School choice

IB Primary Years or Unschooling?

The difference between IB Primary Years and Unschooling is mostly one axis: what it is for. IB Primary Years sits toward it should set up university and a career; Unschooling sits firmly toward childhood is the point. They agree, more than most people expect, on a view of the world. Neither is the correct one. What follows is what each asks of a parent, and where the difference actually shows up on a Tuesday.

IB Primary Years

Children investigate big transdisciplinary questions rather than subjects, within a framework that is specified in considerable detail. It is the most internationally portable education available, built for families who may move, and it is explicit about wanting to produce a certain kind of person — open-minded, inquiring, principled — which is an admirable aim and also a worldview.

What it asks of you

  • Fees almost everywhere, and usually substantial ones
  • Comfort with a school that states the disposition it is trying to produce
  • Tolerance for a lot of process language — the framework is heavily specified
  • A reason to want portability, or you are paying for something you will not use

Unschooling

Home education without a curriculum. There is no sequence and no subjects; a child learns what they are pursuing, when they pursue it, with an adult whose job is to make resources and people available. Holt's argument is that children learn constantly and that schooling mostly interrupts it. It asks the most trust of any position in this instrument and offers the fewest reassurances along the way.

What it asks of you

  • Sustained nerve with no milestones to check yourself against
  • Constant availability — it is less structured than home education and not less work
  • Meeting the legal requirement wherever you are, which varies enormously
  • An honest distinction between this and neglect, which only shows up in what the adult is doing
Side by side

Where they differ

IB Primary Years is the filled marker, Unschooling the hollow one. Widest difference first.

V3What it is for
childhood is the pointit should set up university and a career

IB Primary Years sits toward it should set up university and a career; Unschooling sits firmly toward childhood is the point.

E1Mixed ages
classes of the same agemixed-age groups

IB Primary Years sits toward classes of the same age; Unschooling sits toward mixed-age groups.

L1Who directs the day
the child chooses what to dotimetabled, and directed by adults

IB Primary Years sits a little toward timetabled, and directed by adults; Unschooling sits firmly toward the child chooses what to do.

L2When formal academics start
when the child is ready, and late is fineearly, and ambitiously

IB Primary Years sits a little toward early, and ambitiously; Unschooling sits firmly toward when the child is ready, and late is fine.

L3Measuring it
no grades, no testsgraded and tested regularly

IB Primary Years sits between the two; Unschooling sits firmly toward no grades, no tests.

L4Where the curriculum comes from
it emerges from the childrena fixed body of knowledge, set in advance

IB Primary Years sits between the two; Unschooling sits firmly toward it emerges from the children.

C1What the family can put inwhat your life allows
school has to run without the parentsbeing in it, daily

IB Primary Years sits between the two; Unschooling sits firmly toward being in it, daily.

C2Money and distancewhat your life allows
free and local, or it is not an optionwe can pay, and we can travel

IB Primary Years sits toward we can pay, and we can travel; Unschooling sits a little toward free and local, or it is not an option.

L5What a teacher is
a guide who steps backan authority who instructs

IB Primary Years sits between the two; Unschooling sits firmly toward a guide who steps back.

E2Outdoors and the body
learning happens at a tableoutdoors and hands-on is the point

IB Primary Years sits between the two; Unschooling sits toward outdoors and hands-on is the point.

E3Technology at school
kept out until latebuilt in from the start

IB Primary Years sits toward built in from the start; Unschooling sits between the two.

Where they agree

Usually more than the argument between them suggests.

  • A view of the world. Both sit between the two.

Neither of these is the correct one

Which fits depends on what you value and on what your week actually allows — and the second of those is the half nobody writes about. The questionnaire scores both.

See which one you are already doing