Intellectually Empowering or Irresponsible?

Irregardless of the family style of homeschooling, I love the picture of the little girl looking up at the sky and I do like this coverage of unschooling.

Oct. 3, 2005 | Celine Joiris has never failed a test. Never eaten crappy cafeteria food. Never been picked last during gym. It's not that she's a supernaturally lucky 16-year-old -- she's simply never been to school. "I like the idea of studying, but school is just like incarceration," she explains. Her brother, Julian, 17, agrees. "My approach is, planning, schedules -- OK. Tests, OK. College, OK. Whatever. But I don't really want to think much about it," he shrugs. "I can't tell you where I'll be in two years."

What's that? A smart 17-year-old without a plan? A bright, middle-class teenager who's not stressing out about SATs and admissions essays? In an era when college prep begins in preschool and adolescents need Palm Pilots to manage their after-school activities, such nonchalance has the power to shock. What about all those stories about home-schooled kids dominating nationalspelling bees and hogging spots at Harvard? Surely "whatever" is not in their vocabulary?

But Celine and Julian Joiris are not your typical homeschoolers -- they are unschoolers, followers of a radical approach to education that rejects not just the routines of traditional school, but the authoritative ideology it represents. [more at the site with a free site pass]