#13 Unschooling – Learning Levels

Have you ever noticed the levels of learning the world has invented? Someone or something, somewhere at some time determined there is a perfect time to incarcerate children in an institution for learning. Unfortunately, the age is getting younger, as the true nature of the school system becomes evident. It doubles as a daycare system. We now have some kind of play-school, pre-school or pre-kindergarten leading to full-fledged kindergarten; then elementary grades merge into junior high school, followed by senior high school. The perplexing thing is senior high school precedes the next level which is post-secondary. If we consider that higher training is regarded as post-secondary, shouldn’t there be a secondary to post? And should there not be a primary before we can talk about a secondary? If this all sounds confusing to you, it is. I am old enough to remember that education was once divided into three levels: primary, secondary and post-secondary. I cannot say I am fully aware of how this came to be, but let’s assume the primary grades were intended to instill basic skills. In the old days those were referred to as the three Rs, namely reading, (w)riting and (a)rithmetic. Perhaps a bad spelling example but effective in advancing the necessary skills to function in the world. The secondary level eventually morphed into junior and senior high. Back in the day, when the primary level included both today’s elementary and junior high levels, students were considered to have completed the primary levels by grade 9. I am certainly dating myself, but I am in possession of a junior high diploma issued by the province of Alberta at the end of my grade 9. Many students considered their formal education to be complete and quit going to school at that time. The academically inclined continued to the senior high level, ending with a high school diploma, and a few went on to learn at some post-secondary institution. Regardless of how the world has divided learning into varying levels, there really are only three stages of learning: the primary level where basic skills are learned before puberty; the secondary level where the basic skills learned at the primary level are applied to higher learning; and finally the post-secondary level where students specialize in some skill. Unschooling should follow the three steps just outlined. Primary is time for play. Once the children reach puberty, expect a more mature approach to learning and then leave the post-secondary up to God and the student. This is faith expressed as unschooling. https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2026/01/13-Learning-Levels.mp3