Career ruin: homeschooling
When people tell me they want to stay home with their kids and they can’t afford it, I want to yell at them about how when I was trying to write freelance and take care of the kids I had a babysitter refuse to come to the house because we had no food in the house. We had no food in the house because we had no money. I bought food on a day-to-day basis. That was me, affording to stay home with my kids and not work.
I must also admit that I ended up in a mental ward. Maybe from postpartum depression, but probably from the stress of being the sole breadwinner and a stay-at-home mom.
I am having flashbacks. Because I’m homeschooling now — both boys. I never really believed I’d do this. When I launched my homeschooling blog I actually thought I was just exploring a trend. I thought I’d just write a little about how it’s clear to me that there is about to be a homeschooling revolution.
But that’s not what happened.
Because then I noticed how the US school system is really just the biggest babysitting institution in the world. My first clue, probably, was that I was dying to have my kids back in school so I could have my life back. What else can I do to get time alone? How else can I do some work? Work is very fun.
I love work. I love how people tell me how great I am when I am right. I love when I sell something and make a lot of money, when I create a great job for someone, when I give great career advice. Work is so rewarding. I get accolades and I get money. It’s a toxic combination.
And kids at home without school is just impossible. There is no reward system. There is no announcement that the mom has done a good job. We don’t even know what a good job is.
So in the middle of realizing that school is really just a babysitting service, I became militant. I realized that public school is like Social Security. There is no money to do what we are pretending we are aiming to do. We should just grow up and admit that we cannot have effective public schools for everyone. Just like we cannot have Social Security for everyone.
But parents in the middle class can have one parent working and one parent home with their kids.
I feel like I have no choice. Because while I was waiting for the kids to go back to school, I was reading. And, of course, now my homeschool site makes me a magnet for research about school. And the evidence is overwhelming that schools are not meeting the educational needs of children:
- Unstructured play is more important than everything else for young kids.
- Test scores are not important.
- The homeschool trend is huge among educated parents.
- Passion-based learning is an impossible goal with 30 kids and one teacher.
- Almost all serious talk of school reform is about redefining what school is.
I challenge you to read these links and tell me you don’t think homeschool would be better for your kids. And this is why I tell myself that I have to make homeschooling work.
Believe me. There is absolutely no evidence that middle class kids from college-educated parents should be sitting in a classroom. Find me some. Really. Put it in the comments. Because if I could have found some, my kids would be in a classroom today.
But you know what? I can’t figure out how to get my work done and do homeschool too. I can’t figure out: Should I work more to pay for more childcare so I can work more? I know I don’t want the pressure of trying to have a big job and be a mom. I want to be a mom and I want to have an interesting job. And, I guess, I want to figure out how much more I have to work in order to pay for somehow getting a break from the kids.
I feel so bad writing that. A break from the kids. But that’s what sending kids to school is. Giving the parents a break. So I guess I’m still doing that. I’m still planning to get some sort of break. I’m just not calling it school.
Last week, all I could think of for my break was shopping at Forever 21. And I am hopeful that maybe it counted as homeschooling, too.
Is it still career advice if the advice is to not have a career?
I think home schooling is a great option for parents who are deeply committed to it, who can build the support system they need and who find this calling fulfilling. I am not one of them.
Back when our kids were young, we fully expected they’d attend the local public school. We actually move to our suburb because of its schools’ excellent reputations. So you can imagine my dismay when, upon visiting, I realized the school’s pedagogy was totally wrong for my very active, distractible eldest son. I knew he would hate it, feel like a failure and perhaps never develop a love of learning.
In a panic, I briefly considered homeschooling. Quickly, however, I realized I didn’t have the patience, experience and love of teaching to make it work. We ended up sending our kids to a Waldorf school and another progressive independent school. It was a huge stretch for us financially, but we made sacrifices and I don’t regret any of the privations.
I wonder if there a progressive school near you. One with a philosophy you can embrace? If so, why not take a look at it? Independent school are often flexible with financing, bartering services and financial aid.
I don’t think you should sacrifice your career or your sanity to provide a wonderful, rich education for your kids–and I don’t think you have to.
