Well, if you haven't figured it out by now, here it is... we are homeschooling. I have had this blog post sitting in my drafts for almost 3 years. It's probably time I send it as we are "officially school aged" come the fall.
Homeschooling is a decision we made while I was pregnant with Isla. We have a lot of reasons and it's evolved over the years. I have invested SO much time and energy into reading, learning, and growing our vision of homeschooling. It is not a light decision and honestly, I am still learning and growing and will continue to do so until my children leave our house.
But here it is, my heart and soul poured into one post. Here are all the reasons we are choosing to homeschool our children.
1. The absolute number one reason we want to homeschool is because of what we can offer our children. We recognize that we are privileged and blessed to be able to offer an education in the safety of our home. For many/most families any other type of schooling is simply not an option. That being said, we can provide our children with the most enriching, individualized, hands-on, magical education which is more than any classroom could ever offer them. And that is simply the logistics of it. You could have the greatest teacher in the world, but still be limited by things out of that teacher's control (class size, education system, resources, time, energy, student makeup, etc.). My greatest desire is to give my children an enchanting, enriching, and empowering education.
I remember teaching an ocean unit in my preschool classroom. The kiddos were SO excited about the week we spent on sharks. When it was time to move onto the next unit, I had a handful of children that were so upset. They had so much more they wanted to learn about sharks. Unfortunately, we had a curriculum we had to keep up on. I had a set of standards the students had to reach by the end of the year and we needed to stay on track. Besides that, not everyone wanted to keep learning about sharks. I couldn't just rearrange our learning every time someone wanted to keep going with a topic. This made me so, so sad. And I remember thinking, this isn't right. I'm squashing their innate curiosity and desire to learn. I ended up sending a package of shark material home for those few students, but not every teacher can or will do that. Teachers aren't paid enough as it is. It's ridiculous to ask them to do something like that for every student, every time.
What I can offer my children is a learning experience that is catered to their interests. Everything can be individualized. We can go at their pace. If we need to slow down or speed up, we can. If we have a topic that sounds delicious, we can explore it. There is no boundary around our education. I can't think of a better learning experience for my children. There was a study done that stated "98% of kindergarteners qualify as 'creative geniuses'. By 25, only 3 percent can make that claim." (Torrence Test of Creative Thinking). The creative genius mentioned here is referring to associations with engineers, scientists, brilliant minds. One of the contributors to squashing this genius is the lack of desire to learn. Studies show that most children, by fourth grade, have lost a love for learning and they hate school. That breaks my heart. But it makes sense.
Another gift that comes with time is the ability to arrange our schedules however we'd like. If there is an event we'd like to attend at 10:00 on a Tuesday, we can! If we need to spend some time running errands during the day, we can do our schooling in the evening. Or tomorrow. If we want to take a trip in the middle of the year or life happens that subtracts from our formal school time, that's ok. So much freedom comes with time. This also allows us to work at my children's pace. If we want to spend a week or a month learning about bugs, we can. If we want to skip a topic we don't like, we can. Time gives me the ability to cater my children's education. That's so valuable. Something the classroom cannot offer my child. Besides that, studies show that the actual time spent on "learning and education" is a little over 2 hours a day, on average (according to the Department of Education). After you factor in breaks, explanations, transitions, behavioral management, etc. you are left with a meer 2 hours of instructional learning time. If a child is spending 6-8 hours in school a day, what a waste of their life that is. Homeschooling gives my children back those lost hours.
Besides those factors, the gift of time also allows my children to have a simple childhood. The pressures and intensity that is put on students, even as young as preschool age, is not right. Book after book after book about children in today's world suggests the same thing: children are too busy, too stressed, too pressured to even have a childhood. The fast pace of today's society has taken away childhood, boredom, play, and anything simple. Plainly said, there is no time to be a kid. And with homeschool, I can give that chance to my kids.
3.We want to cultivate an environment that fosters lifelong learning within our children. Homeschooling is not an 8:00-3:00 activity. It is our lifestyle. Memorizing facts for a test is not learning. Being marked by a letter grade and spending 12 years of education aiming to achieve a certain letter grade is not learning. Studying for hours on end and then forgetting it soon after is not learning. We want a deeper, richer experience for our children. We want them to learn something because they want to. We want them to remain curious, enchanted, and inspired rather than dulled down to fit into the system. All of life is learning and we want that to go with them the rest of their lives.
4. I don't agree with the education system. It's flawed. If you read the history of formal education, you might be surprised. For all of time, children learned what they wanted/needed at home, with their people, and for survival purposes. Children educated themselves through play, exploration, and observation. It wasn't until the rise of agriculture and then later industry, that the idea of children submitting to a master or higher power than themselves for the intent of "learning a set of skills/practices" was formed. Even later than that, around the late 1600s, the idea of mandated school in America came to be with the colonists. The main goal was to indoctrinate children with the discipline of Puritanism. Later on, industrialism needed good workers that followed directions and understood things like punctuality and obedience. School produced citizens that would do just that. As time went on and all sorts of educational philosophies and prominent voices arose, the idea that children's main objective was to learn in school became the focus. It's something that over time has morphed and grown into what public education today has become. There have been guidelines, milestones, and criteria put in place as time has gone on, but overall the main objective is that adults have important things to say and children's work is to learn those important things. This is a very brief overview of the history of education (see Peter Gray and Kerry McDonald's summary for more information), but the takeaway for me is that the public school system is not necessarily the most sound or developmentally appropriate system. It's simply something that has been done for 200 years. We often assess what parts of the education system need fine tuning and fixes (i.e. No Child Left Behind Act or Common Core Standards), but no one ever gets to the absolute and simplest root of the problem. Maybe school itself is developmentally inappropriate to begin with. Maybe the entire system is faulty and we are just trying to fix something that is already very, very broken. I don't think anyone can argue that our education system is naturally good. In fact, our country's education system continually ranks low across the board for literacy, math, and science. We are doing something wrong. This is not a knock on teachers or even schools. It's simply a flawed and failed system born out of the desire to force children to do what we needed them to do. Homeschooling is my own vendetta against the system. I'm simply not comfortable putting my children into a system that trains them to memorize facts and waste their time.
