Keep your school off of my [child's] education
I went to 4-H and played soccer with a girl who was home schooled. She and her 4 siblings were all home schooled. As a middle/high schooler, I thought this was quite tragic. What a terribly uneventful life she must have (which was so very far from the truth- from what I recall she played violin, soccer, did 4-H and whatever else she desire I imagine). In high school my mother's cousin and his wife decided to home school their daughter. I remember thinking that they were probably the worst parents ever. Their daughter would obviously grow up unsocialized and lacking any sense of normalcy.
This is amusing to me when I reflect on my own supposed socialization and normalcy. I suppose to many people I appeared "properly socialized". Mostly though, public school destroyed me emotionally, with support from my family of course. I was teased relentlessly for any number of things- being the chubby kid, the poor kid, the smart kid. When Mike and I decided (more or less) that we'd do some sort of child rearing in the far off distant future I began thinking about their education.
Here's a great statement from a blog I found earlier that is almost verbatim how I feel about public and even private education in the US:
"Schools tell kids what to learn, when, in what order, and probably the worst thing for my kids, schools told them when they had learned enough. My children learned to become passive learners, taking in only what they were given, no longer questioning what else there might be to know."
I've expressed in previous posts my complete dissatisfaction with the current educational system, both at the K-12 and Higher ed level. I think that many teachers share the same dislike of standardized testing and teaching to the test. I have no suggestions on how to improve this situation.
Therefore, my child(ren) will be unschooled at home. I will practice child-led learning because children, as human beings are just as entitled to have personal interests and pursue knowledge they crave rather than becoming inactive knowledge targets.
This is amusing to me when I reflect on my own supposed socialization and normalcy. I suppose to many people I appeared "properly socialized". Mostly though, public school destroyed me emotionally, with support from my family of course. I was teased relentlessly for any number of things- being the chubby kid, the poor kid, the smart kid. When Mike and I decided (more or less) that we'd do some sort of child rearing in the far off distant future I began thinking about their education.
Here's a great statement from a blog I found earlier that is almost verbatim how I feel about public and even private education in the US:
"Schools tell kids what to learn, when, in what order, and probably the worst thing for my kids, schools told them when they had learned enough. My children learned to become passive learners, taking in only what they were given, no longer questioning what else there might be to know."
I've expressed in previous posts my complete dissatisfaction with the current educational system, both at the K-12 and Higher ed level. I think that many teachers share the same dislike of standardized testing and teaching to the test. I have no suggestions on how to improve this situation.
Therefore, my child(ren) will be unschooled at home. I will practice child-led learning because children, as human beings are just as entitled to have personal interests and pursue knowledge they crave rather than becoming inactive knowledge targets.