Does anyone love the status quo song from High School Musical? I love it! Challenge the status quo and think outside the box. Whole foods nutrition (think green smoothies). Yoga. Want to live in Latin America. Natural childbirth. Homebirth. Homeschooling. Just call me the "earthy, crunchy granola girl".
Today was a good day. My kids had the times of their lives at Park Day-a support group for homeschoolers here in Eagle Mountain. They made new friends, got some sun, explored, and were covered in mud. They loved it. Elijah was so tired and happy afterwards that he blissfully went to sleep after lunch and a bath. I enjoyed talking to other like-minded mothers. I was in heaven.
I am 99% sure I will homeschool this fall. We have been "practicing" this summer and have had fun learning about classical musicians and ears and eyes. A few weeks ago we dissected a cow's eye that I ordered from a great website called www.homesciencetools.com. It was so gross and cool and we learned so much. I have been investigating the homeschool option for 3 years and want to do it so bad. It just makes sense to me. I think of eternity and how my chance to be a mother and teach my children is just a dot on that timeline. I don't want to lose that dot to public school. Children spend 15,000 hours in school which is a little under 2 years of their lives. I really love being with my kids. With Heidi starting kindergarten this fall I don't want to see her go. I don't want to isolate my kids from the world but instead I want to give them the world. I want them to have more than I had. I want them to be able study what interests them because that is when they really learn.
The book, "A Thomas Jefferson Education", is what really first intrigued me. It compares public education to a conveyor belt where an individualized education plan is impossible. Just think of the student to teacher ratio that homeschooling solves. Thirty to one verses four to one, in my case. Children are taught what to think, not how to think. Creativity is stifled. My public school education taught me the tools (reading, writing, arithmetic) to learn but other than that not anything that I remember. I was an A student. I knew how to memorize for the test but I don't remember more than that. What good is all that time in school if I can't remember what it was I went there for? I want so much more for my children. I want them to learn about the things that interest them so that it sticks in their minds and so they really learn and LOVE doing it. I want them to learn to be great thinkers and self-educators. A huge part of our homeschool will be service. I have dreamed of going to brighten the days of the elderly and sick. I want my kids to love serving other people and be comfortable with people of all different ages and to be a light to the world.
The BIG homeschool question is "what about socialization?" Is that the real reason we send our kids to school? I actually have gone to homeschool conventions, etc. with the curiosity of what kind of people homeschool their kids. I have been surprised that the majority of people are "normal" looking people (if anyone can define normal). There are always some strange ones. Who can blame someone who is weird for homeschooling? If the parents are weird, the kids will most likely be weird. Wouldn't it be a safer place to learn at home than with a bunch of bullies? I read a book, "The Well Adjusted Child". It is great and addresses every homeschool socialization question imaginable like how will they be prepared for the real world, where homeschooled kids learn to be sociable, the need to face adversity, aren't they isolated, etc. I want them to be ready for the real world. I don't want to isolate them. I want them to know how to shine, be strong, and overcome adverse situations.
Another good question would be, do we want to socialize our children or civilize them? I think they are completely different things. If socialization is what I learned from a public school education, it was definitely not civilization. If the most important thing we learn in life is how to treat other people the way God wants us to and the way Christ taught us to then public education is failing miserably. What did I learn from my public education experience in light of socialization? I always think back to a day in my 6th grade class room when my teacher left the room. A homely, quiet girl wearing uncool red pants was humiliated in front of the entire class by a popular boy. I felt so awful for her. I can imagine she wished the earth would just open up and swallow her whole. I wanted to stand up for her and tell him to stop it. But I was too afraid. I wasn't pretty or rich or popular. I was afraid of being demoted from practically invisible to a total loser. I lacked serious moral character. Thinking back I wish that I would have been strong enough to stop the cruelty to have shown that boy that bullying isn't cool. Instead it just got worse.
So again, what did I learn from school? I learned that I need to do whatever the teacher wanted me to do. I learned to follow the crowd. I learned to worry about what others think. I learned to be afraid to say what I think. I learned that the world can be very cruel and wicked. I learned what perverts think. I learned that the bus can be an evil place. I learned very little about being a light to the world. However, I held fast to goodness and did not chose to go down those ugly paths, so was it worth it? Maybe. Did I shine my light as we are asked to do and do I want the same experience for my own children? Yes, I did the best I could considering the light had been greatly dimmed by the entire experience. No, I want my children to shine brighter than I did.
So what is the 1% that holds me back from homeschooling? Worrying about what other people think (which is none of my business anyway) and a by-product of my conveyor belt education. I don't want my children to think the way I do. So I think I solved my own problem.
Loving and Loss
3 years ago
2 comments:
So I found your blog via facebook! And I think the homeschool question is an interesting one. Certainly, there are pros and cons for it. I'm really not sure how I feel about it. I know that homeschooling would not have worked well for me. Ultimately the question is for you to decide because you know your children. For some kids, homeschooling would work beautifully.
Here's an interesting statistic that I almost didn't believe when I first heard it, but it's something you should be aware of because you may encounter some suspicion. According to counselors and social workers, about 60% of all home schooled children are abused. The parents homeschool not so much because they think it is superior to the public system, but because it assists them in continuing the abuse undetected. (Obviously, I don't think this applies to you at all, but still -- you should know that abuse is prevalent in homeschooled kids.)
T,
That is a really interesting statistic and sooo sad. It is so sad that there are people that would do anything to hurt a child. It breaks my heart that any child ever has to experience abuse. I'm sure Heavenly Father is even more broken hearted because He sees it all. I hope there will be justice someday.
As far as not knowing what you think about homeschooling, I recommend reading "A Thomas Jefferson Education" and "The Well Adjusted Child". "Dumbing Us Down" is another one that I hear is good. I haven't read it yet. You probably won't read them until you have school aged kids but they are really eye opening. I like "A Thomas Jefferson Education" for my own education. I really don't feel like I learned much in school even though I got mostly A's and this book shows you how to open up the world through the study of classics (books that teach morals)with the help of mentors to get an excellent liberal arts education.
M
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