I haven’t really talked much yet about one important part of my life. Homeschooling. Parenting choices make for one of those conversational topics that are best avoided, like politics and religion. Just bring up breastfeeding at a baby shower and you’ll see what I mean. You may as well toss meat to hungry wolves. Of course, that makes it great fodder for blogging, right?
The life of a homeschool family may be slightly unusual. Since we are in the midst of moving and packing, I must admit that we have gone into summer schedule a bit early. Lots of Nova specials on Netflix, and other things we can thrust upon our children while we pack. We’ve been studying the Civil War, so today they started watching the first episode of the Ken Burns series. Kinesis was assigned to draw a picture based on the episode, Entropy to find one interesting topic and research it further. In reality, Kinesis drew a quick picture of Lincoln, then started a wrestling match with his brother which went downhill from there, so they will have to watch it again tomorrow. The road to wisdom is difficult and cruel.
When you admit that you homeschool, there are some frequent responses, range from the positive, (“Wow! That’s awesome! I wish I could teach my kids, but it must be so hard!”) to the questioning, (“How do you handle testing? Will your kids go to college? What about socialization?”) to the outright hostile, (“You don’t even have a teaching credential, and you are going to remove your children from public society?”) Folks who don’t homeschool often don’t know much about it, or think they do, or don’t realize quite how diverse a community it is. So while I know it’s been done before, I’m going to give you my top ten list of common misapprehensions about homeschooling.
1. All homeschoolers are unsocialized geeks. This is completely untrue. I know plenty of well-adjusted young people who were homeschooled. One common trait is that because they spend much of their time with adults, either with their parents or out in the world rather than isolated in a particular peer group, they tend to relate in more mature fashion than many of their peers. There are many studies that support this thesis. http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a746434208 My kids, however, are unsocialized geeks. This has nothing to do with homeschooling. They would be geeks in school, just like Flash and me.
2. All homeschoolers are brilliant. Homeschool kids come in all ability levels, just like all kids. There are indications that most homeschooled children test better than their brick-and-mortar schooled friends. I would argue that having a very small teacher-student ratio is a large part of this. If every public school teacher could sit down individually with just a few children instead of 30, those kids would learn faster too. Our children, of course, are indeed brilliant. Usually. Most of the time. Often.
3. Homeschoolers are all fundamentalist, science-hating neo-con crazies who want to keep their kids away from the liberal homosexual agenda. Many conservative Christians do indeed homeschool. But there are plenty, I would posit a majority, who like us just want to do the best for their kids educationally. We are very science-friendly, my kids know about evolution (even watched the three-part Nova special this week), and religion has very little to do with why we chose to homeschool. They may or may not choose a different path–Entropy decided for a while that he wanted to be a high school teacher from watching Glee.
4. Homeschooing is so hard, my family could never do it. Well, yeah, if you have that attitude, sure. But lots of things are hard–training for marathons, raising kids, mastering Expert level on Rock Band. People do those things all the time. Seriously, there are so many resources out there that homeschooling is no longer unusual. You can buy curriculum, find things online, join local groups, or even go the public-school homeschool route.
5. Homeschooling is easy, your kids just lie around and play video games while you ignore them all day, right? Um, no. That’s called child abuse, not homeschooling. My kids only lie around and play video games after we attempt to beat some knowledge into them. Kidding!
6. Homeschoolers don’t support public education. While there are those who choose to homeschool because they are opposed to public schools on principle, we are not those people. We always vote for school bonds, and think that public schools are not only necessary but that they should be given the best resources possible. We simply don’t think that they are the best choice for OUR children at THIS time. I mean, I may never sail into the Port of Los Angeles, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t important to build, or that my family doesn’t benefit from the increased commerce it supports. A well-educated population is good for everyone. We’re doing our part, and are glad for them to do theirs. Go public school teachers!
7. Homeschooling takes place at home. Sometimes. But the big secret that homeschooling families try to keep quiet is: everything is less crowded during the week. Malls. Disneyland. You can tote your books to the beach on a Wednesday, and not have to fight for towel space. I’m particularly fond of Starbucks as a venue for school. Free wi-fi, snacks available, and plenty of caffeine to keep me motivated.
8. There is one homeschool curriculum that everyone follows. Not true. I would guess that homeschoolers in general are better educated about a variety of forms of pedagogy than any other population, including teachers who tend to be trained in one approach that meets standards. That means that there are unschoolers who follow child-led learning, school-at-homers who follow the state standard and use textbooks, and classical homeschoolers who enter into the great conversation with historical sources and great books. We are sort of reformed-neo-classical ourselves. We teach Latin, read great literature, and make sure our kids have a healthy dose of geek culture as well.
9. Moms homeschool, dads work. Uh, yeah. Well, talk to Flash about that. Stay at home schooling dads are certainly a minority, but they do exist. I’m married to one. I do the planning, he does implementation. It works for us.
10. Homeschooling is for everyone. Nope. Just like any other lifestyle choice, it works for some and not for others. We love it, and I can wax rhapsodic about the benefits of homeschooling. Sorry, friends IRL, it is just so much a part of our life I can’t help the occasional outburst. We somehow seem to do well spending almost all our time together as a family, learning together, laughing together. (OK, this is intended as sarcasm, as I can hear my Kinesis and Entropy arguing in the other room. “Don’t throw your shirt at me!” “You hurt my leg! I’ll never walk again!” )
It’s the life we choose. I like that my children are familiar with Beowulf, and Greek mythology, can sing the Large Hadron Collider rap and don’t know that Gilbert and Sullivan are not cool. I have a kitchen cabinet full of chemistry equipment (all safely labeled, you know). We can play games and watch TV and go on trips, and it’s all educational, and it’s all part of life. Even our upcoming trip cross-country will be a great opportunity for learning, as well as fun. It is work. It is hard. But if we didn’t love it so much, we wouldn’t do it.
