If I knew nothing about unschooling and someone tried to tell me about it, if I were a stranger reading the essays here about unschooling, I would be profoundly skeptical. Unschooling sounds like bull shit. But it works. The children continue to show promising developmental progress. Their reading, writing, and thinking keep improving. Their world gets bigger and bigger as their bodies grow larger, and they are exposed to ever increasing ideas and information. They keep learning.

I suspect the explanation is simple. The reason most children show progress unschooling as well as in elementary school is because they are growing. Growing makes you smarter. Ad infinitum.

What about backwater uneducated hicks of all cultures left to grow on their own, will they get smarter? Yes, unless someone is trying to hold them back. The biggest cause of endemic stupidity is probably jealousy. That hallmark of low self esteem which gets passed down from parent to child, the attitude that equates bettering yourself with "putting on airs."

We've all experienced this, right? When you are watching someone walk a long (or reading their blog or meeting them or encountering their success) and the next thought is: "Look at her, she thinks she's so............pretty, smart, rich, awesome, etc" That is the moment reality is inverted and growth is squelched. Children raised with that attitude may never recover. Where can they go with the information that being special, standing out, striving, or simply living visibly well is frowned on? There is nowhere for them to go but down. It is a toxic and damaging mental loop and a prime cause, next to frank abuse, of generational stupidity.