Rewilding

Last week I happened upon an article in Outside Magazine called “We Don’t Need No Education”. It is written by Ben Hewitt, father of two boys and advocate of a movement called “unschooling”.  According to Hewitt, who lives with his family in Vermont, unschooling emphasizes self-directed education with the goal of fostering a child’s creativity and personal growth. Hewitt writes, “I generally estimate that my boys spend no more than two hours per month sitting and studying the subjects, such as science and math, that are universal to mainstream education.” Though our class discussions have not addressed the educational system and the unschooling movement, I found the article relevant for a few reasons: Geographic region, movement back in time, and the tension between Vermont and the Adirondacks.

            The first parallel that I noticed between Wandering Home and Hewitt’s article was geographic; Hewitt and his family live on a farm in Vermont, and Bill McKibben began his long walk in Vermont. Both Wandering Home and “We Don’t Need No Education” emphasize innovation in a society that has skewed priorities. McKibben praises Vermonters' innovative spirits, their creative approaches to protecting their bucolic environment. Specifically, he talks about their commitment to the local movement in agriculture, wineries, and logging. Hewitt has implemented an alternative approach to education and criticizes the status quo that many Americans blindly accept.  He thinks of the education system as a relatively modern development, stating that “The first incidence of compulsory schooling came in 1852, when Massachusetts required communities to offer free public education and demanded that every child between the ages of 8 and 14 attend school for at least 12 weeks per year.” In the same way, the innovative Vermonter attitude in Wandering Home is the result of disenchantment with modern values and lifestyle. They reject the materialistic attitude that many Americans exhibit, preferring local over cheap.

            Interestingly, though, I started to draw more parallels between Hewitt’s approach to schooling and the Adirondack psyche that McKibben describes. In some ways, Hewitt is not creatively working within the constraints of a system to preserve something. His approach to education is not neat and orderly like a small Vermont town. Instead he rejects the system entirely (hence the term “unschooling”) and tries to move back in time. In other articles, I have even seen “unschooling” referred to as “rewilding”.  While “unschooling” as a term is inherently negative, “rewilding” is positive, suggesting a return to something more natural. The process that has occurred in the Adirondacks in the past decade can also be labeled “rewilding,” or a rejection and reversal of the effects imposed by modern developments.

            Therefore, Hewitt’s approach to education incorporates both Vermont and Adirondack attitudes and can be seen as representative of the “Adimont” or “Verandacks” region that McKibbon recognizes.

http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/nature/Unschooling-The-Case-for-Setting-Your-Kids-Into-the-Wild.html