TEDxCharleston and Lua Wells Introduce “Unschooling” to Our Community

From the Desk of Our Curator, Edith Howle

A major goal of TEDxCharleston is to raise awareness around new ideas and to get new conversations going. Everyone definitely does not have the same opinion, but to me, that is what makes the world so interesting, fun and challenging. I believe it is also what helps us advance as a civilization and a race. So here is one conversation that has been started.

At TEDxCharleston 2013, Lua Wells presented Skipping School on the topic of unschooling where children do not go to school, but rather learn at their own pace and determine their interests through their own process of discovery. Lua unschooled her children and both are now well educated, successful adults.

So the conversation is continuing and last month, WCIV Channel 4 in Charleston, aired a story about unschooling on both their afternoon and evening news programs. Congratulation to Lua for making us all aware of this approach to education. It is not for everyone, but obviously it works for some.

To me, what is great about Lua and TEDxCharleston, is that here is a mother who wanted to bring awareness about the concept of unschooling and she used TEDxCharleston to raise that awareness and now the conversation continues thanks to Channel 4 and Lua.

This is where we need you in the community to help us continue to present ideas that inspire and get us to see things differently and start a conversation. If you know of interesting new ideas, we love to hear about them. Just email us at tedxcharleston2013@gmail.com and help begin new conversations in Charleston.

Part two was done on the unschooling story