Follow that same kid home on the weekend and you’ll probably find out what it is, because that’s when he’s got the time and the freedom to pursue it. Even the most bored, unmotivated “lump” in the classroom is curious about something. We humans are wired that way we’re curious, inventive, and creative. What unschoolers know is that every child has a thirst for knowledge. But clearly somewhere along the way, he started believing what schools have been peddling for years: that not getting good grades means you’re stupid, lazy or both. In the years I’ve known him, he has taught himself one thing after another – and excelled at all of them. Mind you, this is a man whom I know to be highly intelligent and self-motivated. When my husband and I first introduced him to the unschooling philosophy, his reaction was that he would have been “too lazy” to make a go of it. My brother-in-law, another bright guy, is a perfect example. What amazes me is that even when children do not like school, they still buy into the lies school perpetuates – even the bright ones, like Dr. If he had not been made to go to school, he averred – if he had not been externally pushed to learn – he would have become, in his words, “a vegetable.” He went on to say that he had absolutely no thirst for knowledge as a child, and if he had been left to his own devices, would have just “sat there like a lump”. No, what shocked me was what he said next. That was not the surprising part – lots of successful adults would admit the very same thing. To quote, he hated “every minute of every hour of every day of every week of every month of every year” that he was in school. He confessed that as a kid, he hated school – a lot. But there was one thing he said that I just can’t get over.

Phil did a pretty fair job of trying to understand the philosophy without immediately making it controversial.

In a series titled The Great School Debate, Dr. Phil? He’s the talk show host who’s known for asking his guests, “How’s that working for you?” A retired psychologist, he appears to be a leading authority, dispensing wisdom and practical advice to his guests and viewers.

Radical Unschooling by Dayna Martin