Léo's Insights

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

Once children have reached “school age,” most parents simply do as expected and send their children to school. This often comes with resistance and tears. Why? Children know they are safe at home. They know school will not be a place where they will be coddled and loved like they are at home. A question worth asking is what part of tears do parents not understand? Keep your children safe at home while remembering that learning needs to be age appropriate and ability based. Not every five year old is ready for the “rigours” of school programming. On another note, some people say school is necessary to enable children to exercise independence from their parents. Others say children become witnesses of their faith. Still others say children need to hone up socialization skills. All very poor excuses. Let children mature to adulthood before expecting adult independence. Should you decide to keep your children at home, you may be conflicted about what program to follow. Why? Programs are part of the problem with schooling. Besides, have the children stopped learning at home? What has been going on up till this time? They have been playing and, in the process, they have been learning and gaining enormous amounts of information about the world and themselves. Don't stop that. Let them play. If they are ready to learn academically, they will let you know in their own way and in their own time. Why did God make humans take so long to reach sexual maturity? Could it be because he wanted children to learn through play? He most certainly did not instruct parents to engage in programming. That's what you do with computers, not children. You may ask, “Don't children need to learn certain things by this age?” What age? Who has standardized children in such a way as to have universal expectations of them? I have seen a child seriously reading at age three and half and I have seen dyslexics learn to read as late as eighteen. One thing for sure, every home educated child learns to read, eventually. This cannot be said of schools. Schools often expose children to learning what they are not ready for, resulting in poor skills and a bad attitude. Teach them when they are ready. At this point, no program will be necessary. I am not discouraging the use of programs as much as encouraging you with the knowledge that learning requires readiness, opportunity and encouragement more than programming. Let it happen naturally. That is unschooling. https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2026/01/12-School-Age.mp3

Now that we understand that unschooling starts at birth, let's take it one step at a time. Before we begin, we must acknowledge one necessary element of unschooling. It cannot occur outside of the home, which requires a stay-at-home parent, usually, but not always the mother. The moment outside childcare is utilized, the default belief is that others, including government, will have equal authority and positive impact in a child's life as parents. This is NOT so. Needless to say, birth is followed by careful nurturing, initially mostly engaged in by the mother. However, do not kid yourself. The child is learning right from the beginning and both parents need to be involved. As children grow, they quickly demonstrate how voraciously they gather information about their environment. Nothing seems to escape their notice and they involve all their senses. Eventually they will learn to walk, use the potty, and get into all kinds of trouble. All of this is without government programs. Once they learn to communicate using language, things change. Stop and think about this stage for a moment. How complicated is language and how does learning it happen? Naturally. No program. No lessons. No test. No desk. No books (obviously). It just happens because the children are wired to learn. Once the children start learning to talk, one of the first words is “why”? This is true learning in action! Again, naturally. No program. No lessons. No test. No desk. No books. Repeating, it just happens because children are wired to learn. It does not take long before the child reaches “school age”. What does that mean? It means some outside agency is claiming to now be in a better position than the parent to direct the learning process God created. Huh? Think about what has been learned to this point. What input has any third party had in comparison to the parents? This reminds me of the time I nearly engaged in inflicting property damage. It was a mobile home with all the windows removed and a fence surrounding it. On the side, a big sign announced it as Tiny Tot Daycare – Where Learning Starts! I nearly started throwing stones at it. Learning most certainly does not start in such a sterile place. Ask any parent. So, does unschooling change as the child matures and learns? Yes, it does. As children grow, offer more food, and as learning ability increases, offer more opportunities to learn. Just don't send them to school, whether at home or elsewhere. Just unschool completely. https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2025/12/11-the-Primary-Years.mp3

