I have a number of homeschooling and unschooling friends.  Their reasons for pursuing these approaches to education, I’ve heard them state, is to avoid indoctrination into social structures they view as unjust, unbeneficial,  and unnatural.  Earl Stevens, contributor to The Unschooling Unmanual argues, “. . . schooling came to be a method of controlling children and forcing them to do whatever educators decided was beneficial for them. “ Link to Article

I must say, I’m very much in agreement with many ideas unschoolers and homeschoolers find inspirational.  I too, intend for my students to grow to be freethinking and self-determined.  However, I don’t think of formal education as indoctrination; rather, I argue formal education it is initiation.

In a prior article, I mention the importance of lineage.  Teachers are passing-on a long and sacred tradition of knowledge, inquiry, and empowerment.  Through formal education we are initiating children into the sacred ways of learning, the intellect, and a long tradition of working toward betterment of self and the world.