Some people understand unschooling as soon as they hear about it. Others wander about in a fog of confusion, wondering how unschoolers can be so certain about something that seems so counterintuitive to everything we’ve picked up about how kids need to learn. Maybe a few, well-defined steps in the unschooling direction could lead out of at least the very pea-soupiest part of the fog.

有些人一听到非学校教育就了然于心，而有些人则要在迷雾中徘徊良久，好奇非学校教育者怎么能对这种完全违法孩子学习进程的东西如此确定。可能几条定义精准的非学校教育步骤至少可以引领你走出重重迷雾。

Step One 第一步

To unschool, you begin with your child’s interests. If she’s interested in birds, you read – or browse, toss aside, just look at the pictures in – books on birds, watch videos on birds, talk about birds, research and build (or buy) bird feeders and birdhouses, keep a journal on birds, record and ponder their behavior, search the web for items about birds, go to bird sanctuaries, draw birds, color a few pictures in the Dover Birds of Prey coloring book, play around with feathers, study Leonardo DaVinci’s drawings of flying machines that he based on birds, watch Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds.”

想要进行非学校教育，你要从孩子的兴趣着手。如果她对鸟类感兴趣，你阅读或浏览，这都不要紧，就是看看关于鸟儿的书籍里的图片，看鸟儿的录像，谈论鸟儿，研究然后自己做（或买）喂鸟器、鸟窝，写鸟儿日记，记录思考它们的行为，在网上搜索鸟儿的信息，到鸟类保护区，画鸟，在《多佛猛禽》图画书里给鸟儿上色，玩羽毛，研究达芬奇画的飞行器，那可是他根据鸟儿画的，看阿尔弗莱德•希区柯克的《群鸟》。

But DON’T go whole hog on this. Gauge how much to do and when by your child’s reactions. Let her say no thanks. Let her choose. Let her interest set the pace. If it takes years, let it take years. If it lasts an hour, let it last an hour.

但别一头扎进去。根据孩子的反应来判断何时进行多少。让她来说，不了，谢谢。让她选择。让她的兴趣决定节奏。如果持续数年，那就持续数年好了。如果只持续了一小时，那就持续一小时。

Step Two 第二步

Second, you need to make sure your child has opportunities to expand her interests. Have books, videos, kits, games, puzzles, music tapes, puppets, nature collections, and other cool things available for her to pick up when she chooses. (Think library, yard sales, and attic treasures.) Take her places as a way to spark an interest. Wander about museums and just look at the cool stuff that interests either of you. (And resist the urge to force an interest in the things you think would be good for her.) Read a book or do a kit even if you’re certain it won’t lead anywhere. Let her say no thanks if she’s not interested in pursuing something right now, or in pursuing something to the degree you think she “should.”

其次，确保孩子有机会扩展他们的兴趣。准备足够的书、录像、工具箱、游戏、拼图、音乐磁带、木偶、自然收藏还有其他酷玩意供她选择。（可以考虑图书馆、家庭拍卖会，阁楼宝藏。）带她四处逛逛，点燃她的兴趣。在博物馆闲逛，看看让你们任意一个感兴趣的新奇玩意。（一定要抵制把你喜欢的东西强加在她身上的冲动。）读本书，或者做个工具箱，哪怕你知道没多大用处。如果她对眼下正追求的东西或者你认为她“应该”追求的程度没兴趣，也请容她说，不了，谢谢。

Step Three 第三步

Get interested in things yourself. Not interested in your child getting educated, but in learning for yourself. Pursue an interest you’ve always wanted to but never had time for. Be curious about life around you. Look things up to satisfy your own curiosity. Or just ponder the wonder of it all. Ask questions you don’t know the answers to. “Why are there beautiful colors beneath the green in leaves?” “Why did they build the bridge here rather than over there?” “Why is there suddenly more traffic on my road than there used to be?”

自己对这些东西感兴趣。不是对孩子受教感兴趣，而是对自己学习感兴趣。追求你一直很想但从来没时间的兴趣爱好。对你周围的生活充满求知欲。寻找答案满足自己的求知欲。或者沉思冥想。对于自己不懂的，提问。“在绿叶下面怎么有这么多美丽的颜色？”“为什么他们在这而不在那架桥？”“为什么我这条路上骤然间多了这么多车？”

Let your child know that all the questions haven’t been answered yet and it’s not her job to just keep absorbing answers until she’s got them all.