I do actually have some curiosity questions, if you don’t mind… are there state mandated tests that you have to give them? Sort of minimum basic skills sorts of things? Also, how do colleges deal with a lack of transcript? These are questions that have always run around in my mind when I hear about homeschooling…
The short answer is, it varies from state to state. Here in California there are a variety of ways to homeschool. One common methods is enroll in a homeschool public charter school as your umbrella. In this case, since state educational fund are involved, testing is required. The other way to homeschool here is to “R-4”, referring to the form that is submitted each year to register as a private school. In this case you are only subject to the regulations that would apply to a private school in California, which do not require testing.
We’ve done both–R-4 and charter. Right now we are R-4, not because we didn’t like the free books and all, but because the paperwork began to detract from the actual learning.
The longer form answer about testing is more complex. Standardized tests are necessary as a quick and impersonal evaluation tool because individual one-on-one evaluations of students en masse are not practicable. Think about it this way–which is a more thorough way to evaluate a candidate: by the submission of a research paper which is then discussed and defended before a board of peers who have read the material and have face to face interaction with the student, or a multiple choice test? Obviously, the first way is, while perhaps more subjective, most would argue a more effective way of evaluating a student. It is the way that PhD candidates across the country are evaluated.
Homeschool parent/teachers are in a similar situation. There is no need for an impersonal evaluation tool, because the intimate learning setting ensures that I, as the teacher, have a very good handle on how my kids are doing. I can look material and tell you whether or not it is within the comprehension level of my sons, or whether they understand a certain mathematical concept, because I work with them every day.
Now, the issue is more complex as children prepare for college. Of course in this case, the admissions officers do not have time for socratic dialogue with each candidate, and once more impersonal evaluation tools are needed. So many homeschoolers who are college-bound take PSATs, SATs, CLEP tests, AP exams, and the like to prove mastery.
Transcripts can be tricky, but there are many guides as to how to put them together. In most states there are guidelines for how many hours of classwork constitutes a “credit”, and the parent keeps track of these credits, again always keeping in mind that eventually the student needs to show mastery.
Sometimes this can be difficult, because the very nature of homeschooling allows for outside the box coursework that doesn’t necessarily fit the mold of the average high school. What if your student is very interested in, for example, ancient Aztec art and spends many hours investigating, researching and presenting on this? Do you count it as world history? Art history? Native american cultures? Something else? College entrance requirements are usually very specific, so parents find ways to describe thier students’ activities in ways that correspond to the requirements. Nowadays, however, most colleges are very familiar with homeschool applicants, and many even have special admission policies that specify how to handle transcripts.
Another track track that is very common here in California is early entrance into Community College, followed by transfer to a four year school after 2 years. We have a young friend who entered Community College at 15, is doing amazingly well, building a transcript that more than rivals the average high school studen, and will be able to select a four year college in the next year or so. If we were to stay here in CA, this is the route I’d lean towards, but since we are moving east I’m not certain what the state we are in will be like.
Thanks for asking, and glad to answer your questions!
You 2 do such a fabulous job of homeschooling. Your effort in this regard leaves me breathless! Entropy in particular is so blessed that you made this choice. It would have to be a very superior public school that could nurture his intellect while helping him to learn to manage his blind spots.
There are misconceptions about public schooling, too, that make me crazy and add to the conversational mine field. The most common one is that parents who utilize the public schools and after school care are “letting strangers raise their kids for them.” There is this assumption that the household with two working parents is entirely adult oriented and the kids are some sort of after thought. Working parents can be, and typically are, just as focused on their families as those households lucky enough to have a stay at home parent. (I know you know this. This is just me ranting.) Working parents are paying attention, putting in the time, and authentically involved with their kids.
Alright…I’m stepping down from my soap box now. 🙂
I totally agree! There are homeschooling crazy-moms just like there are breastfeeding crazy-moms and publicschooling crazy-moms. My mom is like this… she doesn’t get that my choices are in no way intended as an insult to hers. It pained her that I breast-fed–was I calling her a bad mother? Um, no… my choice, her choice, not directly related in this case.
I truly feel blessed that we can spend so much time with our kids, and am awed by the amount of energy it must take to get kids off to school, spend intense amounts of times on weekend and evenings, homework and activities, and do all the other things that two working parent families must do. I’m not that organized, I know. One of the reasons we were charter-school drop-outs.
Of course, as a working parent myself until recently, I completely understand the balancing act of work and kids. It was a challenge, particularly in my job that required many evening hours. I had to set boundaries and develop very clear priorities that I could express to my congregation. Guess how that went over? (Remember by nervous breakdown a few months ago? Oh yeah, that!)
There are also neglectful parents across the board. The weirdo so-called homeschoolers always seem to make the news (child found in basement! never sent to school!), but I would call that non-schooling. And there are also working parents who give thier kids the keys to the house, and go out and party. Neither reflects an educational choice, just a dysfunctional lifestyle.
You know, when I wrote this I wondered about my use of the word moms in this context instead of parents. Yet in my experience, the judge-pushy ones are the moms. Do you think this is true? Why or why not? Discuss.
I think that, since our society expects men to be out there bread-winning and women to be the primary care giver, it is the moms who become emotionally invested and defensive about whatever choice is ultimately made. And, like your mom, so many people consider a different choice to be a challenge to their choice. So women go around thinking, “You chose differently? Unclean!!!”