I am a radical

After last night's homeschooling support group meeting my head is whirling. Everyone does things so differently and they all seem to be "working" for the various families. I am beginning to realize that I don't really care how people choose to deal with "academics" in their homeschooling lives (i.e. curriculum vs. academic unschooling vs. eclectic) because people homeschool for different reasons, families are different etc. I am coming to realize that what is really important to me is the aspects of radical unschooling outside the academic sphere. Trusting children to have power and control in the rest of their lives seems more important to me than anything. Trusting children to know what they need in all aspects of their lives and not controlling what they eat, what they do, what they watch seems to me, to be much more important than trusting that they will learn addition. Why? Because addition is a skill that anyone can learn at anytime that they need it. Confidence, competence and a discerning mind CANNOT be taught, only developed when allowed to do so. Unschooling is sometimes described as "child-led learning." No parameters or pressure are put on what or how or when a child must learn something. Radical unschooling is when that trust is used in all aspects of life. It seems funny to even write that because I really don't see a division between "academics" and regular life. It is all life and it is all learning. Trusting my child to learn and discover herself is what is most important to me.