Who cares?
2 08 2006I’ve been reading a few “professional teacher” blogs today. I’m not impressed with their continued lack of knowledge concerning the current revolution in homeschooling. Has one of them ever participated in a homeschooling convention? Picked up a book about homeschooling?
Their experience seems to be blogs and speaking to the occasional homeschooled teen.
As far as blogs go.. unless they’re reading MINE, they really haven’t read a good homeschooling blog. My guess is they’ve read the squeaky wheel blogs. And as for meeting homeschoolers, come on. We’re all isolationists who fiercly protect our children until marriage. We don’t allow them out to speak with random teachers!
I am a homeschooling parent. I’m probably an average homeschooling parent.
I homeschool because I know I can provide a custom education that meets my children’s needs, and provide a safer and more balanced social atmosphere for them.
Before I started homeschooling, I read a lot of books about homeschooling. I researched different methods, styles, learning choices.. I bought a lot of things I never used.
Then I figured out that my kids don’t fit nicely into any slots and I tossed all those books and genius opinions aside and started letting my kids learn.
I allowed my children a LOT of freedom to learn what they wanted, based on their interests. I probably was never truly an unschooler, because while I allowed them choices - I only provided good choices. Good choices in learning activities, and in social activities.
Somehow, along the way, my kids managed to learn to read, write, and do algebra. And how to manage a farm, start a business, make award winning films, participate in national level scholastic and athletic competitions, volunteer, and socialize. A lot.
Do I care what some professional trained educrat thinks of my choice to homeschool my kids? No.
Do I really care if they have met “lots of homeschooled teens” and think “none of them would make it in the real world”? No. While many professional government employed teachers have met a number of homeschooled youth, I can bet I’ve met more teens who are public schooled. I have yet to meet one who I would say knew anything about the “real world”. High school isn’t the real world, in any shape or form. In an average week, my teens spend more time in the real world (as do most homeschoolers) than a public school student spends in a month.
I have never met (although I’m sure they exist) a pregnant homeschooled teenager. I’ve met dozens of pregnant public school students (working as a volunteer).
I have never met (although I’m sure they exist) a homeschool gang member, a homeschool junkie, a homeschool convict, or a homeschool drop out. I’ve met literally dozens of publicly schooled teens in the above categories.
I have never personally met a homeschooling parent who couldn’t read, write, and do math. I’ve met a scary number of undereducated public school teachers.
I have met hundreds of homeschooled kids. I would say that nearly every one of them will be successful in the real world they choose for themselves, because like any youth, what they didn’t learn in high school, they can elect to learn later. I give the homeschoolers a greater chance at success, considering how most homeschoolers are required to do a fair amount of independent study (Mom can only teach one sibling at a time…) I can’t say that about the same percentage of public school students I’ve met - because most of them lack the motivation to learn what they don’t know - they’ve never been given that choice. Their education is spoon fed them according to a rigid schedule and in accordance to standards set by an arbitrary governing board - one who ultimately has to answer to the tax payer.
Statistics place homeschoolers in the top percentages of standardized testing. Maybe homeschoolers are just better at taking tests - but their performance is to be applauded, not ridiculed.
There are plenty of things I wouldn’t want a public school teacher educating my children about. Sex would be one. Not because I’m opposed to children being exposed to sexual education, it’s just that, at least in my district, a large percentage of the teaching staff is very conservative and I don’t want them teaching my children that sex is some kind of bad thing. I also don’t want the math teacher educating my children about evolution (in our district, the math teacher is also the biology teacher, a subject she is NOT trained in). I don’t want the PE teacher educating my children about geography (a subject that doesn’t require a specialized certificate). No, if the popular thought is that any teacher can follow a lesson plan and a set curriculum and “teach” a subject, I can do that too. Better probably, considering I can change the materials if they aren’t working.
A teacher writes:
“And it is vital that the teacher know as much about each student as is possible.”
Why? It’s not as if the public school teacher can customize the education of each student. For example, can she use a different math program for each student? I can. I can choose the best method for every one of my students. I can provide hours of individual attention to assure that every one of them gets the best possible education experience. What the teacher writes above is simply nice jaw music that the average parent wants to hear. Their child is still going to use the same textbook that the other 30 kids in the classroom are using. And worse, a teacher who truly believes they know each student is likely to try diagnosing each learning difference the child has, instead of seeing that child as an individual with unique needs. The goal of public school is conformity, and the teacher’s role is to make sure each child conforms to standard. That’s the real socialization taking place.
High school socialization does not prepare anyone for real life socialization. Show me one aspect of high school socialization, or better yet, middle school socialization, that mirrors employment or home life in any way, shape, or form. My children, under my supervision, can learn to cooperate, take care of each other and their community, and still receive a superior education, by never leaving their neighborhood, although we do that, often. We socialize with people of all ages and genders, socio economic backgrounds, and lifestyles. It’s called living in the real world.
