Change the Environment. Not the Kid

The majority of public and private schools in America follow a traditional pedagogy which focuses on fact accumulation, rote memorization and teacher led instruction which suits one type of child--the auditory sequential learner.   Generally, traditional schools favor children who learn in small, incremental, sequential steps leading eventually to bigger ideas and concepts.  Educating a gestalt (right brained dominant) learner who needs to see the whole picture and fill in the smaller parts on their own in an auditory sequential (left brained dominant) environment can be highly detrimental to the child not to mention painfully boring. Children with almost any learning style(s) other than auditory sequential will not learn optimally in a traditional classroom environment. When a child is not learning well then one should determine whether the teaching style is a fit and whether the environment is conducive to the child's overall needs.  

Change the environment...not the kid.

Unschooling allows a child to learn at his/her own pace, capitalizing on their own learning style. What makes unschooling such a great fit for gifted children, in particular, is that asynchrony and overexcitabilities (OEs) will not interfere with meaningful learning.  Gifted children who are high in asynchrony with multiple OEs can rarely get their needs met inside the confines of a classroom.  Unschooling a gifted child creates an optimal learning experience in a customized environment that is entirely tailored to their unique needs.  A child high in sensual OE may struggle with clothing that is uncomfortable, lights that are too bright and noises that are a disturbance all which affect their learning inside a classroom.  All of these interferences are able to easily be accomodated inside a warm, loving home environment.  A child high in psychomotor OE will need the freedom to move around, fidget, talk excessively and focus diligiently on passion areas all of which would be seen as a nuisance within a school setting and the child will likely get an ADHD label quicker than the teacher can contact you to complain about your in motion child. Imaginational OE will easily get pathologized as ADHD (inattentive type) as nobody likes a day dreamer especially when there are tests to prep for.  There is very little room for emotionality in school so the child high in emotional OE will likely repress their true feelings and may become withdrawn, depressed or told that they are being overdramatic and don't forget to slap on an autistic label if such child is prone to melt downs over seemingly trivial issues.  And lastly we have intellectual OE which takes a gifted child to that extreme of intellectualizing anything and everything to the point that most adults get exhausted and they tune out so that their heads won't explode.  It is not that unschooling is the only option for a gifted child but for some of us it sure feels that way.

Sometimes people are surprised that my children are truly in the driver's seat of their own education.  Even those that understand my child's extreme intellectual needs, cannot wrap their head around the fact that if he doesn't want to do something then he doesn't have to do it.  He has the freedom to stop anything at anytime or to never start something despite having a natural propensity for it. There is tremendous freedom in determining that which you spend your time doing, learning, experiencing and creating.  When you think your child is wasting their time on something, remember that gifted children are always making connections that serve them even if it doesn't make sense in the moment.  Trust in the process and let go of expectations of what your day, week or unschooling year looks like.  Guide without coercion, facilitate, support, embrace their choices and follow their lead. You will be surprised where they take you.

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