Let's start the new year by first stating that most home education providers and facilitators do not wake up in the morning with the objective of obstructing the unschooling approach to education. Most, in fact, have never given unschooling much thought at all. They simply advance the only thing they know which is something aligned with public programming, as most everyone has adopted the idea that government knows what children need. Nonetheless, how can an agency incapable of procreation know what is best for children? Furthermore, how can a one-size-fits-all system accommodate the incredible diversity seen in humanity? Although the education system may state it is focused on the well-being of the individual child, differences are dealt with by doing everything possible to make a child fit the government learning model rather than to encourage independent development. Unschooling is not like that. It is not encumbered with having to align children with a universal expectation. That is its greatest strength. Still, we must be cognizant of the universal advancement and application of school-based approaches to education. As mentioned in the beginning of this year's vlog series, the term unschooling has come into vogue of late, but has the understanding of what it entails grown with the movement? Unfortunately, no. Government programming remains the standard so there is a general movement away from the freedom found in true unschooling. Indeed, there are some who use the term in an attempt to be all things to all men. In fact, there is a particular organization in the province that advances itself as unschoolers while pushing the need for government programming and accreditation. In this case, as in many others, unschooling has come to mean not being physically in school. But this is not what we mean by unschooling. Unschooling is nothing more than not schooling. By that I mean it is something that starts when a child is born and continues throughout his/her upbringing within the family environment. It is natural learning fit for the individual without a preconceived objective or standard other than what is best for the child. It should go without saying that unschooling programs will be adapted with experience and maturation. But in the end, nothing really changes in the child's upbringing other than providing more academic opportunities as s/he matures, in keeping with the innate individual gifts, talents and abilities of each child. Unschooling is fitting the program to the child not the child to the program. https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2025/12/10-Unschooling-Review.mp3

As modern schools became bastions of compliance for secular ideology, the home education movement in Alberta grew. Wanting to preserve their faith from erosion, many parents chose to escape schooling, entrusting dedicated home education providers to support their programs, as parents believed these providers held a common objective of faith in God. However, with home education being funded in Alberta, the character of home education began to transform into being more of an industry than a ministry as nearly every school began providing for home education with the intent of increasing cash flow. Along with the increasing number of home education providers came the natural advancement of public curriculum. Taking advantage of parental ignorance and its associated fears, the normalization of secular programming started to win the day as many of the formerly dedicated faith-based providers began to offer government programs. The two primary motivations for doing so should be obvious. The first is that attracting students who believed in the need for government programs meant more money. The second reason, which often escapes parental notice, is that increasing public programming resulted in more funding. It is by far in the best financial interest of schools to provide increasing amounts of secular public programming. Knowing this should cause us to question why the government would fund its secular programming at a higher level than traditional Christian programming. The answer should be obvious: it is the advancement of secular ideology in direct opposition to faith-based programming. Exposing that schools have always had a hidden agenda of compliance toward something and that modern day schools aim to instill compliance within a Godless secular society, begs us to question why any home education board or parent would want to bring that ideology home. If parents are keeping their children home to assure compliance with God's will, why would any believer, whether board or school, want to use curricular programs in direct opposition to that goal? With the advent of the normalization of school programs in the home, the home education movement became corrupted by its own money-driven motivation and drifted to advancing another form of compliance: that of normalizing, accepting, even Christianizing public secular programs in opposition to advancing parental authority and freedom. Parents need to beware of being drawn in the opposite direction of their original motivation of obeying God. https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2025/11/9-Parental-Motivation.mp3

Last time, we ended by questioning the ultimate goal of modern schools. As long as there have been schools, there has been an overarching motivation toward some sort of universal compliance. Perhaps some of these motivations have been of a good nature, but then again, whenever something becomes mandated by government, the objective should be suspect. The best way to evaluate the potential motivation of a school is to ask a simple question: What part does God have in the overall program? While the Jesuits may have originally had God in mind, the compliance objective was toward a particular expression of faith or doctrine which was essentially nothing more than indoctrination. Since then, all schools have had precious little to do with God, especially since the social revolution of the 1960s. Needless to say, public schools which advance themselves as neutral will most certainly not have faith in God as a central tenet of their existence. Separate, mostly Catholic, schools are also not likely to be advancing faith in God, at least not from an academic perspective since they use the very same curriculum as public schools. Private schools aren't much different. Most use the secular public school curriculum or a facsimile thereof, and operate with a fear of funding shortfall. Most alternative schools and charter schools also follow government-mandated programming, all of which has little to no place for the advancement of faith in God. That leaves us with homeschooling. I may perhaps have been blind or naive when we started home educating nearly thirty-five years ago, but I believe the very reason the home education movement got started was that parents wanted to escape the Godless secular public education system, and many had come to understand that the separate Catholic system was really no different. Parents wanted to reincorporate God into the education of their children. To address this goal, private schools came into existence, and they also provided the child-care aspect of schools that parents had come to expect. However, with government funding came the expectation of following Godless government programming. When my wife and I got seriously involved with the home education “industry” as facilitators, and later as home education providers under a private school, I initially found a sort of camaraderie among providers and staff. However, it did not take long before the central focus and the competition for students started to take on embarrassingly un-Christian-like characteristics. https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2025/11/8-School-Motivations.mp3

