Homeschooling on my mind

While reading Molly's blog , I learned of a new magazine. I'll have to grab one next time I'm out and about.

Secular Homeschooling Magazine

There are two articles posted online, and those two are enough to make me want to read the magazine. Almost enough to make me break the self-imposed prohibition of NO MORE magazine subscriptions.

From one of the two articles I found there:

The Bitter Homeschooler’s Wish List

“Stop saying that my kid is shy, outgoing, aggressive, anxious, quiet, boisterous, argumentative, pouty, fidgety, chatty, whiny, or loud because he's homeschooled. It's not fair that all the kids who go to school can be as annoying as they want to without being branded as representative of anything but childhood.”

I love, love, love that. The whole list made me laugh. It’s sooo true.

It’s hard to believe now, but when Lyssa was small, she was quiet and shy. One of the rocket-scientist moms in my old girl scout troop once said, in front of my child, “Well, she wouldn’t be this way if you had sent her to school.” I smiled nicely and said, “I’m glad you’re not the one making decisions for her!”

It was sort of funny, though, that her daughter was insanely jealous that Alyssa was allowed to sleep in if she wanted to, eat while doing workbooks, and go roller skating during “recess.” Little Breanna constantly asked her mom if she could be homeschooled. And in a simpering little voice, always prefacing her remarks with a conciliatory “Honey...” her mother would launch into a recitation of how much she had to do and how important her job was and how they had two house payments and the boat payment and the vacation coming up and new clothes... it was really sort of sad.

I know she loved her daughter, and was saying "I am taking care of you." But from the dejected face and demeanor, what Breanna heard was, “I can’t worry about what you want or need, I have money to make and spend!”

I don’t think everyone should homeschool, although I firmly believe that most children would benefit from the opportunities available for homeschoolers and would thrive away from the institutional model of schooling.

Some of the kids in my program have changed so much over the three or four years I’ve known them. They become more and more generic and learn how to hide their individuality by third grade. They start dressing alike to show how different they are. They've become excellent little pop-culture consumers, and whine if they don't get the latest thing and are swooningly jealous of the three girls who had Hannah Montana tickets last week. They’re swamped with mountains of homework. Worksheets go home with most of them daily.

Parents complain to me about the amount of time taken up in the evening with those worksheets, and wonder aloud what they’re doing in school that keeps them from getting their work done. I nod and smile/frown and agree that it sure does seem like a lot. Most of 'my' kids really dislike school, and are thrilled when there’s a day off.

Parents just accept that learning has to be drudgery, and by the time even the youngest kids have been in school only a few months, they have accepted it, too. None of them would believe me if I said that learning can and should be full of fun and the joy of discovery.

In a perfect world, educational choices would be made for every child in the family on an individual basis. I don’t question a person’s choice to send their child(ren) to school, but in so many cases, it's not a choice at all.

Children are just sent to school because that's what 'everyone else' does. Gee, I wonder where we learn that attitude?

I sent Matt to school without ever thinking of any other options. While I hate what happened during that time, I am beyond grateful that I learned from it and did not subject my daughter to what passes for education in our local institution. It would have hurt her so much.

I would like to see families exercise more careful consideration about educational options.
People are frequently more thoughtful about which restaurant to go to, where they will purchase a home, what kind of car they’ll buy, or whether the kids will be raised in his church or hers than where their children will spend a large chunk of the next 13 years... (you know, their whole childhood.)

I think that’s sad and short-sighted.