Letters.

School's Out

I just read Daniel H. Pink's article on individualized education: very well done ("School's Out," October). As an "unschooling" mom, I found quite useful his analogy of unschooling to free agency. Both come from a love and appreciation for freedom--freedom to decide what and when you will do or learn something.

Of course, in today's society, people balance freedom with security. More security means less freedom, and typically leads to more consumerism and less self-awareness. Steady job, steady income, steady consumerism. In the traditional school, students learn not to think for themselves, since that is usually trouble for the teacher. They're also not encouraged to understand themselves.

Unschooling is working for us. My two kids, 5 and 7, clamor to read, practice the piano, learn the human skeletal system, and build a Lego village--all without prompting from me. They know they have a choice. They play well with other kids, and have lots of confidence. Schooling moms wonder how I do it. I just smile, knowing the importance of freedom.

Fean Nunnally

Houston, TX

I can't thank Daniel Pink enough for his well-conceived validation of our choices as homeschool parents. I, too, never finished college, but have enjoyed great success in the computer industry, including designing my first ISP in 1994.

I am now in a 9-5 job near Tulsa, Oklahoma. We left the rat race of Denver, where I ran my own Oracle consulting firm in order to make homeschooling a little easier. I am hoping to get back into consulting, but for the time being I am teaching myself guitar, participating in building the tiny Unitarian Universalist Church here, and helping my wife homeschool by teaching the kids music and languages.

Just wanted to say thank you and let you know that you reached someone who is experiencing a personal renaissance because of his family's choice to homeschool.

Peter Hand

Bartlesville, OK

Like Daniel Pink, I am a product of the Ohio public schools of the 1970s. Contrary to "system" advice to learn a trade in joint vocational school, I completed high school in 1978, attended a liberal arts college, and then graduate school. Pursuing the only thing that I have ever been any good at, mathematics, I am now a systems analyst for a large firm.

I agree that free agent learning is preferrable. Don't they say that a year on the job is like four in school? More often than not, however, parents do not have the resources, nor do students have the will, for such a course of action. Parents shouldn't be coerced into sending their children to public or private schools...