The “best” dictionary definition of school is: “An institution or place where people, typically students, are educated, instructed, and taught, often by teachers, to acquire knowledge, skills, and understanding to function in society.” At first brush, this definition seems to be accurate and non-threatening. However, it may be a good idea to look into the history of compulsory education before coming to any foregone conclusions about what school was and what it has come to be. Like many modern institutions, the school concept has its roots in Christianity. Although I am not sure how things came to be, Sunday school was initially a class held either before or after a church service to help parents to teach their children to read. An old Catholic order called the Jesuits was among the first to create day schools but they had an ulterior motive. They wanted to entice children of Lutheran families back to the Catholic fold, as their parents could not be convinced to do so during the reformation period. They knew they would have a better chance with children than adults, and they continue to this day as proselytizers of the Catholic doctrine. An interesting aside about this school – other than the fact that parents volunteered to have their children attend – is that the mostly illiterate students started attending after puberty. They learned much, much more than what is learned in our modern twelve-year schooling program, and they were ready for seminary, college or university in less than three years. Makes one question how the twelve years to certification ever got started and why it continues to exist. Compulsory education was not really a thing until the mid 1800s. It was started in Prussia (now Germany) to instill military-style compliance in students. This was obviously successful when one considers this country started both the first and second World Wars. Seeing that the early compulsory schools in Germany were successful, American industrial capitalists brought the concept to the United States, even going so far as to fund it so they could create a compliant workforce to man their factories. This was not initially accepted by parents who wanted to maintain their agrarian, family lifestyle, but eventually school came to be a desired institution. At this point, the government got involved. The initial Sunday schools were dedicated institutions of learning, however the Jesuits, Germans, American industrialists and governments all had a different objective in providing school: universal compliance toward something. Making it compulsory greatly increased the potential for achieving this goal. This begs the question: what could be the compliance goals of modern schools? https://eu-wp-media.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2025/10/7-what-is-school.mp3

Before diving deeper into our discussion, we should ask ourselves what it is that we are trying to “undo” or escape when we talk about “unschooling.” Before we begin, let me tell you a funny story. I was once invited to preach at an evening service; the pastor asked me to speak on what the … Continue reading "#6 Unschooling – The Bible and School"

Hopefully by now, you have come to the conclusion that the reason we end up believing what we do is that we don't question or test what we have come to believe or why we believe it is true. We just act in accordance with the way we were raised and the things we have … Continue reading "#5 Unschooling – Big Question?"

Pontius Pilot is famous for having asked a question likely everyone has asked at some time in their life: “What is Truth?” Avoiding a long dissertation on what truth is, we need only point out two things. While the word truth is most often used in a singular context, the opposite can be said of … Continue reading "#4 Unschooling – More Questions"

Having established the importance of having a faith foundation, it is important to understand how this actually looks within an unschooling program. If faith in God is the main reason for unschooling, then it should go without saying that the first requirement is to relax. If you believe in God and that He gave you … Continue reading "#3 Unschooling – Undoing School"

You have probably already discovered that schooling doesn't deliver as promised or that what is being accomplished at school is not in keeping with the goals and aspirations you have regarding your children's education. This is likely why you have determined to keep your children home and why you are watching this vlog. While unschooling … Continue reading "#2 Unschooling – In The Beginning"

Welcome to the 2025-26 academic year. For those of you already subscribed to this channel, thank you for your support. If you are not yet subscribed, may I suggest you do that so you catch all the editions of this series. I believe I am also supposed to ask that you “Like” what you see … Continue reading "#1 Welcome (Back)!"

An interesting series of movies from the 1980s entitled Back To The Future ends with a noteworthy remark. After having experienced a futuristic vision and returning to reality, the young lady asks the inventor of the time machine why a document taken from the future seems to have been erased. The answer is simple. It's … Continue reading "Yearend"

I would be remiss if I neglected to tell the truth about unschooling. While it is, in my opinion, absolutely the best way to raise and train children in a fallen and decaying world, it is not an antidote to the troubles, trials and tribulations that will come our way whether we home educate or … Continue reading "In This World, You Will Have Tribulation"

While our favourite story is not so much a story, it must be told because it represents the single most important observation we have had the privilege of making in our thirty plus years as facilitators. This “story” is about our own family. Even though we didn't decide to home educate our own children until … Continue reading "Our Favourite Story"

My family is a bit strange. I suppose most people think the same thing about their family and likely it is true, but in different ways. Most families have a go-to person who seems to have a bit more intuition regarding computers and phones than the rest. Normally, it is not a parent who is … Continue reading "Restart"

