Original subtitles

[ Music ]

Downloaded from YTS.MX

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

Every day, children all

across America wake up and go to school.

It's something most of us have done.

It's something most of our parents have done.

We go to school to learn.

To be educated.

To become good citizens of the world.

But is it still working?

The nature of the school itself,

it's this thing that's removed.

It's an institution, it's bureaucratic

and I don't necessarily think that it is capable of education.

Because it can't embrace everyone's needs.

Are schools keeping up with the times?

We need to embrace the fact that there's technology.

That the role of the teacher needs to change dramatically.

In a world where I can pull out my smart phone

and Google anything I want.

I don't need to have a teacher telling me facts.

What I need is a guide helping me to apply that knowledge.

Most of us have been indoctrinated to believe

that schools are natural.

It's like, how can you learn if you don't go to school?

The idea that kids are this entire human being

and are interacting with the world.

Not just a teacher in a classroom,

is still new to so many adults.

Learning is not the result of teaching.

Learning is the result of the activity of learners.

We're just completely trapped in this idea

that children only learn if they're taught.

In ancient times when we were born,

we came into the world, we just lived.

We lived and learned, and the two weren't separated.

Living and learning are the exact same thing.

There are two essential ways of looking

at the way children learn.

One of them is that you have to force them to learn.

I tell you right now, that unless you get

over your lazy habits.

Come up to the standards I've set for this class.

Many of you will have the pleasure

of repeating this course next semester.

The other one is that children are natural learners.

If you accept the idea that they're natural learners,

then we're not talking about reform.

We're talking about an entirely different way

of approaching things.

[ Alarm Clock ]

Ana, It's time to get up.

I've never liked waking up early.

Or not being able to do things in the morning.

Lily, it's time to get up, sweetie.

School's like something that I always dread going to.

Because you're going to be stuck in a classroom,

sitting there for hours and hours.

Ana, are you ready?

We're going to be late!

School's about to start.

Have you eaten anything?

No.

You don't have time for breakfast.

I'll make you some toast.

We have to leave in like two minutes.

Mom.

Lily, how about you?

Do you think you should have had this done last night?

No.

Go put your shoes on.

You're going to have to finish that at school.

Mom!

Here's your breakfast Ana.

Toast and water.

When we moved to Los Angeles we did a lot of research

about where the best schools were.

And we moved to the town that we're in, because it had some

of the best schools in the state.

It's a lot more expensive to live in this little town,

than we could've gotten in outlying communities.

But the education was really important to us.

Well, the thing about school is, basically you go to school.

And you can hang out with your friends for five minutes.

And then the bell rings and you go to class.

You read out of the textbook.

You answer questions in your workbook.

And then you take a test on it.

And it's basically the same thing every single day.

Like, there's nothing different.

You just get sick of it.

I love the idea of school.

It's a great concept, in theory.

We're all going to go and learn about important things.

But the truth was, there wasn't a lot

of learning that was going on.

The biggest challenge

that public education is facing today is doing things the same

old way.

We're kind of tinkering around the edges.

Changing things here and there.

But we really need a dramatic shift in what happens in school.

We don't need to have everyone come together at the same time,

at the same place, to hear a lecture.

Kids should be able to move

at different rates, at different times.

And there's really no need for us to continue grouping kids

by date of manufacture.

Kids should be grouped by what they learn, what they love,

at the rate they learn and love.

Allowing children to follow their natural curiosity is a

concept that threatens long-held beliefs

about how children's education should be tracked.

I understand taking tests aren't fun.

Too bad [laughter].

We need to know in America.

We need to know whether

or not children have got the basic education.

On January the 8th, 2002,

then President George W. Bush signed,

No Child Left Behind, into law.

Which imposed frequent standardized testing on students

as a means of measuring every one of them.

NCLB stated that by 2014,

100% of students must perform at grade level.

When the first incarnation of No Child Left Behind came out.

I said, okay, well, this will be like the other ones.

It'll kind of go over two or three years.

And people will realize it's a stupid idea,

and it will go away.

And now, a dozen years have gone by, or more.

And it's still there.

A decade of evidence shows that NCLB has failed miserably.

It has neither significantly increased academic performance,

nor reduced achievement gaps.

Even as measured by standardized exams.

And so-called reforms, such as the recently adopted Common

Core Standards.

Have turned many schools into little more

than test preparation factories.

The greatest obstacle to reforming Ed.

is the testing, really.

It's impossible in the current climate,

to engage in innovative practices.

When everyone is pushed to the same standard, which is measured

in the same way by outdated tests.

And we talk about differentiating instruction.

Yet we have a one-size-fits all standardized test.

I just find it shocking that we live

in a country that's imposing something upon children.

That educators know is wrong.

Parents know is wrong.

Children know is wrong.

Even our president knows it's wrong.

Yet we're still doing it.

I went through public education like most of us.

And I really struggled through it.

I mean, I'm a creative type.

I got in trouble in school a lot.

I mean, while other people were doing their normal school work,

I was drawing.

One time, there was a timed math test.

And I had some drawings I wanted to do.

So I drew all over my test.

And I just got in so much trouble because, you know,

I should be doing math, it was math time.

Our kids just come home grumpy, over-worked.

And the craziest amount of busy-homework.

I actually told -- I got in a little trouble for this.

But, I told them to quit doing their homework.

It was really just busy work.

We take children at their most productive time.

When they are so creative.

When they have incredible imaginations.

When they are even visionary.

They can see the possibilities.

Kids can do that.

And we take them and when we institutionalize them

and tell them they have

to do standardized curriculum all day long.

It makes them angry.

You know, and then we have these angry young people

running around.

You know, because they're not allowed to blossom.

We need to really question what we're doing there.

Because I think kids could solve a lot of our problems.

If we just believed in their ability and talent to do it.

And if we just supported them.

Hi Daddy.

Hi.

How are you?

Good. Long time, no see.

Yeah. I usually have Ana and Lily on the weekends.

They spend time here.

They've helped me out a lot.

Like, just putting things back in folders,

or running things around the office.

So what are you looking for right there?

It's chart number 42738.

I remember being really excited about school.

And being really excited to like,

go through those same passages, or whatever.

That my brothers and sisters had gone through.

But I think I liked the social aspect a lot better

than the actual sit down and write a story

or read a book aspect of it.

But, I remember enjoying school a lot.

What homework are you working on?

Something.

Do you have to have a square for it?

She was so excited to learn when she was little.

And I've seen it plummet over the last year or two.

Just not interested anymore.

Not interested in the same things

that she had been when she was younger.

Not interested in the new things that were being introduced.

It just, she just wasn't excited about it.

How was school today?

School.

Some people were being annoying.

One day on the way home from school, Ana said, "Mom,

can I please be homeschooled?"

And my heart stopped.

Like, I didn't even know where it came from.

I feel like I'm not getting as high of scores.

And it's not as interesting anymore.

It really made me start to think

and question what we were doing.

And made me wonder about what other alternatives there were.

I knew a few people that homeschooled.

But I was not going to go that route.

Do you think it's possible to enjoy school

with a different attitude about it?

Do you think there are some people who do enjoy school?

Yeah.

Are they doing something different than you're doing?

I don't know.

And there was part of me that thought,

every kid in America has to do these hard things every day.

Go to school.

Why do you get to be different?

Can you just think about it?

Yeah, I can think about it.

I started to seriously discuss with Thomas and Todd,

the possibility of pulling the girls out of school.

I thought, you know I'm not going to do anything rash.

I'll go talk to the principal.

So we went in there and we told her our concerns.

