Why You Should Unschool Your Kids

There’s a Native American story that in some tribes, to know how the tribe was faring, its members would ask:

“How are the children?”

I’ve been in public education in varying capacities for over ten years now. I’ve had my hands on the pulse of America’s youth. I can tell you, it’s not working. We know this.

Since the Industrial Revolution, we’ve had a system that has never produced the results we want. It’s outdated. It’s broken.

We know that kids tests scores have NOTHING to do with their achievement or success in later life. Its been proven time and time again in contemporary research from top universities.

I repeat: how well one does on a test in school is NO INDICATION of future success. So, what’s the point?

We insist that our children be corralled through these institutions that start way too early in the morning, robbing kids of vital and necessary sleep, at a time in their development when it’s crucial. For what? So they can be inside all day and listen to adults talk at them about what they need to know and be able to do to score well on an irrelevant test?

This assumes that children are empty vessels that must be filled up with facts and figures. To what end? So some bald-headed, white guy in Washington can look good and plop his feet on his desk and light another cigar in celebration that his state won over some other country on some test that doesn’t prove anything. Come again?

Although test achievement has nothing to do with future success, our public schools are mandated to do State testing every year. The state is responsible for funding and if students don’t do well, educators and schools are blamed, and in some cases, shut down. Millions of dollars are wasted to ensure, “No Child is Left Behind.”

We’re treating the symptoms, not the disease.

We can’t fix this problem by throwing more money at it. Economics hasn’t fixed it. Politics hasn’t fixed it. It’s not the teacher’s fault.

If there is one thing I know for sure it’s this:

This is a spiritual problem.

It’s a symptom of a spiritually ill culture.

Let me define for you the difference between religion and spirituality, to me.

Religion is man-made. Religion is made up of the dogmas that one must follow.

Spirit is who we are. It’s who and what we are, in our essence.

We are facing a spiritual crisis.

And as long as we don’t know who we really are, we will continue to send our children to soul-less places where they’ll be treated like empty pails waiting to be filled with mind-numbing facts of a past long-gone and largely irrelevant to their future.

We are righteous in our assumptions that we know what kids will need to know and be able to do in the future.

The times are changing fast and we can’t keep up, and kids being born now come in with wisdom and different knowing- we should bow-down to the youth and tease out their wisdom, they are closer to God, are they not, having come from Source more recently than we?

Instead, from the best of hearts and purest of intentions, we unwittingly pass down dogma and ritual because it was ingrained in us. We are trained puppies regurgitating facts of days gone by attempting to control the masses.

We dampen their spirits, confuse them about their talents and insist they conform. We lose out on the magnificence and miracle of soulful living, exuberance, and joy!

If I have to hear one more teacher say to a young person, “You have to do this because when you are older you’ll need to get a job…”

I will vomit in their face, spontaneously. Projectile style.

Plain-walled places with artificial lights are no place for eternal souls.

What I can say to you is that I’ve been on the front lines of our education system.

It’s not more funding, more programs, or anything having to do with more, better or different that will solve this problem.

We need a new paradigm.

As Einstein said, “You can’t solve a problem with the same thinking that created it.”

All I can do is report what I’ve seen and share my truth.

I’m an advocate for kids.

I’m an advocate for transforming soul-less systems.

What can you do?

Take your kid out of school and home school.

Better yet, unschool.

Find an alternative school.

While you are at it, leave your job, too, if it is soul-less work.

We must realize that we are Neo in the Matrix, and we are plugged into a simulator. It’s not real. It’s an illusion. All the hype about the economy and politics and education…it’s dense propaganda at its best.

We are eternal spirits capable of far more than we know and they won’t report that on CNN.

Free yourself from fear. Let go of that which feels void of heart.

Ignorance is not bliss; that steak, though juicy and tasty, isn’t real.

We must break out of the systems.

Start meditating.

Be in your heart.

Know that you are made up of stars.

I leave you with a question today:

Where in your life are you not taking full ownership?

Maybe it’s your job. Maybe it’s the amount of money in your bank account. Maybe it’s your kid’s education.

Join me in claiming 100% responsibility and standing in full ownership of our lives!

Jesus isn’t coming to save us.

We are the ONE. The only. Turns out, Depeche Mode was right, you are your own personal Jesus.

Reach out and touch faith!

If you have questions about how to bring spirited learning into your classroom, I teach yoga, meditation and visualization techniques to young people and teens to assist in enlivening your learning space. visit: https://openmindededucation.wordpress.com/

All my love,

xoxo

Rachel

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