Although parents and educators assume that children up to the age of three or so are able to learn what are inarguably life's most monumental tasks, walking and talking, without professional assistance, we stop trusting children to learn when they reach traditional school ages. Unschooling families extend this same trust to children of every age. The inborn curiosity of children, steeped in a rich environment of books, music, talk, natural beauty and art, will lead children to learn. When this learning takes place as a result of the child's own desire, it is enthusiastically inhaled. When a child is able to study what he thinks is worthwhile rather than what someone else has told him is important, the learning becomes active, rather than passive.
True comprehension emerges.
No curriculum,worksheets or TCAP scores necessary. Although some progressive schools, particularly those founded on the principles espoused by Dr. Maria Montessori, allow children a measure of freedom in choosing among a limited number of available materials, most schools shepard students through eight hours of breaking the day up into arbitrary periods of busywork, administrative tasks and teacher- mandated instruction. Quiet time to play, rest,read, think or dream is mostly unavailable and discouraged. Additionally, schools tell children what they should care about and when they should care about it. School-based learning is completely enslaved to the idea of curriculae.