The journey of self-directed education is full of setbacks and doubt like any other journey. When you choose freedom, you have more responsibility, and you need to be strong and confident enough to take it. When my kids were in traditional school, I didn’t feel that much responsibility, I could always blame the school or the teachers for not doing this or this. When I decided to switch to a non-traditional way of learning for my children, I knew that it will not be easy, and I was ready for the adventure. One of the main things that is helping me is ‘Trust’. I have a vision of my two boys being confident, independent, and able to find their true purpose in life and follow it. It is not my responsibility to find their purpose or tell them what it is, my role is only to offer them the environment and opportunities that might help them find it. I am trusting this vision and something inside me is always reassuring me that we will get there sooner or later. Trusting this process is what makes me get up again and again after each setback.
It is also difficult for children who are used to the traditional system to take in charge their own education at the beginning. As I said before, freedom means more responsibility for them which might be difficult at first. Our role as parent is to motivate them and help them find the meaning in their freedom and how it will be very important for them in the future. This will help them develop the trust in themselves and in the process. This process will also help the children to be more resilient towards failure. In the traditional school, failure is always seen as a negative thing. But with self-directed education, the children will fail and must find a way to get back. Going through these experiences will help them develop their trust in life in general.
(P. Gray,2013) says, “If you want responsible kids, you have to allow them the freedom to be responsible”. Any parent needs to develop his/her trust in life in general to be able to do that. We need to trust our children and their ability to learn more and leave them have their own mistakes and choose their own path. It is not easy to do that for someone who was raised in a traditional way, but you can develop your trust little by little. You need first to open your mind and take it out of the box that our upbringing and education had put it in. Only then we will be able to see the possibilities that we have.
Bibliography
- Gray, P. (2013) Free to learn: Why Unleashing the Instinct to Play Will Make Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life New York: Basic Books
