special needs learning

When I tell people that Samantha is unschooled, many of them are taken aback. They have a puzzled look on their face. I go on to explain that learning happens naturally for all of us through the experiences we have in life. In this process, it is not necessary to force children to learn something specific, as they will follow their natural curiosities, passions, and interest. Subjects, such as reading, math, science, present themselves through that engagement. 

What do you think of when you hear the word school? Or what about the word education? Were the memories positive ones? Mine weren't. I loathed school. It was boring, long, and I felt like most of what I spent my day doing was memorizing useless information. I did go on to college and finished with a Bachelors of Art in Business Management. Yet, most of what I've learned came well after I went to school. Some of the most profound lessons and education I've had come from the doing in life. The experiencing.

Several weeks ago, I began a conversation with a women who was fighting for her special needs brother. He was in his mid twenties, living at home, not really working and not going to college. His parents were enabling him not to do anything. She was encouraging her brother to work by hiring him for her business and nudging him to go to school. Paying him to work was having a toll on her finances, and each time she brought up school it was a tension point. She was at a loss on how to continue to help him.