Last time, I left you hanging regarding what transpired with the student I had busted when his backpack fell over revealing his dad's hunting knife. I had given him the option of telling his dad or I would. After dealing with me, he announced his imminent death as he went home to tell his father … Continue reading "The Knife Story (Part 2)"

The classroom was very quiet as the students focused on an exam I was administering. I was walking around, keeping an eye on things, when I was suddenly shocked into emergency mode. As I was walking past a particular student, his backpack fell over and out came an 8-inch hunting knife. Not wanting to cause … Continue reading "The Knife Story (Part 1)"

I thought this particular fellow was aiming to win the couch-potato-of-the-year award. Both he and his sister were children of an older couple who had married late and seemed lost with teenage kids. While his sister was a hyper-motivated academic powerhouse, the brother was not. We tried to encourage the boy to do at least … Continue reading "From Start to Finish"

While we are thankful for having had very few failures regarding our ability to visit our families, there are quite a few stories we can tell about family missteps and memory lapses. Setting aside emergency situations such as children breaking bones, there have actually been so few instances of being “stood up” or surprising families … Continue reading "The House Was Not Home"

We have been blessed with good travel experiences. In the thirty years we have been facilitating, we have had very few travel issues other than the occasional speeding ticket. We have been marooned in snowdrifts only three times, stuck in mud twice, twice we have been partly in a ditch with our truck and camper, … Continue reading "Super Happy About Supper"

I have never been a fan of standardized testing or evaluations, as I simply refuse to believe there is such a thing as a standard or average person. I was a successful teacher, well liked by most students, respected by my colleagues and despised by my enemies. I took professional and personal development very seriously, … Continue reading "Dear Mr. Gaumont"

Many years ago, as we were just getting started with Education Unlimited, Faye and I were asked to visit the sister of one of our home educating moms, as she was experiencing some grief regarding her son's school experience. We arranged to visit the folks that evening. We had a very good visit with this … Continue reading "Mom Learns English"

Of all the techniques, methodologies and other pedagogical effects I employed in my teaching career, nothing beats this one. I called it Question Period, ostensibly named after the same in our Federal House of Commons. I love learning things and am not at all threatened when someone knows more than I do. In fact, the … Continue reading "Question Period"

Every once in a while, a person can say something that finds a place of immortality in time. Such a thing happened to me over twenty years ago when I told a story to a few Mennonite families who, while very wonderful people, seemed stuck in a time warp I could not comprehend. I was interested … Continue reading "How to Cook a Ham"

Occasionally, something so absurd occurs that one wonders what planet the idea originated on. Of all the home education issues I have witnessed, this one stands out as the most useless and illogical exercise in futility. I received a call from a lawyer with a group called the Home School Legal Defence Association or HSLDA. … Continue reading "Home Education Truancy"

In the past, schools operated by the district in which I was working were open to registrations from anywhere. That is, schools were not restricted to accepting students only from within their catchment area. This was especially important to high schools which were catering to an older cohort of students able to travel on their … Continue reading "Scat Test"

Still on the topic of providing something concrete to help teach something intangible, I often used imagery to help students understand abstract concepts. Time and space are two such concepts. We really do not know what either really is except that it is associated with the temporal rather than the eternal. In fact, the only … Continue reading "What Will You Sacrifice?"

We are fortunate to have a great example of teaching techniques we can follow, as the best teacher who ever lived was Jesus Himself. After all, He was addressing the men He created. When home educating, parents are also addressing the ones they created so they would do well to emulate how Jesus went about … Continue reading "Best Teaching Practices"

It is simply amazing what a single word or negligible action can create. I have personally taken some very harsh criticisms and serious personal insults over things so small, I had to really think hard to imagine how it could have been offensive. I have actually seen a single misplaced word completely destroy a potential … Continue reading "Where To Sit"

As previously mentioned, Education Unlimited has been at the forefront of digital technology usage since our very beginning. In fact, my wife, Faye, and I were the first to perform our facilitation duties as a couple while using one of the first laptop computers available. This presented us with the ability to complete all our … Continue reading "The Computer Issue"

Those of us who tend to be leaders, movers and shakers often believe we are on our own. That is, we are more likely to see ourselves as loners, as the people who are with us are usually following us rather than walking beside us. While this may be the perception we have, it is … Continue reading "Who Has Your Back?"

