John Bush: Guess who supports unschooling? This famous physicist, economist, and author

He’s a physicist…

Economist…

Law professor…

Famous author…

The son of the Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman…

And he unschools his kids.

His name is David Friedman, and he recently appeared on the LiberatED Podcast with Kerry McDonald to discuss the enormous benefits of unschooling learned from his own experience.

I’m a HUGE fan of David Friedman and his famous book, Machinery of Freedom.

And in the most recent edition of that book, Friedman includes a chapter on Unschooling titled: "Unschooling: A Libertarian Approach to Children."

Here’s what Friedman told Kerry McDonald on her podcast:

"It seems obvious to me from my own education that one learns things mostly when you’re interested in learning them and not mostly when somebody sits you down and makes you learn them."

This is something I’ve been writing to you about for the past couple of days and it feels good to have that point of view validated by a brilliant libertarian.

In case you don’t know, unschooling is self-directed, non-coercive learning that occurs either as an approach to homeschooling or inside of "unschooling schools," such as those modeled after the Sudbury Valley School in Massachusetts, which was founded in 1968.

Here’s what Friedman had to say about unschooling his own kids:

"Unschooling worked for us, but two very bright children brought up by highly educated parents are not exactly a random sample of the relevant population. There is evidence that it works for quite a lot of other people; interested readers may want to look at the literature on Sudbury Valley School, the model that the school where our children started their unschooling experience was built on. There may be some children who would learn more in a conventional school, even children who would enjoy the process more. But, judging by our experience, unschooling, home unschooling if no suitable school is available, is an option well worth considering."

And expanding on the above just a little, he’s also said:

"Judged by our experience, unschooling not only saved our children from having to spend a substantial part of every week sitting in class being bored, it also gave them a better education."

Here’s the really cool part about the Sudbury Valley School and unschooling in general:

Multiple studies on unschooling have proven its benefits.

A 1986 study of Sudbury Valley alumni by Peter Gray and David Chanoff published in the American Journal of Education concludes:

"Although these individuals educated themselves in ways that are enormously different from what occurs at traditional schools, they have had no apparent difficulty being admitted to or adjusting to the demands of traditional higher education and have been successful in a wide variety of careers."

Unschooling has not received the attention it deserves in larger discussions of education (yet), largely because its methods are so completely removed from what many of us regard as "school."

But it’s growing in popularity, as I believe it should.

Unschooling is one of the six models of homeschooling Bluebird and I will teach you at the Homeschool READY Workshop.

It’s a model that’s not right for all families or kids, but can be extraordinary for some.

The beauty of homeschooling is that you can try one model and if it doesn’t work out, you can try something else.

I’ve tried almost half a dozen models as my kids have grown up, including unschooling. Tinkering around to figure out the one that works best for my family.

We’ll show you how to set up your own "homeschooling system" to be flexible and accommodating to your and your children’s needs.

There’s no "right way" to homeschool.

As long as you’re not letting the government indoctrinate your kids, you’re doing the right thing in my book.

If you want to learn how to be a great homeschooler, whether you’ve never done it or are doing it and want to do it better, then join the Homeschool READY Workshop:

https://livefree.academy/sp/homeschool-workshop/

It goes live in 7 DAYS!

I hope to see you there!


John Bush