May Palacpac, Artist & Storyteller

I originally posted this as a micro-blog entitled “I THOUGHT YOU’RE UNSCHOOLERS? WHY DO YOU HAVE ACADEMICS?” on social media two years ago, but I thought I’d repost it here because it may be helpful for families who are looking into homeschooling their children.

Yes, we are unschoolers. But let me bust a couple of myths this early on —

Myth bust #1
Being unschoolers doesn’t mean that my kids can’t and must not be interested in the academics.

Myth bust #2
Being unschoolers is not synonymous to irresponsible parenthood.

I know that many think unschoolers are such because they’ve seen videos or talked to disapproving folks about children spending all their days playing video games or just watching TV. The truth is, there are families who are more radical with the approach than us, and that’s fine. Homeschooling is really not a one-size-fits all kind of thing, and even unschoolers are diverse.

What we do not do…

Here’s what we do not do. WE DO NOT impose these books on our children. But WE DO make all these resources available for them. Whether they will use them or not is up to them. They can always tell us they want to use another book or resource, and that’s fine with us. We will do our best to provide it for them and to support them.

WE DO NOT require our children to work on their academics everyday, especially when they are busy working on something else. For example, my eldest son is currently trying to beat the deadline for an animation competition, so most of his time these past few weeks was spent on that and his dance training.

WE DO NOT require them to follow standard curriculum. We support them in what they want to learn. Education for us doesn’t necessarily mean the usual subjects in traditional schools. But if my kids want to study them, they can, because why not??

What we do….

WHAT WE DO is that we inform them of the value of acquiring these knowledge and skills. We also tell them what possible challenges they may encounter if they ditch them altogether.

For instance, if they suddenly decide that the university route is for them, they may have to cram on studying concepts they’ve skipped if they need to take qualifying exams for this pathway. So they weigh in on that.

Homeschooling with our kids is a collaborative process. We let them decide on what they want to learn and how they want to learn them — and when they want to learn them.

Or if they want to learn something out of the norm and in a totally different manner.

And we let them experience the outcome of their decisions.

Oftentimes, they realize that they need to go through some of these academics in order to move forward with their plans. For example, my eldest son, Pablo, started taking Math seriously when he ran into a wall while trying to learn how to program using JavaScript.

My other teenager, Lukas, devours History books to satisfy his craving for it. Oh, how he looooves History!

Or have you spoken to our 14-year old Judah yet? He can talk to you about almost anything, from music to Physics.

So they take these books off the shelves, sometimes begrudgingly, sometimes, excitedly — but always at their pace and at their own volition.

The most important thing in our process, I suppose, is that the boys are learning that although “everything is permissible, not everything is beneficial “(1 Corinthians 23:24).

There were times when they learned this lesson painfully, but there were times when they made some wise decisions and avoided the pains of a wrong one.

As parents, it is our job to guide them and to encourage them towards making the right decisions in life, which we hope they will carry on with them when they live their lives on their own.

What have the boys been up to since then?

Our boys are no longer unschooling but we are still on a radical homeschool pathway. Our eldest is reviewing for GED and is awaiting his schedule at the DFA to renew his passport so he can have a valid ID to present when he applies to take the exams.

He is set on making a career in the performing arts and is at the best place he can be at the moment.

Yes, he is considering furthering his studies in dance abroad or maybe enter a local university that has an undergraduate program in dance, but if he can have his way, he’d much rather go straight into professional dance and choreography after GED.

Our second and third sons are both signed up for the Department of Education’s Alternative Learning System at MyHill-ALS, a community designed especially to accommodate homeschoolers with diverse needs.

Our second is just like his kuya, busy with dance training, performances and competitions, and trudging slowly at his modules. He will most likely take the GED as well, as his goal is to earn a scholarship in a dance school overseas and eventually dance for a contemporary dance company.

But because he has a knack for history and travel, and interested in writing as a profession, as well, I encouraged him to take advantage of the alternative education resources and support of the community at MyHill-ALS.

As for our youngest, he wants to pursue Music and Content Creation, we just do not know yet at what capacity. We encouraged him to re-register for MyHill-ALS to build his portfolio while learning with other alternative learners.

He is actively attending classes in literature discussions, drawing and Math while he works on his portfolio and works on his modules.