One of the first questions home educating parents get asked is why did you choose homeschooling as opposed to government school. Every person who has broken from the norm has their why; for some, it was a traumatic event in the system that pushed them or their children from it, others, not trauma, but neglect drew them away. There are still others who never even chose to give the system a chance to mold and direct their children. We fall mostly into this category.
It was the act of becoming a teacher that cemented my resolve, and ultimately our family’s decision to not expose our children to the ugliness and culture of ignorance displayed by the up and coming teachers. We all know the phrase, “It takes a village…” I’ve seen the village, lived in the metaphorical village, and quite frankly, I don’t want it anywhere near my children, let alone raising them. This doesn’t mean, as some believe, that we are raising or educating our children in isolation, on the contrary, we are building a new village! Instead of an individual who’s eyes glaze over when given a math lesson to present (almost every “teacher” I’ve encountered), my kids get math they can see and touch, that has value to them in a concrete sense. Instead of an adult who has to consult a teachers manual before answering a question, we find experts and engage them in conversation, usually learning not only the answers to our questions, but discovering cool tidbits that we wouldn’t have even thought to ask. Instead of being taught grammar and sentence structure by someone who speaks and writes in “text speak,” well, you get the picture…
I don’t know everything. My children know this about me, it takes humility to give your child, who thinks that you do, access to that information. But they get to see me learning, they have my life long learning process as their example. They, in turn, learn every day. There is no summer or Christmas break, there is no weekend; learning happens every day, for all your life.
So can you do this?
