Unschooler Jessica Barker: "Redefining Success."

Jessica Barker is a lifelong autodidact based in North Carolina. Her blog is
http://lifewithoutcollege.wordpress.com/

Going against the entrenched mainstream belief that to have a successful life you have to get higher education, can you define your idea of what success means?

Through my blog I have discovered that "success" is quite a touchy subject. In this day and age it is very hard, even as an unschooler, to break through or get around what mainstream society preaches as "success."

The standard, at its core, seems to be college = wealth = success. College means you get into a high-paying job (whether or not you actually like it is irrelevant); wealth means you make tons of money at this high-paying job, therefore having the financial capacity to own signs of wealth, such as nice cars, a big house, etc. As an unschooler, this confuses me, which led me to want to redefine "success" in the first place.

To sum it up, I like to simply say, "success is what you make it," even though it's rather cliché. As an individual, there shouldn't be obligations to only see yourself as successful in the way the rest of the world defines the word. It's understandably difficult, though; no matter how much we say we don't care what other people think, we do, especially when it comes to big things like life choices. It's just the way we are made.

However, overall people will respect you more if you are feeling successful in your own way, whether that is by going to college and becoming a CEO, or by bypassing college and starting up a small gym downtown. Being successful is you doing what you want to be doing, in my opinion.

For me personally, success is very progressive. I don't just aim for some vision of success further on down the road, when I am 28 and run 3 online businesses, work as a seasonal naturalist, and spend my spare time recording music or whatever; I see myself as successful in whatever I am doing at the time.

I'm not a professional concert pianist, I just started taking piano lessons last year; but I consider myself a successful piano student because I am learning exactly what I want to learn and I am at the exact point I want and need to be in my lessons right now. And the same goes with everything in my life. So, to me, success is accomplishing exactly what I want and need to accomplish at this specific time in my life.

Are you working at things that bring satisfaction as well as $$?

At this very moment, not wholly. My job I have right now as a customer service/office admin is more of a means to an end, although that is not to say I am not learning from it, because I am. It is also a very mobile job, so I can take it wherever I go and I don't have to ask for vacation time. But other than that, my source of money at this present moment is not bringing me loads of satisfaction; however, I am thankful that, at this time, it provides time and money for me to find satisfaction in other areas.

Besides that, at this time I am focused more on learning. I am "only" 19; my mainstream counterparts are in their Freshman and Sophomore years of college right now. This is a wonderful, ideal time to be learning and discovering further what I want to do in life, all the while living in the "real world." My primary interests are animals, wildlife, nature, alternative education, writing, and music.

Right now I am doing a self-study project on chinchillas, volunteering at a local wildlife center, doing a marketing internship for Homeschool Leadership Retreats, writing my blog, "Life Without College," taking piano lessons, and I even have some spare time for performing with a local improv troupe I've been on for 4 years, and reading and writing.

I am also going to be volunteering next month on the inaugural Homeschool Leadership Retreat in Ashland, Oregon, as a mentor, lackey, dishwasher, and anything else the leader, Blake Boles, decides he wants me to do or learn.

These things are bringing me great satisfaction, and, again - I feel successful as I am right now in life. That doesn't mean I am not looking towards the future: to the contrary, I have many plans to both further my learning in my areas of passion, and eventually make money in those areas.

Tell us about your educational background and the pros and cons of an unschooling lifestyle.

I was an "unschooled homeschooler," if that makes sense. My parents wanted me to at least do the basics of math, reading, and writing; they only really had to "make" me do math, and I would read and write till the cows came home.

But I had a lot of freedom to pursue my own interests. I could often get kits and books through curriculum companies, and then I would take ballet and drama classes, read books from the library, and watch TV. Those were my forms of "learning intake." Output often was in writing, playing, painting, performing, and talking with great enthusiasm.

The pros of unschooling, for me especially, are the freedom of time and the freedom of pursuit. I have a feeling that, if I had ever been put in a 9-3 school environment, I would have died in so many ways. I would have no time to imagine and create, and no motivation or energy to pursue anything beyond what was being forced down my throat for the majority of my day.

I am extremely self-directed, and, frankly, I like to do what I want to do, when I want to do it. Of course, it's not reasonable to apply that to everything in life, but when it came to learning in my "grade school" years, my curiosity and love for learning were able to flourish and grow because of the freedom I had.

I could spend two or three weeks finding out everything I possibly could about snakes; my mom suggested I write fact pages and draw pictures, and of course that reinforced my learning. And that, of course, has led to me getting to work with snakes on a regular basis now, and that is so awesome.

The cons of unschooling are, to me, very few and hard to acknowledge. (I'm not biased at all, can you tell?) But I can acknowledge that it isn't for everyone. Many people prefer or require a lot more structure, or need assignments and deadlines, or any number of things. There's nothing wrong with people that prefer classrooms; they aren't stupid or unmotivated or anything, they are just wired differently. And I respect that, even though I don't understand it.

Do you like the world you live in? How would you like to see it changed?

I love the world I live in. Sure, there are many downfalls to being a human on the earth today. But all the hate, and the wars... I can't help but look beyond that to see all of the wonderful people in this world and the beauty of the nature around us.

Every time I set foot in a different place, whether it's across the street or across the country, I see the most gorgeous landscapes and the most interesting quirks that land has; and I meet new people who, for lack of a better word, are amazing. There's the avid cuckoo clock-collecting poet; the old man with the family-run bakery serving the most delicious danishes; the "accidental" friend who shows you how to look at the world in a whole different way. There is just too much good in this world to only see its rough edges.

I guess the ways I would like to see it changed is that, overall, there would be more love and less hate. I feel a little like a silly hippie chanting "give peace a chance," but... I am a silly hippie, so it's only fitting. If we all loved more (and I'm not pointing fingers, except at myself because it's definitely something I need to constantly be working on), then I think the other sore spots in the world would begin to heal too. Of course, we can't hope for a perfect world, not in this life; but that doesn't mean we shouldn't strive for it together.