Does the unschooling label help or harm?

We use labels to provide shortcut descriptions. We use them to simplify. Yet, they can also complicate. I put the term, unschooling, in the title of this blog. I typically apply the term to my family's lifestyle. I even apply the term, radical, when pressed to elaborate. However, as Wendy Priesnitz says in "Unschooling, Radical Unschooling, or Something Else?," unschoolers don't like to use labels, yet we argue over our own labels.

Some people join together under the unschooling label while others use it to push people away. Rain Fordyce, author of I Am Learning All the Time (Homeschool Adventure Books, 2008), stopped using the unschooling label and felt liberated to live authentically.

When I first heard about unschooling, I felt immediately drawn to the concept and attempted to discover everything I could about the movement. I soon encountered the notion of "radical unschooling." At first I didn't see a need for the additional term, because I had interpreted unschooling philosophy to comprise all of life sans arbitrary lines between schoolish learning and unschoolish learning (a.k.a. all life experience). I continue to interpret original unschooling philosophy in that way, but we now have the concept of "academic unschooling," which came after the broader initial unschooling concept.

Of course, the institution of school, and thus school-at-home, is a relatively new invention. The idea of unschooling is based on life before the invention of school. Parents and other community members have been passing on what they know to their children since the beginning of time.

So how do I identify my family?

We live. We live without school. We live without school-at-home. School takes up a significant place in the lives of the majority of families around me.

When I ate a vegetarian diet as a teen, my boyfriend's grandmother would serve me a head of lettuce with salad dressing. Upon hearing that I did not eat meat, to her mind, I must eat nothing but vegetables. I would politely accept the lettuce, but think to myself, "I eat everything else!" I suspect that when people with school in their lives hear about unschooling, they think we must do nothing but play.

For this reason, I don't think a shortcut label can serve us, at least not yet.

I think I should elaborate

My family learns through life experiences, as well as through direct academic pursuit, as well as through play. We live spontaneously, as well as by design. We take classes, as well as pursue new skills autonomously. We follow a biological clock, i.e., sleeping when tired, as well as a schedule when we choose to make appointments, i.e., classes, play dates, parties. We live flexibly and authentically, adapting to new needs and wants. We live communally and respectfully, aiming for peaceful and contented family relationships. We attend to discord one situation at a time, knowing we need not take disharmony for granted. We continually create our life.

More: Homeschoolers in solidarity regardless of differences