Best Unschooling Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“Everyone who has ever been to school knows that school is prison, but almost nobody beyond school age says it is. It's not polite. We all tiptoe around the truth because admitting it would make us seem cruel and would point a finger at well-intentioned people doing what they believe to be essential. . . . A prison, according to the common, general definition, is any place of involuntary confinement and restriction of liberty. In school, as in adult prisons, the inmates are told exactly what they must do and are punished for failure to comply. Actually, students in school must spend more time doing exactly what they are told than is true of adults in penal institutions. Another difference, of course, is that we put adults in prison because they have committed a crime, while we put children in school because of their age.”

School Unschooling

Book:Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life

Source: Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life

“We still need to offer more to our children than educational factories with the equivalent of terrible working conditions. We need to offer them a place to really flourish–every one of them.”

School Education Schooling Unschooling Standardized Testing Sudbury Schools

Book:Best Friends, Worst Enemies: Understanding the Social Lives of Children

Source: Best Friends, Worst Enemies: Understanding the Social Lives of Children

“We didn't want our children to waste their time in the same empty rituals of education that we did: passing tests only to forget the subject matter when the grades were given; spending years with passing grades in foreign-language instruction yet being unable to have even a rudimentary conversation in the language outside of the classroom; struggling to learn advanced math skills that were seldom used outside of class; doing lab experiments that were more rote exercises than scientific inquiries. Time and youth cannot be regained, so perhaps, ultimately, the real crisis in education may be one of disillusionment among graduates rather than poor performance among current students.”

School Education Unschooling Homeschool Self Directed Learning

Book:Teach Your Own: The Indispensable Guide to Living and Learning with Children at Home

Source: Teach Your Own: The Indispensable Guide to Living and Learning with Children at Home

“There is nothing to be gained by pretending that academic involvement is necessary, or even always desirable, in the quest for truth and knowledge.”

Truth School Education Knowledge Intelligence Educational Philosophy Educational System Homeschooling School System Unschooling Self Taught Education Reform School Reform Autodidact Autodidactism Public School System

Author:Christopher Langan

“For those of you who may be homeschooled: high school is that four-year asylum where they put teenagers because we have no idea what else to do with them.”

School Education Youth High School Reform Teens Teenagers Homeschooling Unschooling Sad Truth Young People Asylum Autodidact Standardized Testing Autodidactism Standardized Tests

Author:Anthony Esolen

“I no longer believe that the current education system is able to equip our children for a fast-moving future. Technology has evolved so rap-idly in the last five years that to put a child in an education system that was designed for a future that will most likely no longer exist for the majority, seems almost absurd.”

Education Compassion Unschooling Self Directed Learning

Book:JUMP, FALL, FLY From Schooling to Homeschooling to Unschooling

Source: JUMP, FALL, FLY From Schooling to Homeschooling to Unschooling

“For many years I have been asking myself why intelligent children act unintelligently at school. The simple answer is, "Because they're scared." I used to suspect that children's defeatism had something to do with their bad work in school, but I thought I could clear it away with hearty cries of "Onward! You can do it!" What I now see for the first time is the mechanism by which fear destroys intelligence, the way it affects a child's whole way of looking at, thinking about, and dealing with life. So we have two problems, not one: to stop children from being afraid, and then to break them of the bad thinking habits into which their fears have driven them. What is most surprising of all is how much fear there is in school. Why is so little said about it. Perhaps most people do not recognize fear in children when they see it. They can read the grossest signs of fear; they know what the trouble is when a child clings howling to his mother; but the subtler signs of fear escaping them. It is these signs, in children's faces, voices, and gestures, in their movements and ways of working, that tell me plainly that most children in school are scared most of the time, many of them very scared. Like good soldiers, they control their fears, live with them, and adjust themselves to them. But the trouble is, and here is a vital difference between school and war, that the adjustments children make to their fears are almost wholly bad, destructive of their intelligence and capacity. The scared fighter may be the best fighter, but the scared learner is always a poor learner.”

