Life Learning: Lessons from the Educational Frontier.

The philosophical divergence between the institutional school system and the unschooling movement is described in these texts. The first text, Life Learning, is an extension of the assumptions delineated above through a compilation of essays from unschooled individuals and parents of unschooled children. Life learning is distinguished from homeschooling and is defined within the essays as the process of learning experientially by being actively engaged rather than learning in a classroom environment. The essays depict personal philosophies of public education dilemmas, personal narratives of life learning success stories, as well as the importance of allowing children to actively experience life.

The second text, Challenging Assumptions in Education, demystifies five common assumptions about education: (i) education is something that is done to you; (ii) knowledge belongs to a cult of experts; (iii) others know best what children should learn; (iv) schools provide effective education; and (v) schools have a noble purpose. The author proposes that the use of prescribed curriculum and standardized assessment is detrimental to learning and stifles children’s natural curiosity. She notes that education should emphasize metacognitive skills and be directed by the learner, with the adult acting as facilitator of active learning experiences. The author further criticizes the assessment process and teacher certification, and states that society should hire practitioners in various fields to teach practical skills. The author concludes with a list of proposed radical changes to improve public education.

These thought-provoking texts challenge the reader to reflect on the limitations of the hierarchical public school system. The changes proposed in both books would, however, require a societal paradigm shift and complete overhaul of extant education organization. Furthermore, despite common criticism of the pedagogical values of unschooling, the movement is portrayed in an exclusively positive light. The reader would likely be further compelled to reflect critically and objectively on the debate of public education versus unschooling if the strengths of public education, and the limitations of unschooling, had been treated in these texts. Nonetheless, whether the reader is an unschooling or public education advocate, these books require the reader to question the significance of confining learning to school walls.