And you got to understand too,

this is one of the best public schools.

We actually picked El Segundo because, like,

the public schools are considerably better

than other schools in the L.A. area.

So I just talked to her about this whole laundry list

of concerns that I had.

And told her that I was considering some possibilities.

So we're in this meeting, and she was a little shocked.

Because she's like, hold on, this is the best we have.

And you're like, and you're saying it's not good enough.

And that's what we were saying.

My kids don't know where they're going.

They're not enjoying learning.

I mean, kids love to learn.

She agreed that there are a lot of problems

within the public school system.

But it's an old institution.

And they're working to make changes to make it better.

But, they're not going to happen overnight.

We're talking about our kids' lives here.

We cannot wait for you guys.

We can't wait for you guys to get it together.

She told me that if she could wave a magic wand

and make everything all better, she would.

We both really appreciated everything she had to say.

There was one little sentence in there though.

She told me she absolutely does not recommend homeschooling.

And that caught me.

I was curious to know what her reason was.

But I didn't want it to influence my decision.

So I didn't ask why.

As we drove home from the meeting,

I still wasn't really sure what we were going to do.

And I was pretty terrified.

Rejecting the system of education

that most people consider fundamental

to a child's intellectual, social, and civic development.

Is a very difficult choice that more

and more American parents are choosing to face.

Well, I started out homeschooling my oldest.

Because he really didn't fit

into the public school system well, and was very unhappy.

Which was really upsetting to me.

I didn't understand how a kid that was so curious.

And loved to learn so much, could be so miserable at school.

And I just kind of out of desperation, pulled him out.

I was told that they really couldn't help him

for what his needs were.

You know it seemed that he didn't fit the middle

of the bell curve.

You know, he would perform at both ends.

And they weren't quite sure what to do with that.

One of my favorite things is you get a lot

of hands on learning.

And you get to pick your learning styles.

And you get to pick your classes.

And you get to be a little bit more free

than being in a school.

He would go to school and it was

like taking three steps back.

But I was always tiptoeing, you know, around pulling him out.

Even the third grade was, the third grade work was too easy.

So then, I went to homeschool so I could get more hard math.

So far he's loved it.

One of the primary reasons that, you know,

we chose to homeschool is.

Do I want to send my kids off for half of their life?

You know, their half of their awake life, with somebody else?

See, that's the part that you lose.

You lose that connection with your parent

when you go to school.

The parent loses it with the child

and the child loses it with the parent.

And where do you make it up?

There was no way that I was going to put them in a system

that I had seen failing children over and over again.

So I decided to do it myself.

You can create a customized situation that fits any family.

I had to do it.

And when I thought, oh, I can't homeschool.

I'm a single mom.

Like, that's impossible.

How would I possibly do that?

If you open up your mind a little bit,

there's resources available to you and to your family.

That you might not even know that you have.

After Ana told me that she wasn't

as a good of a student anymore.

And I started considering the possibility of pulling them

out of the school, something else happened.

I hadn't finished some of my homework.

So I got something called a homework alert.

Basically, what homework alert is,

is if you don't get it signed

by the next day, you get a detention.

Ana is such a good kid.

She does not do anything wrong.

She has never been in trouble in her whole life.

I couldn't talk for a second.

Like, I didn't want to talk, because I didn't want

to run the risk of crying or anything.

It broke my heart.

And I just thought, she did the homework.

She's supposed to do the homework

to learn something, right?

She forgot to turn it in.

I get that.

But the purpose of education is to learn.

She learned what she was supposed to learn.

She just didn't turn it in.

And I actually wrote an email

to the principal and to the teacher.

And just said, do we really have to do this?

And they both wrote back and said yes.

What really struck, me was that the system of school,

the bureaucracy of school, was really getting

in the way of learning.

Rachel, thank you very much for your insight and comments.

I hear what you're saying, and I understand your frustration.

That was one of the last nails in the coffin.

I just thought, I don't think we buy into this anymore.

[ Phone Ringing ]

Hi there. I have a question for you.

I need to un-enroll my kids from the school.

Can you tell me what that process is?

What I need to do?

I was a little bit nervous,

because I didn't know what we were going to do.

It was like I kind of leapt before I looked.

I had to turn in all their books and sign a couple of forms.

And while I was there, I saw the principal

out of the corner of my eye.

And I was kind of nervous.

Because I knew that, you know,

what her thoughts were about homeschooling.

And she saw me and approached me.

And asked, so what did you guys decide?

What are you going to do?

And I said, well, we're going to homeschool.

She didn't say anything else,

but her facial expression said everything.

And then I left.

Got in the car.

We drove home, we were done with school.

It was like, so liberating, you know.

Like, we had discovered this little secret

that no one else knew.

That we didn't actually have to be compliant and obedient

to this system that wasn't serving us.

The house crickets are part of the true crickets.

Anyone know what those, that family is?

There's nothing secret about homeschooling.

It's been around for thousands of years.

But it started regaining attention in the '60's.

Babies come into the world extraordinarily curious,

eager to learn.

Extraordinarily resourceful and competent at learning.

That they are in the most literal sense

of the word, scientists.

They do exactly what scientists do.

They use the scientific method in making sense

of the world around them.

And then they get to a certain age,

which may be as young as three.

But in any case, the age of school.

And this process is turned off by adults

who think they are now going to direct

and control the learning of these children.

They treat them like an empty receptacles

into which they are going

to pour whatever learning they think they ought to have.

In 1964, John Holt, an Ivy League graduate and a teacher

in alternative schools.

Published his first book, "How Children Fail."

In which he lays the blame for the failure

of schoolchildren squarely on the compulsory school system.

Not surprisingly, "How Children Fail" was

extremely controversial.

And John Holt was soon famous

for rattling the American national consciousness.

Perhaps no one knows more about John Holt

and his work than Pat Farenga.

Here at his office in Boston, Massachusetts,

Pat keeps John Holt's legacy alive.

I got involved with John Holt in 1981.

We were talking and then, you know, so he asked me.

So what do you want to do with your life?

And so, I told him, you know, the honest truth.

Which was that I was thinking of being a teacher.

And he said, why?

And I said, because I like working with children.

And he took his glasses off and he looked at me.

And he said, Pat, if you become a teacher, you're not going

to work with children.

You're going to work on children.

And I couldn't believe it.

What are you saying?

And before I could start my argument, he said,

have you read any of my books?

I said, no.

He said, well, start.

So at that time his book, "Teach Your Own" had just come out.

So I figured, let me start with that one.

I couldn't get into it.

By the second chapter I was pulling my hair out,

thinking this guy is crazy.

Who's going to teach your own?

This is nuts.

And so I remember talking to Peggy,

Peg Durkee [assumed spelling],

his business manager at the time.

And she said, well, why don't you start

with his first book, "How Children Fail."

So I read "How Children Fail."

And it made sense to me.

I got it. And then I was able to engage John

in all these conversations.

By the mid-seventies, Holt had officially given

up on reforming schools.

And instead, turned his attention

to a movement he had been previously unaware of.

Homeschooling.

John hit a nerve.

No one knew that all these people were out there.

And once he realized that these parents from all

around the country were doing it,

but not in touch with one another.

He started, "Growing Without Schooling" magazine.

First issue was August, 1977.

"Growing Without Schooling" magazine helped bring together

homeschoolers from all over the country.

And was the only resource at the time that dealt with the needs

of secular homeschoolers.

Either you were a fundamentalist Christian,

or you were a crunchy granola person.

Those were the people who homeschooled back

when I began homeschooling.