I think home schooling is a great option for parents who are deeply committed to it, who can build the support system they need and who find this calling fulfilling. I am not one of them.
Back when our kids were young, we fully expected they’d attend the local public school. We actually move to our suburb because of its schools’ excellent reputations. So you can imagine my dismay when, upon visiting, I realized the school’s pedagogy was totally wrong for my very active, distractible eldest son. I knew he would hate it, feel like a failure and perhaps never develop a love of learning.
In a panic, I briefly considered homeschooling. Quickly, however, I realized I didn’t have the patience, experience and love of teaching to make it work. We ended up sending our kids to a Waldorf school and another progressive independent school. It was a huge stretch for us financially, but we made sacrifices and I don’t regret any of the privations.
I wonder if there a progressive school near you. One with a philosophy you can embrace? If so, why not take a look at it? Independent school are often flexible with financing, bartering services and financial aid.
I don’t think you should sacrifice your career or your sanity to provide a wonderful, rich education for your kids–and I don’t think you have to.
Penelope- You always talk about how starting a business is the best education. In other words, doing non-routine creative work is the best education. So why not help your kids start their own businesses and/or have them help you with yours? Kids have great out-of-the-box ideas and with a little help could probably help you solve business problems. Even better, why not ask your kids to come up with solutions for how you use your time? All this “work” is education and is better than sitting at a desk all day in school.
You might want to open a Waldorf School, but your location probably wouldn’t support it so you would have to relocate…
The post is interesting that education is not taken with dueimportance, it should, and more these days
The post is interesting that education is not taken with dueimportance, it should, and more these days
I think it would be nice if public schools were 3 or 4 days a week or half the amount of hours. Then we could get the free babysitting and adult time and then spend a couple hours a day concentrating on fostering the kids’ passions…or just hanging out and having fun.
We are doing public school at home through a website called k12.com! He gets the best of both worlds! He gets to get the one on one with me and he has a real teacher and field trips and all the things he’d get in a typical school. Best decision I ever made!
This is nice to read. I’m considering this option for my daughter when she starts school next year, as it is an option in my state (WA). I like the self-pacing aspect of this option, as well as the lack of institutionalization, which is one of my beefs with public education (not to mention the poor performing schools in my urban district).
We are doing public school at home through a website called k12.com! He gets the best of both worlds! He gets to get the one on one with me and he has a real teacher and field trips and all the things he’d get in a typical school. Best decision I ever made!
When I was in high school, I dated a homeschooler for 1 year. That relationship ended because he had a complete inability to do the following:
1) Meet deadlines
2) Prioritize his time
3) Take initiative within a system
I personally feel that the reason I am successful (while he is still in an entry-level IT job, where he will probably stay for the rest of his life) is because I learned how to succeed within an institutional environment.
I’m an entrepreneur, but I need to tell the wishful-thinking commenters, small-busiess owners still need to work within institutions (banks, government organizations for various reasons, legal, etc.) To justify home-schooling (and excluding your children from top-tier universities and jobs) on the grounds that your child will have the skills needed to succeed as an entrepreneur is plain wishful thinking.
I had the opportunity to start multiple organizations at my high-school. I personally raised over $20,000 for charity by the time I graduated (from a low-income neighborhood). I created a legacy for myself and I’m so thankful that I had mentors and teachers encouraging me every step of the way.
The fact is, in life, the real world will not always accommodate your needs. Rather than being mollycoddled by a homeschooling parent, I learned at a young age how to satisfy my needs within institutional constraints. My ex-boyfriend, on the other hand, learned that he could only participate in jobs that would satisfy his needs, which really limited his career.
Also, I agree that children will find ways to entertain themselves in classes. For example, I used to create, design, and illustrate children’s story books in high-school. I would sit in class with my colored pencils – as long as I made good grades and still participated in class, teachers never cared. This is an example of how I learned to satisfy my own needs in the confines of an institutional environment.
My daughter was a self-directed homeschooler and she developed just those qualities your ex lacked (initiative, prioritizing, meeting deadlines). She had her own projects and did them in her own time. When she took her first community college course at age 14 she took warnings about time management seriously and imposed her own discipline on herself.
