|
 Both conservatives and liberals alike are
also saying that perhaps the time is right for home-schooling as an
option to public and private school education. Both the state and
federal government say that home-schooling is a legitimate way to
educate children. It is the opinion of some that home-schooling may
be an answer to opt into a system of education that is a better way
to educate children or a way to opt out of a system of education
that some see fails some students.
This article attempts to explore the
reality of home-schooling through an interview with three people;
two home-schooling teachers (Alice
and Teresa)
and one home-schooled student (Michael).
In the interest of privacy some of the names have been changed.
Their answers, however, are interesting, engaging and provocative.
It seems that parents who choose
home-schooling are often questioned about the legitimacy of their
choice to home-school and often challenged personally on this
subject. For those who home-school their children, it is not just
another choice: it is the right choice. And the results prove it.
Here are the questions and their answers:
Q: How did you decide to home-school
your kids?
Alice: I wanted the freedom to be directly
involved in encouraging and challenging a lifestyle of learning at
the appropriate pace for my children.
Teresa: Once our oldest kids began first
grade in a local, private school, I began to have an interest in
home-schooling them. My college degree was in a special education
and I enjoyed being a stay-at-home mom, so home-schooling was an
opportunity to combine both of these passions.
It wasn’t until two years later when we
made the decision to switch. One of our children had a mild learning
disability and I often spent a few hours each night re-teaching
content to this child after school was over in order to help with
homework. Since I worked almost full-time in a different school, it
really made a long day of school for us both and it contributed to a
stressful home environment. In addition, I noticed that this child’s
love for learning was beginning to be squelched and we didn’t want
that to continue.
We hoped that by switching to
home-schooling, we could address the needs of this one child and
decrease some of the stress level related to school.
Other key factors were that we liked the
idea of having the whole family at home rather than being torn by
different work and school schedules. It offered us both flexibility
as a family and the time to be intentional about developing family
relationships.
Q: What is your working philosophy of
home-schooling versus traditional public schooling?
Alice: Home-school is a complete
integration of learning and living within our world. Public school
places a separation between education and the rest of your life.
Teresa: I will first say that I don’t
believe that either approach is necessarily right for everyone. Each
family has to figure out what will work best for them.
Home-schooling allows you to customize
things towards your needs and goals, including your belief system.
This applies at both the teacher level and the student level. You
can choose curriculum that fits your teaching and learning styles.
If something in the curriculum doesn’t work as well as you
anticipated, you can easily change it. You can follow your interests
and passions to a greater degree than you can in a traditional
school setting. Because you are home-schooling your own child, you
get to know your child’s thinking and learning process very well and
can provide a continuity of education from year to year.
A traditional school setting isn’t as
customizable on an individual basis due to the sheer numbers of
people involved (students, teachers, administrators, regulating
agencies, etc.) and the size of the system. Some customization is
there, but there are a lot of external demands at all levels of the
system.
Q: Is home-schooling a challenge for
you as their teacher and does it seem to be a challenge for your
kids?
Alice: If you are asking about the
mom/teacher aspect, no. I tell them to do the chores, I tell them to
do math. There's no authoritative differentiation. There are days
that can be difficult as in any career choice. On the whole, we have
fairly smooth sailing.
Teresa: Yes, there were challenges, but
there are challenges for teachers and students in traditional school
environments as well. As such, I’m not really sure what is at the
heart of this question.
·
If you mean: was it
challenging handling the roles of both parent and teacher? Yes, it
took effort on my part to make sure that school “ended” at a certain
time and I didn’t hound them about their homework as teacher, but
rather maintained a role of “parent.”
·
If you mean: was it hard to
be their teacher for all subjects every year, especially ones that
I’m not as well versed on such as chemistry? It was a mix. Most of
my curriculum was structured for me and divided into smaller units
and I was able to follow its plan. Naturally, I read the same books
and things they did so that we were all on the same page at the same
time. When it came to a subject I didn’t know or understand as well
myself, I would do one of the following:
o
research and learn more
about it before we worked on it together,
o
use it as an opportunity to
learn together, modeling that learning is a lifelong process (and
that no one ever knows “everything”), or
o
delegate those subjects to
other instructors such as I did with Spanish (taken with a
home-school group) or Japanese (taken at Heartland).