*I feel like it's important to note- the physical function of schools are necessary for a lot of things. Parents have to work and kids need to be supervised. That much is true. Many children need school for food, shelter, safety, and sometimes even love and connection. I recognize all of that. It can be both things- the system is flawed AND it's necessary. In a perfect world, school would look very different. But it's too big of a monster to fight and unfortunately, our country's children are at the receiving end of the monster.
5. The spiritual, physical, and mental health of my children matters. I once read something to the affect of "I'm not putting my kids in a bubble, I'm putting them in a greenhouse. A bubble stifles growth and blocks nutrients. A greenhouse provides an environment for cultivation". The education system does not always have these things in mind. For one thing, I know it doesn't care about the spiritual wellbeing of my children. And our faith matters in our family. Besides that, though, I would argue that even with all the efforts to get kids moving and to provide healthy environments for children, this isn't the case in reality. When a child is required to sit for as long as they are, when recess is shortened year after year, when rigorous academics take precedence over play... I think it's safe to assume the child's best interests are not always in mind. The CDC continues to see a rise in mental health issues in children, more than they ever have before. They attribute a lot of these issues to overly busy schedules, pressure to excel in school, bullying, and other areas stemming from the rigors of school. The rise of ADHD and other mental health disorders are consistently linked to schools and other sources related to school. There are things in place to help and support these issues in the education system and I do hope this is something that continues to be addressed. But my children do not have to be at the disposal of that hopeful thinking. Homeschooling is an option for our family that allows the spiritual, physical, and mental health of my children to thrive.
I'm trying to take everything I've read, everything I've listened to, and everything I've thought and put it into simple reasons why we believe homeschooling is right for our family. But that is very hard to do. I have spent so much time, energy, and thinking on all of this. But these are the simplest answers I can give as to why we want to homeschool.
But I would be remiss to do a homeschooling blogpost without touching on the elephants in the room. I think everyone has that one strange homeschooler in the back of their mind that they knew who played video games all day and couldn't socially get along with others. And while I'm all for having "weird" kids (because that simply means they know themselves and love what they love), I definitely understand the concerns.
1. "Homeschooling? But how will you socialize them"? That is the question I have heard from many well-intentioned people when I mention we want to homeschool. And to that I say, "Public education? But how will you socialize them?". I don't mean to be snarky, but really stop and think about it.
- You are stuck with a set of 20 kids all the same age, for an entire year. That's a very limited set of people to gain the majority of your "socialization" from. Whereas, homeschooling offers multiple opportunities to socialize with all kinds of people (nursing homes, co-ops, educational activities, sports, classes, etc.). Studies show there is a huge benefit to spending time with people/children of many ages. Some education systems even encourage multi-aged classrooms because the benefits are so worth it. In the traditional school system, children learn to fear the older students and bully/look down on the younger ones. Not always, but definitely often. Whereas if a child spends time with diverse ages, they can learn from one another in a safe environment.
- Peer learning is not always the best type of "socialization". Just because your child is with other children their age, doesn't mean that's the best influence for your child. They are all just as clueless as the others. Think of how much value can come from learning from multi-age, multi-generational groups of people. The older children can nurture and teach the younger children and in turn the younger children can learn so much from the older ones. Beyond that, multi-generational learning has so many benefits. There will never be another time in my children's life where they will spend a majority of their day with the same aged, same skilled set of people. Why do we think this is the best setup for a group of learning children?
- And how many times can you remember being told to quit talking, quit socializing and listen to what the teacher has to say. Is the classroom really the best place for ideal socialization?
- But maybe when people say "socialization", they mean how will you keep your child from being weird? I'll agree, many homeschoolers do keep their children home for reasons like sheltering them and in turn I think it can produce children that don't know how to be in social situations. And that is such a disservice to those children. But I would argue if you are intentional and purposeful in your interactions with others, than your children will benefit. It's not that school is the only alternative to the weirdo-homeschooler-stereotype. There are more options. And how many "weirdos" are there in public school too? They aren't all great communicators who know how to act in all social situations.
- Or maybe people mean your child won't be trendy or will be too sheltered from what is cool. Is that what they mean by "socialization"? To which I would respond, that is not a priority for me. I do not think school is the answer to keeping my children trendy. I also don't know that "trendy" is the standard I'm aiming for, but to each their own.
- And sure, the graduation concern is valid. Obviously, I want my children to enter the world successfully, however that may look. I have been diligent and responsible (as all homeschooling parents should be) and I know what is required of my children to graduate and go to college, trade school, or whatever they want to do. Surprisingly, Illinois has some of the easiest standards for homeschoolers. I see that as a great thing, but I will still do what is necessary in case that ever changes. I have spent an insane amount of time researching the Illinois laws and discussing with veteran homeschoolers. But it's suprisingly not as hard as you'd think.
- I also think it's important to note, the United States education system is not the gold standard. The countries that are the most literate or have the best education system look very different than us. I would much rather focus on giving my children an education that is lifelong, rather than hold them to inappropriate standards. If anything, I'm going to look at other systems of education and go from there. The standards of our country are a subpoint to our overall learning goals. Yes, they need to be met in the practical sense that I want my children to succeed in the way our country is setup, but it will never be a top priority for me to hold them to those standards.
Hannah, this was beautifully written and really thankful I get to go on this journey with you and your wonderful family! <3
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