I don’t talk about Aidan’s education much. We are using the state funded k12 program; it’s a home-based charter school that gives us an amazing amount of flexibility with our schedules. This morning I was reading BuzzMachine, a blog by Jeff Jarvis, when I came upon this statement in TedxNYed: This is Bullshit:
We must stop looking at education as a product – in which we turn out every student giving the same answer – to a process, in which every student looks for new answers. Life is a beta.
I can’t begin to wrap my mind around the idea of the amount of information at my fingertips. Â What I’m doing at Home Ec 101 isn’t creating information, it’s simply listening to the questions people are asking and distilling the information into a form some people find more palatable.
Do I know what the kids will end up doing or being?
No.
I want to teach them to find the information they need, to vet it, process it, and perhaps share it in a new form.
3 comments ↓
i considered home school as an option, but there were so many questions that led to certain anxieties. most of the part was the assumption that two incomes must be made. and that leaves no time to train a child in various arts, education and sciences.
The other issues that came to play was standards, it’s assumed that standards in homeschooling are set by the “teachers” and not by the “school system” therefor adjustable to some degree, and that kind of free thinking scares my wife and I. we want to at least have a standard we can benchmark our children against. and without having public school or private school the benchmark has to be researched and the accuracy isn’t instant gratification.
so to summarize. we insist on public education for various bullshit reasons. but it’s the same reasons home-school families have. to give a child a chance to gain educational tools to use later in life.
I honestly do believe there is a GOOD and BAD social influence on community school systems vs home-school. On the GOOD side. children are able to see how other kids develop among them. they feel like part of the group. and learn to accept certain authorities quicker in lead environments.
The bad – not every day is 100% education, the schools sometimes just let the kids sit around for hours doing endless dribble work, and no one learns anything from that. it’s just filler. and that’s a massive waste of time on a child’s mind.
As I stated, it’s just one reason we homeschool. Others involve Tim’s work schedule and the ability to travel.
I’m not condemning your or anyone’s decision, just stating a reason for ours.
The k12 program is pretty rigid compared to some curricula and it meets national standards, which gives me peace of mind. While we have a certain amount of time that must be focused on education, once the material has been covered we can either work ahead or branch out into different fields of interest.
I went through the Berkeley County system and though I graduated a year early and was in the gifted programs, I was bored out of my mind. Yes, we do drills and other boring work, but there isn’t that soul crushing wait while others slow down the class.
Absolutely! Our concept of homeschooling has not been to make sure that they learn all the right answers to all the right questions, but for the kids to learn HOW TO LEARN, how to figure things out for themselves, how to THINK.
I’ve had people tell me (including a sister in law who is a TEACHER) that they would be afraid to homeschool because they might MISS something in their child’s education. They feel it’s best left to “experts”. Phooey. Who is more of an expert on your kids than you are? Who cares more?
Leave a Comment