5 posts tagged “homeschooling”

"Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil." -- CS Lewis.

Focusing not on the "how" of home education, but the "why"

First up is this talk by Sir Ken Robinson, a professor from England, titled "Do Schools Kill Creativity" given at TED Conference. "Think of it." He says, "Children starting school this year will be retiring in 2065... Nobody has a clue what the world will look like in 5 years time, and yet we're meant to be educating children for that."

The talk highlights some aspects of education that go deep for us. First is the notion that schools are not designed to educate individuals in the diverse ways they each can excel in life, they're built to reward those students who think like university professors. The system is designed as if the pinnacle of achievement is to become a university professor. That's not bad, he asserts, it's just bad if that is the only and the highest achievement on offer to young people.

Second is the notion of creativity. I love this sentiment given by Picasso and elaborated on by Sir Robinson, that we are all artists as children, but the trick is to remain an artist as an adult. I happen to be a designer by profession, and trotting out "art" always bugs the entrepreneur in me. The bigger application, not to be missed, is that our creativity is educated out of us as we grow up and that school systems are chiefly to blame as they instill a fear of failure; a fear of trying something original. Being wrong is not creativity, but creativity requires a willingness to be wrong. For me, the notion of being willing to try must coexist with a willingness to fail; and then to try again.

Watch the video. I think you'll enjoy it. Sir Ken Robinson - Do Schools Kill Creativity

Maybe you've wondered about how homeschooled children will fare academically. Have you ever asked a homeschool friend if they think they'll homeschool through middle school or high school? Do you still think homeschooling means that children actually stay home all day, every day?

I personally have many friends, family members and colleagues who raise these questions to us, and they seem genuinely concerned; if not curious. Their curiosity has me on the defensive (somewhat) and I hope to smooth off some of the rough perceptions of home schooling by talking candidly about them.

Thankfully there are plenty of good studies and mainstream news articles pointing to the academic merits of children educated at home, so I don't feel a need to address that here.

So, what about the high school question? For us, the answer is not yet in stone. However, the longer we homeschool the more evidence we see of the benefits and the more we want our children to fully reap those benefits of a non-traditional and custom tailored education for as long as they possibly can.

The older our children get, the more we're able to contrast their education, their social and cultural influences and interactions versus their generation of peers. As they approach middle school and high school those influences are becoming stronger as parents' influence naturally diminishes. This only reinforces our inclination to pursue homeschooling because of the social, religous and behavioral fruit it bears. As children mature they are less reliant on parents, we fully understand and expect that. We also believe we will be, and this is our hope, a continued touchpoint for them as our influence diminishes and as their peers and their own aspirations gain importance in their lives.

Some of our friends', even our religous friends', biggest concerns is that their pre-teens will be introduced to drugs or promiscuity. This is not even among the top concerns of the parents in our local Christian homeschool group. My wife and I were in public school. We're well aware of what was happening after school dances and at 6th grade camps. Those things are nowhere near our horizon as we consider the next few years for our students.

And what about the last question. Does this all happen at home? No. The reality is most homeschooled children do more field trips and get more civic and community involvement in a 9 month period than public school children will get from their entire K-12 experience. More on this subject when I plug in my laptop...