What New Forms of Education are Emerging?
October 26, 2021 - Pass the Mic Podcast Series (Ep 23: Building a Community of Parents & Educators)
The Unschooling School is a volunteer group of educators, parents and students fervently supporting public education, but with a core belief that it is time for a radical rearrangement to the structure of 'school.'
The team teaches and provides resources to help schools let go of top-down structures and coercive practices and trust children, who are biologically driven through play, curiosity, and exploration, to educate themselves. The team advocates the support of students to become Free Learners by selecting the classes, tools, resources, and support which work for them, leading schools to operate more like community centres and libraries and less like schools. Unschooling School is looking for open-minded, forward-thinking schools to create authentic demonstration projects and show that a fully self-directed education model can work in the public system.
The Unschooling School is a volunteer group of educators, parents and students fervently supporting public education, but with a core belief that it is time for a radical rearrangement to the structure of 'school.'
The team teaches and provides resources to help schools let go of top-down structures and coercive practices and trust children, who are biologically driven through play, curiosity, and exploration, to educate themselves. The team advocates the support of students to become Free Learners by selecting the classes, tools, resources, and support which work for them, leading schools to operate more like community centres and libraries and less like schools. Unschooling School is looking for open-minded, forward-thinking schools to create authentic demonstration projects and show that a fully self-directed education model can work in the public system.
Heather speaks at 2021 Ignite Your Leadership Summit
July 2021 - Cathy Sheppard, Ignite Your Leadership Summit
Education can be so different. You know this. You’ve felt it. People all over the world are waking up to their own incredible potential – and realizing that what they have been taught in school is woefully inadequate for the life-skills and learning they need to navigate this unprecedented new world we are living in.
The Ignite your Leadership Summit is an international online event for youth and teachers to unlock potential, value all people and find hope for the future.
Hear that Heather has to say.
Education can be so different. You know this. You’ve felt it. People all over the world are waking up to their own incredible potential – and realizing that what they have been taught in school is woefully inadequate for the life-skills and learning they need to navigate this unprecedented new world we are living in.
The Ignite your Leadership Summit is an international online event for youth and teachers to unlock potential, value all people and find hope for the future.
Hear that Heather has to say.
Rethinking How School is Structured: A Parent’s POV on Unschooling
Feb 23, 2021 - Lianne Castelino, Where Parents Talk
A national survey conducted by Unschooling School in January 2021 has provided deeper insight into how Canadian parents view what and how their children are learning.
“They [the survey results] were actually even more exciting than we anticipated,” says Heather MacTaggart, Director of Unschooling School and mother of four. She has been an advocate of ‘unschooling’ — a student-driven learning versus teacher and curriculum-imposed education approach — for more than 15 years.
A national survey conducted by Unschooling School in January 2021 has provided deeper insight into how Canadian parents view what and how their children are learning.
“They [the survey results] were actually even more exciting than we anticipated,” says Heather MacTaggart, Director of Unschooling School and mother of four. She has been an advocate of ‘unschooling’ — a student-driven learning versus teacher and curriculum-imposed education approach — for more than 15 years.
Unschooling School
Feb 6, 2021 - NewsTalk1010, iheartradio.ca
The Weekend Morning Show with Dave Trafford with guest - Heather MacTaggart.
The Weekend Morning Show with Dave Trafford with guest - Heather MacTaggart.
Nearly Three Quarters (73%) of Pandemic Affected Parents Feel Students Should Learn Subjects They're Passionate About, Not Those of Little Interest
Feb 1, 2021 - Cision
A nation-wide survey of Canadian parents released today finds that nearly three in four of them (73%) believe the education system today would be better for students if it were structured to give them more choice and time to just learn those subjects and topics, they are either excited or passionate about. Also, more than two-thirds (67%) want a school reset, so students learn more of the subject areas they're passionate about and not those of little interest to them.
A nation-wide survey of Canadian parents released today finds that nearly three in four of them (73%) believe the education system today would be better for students if it were structured to give them more choice and time to just learn those subjects and topics, they are either excited or passionate about. Also, more than two-thirds (67%) want a school reset, so students learn more of the subject areas they're passionate about and not those of little interest to them.
Everything UNschooling - Unschool.School (S01 E13)
Unschooling School ft. Heather MacTaggart
Oct 8, 2020 - voicEd Radio Canada
Heather MacTaggart has a dream that schools could become places where students could find the space, and the permission, to become “free learners”. Find out about what she means by this as she joins us on Hurley in the Morning.