I have seen a lot of shifts in the homeschooling movement

over the last few decades.

Today, no matter where you slice the American pie,

you will see homeschoolers sticking out of it.

In 1980, homeschooling was illegal in 30 states.

Now it's legal in all 50.

And the number of homeschoolers is growing.

Between 1999 and 2012, the percentage

of children being homeschooled has doubled.

Despite this growing trend,

there are many misperceptions about homeschooling.

The general public's conceptualization

of homeschooling is, your kids stay at home all the time.

And you break out a book and start lecturing to them,

and teaching them everything.

Homeschooling happens like, pretty much everywhere.

Like in the car, at the grocery store, on vacation, at home.

Everywhere.

There's so much that the public doesn't understand

about homeschooling.

So, what do you think alternatives are?

Have you heard about homeschooling, for instance?

Do you think that's a viable option for people?

For people who can afford it.

Do you think homeschooling is expensive?

Yeah. Time consuming.

When I say the word homeschooling, what images sort

of come to mind for you?

Sitting around a kitchen table and, you know,

the parents giving the lessons.

Structured lessons.

A parent kind of going through a curriculum

and teaching their kid, you know, whatever grade level.

Actually, I think of a really lonely, isolated child,

to be honest with you.

You need three parents for that.

Are the parents that are homeschooling,

I would assume it's a parent or someone.

Are they certified?

Do they have, are they qualified to educate?

Or if they're not, what makes them think that they're better

than our public or private schools?

That's my question.

When we pulled them out, we had a couple

of soul searching moments.

Where we're like, you feel inadequate to the job.

I mean we're not trained teachers.

I don't have a credential.

I didn't go to school and get a piece of paper

that says I can teach.

But I can teach.

They're my kids.

I know them.

I know their hearts.

I know their souls.

I know them inside and out.

I know what makes them tick.

You don't have to be credentialed to teach.

On Sunday night, my mom told us we have

to be ready for homeschooling.

So we had to be dressed and everything at eight o'clock.

And you had to be at the table.

And we were just going to start.

Okay. So, we'll eventually get some like, you know,

figure out a French curriculum.

Or a French program that we're going to use.

But since we don't have anything yet, we'll just.

We're just going to start learning some words

out of this book that we've always had

and we've never really learned French out of.

So we'll start with la famille.

What do you think that means?

The family.

Very good.

That first morning for homeschooling,

it was just school at home.

It wasn't anything special.

And I was like, what have I gotten myself into?

Any word in French that is feminine gets la.

And any word that is masculine gets le.

I imagined like it would be more I could choose more what I

want to do.

And I could learn how I want to do it.

So my vision of what homeschooling was like,

was that you recreated school at the table.

You were going to have, you know, from eight o'clock

to nine o'clock, you were going to have one subject.

And then you would switch to another.

I didn't really know what we were going to do.

We didn't even know what curriculum we were going

to follow.

There are thousands of options.

And I had intended to learn what those options were

and be prepared.

But I didn't.

So Todd gave them an art lesson.

I want you draw as many different kinds

of lines as you can.

And then we had to take Todd into work.

So, you know, I thought, there's no reason to stop.

So I brought the French book with us

and we kept having a French lesson in the car.

You got to remember, you don't usually pronounce the letter

at the end of the word.

Unless there's an E after it.

So this one is just Ver.

Ver.

Instead of Verte.

Ver.

We dropped Todd off at work, and I didn't know what to do.

So we just got home and kind of called it a day after that.

The girls were thrilled, but I had a big lump in my throat.

Thinking if they were in school, they would still be working.

They would be learning things.

And it was hard for me to just let nothing happen.

There are statistics that say that about 50% of people

who homeschool drop out during the first year.

Often it's because there's an authoritarian parenting style

that's very inflexible.

They're slavishly adhering to a school model for education.

And, you know, it just isn't working in their home.

It's meant to work in a school,

where you can control 30 people with it.

It doesn't work so well in the home environment.

When the student is sitting right there next to you.

Gives you instant feedback, that this is boring, or ridiculous.

Or they don't want to do it, right.

So then, it comes into play.

The parent thinking, oh, my gosh.

I have to force them to do this,

because that's what the parent grew up with.

That's the model that's in their head.

[ School Bell Ringing ]

The model of going to school to learn is relatively new.

Before 1900, most children learned at home

and out in the real world.

In 1837, the State

of Massachusetts formed the first state board of education.

With Horace Mann as its secretary.

Mann believed that everyone was entitled

to the same content in education.

Returning from a research trip to Germany in 1848.

Mann lobbied heavily to have the Prussian model adopted.

He quickly set about establishing a statewide system

of Common Schools, staffed by professionally trained teachers.

His ideas quickly gained momentum.

And by 1852, Massachusetts passed a compulsory

attendance law.

Mann also believed that school could become a great equalizer.

And values such as obedience to authority,

promptness in attendance,

and organizing time according to bell ringing.

Would help students prepare

for future employment, in an industrial age.

And the whole purpose of it is to create a docile,

factory, military workforce.

The whole purpose is to subordinate children.

And get them in that mindset of being subordinated,

so they grow up to be subordinated adults.

This is the poorest class I've had in a long --

Prussian Schooling had been out to destroy the imagination.

In every public library worth its salt, in the United States,

and in every college library.

You will find a collection of essays

by a Prussian philosopher, Johann Fichte.

Fichte said we have to set up a system

of universal forced schooling.

In which we destroy the imagination.

Bells, ordered lessons, constant testing, rankings.

The entire system is designed

to regiment a large group of people.

And to get them all to do the exact same thing.

By 1900, 34 states had compulsory schooling laws.

Half the nation's children attended one-room schools.

And by 1918, every state required students

to complete elementary school.

The reality is, they want children

to take their place in society.

Be cogs, and keep this system going.

So you're going to school to take your place.

Now, the trouble is with your attitude.

You don't pay enough attention in class.

You don't do enough work outside of it.

Our own schooling, in many respects,

did a whole lot of damage to our self-confidence.

And that's what I try to tell people when they look at me

and say, but, you know, I'm not a teacher.

I couldn't possibly do that with my children.

And sometimes they just need some encouragement.

And a little rebuilding of that self-confidence

that was destroyed.

Hello.

Hi.

Hi, come in.

Feeling uncertainty about her decision,

Rachel has made an appointment with a homeschool counselor.

And how long have you been in this new lifestyle?

It's very new for us.

Yeah.

And we're really excited that we're doing it.

But we're not really sure how to do it.

We're kind of paving our own path here, and it's scary.

Yes.

What if we do it wrong?

Those are some of my fears.

Yes.

What if we're closing doors instead of opening them?

When we look at what are some

of the common concerns, the overarching is,

I'm not doing enough.

And I'm going to miss something anxiety.

What do you guys like to do?

I like designing costumes and like,

create characters of my own.

And design costumes and things like that.

So now you have lots of time to do that, don't you?

Is that so great?

I'm really into like, animals and marine biology.

So I really kind of want to take a class on that.

Okay.

Yeah.

So parents really worry about,

I'm living out of the box.

I'm not doing enough, right.

What if I screw this up?

It's like taking all of the parenting worries,

and kind of magnifying them a little bit more.

So you're just probably in an early phase now of saying, okay,

we used to do all these things.

Our life was structured this way.

And now we get to have it structured

in a little bit of a different way.

Okay.

And you're going to be reinventing all the time.

You're going to create a new path.

But that path has so many places for discovery.

You get to change it any time you want.

Michelle advises Rachel

to give the girls some unstructured time before

deciding on a path.

