My favorite one-two punch

Saturday at the conference was sort of "advanced unschooling" day, with a series of talks by and about teenaged and 20-something unschoolers. I enjoyed the whole day (well, aside from an extreme case of nerves about my own teenager talk), but the combination of Brenna McBroom's and Cameron Lovejoy's talks was a real highlight.

Brenna spoke first, sharing stories about her life as an academically inclined unschooler, her decision to go to college, and her preparation for that path. Brenna is tiny, but her intelligence and drive give her a presence beyond her height. Plus, she's a knockout. She talked about prom (she went to one and was unimpressed) and being valedictorian (she got an hour to talk instead of only 5 minutes). And she talked about the things she's gotten to explore as an unschooler that she wouldn't have had time for if she'd been on the AP track in school.

Then Cameron had his turn. He talked about starting out unschooling as a kid who didn't want to do anything. He was shy and something of a hermit. This image is hard to reconcile with the Cameron we got to know. He helped run the conference, for one thing, and he's a talented drummer who accompanied Amy Steinberg brilliantly, and he is just the neatest guy. Anyway, he talked about his gradual emergence from his shell and how unschooling gave him the space to do that. His plans for the near future include(d) working as a junior staffer at Not Back to School Camp, followed by some world-schooling with Eli Gerzon on a multi-month trip to Mexico.

The two talks complemented each other beautifully, especially because Cameron and Brenna are really close friends—something that might not have been an option for them without unschooling, even if they'd attended the same school. And the talks in combination really illustrated how unschooling can be tailored to suit an individual without forcing the individual into a mold.