts to get you started:
- Donna Young's homeschool resources Donna Young has several transcript templates that look very similar to official public school transcripts.
- Oklahoma Homeschool resources OK Homeschool has examples of filled-out transcripts.
- Mary Baldwin College admissions A lot of homeschoolers like to use transcript templates from the college of their choice. This one is from a Christian college, so it includes spots to mark down your religious education.

Personally, I looked at a lot of different templates and chose one that I liked, then submitted it to the different colleges I applied to. An important thing to remember is that your parent or guardian needs to sign your transcripts to make them "official". Often schools want the person with the signature to have a "title" - the colleges I talked to suggested "Administrator" or "Counselor".

Portfolio

It's important for an unschooler to have a portfolio to show what they've been doing with their high school years.

Include:
- Your resume, if any
- Recommendation letters
- Any projects (or photos of projects) that you're proud of
- Examples from different "courses" (photographs from "Photography 101", drawings from "Art from Life", writing from "Creative and Imaginative Writing", etc)
- Photocopies or photos of anytime you got media recognition (local paper, etc)

Your general portfolio will be sent with your application. If you want to try out for talent scholarships, you may want to have a specialized portfolio as well.

Remember, your portfolio is how the admissions committee will get to know you. Personally, I believe that the portfolio is where you can put some personality.

More About Recommendation Letters

Get recommendation letters from mentors, bosses, and basically anyone else who has been in charge of you. Usually people are happy to write the letters. Always present your request politely - if they feel you're demanding, you won't get as good of a letter.

These things are invaluable. A good recommendation letter can open a lot of door.

Meeting With Counselors

Even if the school has a history of being fine with homeschoolers, sometimes counselors aren't so savvy. They may ask the same kind of questions about homeschooling as the guy at the post office or the grocery store. The key here is to be the bigger person - respond with dignity and kindness. Besides, it's their job to recommend only the best students to the admission committees, so of course they're going to ask a lot of questions!

One Last Thing

Remember, college is supposed to be fun. And (parents, close your eyes!) you don't have to go if it's not your thing. If you can't stand the thought of college, and you just want to open a record shop or be a professional surfer, go for it! Follow your dreams!

Isn't that what unschooling is all about?

(For more information about unschoolers and college admissions, check out Unschoolers Can't Go To College! lens)

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