Unschooling controversy

 Recently, one of my favorite YouTubers, Hannah Alonzo, switched the theme of her channel from anti-MLM content to anti-influencer content. I honestly like the anti-MLM content better. I’ve had my own “semi-horror stories”, which I haven’t emailed to her yet. She is way behind on those emails. 

Her anti-influencer content only drew me to follow specific influencers that she featured on the series. One in particular is Nara Smith. I had never heard of Nara before Hannah started bashing her and now I absolutely love Nara’s content. 

Then, Hannah did this video on unschooling influencers. 

I’m a huge fan of unschooling, even though I was never an unschooling mom. I had to put my only child in school because I had to work, and my daughter is right for the school system anyway. She would choose to go to school if she actually had a choice. Actually, her dad, stepmom and I did give her a few options to do her senior year at home, but she still chose to go. She spent 8th grade at home due to the pandemic, and fell into some depression because of it. She will graduate high school this year and wants to go to college to major in wildlife biology.

So when I say I am a fan of unschooling, I’m saying it from a perspective of someone who didn’t do it as a parent. I only observed other families from the outside. It’s a form of homeschooling where the kids just follow their interests, and that’s it. They learn everything they need to learn from following their interests and passions. 

I’ve done it with my daughter outside of school throughout the years. When she develop an interest in wildlife biology, I took her to some sanctuaries on weekends. When she was little, I used to practice Strewing with old toys and games that she may have forgotten we had. 

I’ve mainly unschooled myself. I’ve followed my own interests and passions as a way to heal from trauma that came from being an undiagnosed neurodivergent person. It has led to a million wonderful things! 

In Hanna’s “anti-unschooling” video, she features people that aren’t really unschooling at all. She shows a mom basically teaching her son how to grocery shop and what items to pick out “because they’re cheaper”. Actually, an unschooler would just let their kid pick out whatever they wanted within a specific budget. Over ten years ago, Unschooling Advocate Dayna Martin challenged followers in a YouTube video to let their kids just pick out whatever they wanted at the grocery store. My daughter was about 6 or 7 when this happened, and I did it with her a couple of times. I don’t remember exactly what she picked out, but I know the choices got healthier over all each time. I do know she always wanted bananas. 

I fully encourage everyone to “unschool” at least a little bit. Dive deep into your interests and passions, and see what comes of it. Go against societal expectations when making decisions. Do it with yourself and your kids. Check out resources like Dayna’s other channel, and. The Exploring Undchooling Podcast.  A lot of times, influencers (though I do like many of them) will post rage bait, so a lot of what you’re getting when you watch them is inaccurate

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