Hello, my name is Luthando and I will be telling you about my unschooling journey.
It all began in 2017 when I decided to stop schooling. The reason I left school is because I didn’t feel different from the other kids. We all had to wear the same clothes and do the same work. Ever since I left school life has never been better. I’ve done things I was never able to do whilst I was in school. For example, I’m learning guitar, I play soccer more and I travel with my family more. While I was in school that was not possible.
In 2015 I went to London with my dad. It was my first time flying and it was amazing. When we got to London we stayed on a house boat called Romanta. Every morning we would wake up and there would be swans by the boat. I met a lot of people in London, they were mostly my dad’s friends. This was all happening whilst I was still in school. Luckily my visa didn’t allow for me to go to school in the UK. We stayed there for two or three months I don’t remember very well. Everyone in London kept on asking me if I went to school and that got very annoying because people expect kids to be in school. So when I got a chance to do unschooling I agreed right away. I really enjoyed staying in London because it was a new experience for me. Although It got really cold and whenever we saw a wood pallet we took it. It was because we needed to make fire. Sometimes the tide would rise and it was difficult to get to the boat. So we would wait it out.
Since I left school my friends are always telling me that school is hard and the teachers are mean. Even now in South Africa people ask me why I’m not in school. As always I explain to them what unschooling is, and many people are confused but some people understand. Sometimes they ask my parents and then they understand immediately. The people that used to ask me about school don’t ask me anymore after my parents explained it to them.
I don’t remember meeting any kid my age in London who did unschooling. But there is a friend of Baba’s whose kids introduced my parents and I to unschooling. We met the Asvat family when we were going to Kruger National Park with two of Baba’s friend’s. They let us stay at their house. I was still in school when we went to Kruger. Then a few months later my parents asked my brother and I if we wanted to do unschooling. My brother said he still wanted to go to school but I wanted to do unschooling, and our parents supported the decision we made.
My most recent trip was with my dad, aunt and me. We went to Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania and stayed in Uhuru Heights for two days. For those of you who don’t know what ‘uhuru’ means, it means freedom. We also went to Zanzibar for six days. We got there by boat and after some time I felt seasick, but I was fine once we reached to Zanzibar. We stayed in Maru Maru Hotel, but I’m not sure what ‘maru maru’ means. My dad and I went snorkelling, and we saw a lot of colourful fish and lots of coral. We visited some islands around Zanzibar too. The first one was called Prison island, which of course was a prison. We visited Nakupenda beach too, which is a sand bank. ‘Nakupenda’ means love in Swahili. When we got back to Durban it was cold compared to Zanzibar.
If anyone is wondering what I do every day my day is never planned. For the past week I’ve been going to work with my dad because I prefer to not stay at home alone. Since my mom and sisters went to Germany it’s just been my dad aunt and I. Normally I would play with my sister or we would go to the beach and ride our bike’s. Sometimes I visit my friends, we play soccer and chill. Also, I love reading so on some days I stay at home and read.
In summary, unschooling has enabled me to travel some parts of the world, and there’s still much more to see. Overall unschooling has let me do what I want to do and what I am interested in. So that’s pretty much my story.
Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.