[tptacek]

Doesn't "unschooling" mean "unstructured homeschooling"? People who believe in unschooling generally aren't sending their kids to school at all.

I think this might get tricky because "unschooling" is a new-ish term, and is pretty overtly trying to pick up steam as a "movement" or a "sensibility" or an "ethic" and is deliberately being inclusive; no doubt someone on HN is going to chime in and say they're an unschooler who sends their kids to public K12.

[joshkaufman]

I think most people use "homeschooling" in the sense of re-creating a school environment at home - assignments, textbooks, tests, etc. At least one of the parents is expected to take on the role of the teacher, with all that implies.

"Unschooling" does away with most of the conventions of traditional schooling, and tries to give kids as much freedom as possible to explore and learn on their own, under the assumption that kids learn better that way.

There may be more or less structure involved, at the discretion of the parents, but the parent is more of a facilitator and less of an teacher. The theory is that the trappings of school get in the way of actual learning, so unschooling tries to remove as many unnecessary obstacles as possible.

[tptacek]

Yeah I believe you and I'm sure this is all great (as a parent of 2 school-aged handfulls, "good luck with that", as they say).

My point is just that unschoolers aren't sending their kids to a big brick building full of professional teachers.