Why there is no list of unschooling initiatives

Again and again, interested people ask for a list of all existing unschooling initiatives.

They want to choose from it as they would from a school guide. There is a good reason why no such list exists: it would encourage the mistaken belief that unschooling centres are a new kind of alternative school, where you pay for your children to be better looked after and, hopefully, to learn a little more than in ordinary schools.

Most people have hardly any idea what it means to allow children to develop freely. For that requires them to allow THEMSELVES to do so! And they are only able to do that once they have consciously worked through, and to some extent overcome, their deepest unconscious fears, their dependencies and their tendency to constantly hold others responsible (for good and for bad). Once this unavoidable first step has been taken, children can enormously accelerate their parents’ development and need not take the same detours again – provided the adults are prepared to LET the children be in peace and to explore new paths together with them.

Because our school system has so many shortcomings and so many children fall by the wayside, more and more people are interested in alternative solutions. But 95% of the parents who are interested in free learning, free learning groups and so on are unfortunately not there yet! And then disappointment is inevitable: these parents believe they can drop their children off at a place where their emotional well-being is taken care of, and then simply carry on with their lives as before. Naturally, they also expect the school authorities’ requirements to be met – after all, they are paying for it! But that is exactly what does not work: such children are then constantly ill or resist in other ways, because it is about something completely different!

What it is really about can be seen in the few examples that succeed: those suited to unschooling are adults who want to build a new world together, in which competition, performance and money no longer count, but in which what matters is preserving creation, compassion, joy, beauty and the common good. Adults who are prepared to regard every child as their own. Adults who are brave enough to take on trouble with the authorities for the sake of the children’s well-being. Adults who follow their own inner compass, who are at times prepared to be on the go from 5 in the morning until 11 at night, but who are also able to sense when they or their children need a long period of rest.

The children of such inwardly free people need neither fall ill nor resist: they sense that they do not have to look after their parents, because their parents are already on their way towards a shared future worth living. This gives their children the opportunity to unfold their own potential in deep inner connection with their parents. Some of the freely learning children manage to take the prescribed annual exams on the side as well. But you should not rely on that! All the others need brave parents who have already overcome this collective normopathy too and spare their children from it…

Conclusion: People who want to follow the path of self-directed education can only find one another through personal acquaintance and long conversations, join existing communities (and change them in the process!) or found new communities themselves. The idea of advertising or offering places of learning belongs to the old world of consumption… and, at worst, leads back to it!