[illinoismommy]

Originally Posted by Leslie

In the first six years, they would look alike; "a full six years of passive receptive life" is preschool, up to age 6 or 7. But if you were to compare them at third grade, and then at seventh grade, they would look very different. Because, once CM starts "official" lessons, school is very focused, teacher-scheduled, with a pre-planned set of books.

If you look at CM's own curriculum (and I think it's fair and accurate to state that pure CM would be epitomized by how CM did it herself), what she was doing was very far removed from unschooling. These schedules were what she had home-bound students doing as well as her schools. Not to say that someone couldn't combine the two into their own very effective method of relaxed, child-centered learning - but then it wouldn't be purely CM or purely unschooling. It would be positive aspects of both.

Yes that's true, and I think that it surrounds that self-discipline thing. Unschooling says they'll learn it because they are inclined to learn, CM says they should discipline themselves to learn it because self-discipline is a useful life skill.