How Unschooling and Ungrading Has Helped Me In Law school

I graduated high school and moved across the world from Toronto to London when I was eighteen to begin a three-year LLB program. I am now in my second year and have spent time reflecting on the way I grew up. I was unschooled for kindergarten and did not attend school until I was in grade one. Unschooling is a learner centre democratic approach where the learner is empowered and entrusted to make their own decisions. When I was unschooled, I was able to do what I wanted and how I wanted every day. One day I woke up and wanted to write a story and the next I wanted to learn how to do a cartwheel. The only person I had critiquing my work was myself, and that was enough to motivate me to keep learning. When I started public school, it was a foreign concept to me that I would be told what to do, how to do it, and that I was going to be assessed on how well I did it. Eventually it became difficult to be proud of myself or satisfied with my work until I got the validation from a high grade and assignments became stressful rather than enjoyable. Furthermore, I felt like it created a competitive environment between classmates and created a toxic space for young children to grow up in. Ultimately, my independence and self-confidence were adversely affected. The goal of this autobiographical narrative research paper is to share my school experience from primary school to law school, and to share how I continue to learn things without grading, which is something that has stuck with me given my unschooling experience.