·
If you mean: was it
challenging to find the right curriculum and learning style for each
student and my teaching style? There is an element of trial and
error for this. If something didn’t work for us (a particular
spelling program or math program), we’d try it for a while and then
modify it or find something new.
·
Was it challenging for my
kids? Well, they weren’t too enthused about leaving the only school
environment they knew to do school in a way they had never seen
before. It was sometimes hard for them to see “mom” in “teacher”
role. It was definitely challenging on days when the neighbor kids
were home for a teacher’s institute day but we had school. (I
honored all snow days though!). But, they also enjoyed being able to
sleep a little later, finish school early (compared to the public
school system), study some things differently than before and study
more topics of personal interest.
From a high school level student's
perspective
Q: Was home schooling a challenge for
you as a student and was it challenging for your parents?
Michael: Not really. Schoolwork is
schoolwork. It's just in a different setting. It is quiet most of
the time.
Q: Since it is almost over, how was
your experience with being home-schooled?
Michael: The experience is an excellent
one. I can learn what I am interested in for a career, along with
the rest of my schoolwork. I can flex my school around most parts of
the day, and I still have time to do what I enjoy.
Q: What opportunities does home-school
afford you and the kids that typical public school education would
miss out on?
Alice: -free time - sibling bonding -
teachable moments - field trips on off-peak days - short class
schedule - nice days off, like snow days but beautiful -late
night activities, sleeping in, naps - random local events
(Veterans’ Day service) - volunteer/work availability, - lunch
home with dad - mobility during school work - birthdays are
holidays
Teresa: I’ve already referenced that
home-schooling gave us the freedom of what curriculum we were going
to study, the flexibility to change it if needed (we still covered
all of the same subjects taught in the public school), freedom of
pace and flexibility of schedule. We could go on vacation at
non-traditional times without falling behind and having the stress
of catching up like kids who otherwise miss school. We could take a
field trip when and where we wanted.
The biggest opportunity that I felt
home-school afforded us was the chance to develop closer
relationships as a family. Because of our discussions, we got to
know each other at a deeper level and got to develop a stronger
bond.
Q: Did being home-schooled mess with
your relationship with your parents?
Michael: No, not at all. If fact, I think
it helped it. I think that solving problems together, no matter what
the type, will help you build a better relationship with your
parents.
Q: What opportunities did
home-schooling afford you that typical public school education would
miss out on?
Michael: I am able to get schoolwork
finished, have a part time job, and participate in any other kinds
of extracurricular activities I enjoy. I have a very flexible
schedule, so I can weave my schoolwork throughout my day.
Q: Is it difficult to find educational
materials to teach from?
Alice: Not at all! The difficulty is
narrowing down your choices. The amount available is overwhelming!
Some families use an all-in-one curriculum that covers every subject
by grade for a “school at home“ approach. Some used no specific
curriculum or textbook but choose rabbit trails at every opportunity
following an “un-school“ method. Most use a blend of text books,
online classes, videos, reading, exploration, travel,... Often I
feel I'm on a quest for the best fitting curriculum and approach,
but have to just stop searching and choose!
Teresa: No – quite the opposite. There is
a whole industry competing for the home-schooling consumer.
Home-school conferences usually have a vendor room where parents can
preview samples of the curriculum. There are online services where
parents can subscribe so that the students can take an individual
subject or even a whole program. There are means for parents to sell
curriculum second hand locally and online. You can also find
materials at the public library, E-bay and Amazon.
J
Local businesses have learned that they can try to offer classes to
home-school students during the day, such as PE, dance, art, karate,
music instruction, etc. Parents even group together to teach
subjects in co-ops or organized groups.
