S5E94: Unschooling School with Heather MacTaggart

Honey! I'm Homeschooling The Kids

Disruptor [noun] - a person or thing that prevents something, especially a system, process, or event, from continuing as usual or as expected https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/disruptor

Yes, this month we are talking about disruption. I think it is a fitting theme for this past year, don't you? There is a lot of disruption happening all around us and it is not necessarily bad. Change comes from disruption and change can be good. I have often wondered when we talk about change in the education system where we need disruption to be. From the inside or out? In this episode I sat down with education disruptor, Heather MacTaggart to talk about how she sees disruption happening within the system. She says, "If now isn’t the time to redesign an education model built for the industrial age, when will it be?"

Unschooling School

Heather’s obsession is helping to create an education system that actually makes sense for kids, all kids!
She is a social entrepreneur, an educator, and a problem solver. She founded Classroom Connections in 1997 because she was worried about the education system and the kids in it. Since then, Classroom Connections has evolved from a grass-roots resource hub for schools to an award-winning producer of innovative education/training materials that are in use across Canada and around the world. Heather is a firm believer in self directed learning and trust. Currently Heather is working on Unschooling School. The premise is this-

1. Not all kids can attend these enlightened (alternative) schools.
2. We already pay for public education.
3. Not all parents are able to unschool at home.

So what if we made space for change within schools by choosing not to comply with the age-segregated, curriculum-driven, testing, grading, and homework-laden structures?

What if we insisted that our children be allowed to choose what they want to do at school?

What if we let them know that there are lots of different avenues to gain acceptance into College or University or start careers?

What if we revealed to them that marks on a transcript are only one of many options?

In This Episode

In this episode Heather joins me to talk about these possibilities, what Unschooling school means and why she is disrupting education. We explore;

• The importance of learning things we are interested in
• Allowing kids to be in charge of their learning
• Brave parents are disruptors
• What would it look like to unschool school?
• The two factors that are paramount in both parents and kids to Unschool school
• What would society look like if we had consent in our learning and education?
• The Free Learner program and support for families that are interested in Unschooling School

Resources

Unschooling School

Facebook

Classroom Connections

Change It Up

Peter Gray

Sudbury Valley School

FHREE.org

If you would like to listen to episodes featuring people and places mentioned in this episode, check out my interview with Peter Gray and my interview with Daniel Greenberg of Sudbury Valley School.

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