A process called deschooling.

In traditional schooling, it's a lot of top down.

I'm going to tell you to do this.

And this is how you do it, and this is when you do it.

So for the kids, part

of the deschooling process is really allowing them

to find what really is peaking their interests.

Sometimes people will say it's like for every year that you're

in school, it's like a month of deschooling.

I always say to parents, let's just give it lots of time.

I want to give them the freedom to be able

to really explore what they want to do.

But I'm also really nervous.

It's -- I feel like I have a different vantage point

on their lives than they do.

It scares me a little bit to give them too much freedom.

And leave it too much in their hands.

The hardest thing is to get out of your own way.

I call it my school brain, you know.

Every now and then kicks in and starts going, you know, but,

but, they're not interested in this.

But they're this age, and this is what you learn.

You know, and you sort of -- if you can stop that and step back.

And trust that your kids are going

to be okay pursuing what they are interested in.

And then, you're going to have a much easier time of it.

It's hard for me not to judge what my kids are doing.

I heard someone say yesterday, you know,

one of the most important things that you need to do

when you start this process.

Is to let go of expectations.

And I have a lot of them.

I want my kids to be high achievers.

I hear about all these other things

that all these amazing kids have done, you know.

And I want my kids to be those kids.

For this, you'll need a sewing machine,

some light cotton fabric.

Scissors, pins.

>>The difference between school and education and learning.

Is that learning can become all the things

that anyone expected of education.

But learning doesn't separate educational

from non-educational.

And I think no matter what a person learns.

No matter how trivial it seems at the beginning.

It eventually can tie into something or become useful.

Or make that person interesting,

give them their own unique perspective.

And I think any ideas of that's not scholarly,

that's not schoolish, that's not educational.

Separate a person from the world.

What are you doing, babe?

I find that I really want a break sometimes.

I want to have seven hours where I send my kids away to school.

And I feel kind of fortunate

that they do spend some time with their dad.

So I do get breaks sometimes, where some other people don't.

Like the lab slips, or whatever dental fun here.

While you guys do this, I'll go fix up a couple syringes.

The biggest fear for me in deschooling is getting behind

to a point where they can't catch up to those other kids.

Curriculum is maybe a little strong word.

But I really want to give them some sort of structure.

Once they figure out what they want to do, I want to try

and help them achieve that.

As parents, we like, want that security

to know we're doing our best.

Or we're doing what's right for our kids.

And for some reason, we get security in the fact

that they have done their math homework

and their social studies homework.

But like, what did they really do?

You good? I think what they really did isn't as significant

as what they really can do if they're left alone.

If they're really left alone to learn the things

that they're interested in.

They learn them so much better.

Take your cues from the children.

Because they're very innocent, they're very pure.

And that pureness comes through, if your mind isn't cluttered

with a lot of other things going on.

And if you do that, what you need to do gets shown to you.

One of the concerns that I have with homeschooling is that.

Well, how am I going to know if they're progressing,

if they're not taking tests?

How am I going to know that they're learning anything,

if I can't see on a piece of paper

that they got a letter saying that they learned it?

At school, you don't have to worry about these things.

Three months into deschooling, Rachel,

Todd and Thomas are anxious

about what the girls might be missing.

They decide they need to explore what other homeschoolers

are doing.

Hi.

Hello.

I was an elementary school teacher.

And I thought I was going to take my kids to my school.

I worked at a great school that I loved.

And then my eldest did not want to go to school.

And I thought that was very strange.

But I honored that.

And I ended up homeschooling kindergarten, thought,

you can't make or break kindergarten.

Started off very structured, because I was a teacher.

And kind of fell into it, and then kind of liked it.

Like, this is kind of great.

There's a lot of freedom here.

Once I loosened up and realized that kids will learn

when you leave them alone.

So I'll give you guys a cone.

And henna is really like, all about symmetry.

So you can do like flowers and leaves and stuff.

But you want to make sure it's symmetrical.

And always pull towards you when you're doing henna.

Kids don't really learn with paper and pencil a whole lot.

My kids don't.

I mean, they do put pencil to paper.

But that's not how they learn.

But not workbooks?

Tests?

I have them, they're in my house.

And my kids have done them.

But it's not the number one choice

of activity for them at all.

Take the nose and fold it down on the straight line.

They do great things.

And it's not me, it's them.

People say, oh, you were a teacher.

So you can teach them.

And I'm like, I don't even really teach my kids.

I watch them grow and learn.

I don't teach them.

You know, once in a blue moon, I might toss something their way,

that maybe they didn't already know.

But that's pretty rare, actually.

It's more that I actually learn more from them.

They teach me a lot.

I feel pretty ready to phase out of deschooling,

and into something a little more formal and structured.

But I don't know how to do that.

As far as curriculum, there are a few things I have my eyes on.

That I would like to possibly use.

But I want to try and involve the girls

in the decision-making process.

Because I know that if they're not interested in it,

they're not going to do it.

And it's going to be a waste of my money

and my efforts and my time, so.

I think we tried every kind of homeschooling there is.

So we started out with classroom schooling at home.

And we tried, we did some things with a co-op.

We did some structured learning with curriculum.

We did some child-initiated learning.

We just did, really, the whole spectrum.

And different things fit each child at different times.

Still uncertain about which homeschooling path to take.

Rachel and the girls visit another family,

using a much more structured approach.

Called Classical Curriculum.

Hi.

Hi, how are you?

Good, how are you?

I'm Rachel.

Shannon.

The first year I did it, I would fill these schedules out.

This is when we're going to learn Japanese.

I don't know Japanese.

How am I going to teach Japanese?

Okay, I'll just whatever.

It was just ridiculous, really, that we were going

to learn all these things.

And this is how I was going to do it.

And I had my schedule on my wall, and it was impossible.

It was absolutely impossible.

Until I heard about this group called Classical Conversations.

Where mom's come together.

And your kids can play games.

And they can learn songs.

And they can actually have fun ingesting very

important material.

[ Music & Singing ]

Classical Education is a method of training the mind.

In a systematic and structured three-part process known

as The Trivium.

Your girls are right in that middle zone.

Right where they're about to transition

into what they call the dialectic stage.

So they're going to be talking back.

So you want to start saying, okay,

you want to learn how to argue.

Let's teach you formal debate.

What's that look like?

That's what I really love about homeschooling.

Is that I can have discussions with my class.

And I can talk to them about what my opinions are

and I can hear from them.

And understand both sides of arguments,

instead of just being taught one thing.

Or, you know, it's just more well-rounded.

The Classical Method is language intensive,

systematic and rigorous.

Is there a lot of work every week?

There is so much work.

You, like, I don't know.

Maybe it's just because I'm -- like, this is for a week.

This is all my Latin.

I think that the way that they learn,

isn't really the way I would want to learn.

But I can tell it really works for their family.

Yes, so this is the math.

I miss a lot.

And I fail a lot.

And I make lots and lots of mistakes.

But, for the most part, it works.

I don't even -- I think if I did nothing,

and failed at everything.

And everything was a mistake, it would still work.

I don't know what it is about humans.

They want to learn.

So in this beaker, I've got copper sulfate,

in solution, dissolved.

And then, this is just aluminum -- metal.

In stark contrast to the structured approach

of Classical Curriculum,

is self-directed learning, or unschooling.

I've been unschooling my whole life.

And I've got a, you know, great passion

for chemistry and physics.

I've been able to make a little chemistry lab where I can fool

around and be serious.

And learn a ton of chemistry, and do cool experiments.

Unschooling has allowed me to go at my own pace.

