*** I want them to know that the answers inside themselves are valid. ***
I’ve seen dialogs on unschooling sites that go like:
New unschoolers: “Kids don’t know enough to make the right choice. I can’t just let them choose."
Slightly less new unschooler: “You just need to trust children. They know what’s right for them.”
But children don’t just magically know the “right” choice. How could they know things that they’ve never tried?
They don’t come preloaded with all the right answers. But they do come preloaded with the ability to think about their experiences and come up with a good guess for what might work. Unschooling parents make it safe for them to try out their idea.
If the guess turns out as expected, they didn’t learn much. They’ve confirmed that their understanding of the world is right.
If the guess doesn’t turn out as expected, that’s good! They’ve learned something! They learn more about the thing. They learn more about themselves. They have more information to base future decisions on.
Don’t trust children to be right. Trust children to be able to make a guess and then learn from what happens.
