School choice

Faith-based or Unschooling?

The difference between Faith-based and Unschooling is mostly one axis: where the curriculum comes from. Faith-based sits toward a fixed body of knowledge, set in advance; Unschooling sits firmly toward it emerges from the children. They agree, more than most people expect, on technology at school and money and distance. Neither is the correct one. What follows is what each asks of a parent, and where the difference actually shows up on a Tuesday.

Faith-based

Education inside an explicit religious frame, where the worldview is not confined to a lesson but runs through the day, the year and the community. For families who hold a faith this resolves something no other option does: the school is not neutral about what matters, and is not neutral in the same direction as the household. The cohort is usually more homogeneous, which is both the attraction and the cost.

What it asks of you

  • Accepting a narrower range of families than your area actually contains
  • Clarity about what happens if your own beliefs shift, or your child's do
  • Involvement in a community, which is usually part of the arrangement rather than optional

Unschooling

Home education without a curriculum. There is no sequence and no subjects; a child learns what they are pursuing, when they pursue it, with an adult whose job is to make resources and people available. Holt's argument is that children learn constantly and that schooling mostly interrupts it. It asks the most trust of any position in this instrument and offers the fewest reassurances along the way.

What it asks of you

  • Sustained nerve with no milestones to check yourself against
  • Constant availability — it is less structured than home education and not less work
  • Meeting the legal requirement wherever you are, which varies enormously
  • An honest distinction between this and neglect, which only shows up in what the adult is doing
Side by side

Where they differ

Faith-based is the filled marker, Unschooling the hollow one. Widest difference first.

L4Where the curriculum comes from
it emerges from the childrena fixed body of knowledge, set in advance

Faith-based sits toward a fixed body of knowledge, set in advance; Unschooling sits firmly toward it emerges from the children.

L1Who directs the day
the child chooses what to dotimetabled, and directed by adults

Faith-based sits toward timetabled, and directed by adults; Unschooling sits firmly toward the child chooses what to do.

E1Mixed ages
classes of the same agemixed-age groups

Faith-based sits toward classes of the same age; Unschooling sits toward mixed-age groups.

L3Measuring it
no grades, no testsgraded and tested regularly

Faith-based sits toward graded and tested regularly; Unschooling sits firmly toward no grades, no tests.

L5What a teacher is
a guide who steps backan authority who instructs

Faith-based sits toward an authority who instructs; Unschooling sits firmly toward a guide who steps back.

L2When formal academics start
when the child is ready, and late is fineearly, and ambitiously

Faith-based sits a little toward early, and ambitiously; Unschooling sits firmly toward when the child is ready, and late is fine.

V3What it is for
childhood is the pointit should set up university and a career

Faith-based sits between the two; Unschooling sits firmly toward childhood is the point.

V1A view of the world
school should stay neutralschool should teach a view of the world

Faith-based sits firmly toward school should teach a view of the world; Unschooling sits between the two.

E2Outdoors and the body
learning happens at a tableoutdoors and hands-on is the point

Faith-based sits toward learning happens at a table; Unschooling sits toward outdoors and hands-on is the point.

C1What the family can put inwhat your life allows
school has to run without the parentsbeing in it, daily

Faith-based sits a little toward being in it, daily; Unschooling sits firmly toward being in it, daily.

V2Who else is there
a broad, mixed intake matters mosta community that shares our values matters most

Faith-based sits firmly toward a community that shares our values matters most; Unschooling sits a little toward a community that shares our values matters most.

Where they agree

Usually more than the argument between them suggests.

  • Technology at school. Both sit between the two.
  • Money and distance. Both sit a little toward free and local, or it is not an option.

Neither of these is the correct one

Which fits depends on what you value and on what your week actually allows — and the second of those is the half nobody writes about. The questionnaire scores both.

See which one you are already doing