So I've been able to really go ahead in all the areas

that I'm really interested in.

And also do -- learn the material itself

in a very different way than I would in school.

The term unschooling is often misunderstood.

It was first coined by John Holt, in 1977.

And came from an unlikely source.

In 1977, the word homeschooling wasn't popular.

But it was out there a little bit.

But he decided that, you know, he wanted to come

up with the word unschooling.

Because what he -- the type of learning he was talking

about didn't have to take place at home.

And it didn't have to look like school.

And at the same time, there was an ad campaign by 7 Up.

And they were saying "We're not a cola.

We're more natural.

We are the uncola."

And I think he was kind of picking up on that.

So he came up with the word unschooling.

Basically, unschooling is using life as the learning tool.

So we're never out of school, because we're never out of life.

And so, it's just using what is happening on a daily basis

as an example of how to learn.

Going to the grocery store becomes, oh, let's, you know,

practice our math skills.

And practice rounding.

Because now we can, the easier way to figure

out how much money we're spending.

Or how much money we have.

So that becomes, you know, a math skill.

I think the difference between homeschooling

and unschooling, is unschooling is full-time,

self-directed learning.

So as a teenager, that means that you are taking the reins.

You are actively directing your education.

And not just doing what mom and dad say.

Or what your friends or your family say.

Basically, what it is,

is allowing your child the freedom and the joy.

To explore their own passions and interests in their own way.

Because they're innately motivated.

I went to public school up until 5th grade.

And at the end of 5th grade, I told my parents,

I'm not learning anything.

Something has to be done if I want to continue my education.

I went ahead and became an unschooler.

And directed my own education,

all the way up until the end of high school.

I started a flower delivery business.

I started a photography business that I ran for six years.

I traveled abroad, and lived in France for four months.

And learned French,

and experienced a new language and culture.

But I still assumed that college was the path to success,

because my parents went.

My peers were going, and society expected it.

I left college after eight months,

because I wasn't terribly impressed

with the quality of the academics.

In May 2011, Dale was selected out of hundreds

of individuals around the world as a Thiel fellow.

The Thiel Fellowship brings together some

of the world's most creative and motivated young people.

And provides them

with a no-strings-attached grant of $100,000.

To skip college and focus on their work,

research and self-education.

With the endowment from the Thiel Foundation,

Dale founded UnCollege.

UnCollege is a social movement challenging the notion

that college equals success.

It's not anti-college.

I love education just as much as anybody else.

I simply think that education isn't limited to school.

Today, at only 22 years old, he is a published author.

And a much sought after education speaker

at events around the world.

I don't think everyone who wants

to unschool will be successful at it.

Some people can't relax.

Some people are not creative.

Some people are not imaginative.

Some people are so controlling.

That if something happens that they didn't plan and execute,

they're not having fun anymore.

They're looking at the world and their children

through school colored glasses.

And they're willing to do other things,

as long as the result looks like school.

And they need to turn their back on that and look

at the world a whole new way.

Trust, of course, is a big one.

Because you have to trust

that your child will learn what they need to learn.

That they're capable.

And that really requires a shift

in your own perception of human nature.

Now, I know some people watching this will probably be

saying, "Well, yeah you know, your child may be good at this.

And if that's all he does, what about his weak points?"

This is not to say that you ignore the weak points.

But there's a lot of happiness to be derived

with these children who are growing up to be

who they are meant to be.

And nobody intervening and trying to make them

into something that they aren't.

Or even worse, trying to make them

like everybody else who is around them.

I just didn't really enjoy going to school very much.

Some of the stuff they did didn't really make much sense

to me.

Every day, these people were bullying me and stuff.

And I wasn't learning much.

Everybody would hang out in like, little groups of people.

Like, you couldn't hang out with everybody in your class.

There was just little groups of like, four people.

And they'd only hang out with each other.

But like, with homeschooling, I get to like,

see all of my friends.

And they don't like, exclude people from certain places.

There's not like, groups of people

and only certain people could hang out with them.

This is my calligraphy set.

My mom wrote a poetry book once,

and I illustrated the pictures in it.

That's one drawing.

Like, some kids in school, they feel really uptight.

And they can't like, express their selves.

And do what they want to do.

And I feel like I could, you know, be around my friends,

and like, act like myself.

I'm more confident that I could go out there

and do what I feel passionate to do with my life.

You learn by just doing, I think.

You know. You don't learn

by having things check-marked and things.

The way you kind of learn how to use a camera,

is toy around with it and figure it out.

I don't really have to hear a bunch of different teachers,

going into different classrooms.

I'm on my own time.

I'm like okay, now I can do math, now I can do this.

Just do whatever I need to do.

And I don't got to worry about cliques or anything like that,

in high school or anything.

It's fun to learn, without having to learn.

And you can just learn whatever you want, when you want.

And if you're not ready for something,

you don't have to do it.

And there's no like, ranks, grades.

Like, you can do whatever you want and work on it.

And if somebody asks me, "Hey,

do you want to learn about this?"

Then I'll usually say yes.

Instead of "You got to do this,

or else you'll not move up a grade."

Well, one of the great things about unschooling,

is that it doesn't prepare children

for a conventional life.

If you want your children to live an extraordinary life.

An empowered life.

A life based in freedom, and creativity, and possibility.

Then it's great that they're not getting the constant message

that says.

You have to jump through all these hoops

in order to succeed in life.

Because there's so many ways to succeed.

And with information so readily accessible,

the path to success and the employment landscape are

constantly evolving.

But I know I have the resources.

I know that everybody has the resources.

Particularly with the internet these days.

Like, you can get anything you need.

I feel like I'm pretty well prepared for anything

that comes along my way.

So many people are stuck in this traditional model of,

you do well in school.

You get a college education.

And then you're going to get a good job.

You know, the new economy has changed all those rules.

I mean, there's so many opportunities right now

for doing things that didn't even exist ten,

fifteen, twenty years ago.

I have a lot of education.

I went to school forever.

So what did I get out of my education?

I got student loans that are crippling.

And I was under the impression that if I stayed in school.

I did everything that my parents told me to do.

That I would be successful.

But that's not the formula.

Although Rachel and Todd remain committed

to homeschooling.

New financial stressors are forcing them

to reconsider their methods.

We are going through financial upheaval.

It's not quite like a crisis.

But we just have a lot going on.

I partner in a video game studio.

And we lost some contracts.

So we couldn't hit payroll for just too long.

And we all just, we acquired some debt and stuff.

But, so I had to get another job.

But I'm kind of working both, because I still want

to keep my studio on track.

But it's just been really tough.

After much consideration, Rachel has signed the girls

up for a local independent charter school.

The reasons that we decided to try

out the charter school was because -- well, it's twofold.

Partly because they give us funding.

That was the main reason.

They give us money for materials or classes.

And I do like the idea of having a little bit of oversight.

I mean, we might explore things that we wouldn't otherwise.

There's a difference between charter schools

and independent study charter schools.

An independent study charter school is basically a

public school,

funded by state, you know, state funds.

But it's for families that want their kids to not be

in the brick and mortar.

To basically learn at home in their way.

Still following state guidelines.

Still having to do the state testing.

But they can do their own style of learning.

They can have differentiated instruction

that they might not have in a regular classroom.

Independent study regulations in California require

that the student meet

with a credentialed educational specialist,

or ES, on a regular basis.

My role as an ES is to monitor children that are

in the charter school.

The independent study charter school.

To make sure they're following state standards.

They're learning what they need to learn.

They're taking the mandated state testing.

And it's really just to keep the parents on track.