Show me one isolationist conservative homeschooling family, and I’ll show you ten outgoing involved homeschooling families. I’ll also show you the sullen, neglected, bullied, and forgotten teens sitting isolated in the lunchroom, the library, and the hallways of any public high school.
One argument that makes me laugh is the thought that public school students receive a market share of “new ideas”. Where do these new ideas come from? Do I really want my teens to form opinions based on the ideas of other teens who have no life experience? Or from literal strangers (teachers) with whom I have no personal relationship, and have no knowledge of? Would I let my kids ride off in a car with a stranger? No. Then why on earth would I want strangers introducing my children to their version of “the real world”? My kids are not isolated from the newspaper, the internet, satellite TV, the voices of all the real world inhabitants that they encounter every single day. And better, when they encounter these “new ideas”, they have me, their mother, the person who cares about them more than anyone else will, to guide them and advise them on what they’re learning.
Where do all these real world public high school students get their “new ideas”?
Here I am, an average parent, who cares deeply for my children. I want them to have an education that reflects my view of the world, not yours, not some government teacher, and not some other teen’s. Mine. What in the world is wrong with that?
Doc,
As always your post today makes me think. I for one don’t think you are an average homeschooling parent. You have a doctorate and that puts you outside most boxes in the World. You unschooled your kids right into college, and that puts you outside the box also, not because your homeschooled kids got into college but because you unschooled them the whole way through.
It is my opinion we are creating a bunch of independent adults who will smile and do their own thing when they get jobs. My daughter has shown great ability to approach problems from angles I never would have thought of, and I am the quintissential rule follower who does only what she is told, except in homeschooling. I have a child so focused on her goal of being onstage that she has two auditions this week, one for a stage play and one for a film. This isn’t a child who is awkward in social situations or who won’t make it “in the real world.” She IS making it in the real world, getting along just fine in her chosen career and she isn’t even 16. From the homeschoolers I have met and gotten to know, she isn’t much different than most of them.
We have been lucky to have teachers for neighbors and good friends. I spent a fair amount of time these past 4 years educating teachers about what homeschooling really entails. They have learned and gone on to educate their teaching peers about the subject. Some of them have had my child babysit their kids, others have had her hanging at their homes with their kids, or have learned about homeschooling by having their kids hanging around our house.
My favorite story about homeschooling: Random lady at a church potluck who heard my 5 year old daughter ask me if the sign on the wall said ‘Happy Thanksgiving’ and who knew we homeschooled… “How did you know what that said? You don’t look old enough to read yet.” My daughter’s response, “Well, sometimes I use a Whole Language approach and sometimes I decode words using phonics. This time I used whole language and took clues from the pictures of the turkeys wearing Pilgrim Clothes and carrying blunderbusses.” After the lady’s jaw had made the climb back up to her face she asked, “Who teaches you, your mom or your dad?” My daughter, bless her heart, cocked her head to one side and said, “Well, neither one. I teach myself. Mostly they just get out of my way and let me learn.”
And that is how we homeschool.
Annette
I am a high school math teacher in Oregon and enjoyed your post. There are some of us “educrats” who support what you are doing and commend you on taking such an active role in your children’s education. As a high school teacher, I feel like a babysitter more often than an instructor because of all the behavioral issues my students bring to the classroom. Parents dump their kids off on us and tell us to educate them, discipline them, and parent them.
I think the biggest problem you face with teachers as a homeschooler is deflated egos. You are doing something that they spent a lot of time and money to become and are doing as well or better than they are at teaching kids.
I look at the news and see homeschooled kids outperforming public schoolers in standardized and college entrance exams. I have met many homeschooled kids and they are fine socially, often better, because they get their social contact through sports, church, and other activities. Public schools have become one of the worst environments for social interaction. Our school had 40 pregnant students by Christmas last year out of 1800 students.
Keep up the great work and keep spreading the word about the benefits of homeschooling.
Brett, I didn’t mean to paint all public school teachers with a broad brush - I count many as personal friends, having taught in the government system (at the university level) for several years. Thanks for your encouraging comments.
BRAVO!! Well said.
What a great perspective! Well said!
Hey, Annette, did you kidnap my daughter? She sounds just like my 10 year old… Hooray for her!!
And yeah, I knew what Butch meant–my teacher (HS physics)husband would agree with her completely. It was his idea we homeschool.
How’s that for a good education…
tonicw
*aplauds*
I have enjoyed reading your blog. I am new to homeschooling this will be my first year.
More applause from me! TBH, the only hostile teacher I ever came across was one who came door to door looking for donations for the heart society or something. Most everyone else I meet sees my bright articulate children (even the 5 year old - “Hi, my name is Emma. I’m homeschooled.”) and tells them how lucky they are.
Good one.
Thanks, Doc. With my oldest in middle school now, many who thought it was okay to homeschool the younger grades are making all sorts of negative comments to me when they see that I’m not about to stop homeschooling. Your post was very refreshing and just what I needed!
