Week 14 - 3

So you think you want to home school your child. You thought about it for awhile, you spoke with others on both sides of the fence (your wife/husband) you surfed the blogs written by seasoned homeschoolers and read thoroughly all the pros and cons and still you’re conflicted.

Let’s make it simple.

Home schooling is a life philosophy, a set of beliefs regarding education of young people and the responsibilities of parents to the said process.

See up till now, simple.

On its face it appears as if home schooling is putting the child in the center, but truly that function was long ago taken by public education (or so declared). Home schooling is about the parent and putting him in the center of the educational process by assuming responsibility.

As a parent, the minute you decide to go the route of homeschooling you declare, even if only to yourself, that being of sound mind and body you agree to be the one and only one accountable for your child education.

OK, now it is getting somewhat complicated, but not to worry.

Like any good thing in life the next stage of ‘how to’ can be divided into three:

1. You become a ‘school teacher duplicate’ by learning all the in and outs of the material requested, and then attempt to teach it to your kid by setting scheduled times for learning.

The results: Just like a school teacher you have to be prepared to be the aim of many hostile remarks. If you thought that getting your child to clean his/her room was tough be ready for what’s coming.

2. You still follow the school curriculum to a T, but delegate the actual work to somebody else; another teacher or even a computer program.

The results: The heat is somewhat diverted from you but not completely. You still have to make sure the offspring will make it to the scheduled classes and complete assignments.

3. You go completely wild and choose unschooling as your educational philosophy.

The results: you and your child share responsibility to the learning process discovering or rather rediscovering, the excitement ‘true learning’.

“Unschooling,” you mumble quietly, savoring this new word, not sure you’re ready to reveal the fact that you have no clue what that means.

So here it is in a nutshell. There are many variations to unschooling but in essence two main ideas repeat in this viewpoint of education. So take a deep breath and let us step together into this ‘no man’s land’ of endless surprises and possibilities.

“A fundamental premise of unschooling is that curiosity is innate and that children want to learn. From this an argument can be made that institutionalizing children in a so-called "one size fits all" or "factory model" school is an inefficient use of the children's time, because it requires each child to learn a specific subject matter in a particular manner, at a particular pace, and at a particular time regardless of that individual's present or future needs, interests, goals, or any pre-existing knowledge he or she might have about the topic.” Wikipedia.

Basically, let them be, and in an environment of complete freedom let learning flourish. That is unschooling at its best.  

Many exciting issues that stem from the above definition can be discussed ad nauseam; like what complete freedom really means in reality, how much guidance children need, want, benefit from. What about the body of knowledge needed to succeed in life, how about self discipline and socialization know how. In the process many clichés can be tossed around like; what does not kill you make you stronger, or, we all need to learn to do things we don’t like, that’s life, and the sooner you learn to cope the better you’ll be.

So let’s stop here and recite the first major premise of home schooling. It’s not about the child in the center, it is about the parent and how comfortable he or she feels with stepping back and watching while learning takes its course.