Over at his office, Thomas is helping the girls

with their first science assignment.

I feel a lot more comfortable now, as they move into like,

this -- a little bit more structure.

There's a little check there that I like.

I didn't expect to join like, a little school.

I expected to just kind of stay away from all that.

But it's nice, because they fund classes that we do.

Like, me and Lily are both going to take guitar and voice now.

And they're paying for it.

And I'm taking French, which they're paying for as well.

A lot of parents sign

up for charter schools simply for the funding.

And you know what?

I have no problem with that.

As long as they fill their end of the bargain,

which is to do the work.

You know, make sure their kids are following those

state standards.

Participating in the state testing.

Being respectful to their ES and to our school rules.

They can have the funding.

Lily is studying like, life science is what they call it.

It's kind of Biology, really general Biology.

Ana is, her lesson today is about just statistical analysis.

Or like, how a scientist develops an experiment.

After reading through the textbook,

Thomas and the girls decide

to put their own spin on the assignment.

And take the learning outside.

We have a cool camera.

We're going to take a laptop out, and somebody can take like,

screenshots of whatever bugs we find.

And this thing really blows stuff up,

so it will be pretty cool.

It kind of fits in with both of our things.

So I think it will work out, but it wasn't in the book.

I'm seeing no bugs in here.

I don't think we chose a very good spot.

Is that a turd or a seed?

That was a seed.

Location number one is a bust.

Oh, it's cute.

I love Roly-Poly's.

You documenting all this?

And then we saw an earthworm, and a black bug.

But we didn't capture it.

But I saw it and my dad saw it.

Ana, start gathering your stuff,

getting it organized by subject.

Okay.

We are having our first meeting with our ES today.

And I'm really nervous about it.

She has a reputation for being pretty stiff.

This is a learning plan.

And I have to fill out what curriculum we're using.

What skills, concepts and standards we're covering.

The assignments they did.

Any assessments, follow up notes.

It's a lot of administrative paperwork.

So, today I'm showing the ES everything

out of my science section.

This is our project that we did yesterday with Dad.

These are the exact books that we turned in last year.

I don't have to use them.

But we're trying them out.

She has to see everything they've done, graded.

And then she is -- she has to take a sample

with her from each subject.

Instead of oversight, it feels more like an overlord

that we're having to answer to.

And we're actually doing things only

so that we can show her that we did it.

When she heard about the science experiment,

she wasn't interested in what it was at all.

She was just, like, okay, can I see the lab write up?

And Lily's like, sure.

And so she tries to explain.

And so, she's like, I just need the lab write up, thank you.

She doesn't really want to get to know us, I can tell.

I feel like we should have some sort of relationship with her.

If we're going to stay with the charter school,

and she's going to stay our ES.

Which I'm hoping she doesn't,

because it's making it stressful.

She actually taught us how to jump through the hoops better.

She taught us -- she told us

where to find some online quizzes that were really easy.

That we could print out to give her to show her, as work.

It didn't mean that the girls were going to learn anything.

It was just a matter of, alright.

Let's print this out, so we can hand it over to someone.

So they can make sure that we're learning.

We're all really obsessed with products

in this consumer society of ours.

And we're also obsessed with it in schooling -- product.

What did you do?

How did you perform?

What's your grade?

Show me the test score.

Show me the work that you did.

Whereas in homeschooling, it doesn't have to be that.

It can be about the process and the journey of just learning.

Because when we learn in that way,

everything we learn is internalized.

And it stays with us for a really long time.

I think there are creative teachers.

I think there are innovative teachers.

And especially in the public school,

I think they are handcuffed.

Not only are they dealing with kids

that don't want to be there.

But they're dealing with school boards and legislators.

And there are a whole lot

of constraints built into the system.

I wish we could replace compulsory education

with a smorgasbord of learning opportunities.

And it could be much more

like the junior college and college model.

Where the kids get to pick classes.

And they get to pick teachers.

Because not every teacher is right for every student.

And not every class is interesting.

So what would it look like if children really did have

a choice?

What if they could pick their own classes?

Just outside Portland, Oregon is a place

that is turning the conventional notions

of classroom learning on its head.

Village Home is a learning community

for families that homeschool.

And we are a place where we deliver individualized education

in a community setting.

At first blush, when you walk in, it looks like some tables

and chairs and kids sitting in them.

And somebody at the front teaching.

But it's really not a school.

What is different is the internal reality

for the children.

They are making a choice to be there.

And they have been trusted by their families, by the teachers.

To have a voice in their own education.

And so, they're owning that experience in a way

that is very different.

On that first CD, where it says class equals purple,

ID equals purple.

If you put ID equals purple there, it will apply

that style right away.

As soon as the page is rendered.

Village Home offers a huge range of different ages

and different topics and different subjects of classes.

That you can take to supplement your learning

that you do at home.

Or, you know, some people are taking Village full-time.

Really, the backbone of what we're about is choice.

And we don't think that learning can happen if somebody is not

at choice in that equation.

All the students really want to be there,

and they want to learn.

So it really changes the environment

versus like, public schooling.

Where they're all just counting the time

until it's lunch or recess.

Here's the question on number two.

To our family, homeschooling is more about the fact

that our family is directing that.

Rather than some school district, or some state,

or some federal mandate saying.

You know, this is where, when, and what your child will learn.

Jack is someone who's grown up,

realizing that he has a very big say in what he's going to learn.

And what he's going to invest his time in.

And it's very different from kids

who have been basically told what they're going to learn.

And maybe they get one elective.

Our teachers have a lot of free rein to do what they want

to do in the classroom.

And to be themselves in the classroom.

And that's actually an important part of the community too.

Is that there's a lot of trust built into our system.

Introduction will be something

that we are going to do as a group.

I don't necessarily want

to be an absolute authority in the class.

Because I think the kids are as important to the class

as any other aspect that I can think of.

And, in fact, I think that one of the reasons

that I've been successful as a teacher.

Is because the kids realize that I'm not the person that's going

to be the authority in that overt sense.

I'm the guy that's going to let them have a participatory role

in these conversations.

One of the things about Village Home, in particular,

that is a real strength.

And this is true in home education in general.

Is you have mixed-age learning.

And mixed-age learning is so powerful.

Ready?

Point.

Flex.

The tap and ballet class is being led by a student

at Village Home who is sixteen.

And she's an accomplished dancer.

And she wanted to provide an intro to tap and ballet.

So she proposed a course.

And we put it in the catalog.

And so, the kids can definitely express their leadership.

By providing learning opportunities for other kids

in formal ways, and not just informal ways.

All of the research indicates that the intrinsic motivation

to learn declines through adolescence.

And what we're finding

in our setting is actually the opposite of that.

It's our teens that are asking for more, and digging deeper,

and exploring new areas.

We should put in more sample tags.

We want more classes.

We want them longer.

We want to be able to delve deeper

into the material and have more fun.

Because this is what we are interested in.

And our interests, our learning, becomes our fun.

I think the best thing we're doing

for the teens is we're not isolating them from life.

These kids at Village Home and that are being homeschooled,

are engaging in the real world.

And learning isn't separated from life.

Hi Amy, it's Rachel.

After six months of frustration with the system.

Rachel has decided to part ways

with the charter school, for good.

I want to talk to you about, you know,

our future in the charter school.

And kind of what we're thinking.

Being part of the charter school wasn't part

of the homeschool experience that I wanted to have.

I still had to meet the same requirements

that I did at school.

And I still had to write essays and things like that,

that I had no interest in.

And so, I'm really glad to be free of that.