Doc,
As a public school math teacher I was intrigued by your post. I found it interesting that you attack the broad generalizations made against homeschool students by making equally poor generalizations about public school students. Not all public schools have pregnant teens wandering aimlessly through the hallway, passing by various drug deals on their way to a class taught by an unmotivatived, underqualified teacher.
With my limited research of homeschooling I have a couple of issues that maybe you can help me sort out.
First, why does their seem to be so much anger tossed at the public school system? From my standpoint you and I are very much alike, we are both concerned with providing a quality education to young people. Instead of firing barbs back and forth, would it not be more productive to share ideas and resources about teaching and learning? For example, I would love to hear about some of the real world experiences you have encountered, and how they were spun into lessons. A homeschool teacher might have some interest in some of the discourse in my classes about various patterns in math. Everyone knows there are bad teachers, and certainly you would admit there are at least a couple of bad homeschooling parents.
Second, I have seen many statements similar to this one… “I allowed my children a LOT of freedom to learn what they wanted, based on their interests. I probably was never truly an unschooler, because while I allowed them choices - I only provided good choices. Good choices in learning activities, and in social activities.”
How do homeschool parents balance the freedom of direction, while still making it to the desired end? What does it mean to say that you only provided good choices? Is it a difficult transition for homeschool students when they have to make the transition to figuring out for themselves what the good choices will be? What if the child does not “choose” to ever want to do math?
Thank you for any insights you can provide, and understand that there are at least a few of us “professional teachers” that truly do care about education and young people.
As always, I love reading your comments. You have a great way of organizing and presenting your thoughts and hitting home what most of us are trying to say.
I’ve often been asked when I’m going to send my girls to school (”because how could they possibly deal in the real world without some sort of high school experience”) but I remember high school well and there’s nothing about that experience that could prepare me for real life.
Not everyone can homeschool and there is a need for teachers; I still believe teachers are underpaid and need more freedom to teach. But I believe a great number of teachers do have deflated egos and therefore say things for self preservation. I take it with a grain of salt these days; I know my kids are thriving.
And unlike a woman I know that is a SAHM with a baby at home and a 4 year old in daycare, I actually WANT to be with my children. They make me feel alive, teach me new things every day, and I feel absolutely honored to teach them.
To anonymous: I always find it interesting when people post anonymously. I understand that you’re an educator so there is some inherent protection of your job in your post. I know Doc will answer your questions, but here are mine:
How do homeschool parents balance the freedom of direction, while still making it to the desired end?
The desired end is to have a healthy, happy adult who can provide for themselves the basic necessities of life and have the tools to do whatever else in life the child desires. By fostering a love of learning, reading comprehension skills and nurturing our children’s strengths we reach the desired end.
What does it mean to say that you only provided good choices? This means that the education CONTENT is directed by the parent. If my child wants to study slavery, then I help her choose many different books on the same subject so she’s not only getting one perspective (like a politically correct text book) and we assure they are at a level she can comprehend.
Is it a difficult transition for homeschool students when they have to make the transition to figuring out for themselves what the good choices will be?
Of course not. Instead of standard textbooks that she has no choice in, my children make guided choices from day one. By the high school years, my kids have critical thinking skills to make their own choices. Education is about transitioning children to their own independence. High School provided none of that for me.
What if the child does not “choose” to ever want to do math?
The homeschooling parents I know teach real world skills. I haven’t met a teenage homeschooler yet that couldn’t balance a checkbook, calculate interest, and didn’t have a savings account. Most cook, play music, and have hobbies that require they know math. And those who are GOOD at math and love it are generally levels above their peer groups in age.
It is in the organized education SYSTEM that children learn to hate math..especially those that may not be good at it.
Anyway, thanks DOC!! I continue to enjoy your blog.
Teaching is a noble profession and I don’t knock any teacher for doing it. My step-dad is a teacher, and he thinks it is wonderful that I want to have a part (major part) in my child’s education. He wishes that the parents of his students cared as much.
It is just that they current educational system is not set up in a manner that can teach all the students in the manner in which they learn. The system is set up to teach the “average” child. We all know that not everyone is average.
Our government can not afford to pay teachers what they are worth, so all that is left is the truely selfless ones and the ones who didn’t want to work at a typical job that has that same pay rate. Unfortunately, there aren’t that many selfless people in the world.
And Dawn touched on a great point… it is the public school system that causes that hatred of a subject because a student doesn’t understand it.
Thank you for your well written and well reasoned post!
Another good post. I wish I could get my thoughts (which closely mirror yours on many points, with the main difference being that I oppose the establishment of state schooling for the same reasons I oppose the establishment of state religion, and then some) in order and on paper as succinctly as you have.
But as you can see, I’m given to lengthy parenthetical tangents.
Thanks–well said.