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Politics & Community Interview

The Unschooled


The Interviews by William "Upski" Wimsatt with Unschoolers:

Anna Fritz

Mavis Gruver and Friends

Solon Sadoway

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Most educators would consider me a school success story. After Sister Fransella praised me in the first few days of kindergarten for being able to differentiate between the words "meat" and "meet," I was hooked. From that point on I relished the feeling of achievement that comes with having the right answer, being the first to raise your hand, and, of course, receiving good grades. I didn't work hard -- I just became adept at giving teachers exactly what they wanted. This pattern continued throughout grammar school, high school, and well into college.

Throughout my academic career, I wasn't aware that praise and recognition was my main motivation for doing well. I've only recently begun to understand that. But even in the early years of schooling I observed that as I continued to excel, many friends and classmates fell by the wayside, resigned to never breaking into the A-B grade range. While I knew that many of these "school casualties" were intelligent people, I was too busy making the honor roll and basking in middle school glory to worry about them.

High school cemented the classifications of the previous eight years. I was put into honors classes with other students like me. Most of my friends were placed in the "average" classes, and a few were consigned to the "slow learners" program. Through identification and separation, school continued to etch into our minds that some people are good learners and some aren't so good, and once your status is determined there's not much you can do about it.

And so we continued on. A few of us attended "prestigious" colleges, others went to "decent" colleges and universities, and some didn't go to school at all. We could have predicted that it would turn out that way. After twelve years we had been conditioned to see our paths as foregone conclusions, necessary outcomes of the education process. None of us thought to stop and ask: "Why does school have the authority to judge intellectual talent? Have we really learned anything, or have we merely been educated?"

That's why I'm so excited to present these interviews on unschooling. As politicians and experts argue over teachers unions and voucher systems, no one is questioning the assumption that compulsory schooling helps students learn. I hope the following ideas will, at least for a moment, make you doubt the value of "education" as it is traditionally defined. I realize that unschooling is not the right thing for everyone -- most of us are finished with school anyway. But by questioning the motivations behind state-regulated, mandatory education, perhaps we all can learn something for a change.

-- Anthony Qaiyum


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