NOTE: A GOOGLE search for home-school
curriculum turned up 658,000 sources.
Q: Did you find your kids test out
better (higher) than kids from public school?
Alice: This question assumes that we take
similar tests and know where public school kids are at. Some
families do, some don't. When we do test, it is to find any gaps in
their learning, not for comparison value.
[to top of second column] |
Teresa: This really isn’t a question I
can answer.
What I can say is that I do feel that my
kids tested to their potential. I signed them up for standardized
testing to monitor their progress and feel that their progress was
consistent with where they performed while in the private school. I
personally believe that whether a student does well in public or
home-school program is just as much a reflection of the potential of
the student as well as the support that student receives from the
parent.
Q: How well did you test?
Michael: I have taken my ACT, and it says
I'm very well prepared for college.
Q: Do you take part in any public
school activities?
Alice: Yes, we have worked with amazing
teachers that have gone well above and beyond any job description to
include my kids.
Teresa: Not really. One of mine took a
standardized test during high school with the local public school,
but that’s it. It’s been my understanding that the public schools
haven’t been as receptive to allowing home-school students
participate in organized activities. One of mine participated in the
tech group for chapel at the private school for one year. I’ve seen
some home-school kids participate with private schools for sports.
There are also activities (prom, graduation, various clubs)
organized by and for home-schoolers, so not everyone feels the need
to go to the public or private schools for activities.
Michael: No, I have not.
Q: Do you think your kids miss out on
any positive or negative socialization as a result of home-schooling
vs. public school?
Alice: Ah, the socialization question!
Missing out or not, I'm quite satisfied with the level of
interaction they have with peers, adults, and children.
Teresa: Really, kids are kids and kid
politics are kid politics no matter where they go to school! And,
I’m including home-school kids in that statement. Socialization
doesn’t only happen in the classrooms, hallways and locker rooms of
school buildings. As long as your kids interact with other kids,
they will be exposed to socialization.
I’d like to think that the relationships
we were able to develop contributed to them being able to open up to
us more than what their traditionally schooled peers experienced,
but I think that some of that has to do with the personality of each
kid and each parent individually.
There’s a stereotype that home-school
kids are isolated and do not experience socialization. Again, quite
the opposite is true. There can be too many opportunities to
socialize. While they were in the elementary grades, my kids
participated in programs with other home-school, public and private
school students such as Parks and Rec programs, scouts, church
groups, swim lessons and home-school activities. At the high school
level my daughter attended home-school prom and went to a teen group
for home-school students. They all interacted with neighborhood kids
and private and public school friends as well. So, while they
weren’t as exposed to the large number of same-age students for
extended time periods in confined spaces, they still socialized with
other kids.
They also socialized with adults more
than I’d think public school students do. When home-schoolers meet
in co-ops, parents get to know each other’s kids and vice versa.
Whenever home-school kids meet for activities, classes, prom and the
like, there tend to be home-school parents somewhere in the
vicinity, either chaperoning, dropping off/picking up, and parents
will ask how you’re doing, how’s your family, etc. It can be a small
world.
Michael: I don't think so. I have been in
public school for just about as long as I have been home-schooled,
so I have some experience to draw from.
Q: Do you think you are a good
teacher?
Alice: Actually, yes I do, but that really
has nothing to do with home-school! I am great at getting them
excited for learning. My role is more facilitator than teacher. With
the stage my kids are at, I simply provide the resources for them to
learn on their own.
Teresa: Of course, I was fabulous… just
ask my kids! All kidding aside, there were some things I was really
good at and some that I wasn’t as good at. Not too much different
than the public school experience in my mind. Still, a lot of the
home-schooling experience, especially at the higher grade levels,
isn’t as focused on the direct transfer of knowledge from teacher to
student, but teacher facilitated learning. Discussion of what they
read and learned from their reading was a key component to our
lessons. I had more of an instructional role in some subjects, like
math, and in other subjects my role was more of monitoring progress
and co-processing information. Oh, and yes… they had to read their
books. It’s harder to get away with skipping out on reading
assignments when your class size is one or three.
