The term 'unschooling' came from a 7-Up slogan

October 26, 1:32 PMUnschooling ExaminerSara McGrath

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7-Up Logo/Wikimedia Commons

In response to a recent post on the Learn Stuff Blog, titled Unschooling - Rejection or Revolution?, unschooling advocate and author Sandra Dodd commented on the "un" in unschooling and the origin of the term by pointing to the following.

A Quote by Suzanne Carter on the "Un" in "Unschooling"

Lots of people make this point, but I never see the negation as negative in a value-judgment sense when I use the word--to me unschooling is as positive as unchaining, unbinding, unleashing, unfolding, unfurling, unlimiting. . . All mean freedom and growth and vast possibilities to me.--Suzanne Carter

From Sandra Dodd's Origin of the Term 'Unschooling'

There was a 7-Up commercial in the 1970's. 7-Up is a carbonated lemon/lime thing. At the time, there was also a huge competition between Pepsi and Coca-Cola (international—one got importation rights to the USSR and the other didn't, one got McDonald's and the other didn't—stuff like that). So 7-Up made a commercial that said "7-Up: The UNcola."--Sandra Dodd, Origin of the Term "Unschooling" (August 2008)

According to Sandra Dodd, at a 1996 conference in Calfiornia, Pat Farenga of Holt Associates, Inc., confirmed the orign of the "unschooling" term as a play on the 7-Up slogan.