Last time, we discussed how student records are handled and how one can see patterns of behaviour when studying the contents of those records. By that I mean not only a student's behavioural issues, but also those of a school which is funded at a higher rate when students are deemed “special needs.” The particular … Continue reading "Setting A Child Straight – Part 2"

Once upon a time, all student records were paper. Thankfully that is now in the past. EU had many filling cabinets full of documents no one ever read or asked for. When a student left our school for another, we obligingly packaged up all the student's records and sent them to the new school, which … Continue reading "Setting A Child Straight – Part 1"

A silly song we sometimes hear says, “Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die.” As funny as this may seem, it is true. Similarly, everybody wants to be free, but nobody wants to exercise freedom. An interesting observation may help you to understand what I mean. I have been a bird … Continue reading "Do You Actually Want To Be Free?"

No one knows when Jesus was actually born. I cannot lay claim to having more information than the rest, but scholars think it was sometime in October. God's incarnation on earth is the most significant event in all of history so the fact that He came makes His actual date of arrival of little significance. … Continue reading "Cancelling Christmas"

I must admit, the young lady was very attractive. Not only was she pretty, but she had a confident demeanour that went beyond her good looks. She did not play the arrogant “aren't I pretty” game, and most of the young fellows would have loved to ask her out on a date. However, she was … Continue reading "Boredom With Class"

There was quite a commotion in the classroom before class was to begin. A young lady, obviously of means, was showing off her new blue jeans. Other girls were oohing and ahhing over what was obviously something to be desired. The young lady with the new pants was enjoying all the attention her jeans were … Continue reading "Expensive Blue Jeans"

I put one hundred and ten percent into everything I do. I say one hundred and ten percent because I have been blessed with an extraordinary amount of energy and I was taught to be dedicated toward excellence in fully completing any task. As a consequence, I really worked hard to be the best teacher … Continue reading "Expectations"

Even though I had an advanced education in Biology, most of my teaching career was comprised of teaching French. I suppose this had something to do with me being bilingual because this was also around the time Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau declared Canada a bilingual country so every school was scrambling to make students … Continue reading "On Being a Mom"

I have now told two of my favourite stories about having contests with parents as a teacher. I must admit I can only think of two more episodes where I found myself on the wrong end of parental anger. The one is very easy to dismiss as a quirk. The only child in the family … Continue reading "In Loco Parentis"

Last week I set the stage for a showdown between myself and the chairman of the Board of Trustees for the school at which I worked. During the last class of the day, the chairman's frustrated son had showed a clear lack of decorum when facing a failing grade on his exam. He was removed … Continue reading "A Life Lesson Learned – Part 2"

I was happy to have a full-time job after a few years of trying to support my family as a supply teacher, even though my new job was an hour's drive away. I had been offered the job mid-year, as the students had driven the teacher I was replacing nuts. I knew it was a … Continue reading "A Life Lesson Learned – Part 1"

I am likely bragging a bit, but in all my years in the classroom, it was rare to find myself in confrontations with parents. This claim is supported by the fact that I still remember the few I had. One parent with a grievance did not contact me, nor did he contact the principal. He … Continue reading "Preaching in Class!"

We often get phone calls from desperate parents wanting to escape a school system that is simply not working for them or their children. This problem can easily be explained with a single word: standards. Likely the biggest reason for failure in the school system is the erroneous belief that standard expectations can be applied … Continue reading "One More Reading Story"

We had the privilege of working with a family composed of both natural and adopted children. It was a very interesting experience to see the unique family dynamics. While discussing the educational program of the older children, a tiny girl barely a half meter tall came carrying a Bible that could have outweighed her. Her … Continue reading "More Reading Stories"

Last week I told the story of the late-blooming boy who demonstrated no interest in learning academic subjects, particularly reading, until much older than the “industry standard” of reading by age six.  Once puberty hit and this young fellow began reading, he quickly excelled and became a power reader. His dad was a successful investment … Continue reading "Building a Library"

He was certainly an energetic boy. As he zoomed past his mother and me, I realized this fellow now registered for home education through us was not ready for formal education. I asked his mother if she thought he was ready and her answer somewhat baffled me. She did not think the lad was ready … Continue reading "Learning to Read"

Every family has its quirks and its outstanding features; its strengths and weaknesses; how it shows up in public and its secrets. Every family is weird in some way. Most children want something different from the family in which they grew up regardless of whether their family was good, bad or ugly. My dad was … Continue reading "Don't Judge"

I must admit this is hard to believe. If I count my first lab assistant job at the University of Saskatchewan, this year marks my fiftieth year as a teacher. So, in celebration of this milestone, I decided to finally record some of the multitude of stories I've accumulated over the last half century as my vlog … Continue reading "Fifty Years of Teaching"