School choice

Academically selective or Unschooling?

The difference between Academically selective and Unschooling is mostly one axis: measuring it. Academically selective sits firmly toward graded and tested regularly; Unschooling sits firmly toward no grades, no tests. They agree, more than most people expect, on technology at school and 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.

Academically selective

A demanding academic programme with an entrance examination, a cohort selected for ability and for the families willing to prepare for it, and university as the explicit aim throughout. The teaching is usually excellent, the peer effects are real, and the measured advantage shrinks dramatically once you account for who was admitted in the first place.

What it asks of you

  • Preparation for entry, which for most families means tutoring and a year of it
  • A child who can carry sustained academic pressure, which not all can and few can predict
  • Fees or a move, and often both
  • Being clear-eyed that you are buying a cohort as much as a school

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

Academically selective is the filled marker, Unschooling the hollow one. Widest difference first.

L3Measuring it
no grades, no testsgraded and tested regularly

Academically selective sits firmly toward graded and tested regularly; Unschooling sits firmly toward no grades, no tests.

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

Academically selective sits firmly toward it should set up university and a career; Unschooling sits firmly toward childhood is the point.

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

Academically selective sits firmly toward early, and ambitiously; Unschooling sits firmly toward when the child is ready, and late is fine.

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

Academically selective sits firmly toward timetabled, and directed by adults; Unschooling sits firmly toward the child chooses what to do.

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

Academically selective sits toward a fixed body of knowledge, set in advance; Unschooling sits firmly toward it emerges from the children.

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

Academically selective sits toward an authority who instructs; Unschooling sits firmly toward a guide who steps back.

E1Mixed ages
classes of the same agemixed-age groups

Academically selective sits firmly toward classes of the same age; Unschooling sits toward mixed-age groups.

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

Academically selective sits toward learning happens at a table; Unschooling sits toward outdoors and hands-on is the point.

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

Academically selective 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

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

V2Who else is there
a broad, mixed intake matters mosta community that shares our values matters most

Academically selective sits toward a community that shares our values matters most; Unschooling sits a little toward a community that shares our values matters most.

Where they agree

Usually more than the argument between them suggests.

  • Technology at school. Both sit a little toward built in from the start.
  • 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