It seems that most unschoolers major in humanities, but what about science? This questions has bugged me for several years and now there is a book out by Judy Arnall called Unschooling to University and she tackles this question on her blog Unschooling to University called Unschooling the Engineer
Here's the Article by Judy Arnall:
How does unschooling work when a child is a teenager and is beginning to choose a career path? Many people are fine letting young children play away their day, but what about when the time comes to start thinking about their life’s work? And what if that passion is a STEM career? Good question!
Let’s take an example. Josh is 16.5 years old. He has had no formal schooling. He loves spending his days with his cat, meeting up with other unschooling buddies for movies and lunch, reading all kinds of genre and playing Fortnight.
He has decided on a career. He passionately wants to be a software engineer. Let’s say he lives in Alberta, one of the most highly regulated home education provinces in Canada. Now what?
He looks up several university requirements for engineering and needs English, Social Studies, Math, Calculus, Physics and Chemistry for university entrance of a 4 year software engineering degree.
What he can do:
- Apply to a community college and get his first year humanities requirements now. They might transfer to his first year at university depending on the university. Enroll in distance education or an adult upgrading school classroom for Math 10 and 11 and science 10 and physics 20. Next year, enroll in math 12, physics 30, chemistry 20 and chemistry 30. Four courses per year is doable. He could take the calculus requirement in first year university. By 18.5 years, he is ready to apply to universities.
- Wait until he is 19 years old to get his humanities requirements. Read and study The Key Book for English 30 and Social 30. Practice writing essays. He has done extensive reading and discussions of social issues with his friends and he is already quite versed in literature, government and social issues. Write the diploma exams in both subjects for marks and credits. While he is waiting until he is 19, he can take the above sciences at an adult upgrading school, or online, or distance education. By 19 years, he is ready to apply to universities. (I think this is the same as CLEP test in the US?)
- Begin self-study now. Do all of number 2 above on his own. Work on his own through the textbooks and hire a tutor or check out Kahn Academy if he needs help. At age 19, write the diploma exams (CLEP?) for English, Social, Math, Chemistry and Physics. By age 19, he is ready to apply to universities.
- Self-study. Write the SAT or ACT exams for all the above subjects. Make a transcript listing activities and accomplishments that would fit in the above subjects. By age 18, he is ready to apply to universities.
The science behind accelerated learning
When young people choose a career path, many people think that unschooled kids have to catch up 12 grades of education. However, we forget that the brain has been working all those years processing, acquiring and synthesizing information. By age 16, the brain is in the final stages (until age 25) of maturing the pre-frontal cortex. Late teen’s ability to reason, critically think, plan, make-decisions and implement self-control (motivation) is ramping to their peak performance. The kids have spent 16 years reading, theorizing, writing, learning and understanding science, history and math in the real world through experiential education. They may need some practice applying it to paper, but that is what high school courses are for. That may take 1-3 years depending on the province they live in. It goes by fast. Meanwhile, the love of learning and curiosity has been preserved.
Kids are not catching up on knowledge, but switching to a different track – one that requires more output/demonstration of what they already have learned, combined with new learning in subject matter that interests them. At this age, never being in structured education, Josh is excited to try it, when quite a lot of his school friends are burning out from 13 years of coerced learning (possibly including 3 years of preschool). If Josh is motivated and software engineering is his passion, nothing will stop him. Nothing!