让孩子知道，不是所有问题都已经有了答案，要不断地去探索未知。

Step Four 第四步

Start noticing the learning available all around you. There are fractions in time and cooking and in the relationships between objects. (There are one third as many blue M&M’s as there are brown.) Tax is a percentage of the total, some items offer 20% more free, and stores having a sale will knock a percentage off the regular price.

留心你周围的所有学习机会。处处留心皆学问。（蓝色的MM豆是咖啡色的1/3。）税金是总数的百分比，有些东西有20%的折扣，商店大甩卖时价格会比正常价格低一定比例。

There’s oodles of science in cooking. Why does heat make the white of an egg turn from clear liquid to solid white? What process turns liquid cake into poofy air-filled solid cake? Don’t worry if you don’t know the answers. Anyone can look up the answers. Few can ask the questions.

烹饪中的学问大了。为什么蛋清受热就能从透明的液体转换为白色固体？什么过程使液体蛋糕变为蓬松充满空气的固体蛋糕？如果你不知道答案也不用担心。谁都能查到答案，可提问的人很少。

As a real-life example, by watching Xena and reading Little Town on the Prairie, my daughter was exposed to three references to Julius Caesar, Brutus, and Marc Antony. She doesn’t “know” Roman history now, but she’s got a hook or point of reference to build from tomorrow, next week, three years from now: “You remember Julius Caesar. The guy Xena hates.”

举个实际的例子，观看电影《泽娜》，读《草原小屋》，我女儿有三种资料了解裘利斯•凯撒、布鲁图、马克•安东尼。她现在还不懂罗马历史，但从明天、下周、三年以后，她有了解历史的兴趣或者基准点：“你记得裘利斯•凯撒。就是泽娜讨厌的那个家伙。”

Unfortunately we learned in school that learning is locked up in books and reading is the only way to get to it. It’s not. It’s free. We’re surrounded by it. We just need to relearn how to recognize it in its wild state.

不幸的是，我们在学校了解到学习被锁在教科书中，而阅读是唯一的途径。并非如此。学习是自由的。学习随处环绕我们。我们只需要重新学习如何在自然的状态认出它来。

Step Five 第五步

And, finally, forget the linear approach to learning we grew up with. For instance, we learned that the way to learn is to read “all the important” stuff about a subject gathered and packaged for our convenience in a textbook and then move on in line to the next package of information.

最后，忘记我们从小到大用的线性方法吧。比如，我们学到学习方法是阅读关于某个主题的“所有重要”信息，而且为了我们方便，这些信息都打包装进教科书里，然后沿着这条线，进入下一个信息包。

Sure, sometimes an interest will cause kids to gather up a huge chunk of learning all at once. This is easy to see. And easy to overvalue as the “best” way to learn.

诚然，有时兴趣会让孩子一次就学习很多东西。这是显而易见的。而我们也易于把这当做“最佳”学习方法，但其实我们高估了这种现象。

More often kids will slowly gather interesting tidbits, making connections as things occur to them to create a foundation. They’ll add pieces here and there over the years to build on that foundation. This is not so easy to see going on. And very easy to undervalue.

通常，孩子都是慢慢地收集有趣的东西，听其自然地创造连接，创建根基。他们会随处添砖加瓦，打造根基。而这个进展不那么容易看到，而且也很容易忽视。

So, if we can train ourselves to see that process we can help it along by valuing the times when they see Thomas Jefferson on the Animaniacs and then later on the nickel and then still later on Mount Rushmore. Those moments will establish a feeling of recognition and familiarity. Then the more tidbits they gather about Jefferson, the more interesting he becomes. And the more interesting he becomes, the more they want to know about him.

如果我们可以训练自己看到那个过程，我们就会以他们在《狂欢三宝》、硬币、罗斯莫尔山上看到托马斯•杰斐逊的时间来衡量，从而帮助他们学习。这些时刻会培养出认知与熟悉的感觉。他们对杰斐逊的点点滴滴了解得越多，他就变得越有趣，他越有趣，他们就越想更多地了解他。

It took at least two years and a lot of posts by very patient unschoolers (and a lot of questions by other newbies who were equally confused) for me to finally “get” unschooling. Hopefully, these five steps will make your transition to unschooling easier than mine was!

我用了至少两年时间，同时阅读了非常耐心的非学校教育者的大量帖子才最终“明白”了非学校教育。希望这5个步骤会让你比我当初更容易地过渡到非学校教育！