School choice

Bilingual / international or Unschooling?

The difference between Bilingual / international and Unschooling is mostly one axis: what it is for. Bilingual / international sits toward it should set up university and a career; Unschooling sits firmly toward childhood is the point. They agree, more than most people expect, on who else is there and a view of the world. Neither is the correct one. What follows is what each asks of a parent, and where the difference actually shows up on a Tuesday.

Bilingual / international

Teaching runs in two languages, often with a national curriculum on one side and another on the other, in a cohort assembled from several countries. For a family that has moved, may move again, or wants a heritage language kept alive at school rather than only at home, it resolves something no local school can. The academic programme is usually conventional and demanding; the language is the differentiator.

What it asks of you

  • Fees, and usually a commute
  • Accepting slower early progress in both languages before it compounds
  • A cohort that turns over as families relocate, and friendships that go with them
  • Supporting the weaker language at home, which lands on the parents

Unschooling

Home education without a curriculum. There is no sequence and no subjects; a child learns what they are pursuing, when they pursue it, with an adult whose job is to make resources and people available. Holt's argument is that children learn constantly and that schooling mostly interrupts it. It asks the most trust of any position in this instrument and offers the fewest reassurances along the way.

What it asks of you

  • Sustained nerve with no milestones to check yourself against
  • Constant availability — it is less structured than home education and not less work
  • Meeting the legal requirement wherever you are, which varies enormously
  • An honest distinction between this and neglect, which only shows up in what the adult is doing
Side by side

Where they differ

Bilingual / international is the filled marker, Unschooling the hollow one. Widest difference first.

V3What it is for
childhood is the pointit should set up university and a career

Bilingual / international sits toward it should set up university and a career; Unschooling sits firmly toward childhood is the point.

E1Mixed ages
classes of the same agemixed-age groups

Bilingual / international sits toward classes of the same age; Unschooling sits toward mixed-age groups.

L1Who directs the day
the child chooses what to dotimetabled, and directed by adults

Bilingual / international sits toward timetabled, and directed by adults; Unschooling sits firmly toward the child chooses what to do.

L2When formal academics start
when the child is ready, and late is fineearly, and ambitiously

Bilingual / international sits toward early, and ambitiously; Unschooling sits firmly toward when the child is ready, and late is fine.

L4Where the curriculum comes from
it emerges from the childrena fixed body of knowledge, set in advance

Bilingual / international sits a little toward a fixed body of knowledge, set in advance; Unschooling sits firmly toward it emerges from the children.

L3Measuring it
no grades, no testsgraded and tested regularly

Bilingual / international sits a little toward graded and tested regularly; Unschooling sits firmly toward no grades, no tests.

C1What the family can put inwhat your life allows
school has to run without the parentsbeing in it, daily

Bilingual / international sits a little toward school has to run without the parents; Unschooling sits firmly toward being in it, daily.

L5What a teacher is
a guide who steps backan authority who instructs

Bilingual / international sits a little toward an authority who instructs; Unschooling sits firmly toward a guide who steps back.

C2Money and distancewhat your life allows
free and local, or it is not an optionwe can pay, and we can travel

Bilingual / international sits firmly toward we can pay, and we can travel; Unschooling sits a little toward free and local, or it is not an option.

E2Outdoors and the body
learning happens at a tableoutdoors and hands-on is the point

Bilingual / international sits a little toward learning happens at a table; Unschooling sits toward outdoors and hands-on is the point.

Where they agree

Usually more than the argument between them suggests.

  • Who else is there. Both sit a little toward a community that shares our values matters most.
  • A view of the world. Both sit between the two.

Neither of these is the correct one

Which fits depends on what you value and on what your week actually allows — and the second of those is the half nobody writes about. The questionnaire scores both.

See which one you are already doing