The Only Qualification You Need…

To home educate your neurodivergent child…You do not need:

• To be a teacher…
• Hold special qualifications in occupational or speech and language therapies…
• Have graduated college…
• Or even finished secondary school with a certain number of GCSEs/A or O-levels (or American high school)…

I would argue that you do not even need to be literate yourself. Yes, someone with severe dyslexia who is not functionally literate could manage to home educate their child…with support from a strong home ed community/network.

Don’t believe me?

In 1999, Sugata Mitra and his colleagues dug a hole in a wall bordering an urban slum in New Delhi, installed an Internet-connected PC and left it there, with a hidden camera filming the area. What they saw: kids from the slum playing with the computer and, in the process, learning how to use it — then teaching each other. These famed “Hole in the Wall” experiments demonstrated that, in the absence of supervision and formal teaching, children can teach themselves and each other — if they’re motivated by curiosity. Mitra, now a professor of educational technology at Newcastle University, called it “minimally invasive education.” TEDTalks

Just in case you did not get that:

In the absence of supervision and formal teaching, children can teach themselves and each other — if they’re motivated by curiosity.

And this from a professor of education!

He discovered AND validated UNSCHOOLING. Ironically, now SCHOOLS around the world are trying to duplicate his results.

So again I return to the question…if you don’t need any formal qualifications to teach your children…what do you need?

In my (not so) humble opinion, the only qualification you need to home educate your neurodivergent child is…

You Absolutely MUST LIKE him/her!

What? What does that even mean? Of course, I love my child. She’s MY child after all.

No, you missed the point. Most parents love their children. Most parents want whats best for their child.

And I believe that home education is best for most children…neurodivergent and neurotypical. But that does not mean every parent is capable of providing that education for their child/ren.

Let me rephrase the question…

It is the first week of summer holidays, are you:

A) Excited, full of plans, and can’t wait for all the ‘cool’ things you can do with your children now that they are out of school?

B) Pulling your hair out, screaming and yelling at them and your partner, wondering…when will this end?!?!

If you answered B…stop reading NOW.

If you answered A…

School starts back on Monday, are you:

A) Disappointed, nothing went the way you planned, kids aren’t what they used to be, when I was a child…if my mother/father had done X for me then I would have been so grateful/happy, what is wrong with kids today?

B) Yeah, maybe things weren’t perfect…maybe they fought a bit…maybe they drove me a bit nuts with I’m Bored…but overall…it weren’t so bad. I’m gonna kinda miss the little terrors.

C) Everything went just PERFECT! My schedule/plan was right on point. My kids are going to be so far ahead of their peers. I can’t wait until the winter holidays, we’re going to…

If you answered A…stop now.

If you answered C…proceed with EXTREME CAUTION! Warning: Life may not be PERFECT! And children most assuredly are not. Home education certainly will not be. And Unschooling is NOT for you. Perhaps look into other options.

If you answered B…Then I encourage you to keep reading this blog for the next few days. Do a bit of research on your own. Talk to your partner. Contact your local home ed group.

And THINK it over! At least give RadiCool Unschooling some consideration.

Because you are more than qualified to be the best teacher for your neurodivergent child!

Tomorrow we look at what RadiCool Unschooling is…