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Mar222006
When Will You Stop Homeschooling?
Wednesday, March 22, 2006 at 10:31PM
Another entry in my series on "Questions for homeschoolers."
When learning that we homeschool and we work through the "why," the "what," the "how," and the popular socialization questions, onlookers then want to know how long we will homeschool our children and if we plan on putting them into "regular" high school.
This is another question that I love, because it allows me to answer and challenge people at the same time. To begin, I refer back to the "why we homeschool" question. I've blogged on part of that answer before, but in short we are a Christian family and we want to raise and educate our children with a Christian worldview. They will never get that in a school that is funded and directed by the government. They will get the exact opposite as they are trained in secular humanism.
So then, why not put them in a Christian High School? This is a fair question because the worldview issue seems to be answered (well...maybe...we all know of schools called "Christian" because they are physically connected to a church but everything else looks strinkingly similar to the public school down the street). Back to my point...this leads me to the second reason we plan to home educate through high-school (and maybe even into college). I've already blogged about peer dependency and I like what a blog-friend recently said: "Nearly every brick and mortar school is organized into age-segregated classrooms. Students progress through the grades regardless of ability or preparedness. The "quick to learn" are forced to wait while the "slow to learn" catch up."
Why, why, why would we give up the benefits of custom individualized education in our home for the "cattle-like" treatment found in the typical American high school? Why would I spend eight years shepherding their hearts and souls so I could release them into the ridiculous peer-dependent environment of the local high school? And, finally, why would we home educate our children through the difficult grammar years only to turn them over when they finally get interesting and can reason and discuss the fun topics of life with us?
In truth, I think what these critics really want to know is if we are going to let our kids go to high school so they can take part in the sports, dances, and proms? The answer is still no...I think my kids will turn out okay without going through the experience of locker rooms, home rooms, and campus life.
Quietly making noise,
Fletch
When learning that we homeschool and we work through the "why," the "what," the "how," and the popular socialization questions, onlookers then want to know how long we will homeschool our children and if we plan on putting them into "regular" high school.
This is another question that I love, because it allows me to answer and challenge people at the same time. To begin, I refer back to the "why we homeschool" question. I've blogged on part of that answer before, but in short we are a Christian family and we want to raise and educate our children with a Christian worldview. They will never get that in a school that is funded and directed by the government. They will get the exact opposite as they are trained in secular humanism.
So then, why not put them in a Christian High School? This is a fair question because the worldview issue seems to be answered (well...maybe...we all know of schools called "Christian" because they are physically connected to a church but everything else looks strinkingly similar to the public school down the street). Back to my point...this leads me to the second reason we plan to home educate through high-school (and maybe even into college). I've already blogged about peer dependency and I like what a blog-friend recently said: "Nearly every brick and mortar school is organized into age-segregated classrooms. Students progress through the grades regardless of ability or preparedness. The "quick to learn" are forced to wait while the "slow to learn" catch up."
Why, why, why would we give up the benefits of custom individualized education in our home for the "cattle-like" treatment found in the typical American high school? Why would I spend eight years shepherding their hearts and souls so I could release them into the ridiculous peer-dependent environment of the local high school? And, finally, why would we home educate our children through the difficult grammar years only to turn them over when they finally get interesting and can reason and discuss the fun topics of life with us?
In truth, I think what these critics really want to know is if we are going to let our kids go to high school so they can take part in the sports, dances, and proms? The answer is still no...I think my kids will turn out okay without going through the experience of locker rooms, home rooms, and campus life.
Quietly making noise,
Fletch
Reader Comments (3)
What will happen when your kids arent with you anymore-- they will have NO social skills and will not be ready for the "real" world. you cant shelter them forever. Its not about Proms and locker rooms.
NO social skills? You don't even know my kids...and if you did...you would know that their social skills are more advanced then internet surfers who visit websites of people they don't know and make misguided observations regarding topics they are uninformed about. ;)
You see...typically I delete posts from yahoo surfers like this one, but this time I let it slide...because I want my regular readers to see a brilliant example of someone making gross generalizations.
Their "thinking and website posting skills" work like this: "Some homeschooled kids lack social skills (which they never define, but I assume it means they don't know about Paris Hilton's recent indecent-exposure in public), therefore all homeschooled kids will have (and I quote) "NO social skills."
So...let me again review the basics...hopefully, i'll get through to some of these "drop by" folks:
Wake up...pull your head out of People magazine and realize not every homeschool family is the same. At the same time, wake up and smell the Yuban...Public School is not the "real" world either! The last time I checked, in the real world your mom and dad cannot come down to your job and raise a stink with the principal or school board (boss) because their precious little darling is "not making it." In the real world, you actually have to work hard and accomplish to be promoted. (Unless it's a government job...Hey? Government Jobs...Government Schools...coincidence? I don't think so...).
When it's done well, homeschooled kids are educated throughout the age spectrum (translated: they actually learn with people from kids through adults). Their classroom experience changes from home to society to church to school to the playing field...blah, blah, blah... Curriculum for homeschoolers is tailor made for every kid. They are taught as individuals according to their specific learning styles by teachers that care for them like no one else can...
I hate to burst Freda's bubble, but I believe it's the public schooled kids that are really the ones sheltered and treated like prisoners: They are the ones that get to sit in a classroom all day with strangers, taught by a teacher that uses a one size fits all curriculum for every kid in the class, they are given scheduled air breaks (yeah, i know, it's called recess...but it's really just scheduled time out in general population), and they are the ones that are lacking traditional "social skills" to be able to communicate outside of their peer groups...seriously, have you tried to talk to the majority of school kids?
Yet...with all of this...I'm not so bold to make blanket accusations...and I'm not so opinionated to not acknowledge that there are great public schooled kids out there, that are taught by the best teachers in the greatest of all environments. And, at the same time, I know some really really lame homeschooled kids, but they aren't mine :)
quietly making noise,
Fletch
Here here!
(or is that, "hear hear!")