Deschooling Breakthrough

L may not have ever been a kid who chose writing as his method of expression. Why would he when he was a self-proclaimed talker as a baby. He did write comic books from a a young age and while he was in school he would brand them and try to sell them. This was first/second grade. Second grade writing was mainly comics and journaling but it definitely was an enjoyable enough pasttime. In December of his second grade school year I read a journal entry which was quite eloquently written combining factual events with creativity, decent punctuation, spelling and grammar and dare I say it pretty neat writing. For any seven year old boy that is an accomplishment but even more so for a kid with writing challenges.

All was about to change as his second grade teacher would constantly punish him for writing comics and openly tell him what a horrible writer he was. This does not do well for a seven year old's psyche. I don't think anyone's budding self-esteem and confidence in any area would blossom under such negative scrutiny. There was so much wrong with second grade and his hostile teacher and oppressive environment. I could go on about that and I often do. But, this post is about the success that deschooling and unschooling has brought to us.

Just yesterday, after months and months of zero writing and complete unschooling, L asked me if I would like to play a writing game. We wrote together for about 5 -10 minutes and he declared that he enjoyed writing. A lot. This was a huge breakthrough. I have put absolutely zero pressure on him about writing either with a pencil or through keyboarding. He is extremely verbose and his ability to theorize and analyze anything and everything verbally was enough for me. Comprehension was clearly not an issue. As important a skill as writing is, I knew that if we put emphasis on it, no positive outcome would result. Too much damage had been done in 2010/2011. Even last year while with a lovely and positive teacher, writing was still L's kryptonite and the only thing L would do was the minimal necessary requirement...with resistance.

So, here we are. One day after realizing that writing is not the enemy and even that, "Writing is so much fun!" The two boys and I are playing our new favorite game and then L suddenly states, "I think I am going to go write a new comic book" and off he went to his room to focus, create and WRITE. He has been writing for over a half an hour with no breaks.

I always thought he was a natural born writer but the thoughts just flow so quickly that there is no way his hand can keep up with the ideas flooding his mind.  This is such a huge breakthrough in our home and since little brother like to emulate big brother, we may end up with two boys who love to write.  Did I really just say that?  Seriously, I am in a state of shock right now.

Deschooling is of special importance when real damage to learning has been done.  I had not even realized we were still deschooling but apparently we were, in terms of writing.   Deschooling really is about changing one's attitude and expectation.  It is not just for kids.  Parents really need to embrace deschooling for however long it takes.  The reward is worth it when you see the love of learning resurface.

I think deschooling just liberated him. With all other academic and intellectual areas deschooling wasn't that necessary for him because he never lost the love of learning.  He was just bored and hungry to learn.  Unschooling gave him the freedom to finally start learning again.  He discovered a love of History, Physics, Algebra, the Universe and Computer Science. Writing was a different story.  He was holding on to the negative associations and giving his awful teacher too much power over him two years after the fact.  Writing is not in fact the enemy. His teacher was.  He is finally letting it go and moving on.