Heather MacTaggart has a dream that schools could become places where students could find the space, and the permission, to become “free learners”. Find out about what she means by this as she joins us on Hurley in the Morning.
PowerPoint presentation: What is Unschooling School
Sep 16, 2020 - UCY Planning Meeting
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International Freedom in Education Day 2020 Interview with Heather MacTaggart
Sep 15, 2020 - FHREE Full Human Rights-Experience Education
What is a Free Learner and is it time you became one? Heather MacTaggart explains to Max Sauber from FHREE that we have the right to say 'no' to certain things in education, and it's time to claim your power! Find out how to take on the system and declare yourself a Free Learner in this short, clear interview recorded by FHREE for International Freedom in Education Day 2020
What is a Free Learner and is it time you became one? Heather MacTaggart explains to Max Sauber from FHREE that we have the right to say 'no' to certain things in education, and it's time to claim your power! Find out how to take on the system and declare yourself a Free Learner in this short, clear interview recorded by FHREE for International Freedom in Education Day 2020
Unschooling School with Heather MacTaggart
Sep 1, 2020 - Humans Rising with Caprice Thorsen
Heather MacTaggart has been working to change the education system in Canada for 23 years. She has attracted a team of educators with a combined experience of 229 years in education to expand the Unschooling School movement around the world.
Join the Unschooling School movement as a parent, learner, or educator.
The invitation is for learners to become Free Learners by creating an individual education plan (IEP) that declares they are a free learner. Free Learners utilize the resources and facilities of their local public school as it fits with their IEP and opt out of classes that they are not interested in.
Unschooling School invites educators to become Responsible Subversives by supporting Free Learners.
Join the Unschooling School movement as a parent, learner, or educator.
The invitation is for learners to become Free Learners by creating an individual education plan (IEP) that declares they are a free learner. Free Learners utilize the resources and facilities of their local public school as it fits with their IEP and opt out of classes that they are not interested in.
Unschooling School invites educators to become Responsible Subversives by supporting Free Learners.
Unschooling School
Aug 30, 2020 - iHeartRadio
Heather MacTaggart talks about Unschooling School on NewsTalk1010.
THE PLAGUE-GROUND – A DIFFERENT QUESTION ABOUT GOING BACK TO SCHOOL.
Aug 18, 2020 - Ramsay Writes
Sanjay Gupta will not be sending his kids back to school; Jared Kushner will.
In America, this decision spills over from the deeply personal to the openly political. In Canada, our choice is disconnected from how we voted in the last election. Thank Heavens.
Still, virtually every family of Canada's 5.5 million elementary and secondary school students is gnawing over how and when to send their kids back to school -- as are Canada's 15,500 schools over how and when to take them and teach them without turning their classroom into a COVID petri dish.
These are all urgent questions because they're life-and-death ones.
But I have a different question that comes from our common belief that the pandemic will change everything.
Remember back in the spring when we all said that?
The. Pandemic. Will. Change. Everything.
Work will change forever. We'll hug the earth and not destroy it. We'll all become home-bakers and caring neighbours. Life will be slower, smaller, more intentional and better.
We also believe that the pandemic, in forcing us to a screeching halt, frees us to ask questions we either didn't have time for or didn't dare ask, about our relationship to almost everything - and everyone.
So now, exactly three weeks before Labour Day and the start of the school year, is the perfect time to ask: "Why do kids need to go to school at all?"
In America, this decision spills over from the deeply personal to the openly political. In Canada, our choice is disconnected from how we voted in the last election. Thank Heavens.
Still, virtually every family of Canada's 5.5 million elementary and secondary school students is gnawing over how and when to send their kids back to school -- as are Canada's 15,500 schools over how and when to take them and teach them without turning their classroom into a COVID petri dish.
These are all urgent questions because they're life-and-death ones.
But I have a different question that comes from our common belief that the pandemic will change everything.
Remember back in the spring when we all said that?
The. Pandemic. Will. Change. Everything.
Work will change forever. We'll hug the earth and not destroy it. We'll all become home-bakers and caring neighbours. Life will be slower, smaller, more intentional and better.
We also believe that the pandemic, in forcing us to a screeching halt, frees us to ask questions we either didn't have time for or didn't dare ask, about our relationship to almost everything - and everyone.
So now, exactly three weeks before Labour Day and the start of the school year, is the perfect time to ask: "Why do kids need to go to school at all?"