Ah- A work from home day. Soleil has a dentist appointment, so here I am working at home trying to schedule my day around the kids.
I’ve been very focused lately. There are many thoughts in my head, but I cannot seem to get them out. I wish I could. I have so many thoughts about women in America, working mothers, mothers at home, alternate schooling methods, these ideas and my thoughts about them are all rolling and rolling around my head.
But I can’t focus on these items. I have a ton of ides, but I can’t seem to focus enough on a specific item to write about it.
So let’s see if I can focus.
The school year is coming back in session, so I am curious what people thing about that scary phrase "Home Schooling". A friend of mine calls it "unschooling" (hi! Rural Aspirations!) We moved to this metro Boston town 5 years ago. This town is one of the "Historic" towns in the area (I use quotes as all of these towns are pretty historic). We have a very good school system. This was one of those things you look at when you move to a new town, right? You aren’t supposed to use the MCAS scores, but you know everybody does. Our town is pretty high in the scoring. I also investigated the town in terms of the GT program. Yeah I know, I must be a braggart, but I have to admit that Soleil is pretty darn smart and Luna is about the same if not smarter. So I checked out that and found that our town fosters different educational levels for different children. There is a strong move to mainstream, but kids who need extra instruction or who need extra challenges are appropriately instructed. I appreciated that fact.
However, schools still are factories for producing small little robots that all think the same. Take math for example. At the spring meeting for Soleil, I was asking about the math they are teaching. Soleil was ready for multiplication. I know this. We talked about it at home, yet when I quizzed her teacher, I was concerned that she was not going to move forward with the kids who were ready. Soleil had completed the required kindergarten curriculum by early March. Fortunately, she was so excited by school that she didn’t know that. Her teacher was unable to move her forward because she had other kids who were just getting the 1-20 counting down. I understand that the teachers have to deal with the range of children they have, but I also want to make sure that Soleil gets her challenges out.
We’ve also noticed that math involves counting. Lots and lots of counting. They are teaching kids to use blocks and count the block to add numbers. The idea is to give a concrete physical idea of what math is to kids. But once they get that, I see no problem with working with math tricks and games. Soleil has it ingrained now that she has to count to get bigger numbers. This is frustrating because math is a game. At least to Jay and I, and by having her count things out, it slows everything down and doesn’t free her mind to think differently.
If we had chosen to home school (HA HA HA HA, oh I would be in McLean within 2 months if I had to be home with the kids all of the time), I would stress that math is a game and encourage the kids different ways to solve the same problem. No granted, Soleil is doing math problems like 1198+234, but she is still doing a strange sort of counting to do this. I am hoping that 1st grade will move away from this for her.
The thing is, homeschooling is not all that bad. I have heard so many people think of it as the parents are uneducated and the kids have no social skills. I have studied to be a teacher (yes, I once had a provisional license to teach Earth Science AND Physics in the state of New York). The tests are pretty easy and I only had 3 semesters of teaching classes. I did the student teaching, but that is what killed my enthusiasm for it.
I know of parents who home school. Their children are constantly learning. The parent can focus on the issues that they need to strengthen. They are not forced to hold 20 kids at the same level. At the lower grades, it is hard to see how most parents couldn’t teach their children. Any trip, even to the grocery store, can become a lesson. I can see how you could do math, budgeting, nutrition, science and social studies all at the grocery store!
But home schooling gets a bad rap.
The public schools aren’t always bad either. Our town has a great school. I know the teachers are dedicated. I see the work they put in. I respect teachers and I know how hard their job is. They have to make sure all of their students achieve their personal best. They have to work within a curriculum that is large and they have to fit within state guidelines for future tests. The kids do have social interactions that match more what one would expect in their work life.
I know, for me, home schooling would never work. But I can see how it works for others.
How do you feel? Do you like your public schools? Have you considered home schooling over a private school? Do you think home schooling is okay?