Children Education Learning Schooling Unschooling

Book:How Children Fail

Source: How Children Fail

“Through Unschooling, families rediscover the intrinsic value of spending time together, engaging in shared learning experiences, and celebrating the beauty of each family member's unique journey. It offers an opportunity to break free from the constraints of rigid schedules, standardized curricula, and external expectations, fostering an environment where curiosity, creativity, and exploration thrive.”

Education Learning Education System Homeschooling Unschooling Education Reform School Reform Standardized Testing

Book:The Smartest Kids: Don't Go to School

Source: The Smartest Kids: Don't Go to School

“For most Unschoolers, socialization is not just a box to check—it's a vital aspect of their educational journey. They believe in genuine human connections, fostering relationships that transcend age, wealth, power, and social status. Rather than confining their children to the narrow confines of same-age interactions, Unschooling parents encourage them to engage with individuals from all walks of life.”

Education Learning Education Quotes Education System Homeschooling Unschooling Education Reform School Reform Standardized Testing

Book:The Smartest Kids: Don't Go to School

Source: The Smartest Kids: Don't Go to School

“Unschoolers emerge from their unconventional educational journey with a profound understanding of the real world. They have a diverse range of experiences, engaging with individuals of all ages, backgrounds, and walks of life. Their interactions teach them empathy, tolerance, and the ability to thrive amidst diversity.”

Education Learning Education System Homeschooling Unschooling Education Reform School Reform Standardized Testing

Book:The Smartest Kids: Don't Go to School

Source: The Smartest Kids: Don't Go to School

“This idea that children won't learn without outside rewards and penalties, or in the debased jargon of the behaviorists, "positive and negative reinforcements," usually becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If we treat children long enough as if that were true, they will come to believe it is true. So many people have said to me, "If we didn't make children do things, they wouldn't do anything." Even worse, they say, "If I weren't made to do things, I wouldn't do anything." It is the creed of a slave.”

Children Education Schooling Unschooling

Book:How Children Fail

Source: How Children Fail

“The belief that young people are incapable of making reasonable decisions is a cornerstone of our system of compulsory, closely monitored education.”

Children Play Education Childhood Unschooling

Book:Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life

Source: Free to Learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life

“My goal has always been to inspire in them an ongoing love of learning. To awaken a feeling where their work is their passion, so that they never feel burdened or trapped by meeting their material needs, but instead thrive and experience wealth doing what they love while making a positive contribution to the world. To me that is the truest definition of success.”

Learning Unschooling How Children Learn

Book:Born To Learn

Source: Born To Learn

“I simply stepped out of the way and maintained my courage and my position in the face of constant disagreement, voiced opinion and attack. I held true and I stood my ground. I maintained my convictions and my commitment to allowing them to live in the kingdom of childhood. I protected them from outside influence and allowed their imaginations to soar. I instilled a lifelong love of learning in them and I shared my passion for reading. I allowed them to choose what they wanted to study and I provided the resources for them to delve in, unguided and undisturbed for however long they needed to gather what they believed to be enough understanding to satisfy their own personal drive.”

Learning Unschooling How Children Learn

Book:Born To Learn

Source: Born To Learn

“If the educational system can claim anything consistently it would be that it is masterful at evoking a destructive axis of boredom and anxiety accounting for the increasing levels of mental health problems in young people.”

Educational Quotes Homeschooling Unschooling Self Directed Learning Alternative Education

Book:Jump, Fall, Fly, From Schooling to Homeschooling to Unschooling

Source: Jump, Fall, Fly, From Schooling to Homeschooling to Unschooling

“I’m sure if Socrates were alive today, and had to sit through even a single meeting discussing how to use data to inform instruction, he’d kill himself all over again.”

Education Educational Philosophy Iraq War Homeschooling Unschooling Homeschool Self Directed Learning Alternative Education Operation Iraqi Freedom Iraq Veteran

Book:A White Rose: A Soldier's Story of Love, War, and School