Okay, so girls, I don't know why.

But for some reason, we have to still meet,

even though we just quit the school.

We still have to meet with her one more time.

Turn in samples in every subject,

and show her our attendance log.

Uh, wait, we have to do one for every subject?

Every subject.

We thought it would a really good middle ground

between school and homeschool.

And it turned out to be just school again.

We were doing a lot of jumping through hoops.

Having to meet their requirements.

Which ended up being busy work and not necessarily educational.

My guess is there was a pretty low retention rate

on what they did.

Because they weren't doing it

because they were interested in it.

They were doing it because someone told them they had

to do it.

We also have to turn in all of our textbooks.

So we have to gather those up.

I'm a little bit nervous

about quitting the charter school.

Just because I felt like it was keeping me on track.

And it was my anchor, I guess.

But I feel good about it,

because it was so much like school.

Okay, do you want to give some samples

that you didn't turn in before?

It's hard to feel confident.

There's so many unknowns in what we're doing.

The path isn't laid out for us.

You know, I feel a little panic over, you know, now what?

I don't know what we're going to do now.

Please.

Don't. Lily, I'm serious.

To make matters worse, Ana and Lily are getting

on each other's nerves.

We're all kind of driving each other nuts.

I am frustrated with them a lot.

I think that we're just kind of stuck in the house too much.

Just let me be in your room with you.

You know, I just think that we need to get

out of the house more.

And we need more social interaction.

Rachel finds a few online homeschool networks specific

to her community.

And finds many opportunities to get outside

and meet other homeschoolers.

I went to the beach recently with a homeschooling network.

So I got to meet a whole bunch of people.

I think that being at school for all

of that time really does define who you are.

A lot of girls have to be very fake, instead of being real.

When I meet other homeschoolers, they ask things more like,

what are you interested in?

And like, where have you lived?

Where do you want to go?

Ever since I've been out of school,

I feel like I've been a lot more myself.

Than I ever have been in a really long time.

I get to just be myself now.

It blows me away that after all these years,

there's still the question,

what about socialization?

What happens when they get out in the real world?

And, you know, you just -- they never left the real world.

I love the question of how do you socialize.

I think that's my favorite.

Because, I'm like --

Do you have any friends?

Well, I'm talking to you right now.

And this is kind of how it works, it's a back

and forth conversation.

Like, how do you think I socialize?

Like everybody else.

Every homeschooler, every homeschooled kid,

that's like the first -- either that or academics.

That's always what people ask.

Are you socialized?

What does it mean to be socialized?

One of the things I like about my kids,

is that they're able to socialize with adults.

You know, they're able to talk to adults like they're people.

Because I talk to my kids like they're people.

I can always tell when I'm interacting with a child,

if they have learned outside the classroom.

Because they look me in the eye.

They're comfortable talking with me.

They're comfortable with themselves.

It's so clear.

School is about preparing kids for the real world.

But then we don't let them get involved in the real world

for the full time that they're in these institutions.

Somebody who is opposed to home education.

The only thing they can pull out is, well, how do we know

that they're being socialized?

As if getting your lunch money stolen and getting beaten

up on your way to class is socialization.

So let's get you set.

Do you need three?

Things are starting to get a lot better.

We've started connecting

with some local homeschool groups, which has been great.

Because the girls are making connections there.

Also, I think I'm starting to kind of let go

and relax a little bit.

I'm amazed at how much I'm learning now.

And it's not that I have more opportunities to learn now.

But I'm taking more opportunities

to be part of learning.

And to just engage with life in a more rich and fulfilling way.

What? Can't you ask me for help?

Many of us start, thinking that we're homeschooling

because we're going to give this great education to our children.

But once you get into it,

you realize that it's much more a lifestyle.

Good morning.

Rise and shine.

It's been twelve months of this new lifestyle.

Todd, Rachel, Ana and Lily are finally learning

to relax into it.

And it's changing the family dynamics.

It's changing everything about my life.

It reaches into every part of my life.

It's been really nice to have a lot more relaxed approach

to our days.

To have them be joyful, and not, you know, full of stress.

And rushing, and anxiety, and yelling, and stuff like that.

They've been given permission to kind

of pursue their own interests.

And they're free to basically go

down any creative path they want.

I want to show them what I'm passionate about.

Like, unapologetically.

It's like, you can take it or leave it.

You don't have to do it.

But, and obviously art is that for me.

And, you know, as it turns out,

they both do a lot of visual art.

Okay, so these are the four main characters.

Let me tell you a little bit about each one,

so you guys know what to do.

We're working on a little family friendly puzzle game.

And so, we have a little cast of characters.

They're kind of cute, you know.

Just come up with some ideas.

There's no wrong answers.

This is the time called brainstorming.

I have Lily working on some costume designs

for this Valkyrie, kind

of Viking warrior girl that we need.

And then Ana is drawing a fairy.

They dig it.

Any chance to create, they're just thrilled.

Okay, tell me what you're thinking.

It's exciting, look at that.

Well, I was thinking like,

I was going to make this more like that.

So she can run in it.

Yeah, that's good.

They have open access to the art software that I use.

And, in fact, I leave the art I'm doing professionally

on my screen.

And oftentimes, they'll just come and work on it.

I'll make sure there's saved versions,

so they can't screw up anything.

I like her hair being really long too.

That might be cool, if it was as long as she is tall.

Longer.

I just let them fully into my universe,

and we'll see what happens.

I'm learning so much about my kids.

It's amazing how much I'm learning

about their personalities, that I didn't know

when they were in school.

Lily is very determined.

She's always trying to figure out what things she needs to do

to get from where she is to where she wants to go.

I've been focusing on gymnastics a lot.

I wake up and do pushups and sit-ups.

Gymnastics is really expensive.

So to help pay for it, I've been making things

and then selling them.

Lily has contacted a professional seamstress,

who has agreed to help her with a sewing project.

See how it stretches?

It does not stretch when it goes like this.

Today I'm getting stuff to make some jewelry pouches.

They're basically little pouches that you can cinch

up with pockets and pouches on the inside.

Do you think this will be too stretchy?

No, it's fine.

Yeah. Yeah.

In addition to learning about fabrics,

she gets a very practical math lesson.

You can do 3.14 times 6, gives you the circumference.

You need at least that, and then pull it.

I got all the stuff I needed for my jewelry pouch.

And I got the cord and stuff.

Now I'm just kind of looking around and trying

to find some inspiration.

And like, I don't know.

I'm just getting a lot of ideas for stuff, so.

You know what you should do?

It's just like, you should become friends with somebody

that works as a costumer.

Or in dancing, or something like that.

And you attach yourself to them and be an apprentice.

And that's how you get in.

That's really smart.

Yeah.

That's kind of what I did.

That was pretty inspiring

to see just all sorts of different fabric.

And seeing how much like, she knows and everything.

It's very inspiring.

And it makes me realize how much work I'll have to do.

And like, how much I have to still learn.

The sea lions can bring their back flippers forward.

And that allows them to be able to walk

on all four flippers, when they're on land.

I really, really love marine biology.

Especially aquatic mammals.

I like that I have all this time to be able

to follow my passions.

But I am a very serious procrastinator.

I just don't really know how to get where I want to go yet.

I'm trying to figure it out, but it's hard.

I am really, seriously thinking about going to high school.

High school is kind of an easy thing to fall back on.

All my friends from middle school are going

to the high school in the fall.

And I kind of want to be there with them.

I want to ask you a couple of questions about --

make sure you understand your reasons for going.

Oh, I know.

