Deschooling 101: From School to Homeschool

If you’re new to homeschooling, you’ve probably encountered the term deschooling and are wondering what it means.

In addition to wondering what it means to deschool your kids, you might have heard the word unschooling. If you’re like most parents who are exploring homeschooling, you’ve wondered if deschooling and unschooling have the same meaning. The quick answer is, “No, unschooling and deschooling are different.”

In this article, I’ll answer the following questions about deschooling…

• What is deschooling?
• How is deschooling different from unschooling?
• Should I deschool my children?
• Where did the idea of deschooling come from?
• What is the book Deschooling Society?
• Who is Ivan Illich?
• How do I deschool my kids?

Podcast Episode and Deschooling Videos

Further down this page, you’ll discover two videos about deschooling and a podcast episode. Also, be sure to check out our homeschool coaching program and consulting services.

What Is Deschooling?

Deschooling is an undoing of the training that children receive in a school setting.

When children go to school, they are trained to wait for a teacher to tell them what to do and how to think. This training discourages children from taking the initiative to follow their own interests and learn independently

Additionally, children learn to follow the school’s mandated schedule, wait in line, ask permission to speak, request permission to use the restroom, and only eat when they have been given permission to do so.

Essentially, when children go to school, they learn to prioritize the school’s systems above their own needs and desires. Deschooling allows children the time and space to be curious, learn on their own, and initiate their own projects.

Deschooling 101 Video: What It Is and Why You Need to Do It Before Homeschooling

Deschool Before You Homeschool: Reignite Your Child’s Curiosity

If your children have been going to school, you might want to deschool them as you transition to homeschooling. While children are born with curiosity and a desire to learn, it may have been schooled out of him or her.

When a child is homeschooled, they have more free time to explore ideas that are meaningful and interesting to themselves. This is when real learning happens!

Through a period of deschooling, your family will begin freeing themselves from the school mindset.

Deschooling is a great way for new homeschoolers to begin a new way of life and education.

Benefits of Deschooling

While parents often consider the benefits of deschooling for children, the truth is that deschooling has many benefits for parents as well. Deschooling gives your family time to adjust from school to homeschooling.

• Deschooling provides time to decompress from the school experience and allow yourself and your child to live and learn more naturally.
• Allow your child time and space to explore their interests.
• Better understand your child’s interests and natural learning process.
• Explore opportunities that are available because you are homeschooling.
• Make plans and prepare for your new homeschooling lifestyle.
• Allows time to set up your homeschooling environment.
• Deschooling is an excellent time for you and your child to reconnect.
• Break free from the mindset developed by going to school.

Ultimately, deschooling gives you time to dream, visit, learn, plan, and prepare for your new homeschool lifestyle. Likewise, it gives your children an opportunity to begin living and learning in a more natural manner.

When Is It Time to De School?

• In the time period between attending conventional school and homeschooling.
• During extended holiday breaks.
• When changing your homeschool approach.

In general, deschooling occurs during the transition from attending school to homeschooling. However, you can also deschool if you change your approach to homeschooling.

For example, if you’ve been using a school-at-home approach and are transitioning to another style of homeschooling, it might be appropriate to deschool during that timeframe.

How Long Should I Deschool My Kids?

At the end of the traditional school year, many parents use the summer break to deschool their children.

If you’re starting to homeschool during the school year, a good rule of thumb is to do a month of deschooling before settling into any specific curriculum or homeschooling style.

Deschooling for Parents

While we tend to focus on our kids, most parents will also benefit from deschooling.

As parents, most of us attended public school and have adopted the belief systems taught in schools. If schools are good at doing one thing well, they teach us that education happens in school.

As a result, before the pandemic, most parents had been so well-conditioned that they didn’t question whether their children would go to school. When children turn five, most parents send their kids to school without considering other educational alternatives.

Help for Homeschool Parents

By reading articles like this or listening to the HomeSchool ThinkTank Parenting Podcast, you are likely in the process of deschooling yourself.

If you went through the public school system, wrapping your mind around homeschooling requires a major paradigm shift.

That’s why we’ve created a coaching program for homeschooling parents. It’s called THRIVE. Inside our coaching program, you’ll receive the support you need while homeschooling your kids.

New homeschooling parents have lots of questions, and we can help!

Learn more about THRIVE here.

How to Start Deschooling Your Children

If you’re considering deschooling, you might feel anxious about it. Here are some steps to help you get started.

1. Visit this article about how to homeschool.
2. If you need to meet your state’s homeschool requirements while deschooling, focus on concept-based learning rather than curriculum-based education.
3. Get your child involved in their education. The parent’s role is to guide and help provide opportunities for your child to learn.
4. Make plans with your child. Downtime and the freedom to be bored can be part of the plan. People generally discover new ideas and interests when they have time to reflect.
5. Explore educational opportunities with your child.
6. Make homeschooling friends.
7. Have fun on your deschooling journey!

