Letters

I just read Daniel H. Pink's article on individualized education: very well done ("School's Out," October). As an "unschooling" mom, I found quite useful his analogy of unschooling to free agency. Both come from a love and appreciation for freedom--freedom to decide what and when you will do or learn something.

Of course, in today's society, people balance freedom with security. More security means less freedom, and typically leads to more consumerism and less self-awareness. Steady job, steady income, steady consumerism. In the traditional school, students learn not to think for themselves, since that is usually trouble for the teacher. They're also not encouraged to understand themselves.

Unschooling is working for us. My two kids, 5 and 7, clamor to read, practice the piano, learn the human skeletal system, and build a Lego village--all without prompting from me. They know they have a choice. They play well with other kids, and have lots of confidence. Schooling moms wonder how I do it. I just smile, knowing the importance of freedom.

Fean Nunnally

Houston, TX

I can't thank Daniel Pink enough for his well-conceived validation of our choices as homeschool parents. I, too, never finished college, but have enjoyed great success in the computer industry, including designing my first ISP in 1994.

I am now in a 9-5 job near Tulsa, Oklahoma. We left the rat race of Denver, where I ran my own Oracle consulting firm in order to make homeschooling a little easier. I am hoping to get back into consulting, but for the time being I am teaching myself guitar, participating in building the tiny Unitarian Universalist Church here, and helping my wife homeschool by teaching the kids music and languages.

Just wanted to say thank you and let you know that you reached someone who is experiencing a personal renaissance because of his family's choice to homeschool.

Peter Hand

Bartlesville, OK

Like Daniel Pink, I am a product of the Ohio public schools of the 1970s. Contrary to "system" advice to learn a trade in joint vocational school, I completed high school in 1978, attended a liberal arts college, and then graduate school. Pursuing the only thing that I have ever been any good at, mathematics, I am now a systems analyst for a large firm.

I agree that free agent learning is preferrable. Don't they say that a year on the job is like four in school? More often than not, however, parents do not have the resources, nor do students have the will, for such a course of action. Parents shouldn't be coerced into sending their children to public or private schools, but they need to be there for some.

My position is this: Public education should not go much beyond ninth or roth grade. At least not full time, as Pink suggests. Public education should concentrate on fundamentals, and allow students to explore their interests independently, with minimal guidance.

Otto Burgess

Dayton, OH

Daniel Pink poses the riddle: If we're so dumb, how come we're so rich? He argues that it is because of homeschooling and free agency trends.

Certainly there have been changes taking place in our K-12 and higher education systems. But whether such changes, which have been confined primarily to the past decade, have propelled the U.S. to a leadership position in the world over the last century is highly arguable.

I suggest that he has overlooked a much simpler explanation for why we do so badly on those tests while demonstrably achieving so much in other arenas (Nobel Prizes, patents, space exploration, scientific discoveries, etc.). Perhaps this gap exists simply because the tests don't matter; that whatever they test does not account for much in terms of life success and creative entrepreneurship. They do test knowledge, but after school one also has to apply and use that knowledge, requiring a lot of skills never covered in those tests.

Compared to other countries, maybe our educational system is much more fluid, flexible, and effective than he thinks. It's certainly less stratified and more upwardly mobile than that in almost any other industrialized country. And let's remember, there is a glass ceiling of sorts in regards to homeschooling in this age of two-wage-earner households: It only works when someone is home.

Bill Barrett

San Francisco, CA

"School's Out" makes homeschooling sound a lot better than I've known it to be. Daniel Pink sees homeschooled kids as "independent learners" full of authenticity who "define success on their own terms." I've seen homeschooled kids coming to college thinking, sounding, and even looking exactly like their parents. This has made me appreciate the positive force of school as a bridge between home and society-at-large. Homeschooling more or less equals provincialism.

Pink also begs questions of how "free agents" will construct civic life. The metaphor takes off from professional sports, and the experience of real free agency there should make Pink and others reassess their enthusiasm. There's little continuity to team rosters, and the quality of play suffers greatly. Fans cannot identify with the transient, mercenary players; all that's left is (as Jerry Seinfeld noted) laundry-what the uniform looks like on different guys, all selfishly trying to pad their statistics to get a better contract. Good luck building a good society on these principles.