Guerrilla Learning is coloring outside the lines, finding the shortest direction between two points, moving directly toward goals, doing the best you can with what you’ve got to work with now, making what you want for your kids and what they want for themselves as real as you can, asking people for specific kinds of help, getting out of theory land and into the trenches, realizing that schools could take centuries to significantly improve (or to get out of the way altogether) and that meanwhile your children are barreling through childhood…
In a nutshell, Guerrilla Learning means taking responsibility for your own education.And Guerrilla Learning is relaxing—knowing that you’ve made a lot of mistakes as a parent (and an educator) and that you’ll make a lot more, and that that’s okay—your kids are resilient; it’s not all up to you, and life will provide.
For young people, that includes thinking clearly and seriously about one’s own goals, interests, and values—then acting accordingly.
For parents, it means supporting your child in doing so.
It might mean giving your child a kind of freedom that may seem risky or even crazy at first.
And it also means continuing your own involvement in the world of ideas and culture, continuing to read, to think, to discuss, and to create––and being a walking, talking invitation to your kids to do the same.
Of Related Interest:
dhamma for mama* 
I am actually in the process of writing a piece called why I am choosing to homeschool now. Both of my children have been read and educated in the home in the early stages. My 11 yo has been in the system since pre-school. It has been recently, that I have found the system to be lacking. It is frustrating dealing with many teachers especially when your child isn’t fitting into the normal mold. My 2 yo hasn’t entered the system yet and I don’t know that she will. It is different for each child. The fact is that our children are loosing ground to other countries and we spend more money than many societies on education without the same results. I just think we can do better.
I agree. For me, it’s also about being able to protect (not shelter) my child from outlandish behaviors and perspectives from teachers and students alike that aren’t conducive to a learning environment. I’ve seen how my 8 y.o. niece, who is an eager learner, has suffered this year in a charter school. The teacher cannot manage her classroom and doesn’t have a communication style that engages the students.
One of my dear friends teaches at an all-boys middle school and expresses frustration with the general curriculum as well as the attitudes and behaviors of the children who haven’t been engaged in the learning process at home or at school. She’s passionate about empowering them to be global critical thinkers–not only in the classroom through lessons and assignments that go broader and deeper than the average 7th grade curriculum, but also through extra-curricular activities like their book club that meets in a coffee shop. She’s forged relationships with the parents and students who seek her counsel and support outside the classroom. But her frustration with the administration and the system at large has her considering the possibility of creating a homeschool program for her daughter and students whose parents are also dissatisfied with the traditional school setting.
I agree when you say protect. My 11yo is eager to learn. She has a variety of interest. She wants to learn computer programming and graphic arts. When she doesn’t complete work it is because she knows it and is tired of repeating because others don’t. I am hopeful she will thrive at home. I am pretty sure she will.
Seems like a lot of people myself included are coming to the conclusion that our education system is broken and no one seems inclined to fix it.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read this post!
Although my son just turned two, I recognized some time ago that “homeschooling” takes place the moment we introduce our children to learning environments—essentially, the moment the enter the world! So we parents are, in fact, always homeschooling. With this understanding, we don’t have to wait until our kids are school-aged to place their education in the hands of others. We can begin as early as possible to think about how we wish to shape their experiences and, if we chose the traditional schooling route, we can enter that system as empowered co-educators and peers—working with teachers to give our children a well-rounded, real-life educational experience.
What has your experience been with your children’s education?