Q: Who did the teaching: mom or dad or
both?
Michael: Both my parents taught me. I,
however, was the main teacher. My parents taught me how to teach
myself. If I struggled with a problem, I could ask for help. And on
those occasions where my parents couldn't find the answer, there is
always the Internet to help.
Q: Did you have a lot of homework?
Michael: Well, since I am HOME-schooled,
all of it is homework. But on average, it takes me 4 hours to
complete all my work. 6 hours at the most. I wouldn't say that I
have a lot of homework, but a good amount that shall help me to do
well in college.
Q: Were your siblings also
home-schooled? If so, did you work together on school work or
completely separately? Did it help your relationships with your
siblings or make them worse?
Michael: We worked almost completely
separate. Occasionally, there would be a project that our parents
would want all of us to work on, but other than that, no. I think it
may have helped a little bit with my relationship with my siblings.
Since we weren't doing school together, we just didn't interact, and
left each other alone. And since we do a lot of things together, if
it be a group project, or going to do some grocery shopping, we
learned to respect each other and work together. Not to say we
didn't fight, but our teachers would delve out consequences
accordingly if we didn't shape up.
Q:
Was there an element of protectionism in your decision to
home-school your kids?
Alice: If you are referring to a fear
factor of avoiding the big scary world, no. Though I think every
parent wants to protect their kids. We engage the big scary world at
a pace, distance, and position as suits our family.
Teresa: Eh… not really. I’d say that
there were some things we probably didn’t want to deal with in the
public school when we originally chose a private Christian school in
the first place. However, we pulled them out of the Christian school
in part to protect one child’s love of learning and to protect our
family from the busy lifestyle of multiple work and school
schedules. It was more to unite us as a family and a draw to a way
of learning.
Q: Did you feel more protected as a
home-schooled kid?
Michael: Well, I would say yes. Not
knowing the newest trends, or what coolest thing is isn't always a
bad thing. Not having to be in the know of what your parents know
what is questionable, doesn't mean you are stupid. It seems it frees
you that you don't have to put up with all the crap that others
consider to be "cool."
Q: Now that your kids are in college,
how well do you find they were prepared by home-schooling for the
college experience?
Teresa: The two of mine who returned to
the private school for their high school program did well there.
They picked right up with the other students; in some places, they
were ahead. Both received academic scholarships to their intended
school and are doing well.
My student who home-schooled through high
school took some college courses as part of her high school program.
She completed her Associates at Heartland in one year after
graduation and transferred to a four-year school to complete her
Bachelors. She will possibly continue on to get her Master’s degree.
She also received an academic scholarship to her four year college
and is doing as well as her siblings who went to a private school.
I feel that all three of my kids were
well prepared for college by their educational programs and by the
support of their parents. I feel that they are all succeeding to
their potential. I’m sure there are things they learned that they
didn’t need to learn and other things that we missed out on simply
because no school placement can give you everything. But, they have
all learned how to learn, which is a skill needed for life.
Q: Now that you are getting ready for
college, do you find you were prepared by home-schooling for the
college experience?
Michael: Oh, most definitively. One of the
best things about home schooling is that you can talk to your
parents about what you are interested in and do that as part of your
schooling. If you are interested in graphic design, you can find a
resource, whether it is through an online class, or part of a group
in your local neighborhood, you can gain the skills you need to
excel in the area you are interested in, and still do all your
regular schoolwork on top of that.
Home-schooling is not for every parent
and not for every child. It is a legitimate option for some instead
of public or private schooling. It requires great dedication, a
good foundational education on the part of the teacher/parent,
incredible patience, and the desire to be strongly involved in your
children’s lives. Done right, it can enhance the relationship
between parent/teacher and child/student. It provides more
flexibility in educating children, and it integrates education with
the rest of life. And the results speak for themselves: the
students learn to teach themselves.
[Jim Youngquist]
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