I loved school. Being linguistically and logically intelligent, I can honestly say I enjoyed school. A lot. My parents were prompted to have me skip a grade, and by 4th grade, I was on the Honors track and remained there until I graduated high school. When I attempted to study auto mechanics in high school, a group of teachers urged my mom not to sign the permission slip because I was “college material.” I still get a little annoyed when my “check engine light” dings on.
My entire life, I always knew I wanted to teach, but I convinced myself to give up my childish dream for something more grown-up. Two careers later, I stopped fighting the inevitable and applied for entry into a Special Education program. I say all this to show that there was very little I didn’t love about the public school system. From being a student to teacher training, I was all in.
That is, until the year the public school system lost my youngest child (thankfully, the police found her hours later) while failing to enforce their own anti-bullying policy to thwart the harassment my oldest child was enduring. The teachers turned a blind eye to the bullying yet penalized her because she was failing Social Studies. When she tearfully refused to go into the school building after three months of endless harassment, I knew what I had to do. Protect her.
I started my Homeschool by making some common mistakes.
I armed myself with workbooks, dittos, and tests (oh my!).
I divided our 4-hour school day into 4 subjects - math, reading, social studies, and science.
I did not have a plan. I was simply going to teach what children of their ages should know.
I did not connect with a support group. Why? I was just going to mimic what public schools did.
Easy peasy! Right? I can feel the breeze from homeschooling veterans who are shaking their heads in the reading audience.
I did not know I was about to crash and burn out. I did not know I needed to deschool.
Deschooling: (v) the process of relearning how to learn by unplugging from the traditional school system. Public schooling and homeschooling are like distant cousins. They are related, but just not that close. Education is the function of a mindset. It is much more than the content you teach but the purpose of what you teach and the conditions under which it should happen.
I will wrap up this post with the mindset shift necessary to make homeschooling work. Tomorrow, I will share what many have done to make the change.
PUBLIC SCHOOL | HOME SCHOOL |
Children’s autonomy and agency are distrusted; learning is EXTERNALLY DIRECTED, promoting a human-doing point of view.
| Children’s autonomy and agency are encouraged; learning is INTERNALLY DIRECTED, promoting a human-being point of view.
|
Students are prepared for college or work. Core subjects are emphasized | Students are prepared for life. Subject matter is based on their interests and abilities. |
Attendance is compulsory with a definitive start and finish date; days have definitive time periods | Education is an extension of home life so "attendance" is full-time, natural and lifelong. |
There is a singular “right answer” in most situations. Failure is seen as negative and is penalized. | Exploration of different solutions, approaches, and methods is encouraged. Failure is seen as a prerequisite to success and is supported. |
Takes place in a microcosm where the majority of learning comes from theoretical examples | Takes place in society, where students learn from solving real-life problems in real time |
Average teacher-student ratio: 15.3 to 1 Equal individual attention is unlikely | Average teacher-student ratio: 3.5 to 1 Equal individual attention is possible |
Again, I want to emphasize that deschooling is a journey, not a destination. It takes time. How long depends mainly on your insistence on putting a round peg in a square hole. You may make it fit with force, but the peg will either be broken or suffocated in the process.
Comentários