Zero Tuition College (ZTC) is a blog that explains how to replace the 4-year college experience with self-directed learning. Founded by Blake Boles, who designs and leads international adventures and domestic leadership programs through his company Unschool Adventures, Zero Tuition College is designed to show self-directed learners how to skip college and get a higher education on their own terms. From the Zero Tuition College web site:

We are not anti-college or anti-structured-learning. We do believe that:

* college is incredibly expensive,
* too many people have blind faith in the power of the college degree, and
* designing your own education is more satisfying than following the conventional path.

How can the 4-year college experience be replaced? With self-directed learning. Self-directed learning is the art of figuring out what you want to learn and then doing it without the oversight of an institution. Americans were mostly self-directed learners in the 18th and 19th centuries. While everyone is capable of self-directed learning, in an age of powerful, government-supported educational institutions, it’s easy to forget how to do it.

By Joe Burris of the Baltimore Sun

If most [people] think back to their own school experiences, how much of the information you were expected to learn do you know today?” added Conner, an unschooling parent. “We cannot know beyond the shadow of a doubt precisely what our children will need when they are 10, 20, 30 or 80. We do all want what is ‘best’ for our children and we want our children, now and when grown, to be poised to accomplish whatever they may decide is important. This is where unschoolers excel.”

While unschooling parents say the method is growing in popularity, some education experts question its effectiveness.

Joyce L. Epstein, director of the National Network of Partnership Schools at the Johns Hopkins University, had never heard of it. She knew of no research on the topic, “and research would be needed in order to justify it.”

Teri Flemal, director of Quality Education by Design, a New York-based program that helps parents hire personal teachers and build home curriculum, said she believes unschooling has its place. But she says it’s most useful for a child in a crisis transitioning from traditional schooling to home schooling, not as a regular teaching method.

“I’m reading e-mail from unschooling parents who think having their kids remodel their house with them is ‘school.’ I’m sorry, but it’s not,” Flemal said. “Painting, hammering, measuring – hey, that was great in primary school. I love that stuff.

Comments at the site are always interesting.

“I really got a sense of being a self-learner,” he said. “When you’re unschooled, you never stop learning just because you leave the classroom. I know how to seek the information that I want, and that’s huge in college.”

But while he was able to gain a solid fundamental knowledge of English and science, as he spent time with friends he began to realize that there were gaps in his education — such as higher math.

“I was hanging out with my friends, and they were talking about something that had to do with math and I had no idea what they were saying,” he said. “I started working harder to keep up with them.”

Berkowitz said his passion for information technology and the desire to keep up with his friends pushed him to dive into math more seriously than he had. He developed his own curriculum for learning algebra, but found that teaching himself more complicated concepts like geometry were beyond his means.

That realization drove him to a place he had never before stepped foot in — a classroom.

The article specifically asks for comments regarding unschooling:

What do you think of unschooling? Do you think it can work with the right child? Share your comments using the form below.

ht to Judy Aron of NHELD

Ms. Davis first tells us about Nicole Pucket’s family of Washington state:

On a typical day, Ms. Puckett’s childrenwho range in age from 4 to 17 and have never gone to a traditional school might watch a few hours of television, read the Bible, amuse themselves with video games, play with their siblings, practice the violin, or learn Russian. On many days, they’re out of the house visiting museums, going to concerts, or attending theatrical plays.“I believe that each child is gifted, but each has different gifts,” said Ms. Puckett, who sees it as her job to help facilitate the learning that her children choose. “When I see them veering toward something, I guide them toward it. If they’re showing no interest, then we don’t do it.”

This child-led method of home schooling means that what children do during a typical school day is entirely up to them. In an era of increased standardized testing, top-down curricula, and the mandates of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, unschooling is attractive to some parents, who say learning should be a more organic, curiosity-inspired exercise. Advocates say it allows children to become passionate about, and invested in, their own learning.

Ms. Davis also addresses some of unschooling’s critics. Here is just one:

Risks Involved
But critics, including some of those who opt for more-structured home schooling and proponents of “child centered” classrooms in regular schools, say that there are risks involved, and that learning deficits can result from letting children basically learn whatever they want. Nel Noddings, an education professor emeritus at Stanford University, describes herself as an advocate of child-centered education when it is done right. But she said unschooling raises many questions of concern.

You can also listen to an interview Ms. Davis conducted with Jane Powell, a Bowie, Md. unschooler.

All in all I think it is a fair report.

Posted by Mary