Yeah. I don't know if I'm going to stick with it.

But I at least want to give it a chance.

Well, I wonder if you can audit it,

like they do with college classes.

Because if you just want to be there with your friends,

that's understandable.

That's not the only reason.

So you want to go there and get into the textbook and --

I want to try it!

Okay, I respect that.

I don't necessarily want

to take the easy path because it's easy.

But I just don't know what else to do at this point.

Uh, however, if you do end up going back to school.

There will be -- I'm not going

to be playing the role of the nag.

And get your homework done.

And you can't go here until you --

Okay.

You're owning it.

I'm okay with that.

You're going to own it.

I am absolutely, 100% okay with that.

And you're setting your own alarm clock,

and you're getting yourself up.

Okay.

You're getting yourself there.

If she does end up going back,

it's going to be a fascinating social experiment.

To see what it will be like for someone who's had tons

of freedom.

To going back into that kind of confined environment,

where she has very little freedom.

Should I tell you some high school stories?

No.

How come?

Because.

I honestly think there's a little bit of a --

some appeal to her to go back into a structured setting.

And have someone else make all those decisions for her.

And take all that off of herself.

And just have to do what they tell her to do.

I'm excited to see how it goes.

But I'm also really nervous about it.

It's going to be, well, different.

Both my children wanted

to see what real high school was like too.

And I remember my son came home after the third day or so.

And he said, I don't know how I ever learned anything

without grades.

Because we'd never had grades before, you know.

And he was really into the whole school and the grading.

And the papers and the due dates.

And all of this.

They found it very interesting and exciting.

And at the end of the semester, I said, well, do you want to go

to the high school full-time?

And he said, no.

I said Why not?

And he said, because the kids

at the high school have a really limited frame

of what they're thinking about, Mom.

They're talking about what's happening today.

What happened yesterday.

And what's going to happen tomorrow.

But there's not much beyond that.

Despite foregoing high school,

both Jasmin's children got into one

of the most competitive universities in the country.

UC Berkeley.

I think our parents did instill in us this idea

that college was something that was good.

That we wanted to achieve.

That, I think it really was an end goal.

But there wasn't the same pressure.

It was, you want to do this for your own sake.

Not because we're telling you to do it.

I just really love learning.

And there hasn't been a pressure of oh, well,

you have to do this, to become this.

And so, I wanted to continue learning.

If there's one thing that I'm grateful

for in my entire homeschooling experience.

If there's one thing that it's given me, it's curiosity.

Colleges are falling all over themselves to get homeschoolers

and kids from Democratic schools.

Why? Because it's so rare for them to get kids

that are still interested in learning.

While Ana considers the pros and cons

of going back to school.

Rachel tries to let her daughter own the decision.

There's definitely part of me that is going to feel

like I've failed as a homeschooling mother.

If Ana ends up going back to high school.

You know, I'm going to worry and wonder about what I did wrong.

Or what I could have done differently.

So I've decided just to kind of step back and allow her

to make this decision.

And I'm going to have to live with the consequences.

She's going to have to live with the consequences.

But it will probably be a good learning experience for her.

The hard part about being a self-directed learner,

or the parent of a self-directed learner.

Is separating expectations from needs.

If you are a teenager, you are expected

in so many different ways to not only to just go to school.

But to learn certain things at a certain time.

And as a parent, you're supposed to be kind of pushing

that on your teenager.

That's a way that you can be kind of living

out somebody else's dreams.

And as a self-directed learner, you have to figure out,

gee, what are my dreams?

What are my priorities, my goals, my needs?

Is it just what everyone else is doing?

After several weeks of weighing her options,

Ana has made her mind up about high school.

A lot of the things that I'm really interested in right now.

I realize that I don't need school for them.

It's taken me a year and a half to get to where I am.

To figure out what I'm really passionate about.

And what I like to be doing.

And I feel like if I went back now,

it would crush all this momentum that I've gathered.

Hello. Hi, my name is Ana.

And I was curious about volunteering.

Our entire life, we've been guided

by teachers, or the principal.

Or by like, school rules.

Or by our mom.

We've been just, like, guided.

Like, this is what you do now.

This is what you do now.

And so, I think me and Lily were just kind of expecting the,

this is what you do now.

And it never came.

So then recently, we took it into our own hands.

And it's been great.

Like, I'm in charge of what I do.

And it's fantastic.

I find sea stars very fascinating.

So I like to teach people a lot about them.

A lot of it I already knew.

A lot of it was taught to me.

And a lot of it, I just researched on my own.

This is a sea star.

And these bumps that it has on its skin are how it breathes.

And in here in the center, that's where its stomach is.

I would really love to become an expert

on whales or deep-water fish.

I would love to be right there in a boat or right like,

in a submarine, exploring.

I think that being here has given me a very like --

it's given me a really good starting point

for my marine biology research.

And if the time comes that I do want

to volunteer at a larger aquarium.

Then I feel like I really am ready.

I have learned like, the basic skills that I would need.

And, of course, bigger aquariums are going to have bigger fish.

And more things to know.

But I definitely think that I would be more prepared now.

Times are changing, schools are not.

And parents want to know, well, what can I give my child?

If the salvation of school is really just an empty promise,

you know, what is it?

And then they realize, me, my family, my community.

If you're thinking in terms of what's best for your child.

You definitely have to at least consider homeschooling.

Because the benefits are just tremendous.

What I'd like to see is a world not

where schools are gone.

I'd like to see a world where there are

so many different types of schools.

And a lot of different schools, especially small schools.

That are trying out all these different little,

innovative practices.

And they're tinkering.

And there's constant reform and innovation happening.

That pretty much everyone's needs get met.

And in that world, there would be a lot

of homeschooling and unschooling.

And there would be a lot of school too.

And that's fine.

Because homeschooling is not for everyone.

When I started, I thought there was a destination

that we had in mind.

But I've kind of learned that education

and learning isn't a destination.

It's a journey that you're always on.

I'm confident about where the girls are going.

And so, it's like, how can they be happy now?

Like, what do they want to do with their life?

What do they want to accomplish?

My kids are still learning, they're still evolving.

I'm still learning, I'm still evolving.

We all are.

And I think that's a really beautiful way to approach life.

Now, this is harder to see, because the Fibonacci

in this is scaled really close.

So you have to look close.

We've tripped and stumbled,

and tried a whole bunch of different things.

But I've learned that's kind of a universal thing.

Everyone has to find their own way

and find what works for them.

Each child is a custom person.

You know, they have -- they're an individual.

Completely unique.

So you've got to tailor it to your child.

And not just all your children,

each one individually, specifically.

And then you just draw --

Our life as homeschoolers isn't perfect.

Our life in the public school system wasn't perfect.

There are tradeoffs.

And no matter what kind of lifestyle you choose,

you're going to miss out on something.

But for us, we find that we're gaining things that are,

that make the tradeoffs really worth it.

We have to lead through example.

What is there 3 million plus homeschoolers right now?

As that number, you know, keeps creeping up.

More and more people are going to know a homeschooler

or an unschooler in their community.

And no longer will they be some, you know, mysterious,

stereotype-riddled freak show.

They will be a person who I know who chooses homeschooling.

And they're just fine.

Homeschooling is probably the single strongest force

at changing the education paradigm for everyone.

It's ripe for change.

And whether homeschooling, unschooling,

or something else is going to be that big change.

I'm not sure.

I think that's not as important

as keeping homeschooling free and legal.

And available to any person, any family,

who wants to step outside of the traditional system.

I think as long as we have that in place,

then the revolution is here.

[ Music ]