Mosaic’s Survey – American Families’ Attitudes to Unschooling: A National Survey

The Survey

This nationally representative survey of US families with children makes several things clear:

1. Families want a holistic educational experience for their children that goes beyond rote learning, and instead allows them to acquire a broad range of life skills.
2. Many families are interested in educational alternatives where children lead decisions about what, when, and how they learn – a learning pathway where they follow their unique interests.
3. Parents’ lowest priorities for their children’s education are:
   • Meeting or exceeding grade level academic standards (17%)
   • Performing well on standardized tests (12%)

Overall, families want an educational experience that fosters their child’s unique personhood by attending to social and life skills and enabling them to follow their passions.

• Educational Goals: Our survey asked respondents about their key goals for their children’s education. Specifically, the survey asked, “Which education goals are most important for your children to meet?” Parents’ top responses are:

• • Having the social skills to successfully participate in society (30% of all respondents)
  • Being able to financially support themselves (29%)
  • Finding a job doing something they love (27%)
  • Attending further education (25%)
  • Graduating high school (24%)
  • Getting a good job (24%)

Importantly, parents placed as much importance on daily life skills as they did on getting a good job. This suggests that, although parents are still invested in traditional goals such as professional success and educational attainment, they are similarly interested in social and daily life skills.

Our analysis also disaggregated the data by race. One of the strongest findings to emerge from this specific analysis was that most families are unified in what they do not see as a priority goal: achievement on standardized tests. Most families also place a low priority on grade level achievement. This is a relatively clear finding.

On the other hand, families vary in their top goals for their children’s education.  Specifically:

• • African American families’ top goal is for their children is to “graduate from high school”
  • White and East Asian families’ top goal is for their children to “have social skills to participate in society”
  • Latinx families’ top goal is for their children to “attend college/technical school”
  • Multiracial families’ top goal is for their children to be “employed in doing something they love”

• Parents’ Interest in Self-Directed Education:  Another striking finding is that most families are interested in self-directed education. Overall, 74% of the sample indicated they were interested in SDE, while 19% indicated they were unsure about it and only 7% of the sample selected the option of being uninterested in SDE.
  • The survey also asked parents about concerns they had about SDE. The data indicate why some families may be hesitant to pursue it – despite clearly being interested in it. In particular, our research shows that parents need more information about SDE before more firmly pursuing this educational approach.  Indeed, over half the sample identified the need for more information as a concern. 
  • Other important concerns included:
    • The need for checks and balances to ensure good outcomes (31%)
    • Misgivings about whether SDE would prepare their children for the future (27%)
    • Worries that children would miss out on important childhood experiences (26%)

• Benefits of Self-Directed Education: Parents perceived a range of benefits of SDE. The top cited benefits of SDE were:

• • Children could learn academics while pursuing their interests (36%)
  • SDE offers an opportunity to learn social, emotional, and life skills (36%)
  • Children learning in an SDE environment could engage and take the lead in their own education (34%)

Final Thoughts

This  landmark research has uncovered many key details about what parents want from their children’s education. Firstly, it sheds light on the kind of learning experience families are looking for. Families have made it clear that they want their children to gain important social and daily life skills, access further education opportunities, and ultimately, find financial security doing something they love. Families want their children to emerge from their education as well-rounded individuals capable of participating and succeeding in a changing world. Additionally, grades and standardized tests–a tremendous focus of our current traditional education system–were among the lowest ranked priorities for parents and caregivers.

Secondly, our research shows that the vast majority of families are interested in educational alternatives for their children. They see self-directed education as a viable alternative that will allow their children to focus on their unique interests, acquire the social, emotional, and life skills they value, and take the lead in their own learning – all while receiving support for their individual needs.

While families need more information about this educational approach before committing to it, they clearly are interested in ways to broaden and enrich their children’s education. Our research also demonstrates that parents need assurances about educational outcomes associated with SDE and want to be confident that it can prepare their children for the future.

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