School was an experiment. Meet the control group: ancient yet modern, traditional yet innovative, tried and tested, yet cutting edge… Unschooling has come of age.

As we move from the Industrial Age to the Information Age, schools can no longer compete. History shows that school, not unschooling, is the fad. Schools perpetuate inequality, illegitimate hierarchy, and uncritical obedience. And despite all efforts, we can still predict a child's fate on their first day of school.

But there is another way of educating, where children outperform their schooled peers by all measures: compelling evidence shows that home educated children outshine school students both academically and socially, regardless of income, gender, race, or social class.

Unschooled reveals the parallels between unschooling, online movements, indigenous teaching, and hacker culture. Through anthropology, biology, history and technology, it offers an alternative vision of the future, where freedom, curiosity, and cooperation reign, no child is hindered by their background, and networked communities flourish together.

Demonstrating how school shapes our understanding of democracy, competition, cooperation and socialisation, Rosi Thornton reveals the deep roots of unschooling, and presents a crucial element in an alternative future of purpose and freedom for all. Unschooling is key to unlocking the potential of our world.

Including:

unschooling and democracy competition versus cooperation the question of socialisation unschooling and social class indigenous teaching methods land, language, and identity unschooling and feminism tech, gaming, and the online world

Rosi Thornton

Books