#11/20 Unschooling and Diverschooling – Mexico

“Unschooling” refers to an educational method within homeschooling. It literally means “no school”. The term was coined by Professor John Holt in the 1970s. The basic principle of unschooling is that learning is not separated from the rest of life. The aim of the unschooling family is the personal development of each of its members and the harmonious and peaceful coexistence in the family. Learning is only a desirable side effect of a fulfilled life.
It is described as “child-directed learning or natural learning”. With a lack of schooling, children take the lead in what they want to learn and how they want to learn it.

“Diverschooling” is a term that refers to various ways of facilitating learning for families and teachers who have decided to be out of school, outside the traditional school system. It includes different innovative resources and tools from the past, present and future, such as: – Homeschooling – Unschooling – Flexischooling – Forest school – Journal Schooling – Travelschooling or World Schooling – Bubble groups – Educatiooon 3000 / Pedagooogia 3000 neighbourhood schools – Socratic schools – KTK, Kids Teach Kids – self-learning or self-directed learning – among other proposals.

According to Illich (1970) “Unschooling is an educational method and philosophy that promotes the freedom of children to choose what they want to learn. More specifically, it refers to the process whereby the pupil leaves traditional schooling to adapt to homeschooling.”

“For our family this process was paramount. We had to unlearn and create a new paradigm, to leave the feeling that we had to follow a traditional learning methodology. It was more a process of unschooling our minds of parents raised with experiences of control, fear of failure, obedience without reflection, dual thinking and mechanisation of learning.
For Diego, it was a process of inner healing who, in a few days, reconnected with his essence and became happy again, and for Santiago, it was a process of approaching “learning” harmoniously and respectfully.
We got to know the experiences of other children and families under the unschooling methodology, and we were more and more excited to hear about their experiences and family success stories. At last, we were finding something in line with our children’s way of learning.
And, to give them more support and better attention in an integral way, we incorporated the 7 Petal School for Peace proposal by Educatiooon 3000 / Pedagooogia 3000.

The 7 Petal Unschooling 

We created a plan of daily activities with the implementation of health, hygiene and self-care habits. As regards to learning, this became free, each day they wake up with a different proposal or interest, sometimes they do it together and sometimes individually; sometimes at home and sometimes in places in the community.
We have tried to establish some family learning days, where they are the ones who give us the classes, we do meditations and dialogue circles…”

In this modality, it is essential to respect biorhythms, flexibility in times and plans, openness to creativity, lateral thinking and critical thinking. As companions, we must be willing to be in constant search of innovative information, to practise active listening and be patient with people who are not familiar with this learning modality; going from being educators to co-educators and emotional co-regulators. By establishing the democratisation and collaboration of the family, it becomes our family worldview.

Socialisation takes place at all times and in all contexts. In the park, at the supermarket, at home with the family, on public transport, in the community…

If doubts arise – as it happened to us at the beginning – on how to obtain a primary or secondary school certificate with official value, there are several mechanisms of agreement in the country (Mexico) and above all an international agreement (where many countries are integrated) which give us the possibility of educating in a free way. These agreements are endorsed by the Hague Apostille.

More information about it can be found in the book CurriVIDA (Spanish version) on https://p40005000.info/libros-4000-5000/

Learn more about this wonderful educational topic by tapping or clicking this video tool!

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZq8Q7MLZIw&list=PLRi4zxpT92XuyAME3EawY0oUZGxqAJFJ-&index=10