Podcast Episode: How to Deschool

Deschooling Meaning & Etymology

While the Merriam-Webster Dictionary does not define the word deschooling, we found a definition in the Online Etymology Dictionary. If you aren’t familiar with etymology, it’s studying a word’s history and tracing it back to its origin.

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, “Deschooling is the ‘act or process of removing the function of education from conventional schools to non-institutional systems of learning.’”

By the way, the word is not spelled as de school or de-school. It’s spelled as one word: deschool.

In addition to defining the word, the Online Etymology Dictionary mentioned that the term deschooling was coined in 1970 by Austrian-born U.S. anarchist philosopher Ivan Illich.

Who is Ivan Illich?

In 1970, philosopher Ivan Illich wrote a lengthy paper called Deschooling Society. In it, he coined and introduced deschooling, subsequently impacting the number of families worldwide who homeschool their children.

The introduction of the book Deschooling Society opens with the following words.

“I owe my interest in public education to Everett Reimer. Until we first met in Puerto Rico in 1958, I had never questioned the value of extending obligatory schooling to all people. Together we have come to realize that for most men the right to learn is curtailed by the obligation to attend school.”

Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society.

Deschooling Society Chapter One: Why We Must Disestablish School

In the first chapter, “Why We Must Disestablish School,” Ivan Illich says the following.

“Many students, especially those who are poor, intuitively know what the schools do for them. They school them to confuse process and substance.

Once these become blurred, a new logic is assumed: the more treatment there is, the better are the results; or, escalation leads to success.

The pupil is thereby “schooled” to confuse teaching with learning, grade advancement with education, a diploma with competence, and fluency with the ability to say something new.

His imagination is “schooled” to accept service in place of value.

Medical treatment is mistaken for health care, social work for the improvement of community life, police protection for safety, military poise for national security, the rat race for productive work.

Health, learning, dignity, independence, and creative endeavor are defined as little more than the performance of the institutions which claim to serve these ends, and their improvement is made to depend on allocating more resources to the management of hospitals, schools, and other agencies in question.”

Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society

Video about Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich

Ivan Illich Quote from Deschooling Society

“Rich and poor alike depend on schools and hospitals which guide their lives, form their world view, and define for them what is legitimate and what is not.

Both view doctoring oneself as irresponsible, learning on one’s own as unreliable, and community organization, when not paid for by those in authority, as a form of aggression or subversion.

For both groups the reliance on institutional treatment renders independent accomplishment suspect.”

Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society

More From Ivan Illich’s Book, Deschooling Society

“But in both places, the mere existence of school discourages and disables the poor from taking control of their own learning. All over the world, the school has an anti-educational effect on society: school is recognized as the institution which specializes in education.

The failures of school are taken by most people as proof that education is a very costly, very complex, always arcane, and frequently almost impossible task.

School appropriates the money, men, and good will available for education and, in addition, discourages other institutions from assuming educational tasks. Work, leisure, politics, city living, and even family life depend on schools for the habits and knowledge they presuppose, instead of becoming themselves the means of education.”

Ivan Illich, Deschooling Society

This quote from Ivan Illich is a good representation of his writing about education within Deschooling Society.

Buy Deschooling Society on Amazon

Before reading this philosophical and thought-provoking book, you’ll need a little time, some peace and quiet, and a comfy chair.

Buy the book on Amazon.

• Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich.

Unschooling vs Deschooling

If you’re new to homeschooling, you may have heard of unschooling. You might wonder about the differences between the words unschooling and deschooling. Let’s take a moment to help you understand the differences between these words.

• Deschooling is a transition period between conventional school and homeschooling. The purpose is to remove education from conventional schools to non-institutional ways of learning. Please note that while the word deschooling is commonly used as a transitional time, in reality, the act of deschooling is a process that can take many years.
• Unschooling is a child-led learning approach to education.

While unschooling parents may guide their children’s education with intention, they allow each child to follow their innate ability to learn and care for themselves. Unschooling families do not follow a traditional school model.

Read this blog post about unschooling.

Educational Activities and Ideas While You Deschool

From relaxing with a book to exploring museums and the great outdoors, it’s easy to fill your time while deschooling your kids. Learn more by clicking a link below.

• Read books about homeschooling.
• Play board games.
• Get a museum pass!
• Explore different styles of homeschooling.
• Learn about interesting scientists!
• Make new friends.
• Explore curriculum options.
• Do a science project!
• Listen to history podcasts.
• Take online quizzes for fun!
• Try a new dice game.
• Improve your mindset.
• Learn about different types of homeschooling families.
• Play fun spelling games.
• Have fun with handwriting.
• Volunteer.
• Do an art project.
• Get outdoors!
• Read The Great Books
• Discover Unit Studies

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