You did touch on something. Having been in control of her own path, she is loath to do something she does not feel is worth her time. She has the ability, but not the will, to do life-draining work. I don’t know if that is necessarily a bad thing, but I do think of how I was willing to do any job and make the best of it while she is not, and I wonder where her choices will lead her. Luckily she likes hard work and feels that many things are worthwhile.
My ex took community college courses, which I did as well in public school (on top of my full-time course load, part-time job, and extracurricular). I don’t think my ex was a weirdo at all – I mean, I dated him, so of course I think he was worthy. I just got generally frustrated with his attitude that the world could revolve around him and his inability to accept that sometimes, at least in my life, you have to put in some elbow-grease to get ahead. I’m sure he’s very happy in his current job.
I disagree with your statement about life-draining work. In my experience, its very hard to get to the top without doing some repetitive and draining work. I actually think that my willingness to do the work that others think is “not worthwhile” is what has given me opportunities. For example, my first job was as a bagger in a grocery store, a job that many feel is not worthwhile. Intellectually, the job was not worthwhile. However, by the time I was 20, I was a store manager, and the grocery store paid for most of my college degree at a top-ten national business program. I’ve used this degree, funded by my work at an intellectually draining job, to launch my career. I’m currently 25, and make more money than 99.9% of Americans. I now have a career that is lucrative and intellectually stimulating. However, I would not be here had I not put in the elbow-grease early on.
Frankly, I don’t hire people like your daughter. People who don’t put in the work when the job is draining simply don’t get the career opportunities that those who do put in the work. I don’t know any of my co-workers who would be willing to hire someone with that kind of attitude. However, it may be that she has alternative career plans – I only know about my specific career segment, which is business and academia.
I’m not sure how much of what you describe in your ex-boyfriend is due to his education, his personality, or the prevailing culture. My public school educated (and much younger) cousin sounds like him. She didn’t want to put in the grunt work necessary to get ahead in business so she went back to school and got her MBA. She’s been unemployed for almost a year because she won’t accept a job offer she considers beneath her. She is now convinced a PhD is the key to getting the job she thinks she deserves without paying her dues and gaining the experience that employers are looking for in middle management.
Yes, that is what I think about- I have been concerned that she isn’t willing to do jobs such as you describe. I don’t know what will happen in the long run. She does farming, tutoring, child care and is considering education as a high school or college math teacher, so she has some options. So far she’s been fortunate to have opportunities that she finds acceptable.
Public school children are just as easily mollycoddled by their parents as can be homeschooled children.
Many of the comments on this entry are quick to cite the weirdo homeschooled kid they once knew (or their ex-boyfriend, as the case may be) as the example of why you shouldn’t homeschool children. They use this as their example why the choice to home educate is wrong, misguided, or whatever. These commenters never stop and think of the many weirdo kids they had in their public school classes, and why they ended up that way. The institutional setting works for some kids, and it doesn’t work for others. Want to be logically consistent? Apply that same logic to home education.
You can’t single out the character flaws of homeschooled kids and blame it solely on the manner in which they’re educated, without applying the same logic to kids educated in the institutional setting.
I am a single mom. I felt called to homeschool 4 years ago. I still have to work, so I clean houses and do in home / out of home daycare, all things I can bring my kids to. My kids are 13 and 8, both boys. They both have special needs, but some of that is eliminated with lots of exercise and outside play, that they were not getting in public school. Plus lots of hands on stuff and experiments. Yesterday we went to the Franklin Musuem in Philly, PA.
My main stresses are paying all the bills, buying food, and no real me time. But I feel so strongely about homeschooling and how important it is that we make it work.
I feel so blessed because for the most part it brings me such joy to spend the days with my boys. As a bonus I learn so much as well.
I blog about my life here:
http://strivingtoliveeachdayhisway.blogspot.com/
-Becky in NJ
I love it! You are homeschooling! I am a veteran and my children are 25 and 27 now and quite successful. How can I help you? I will come to the farm and give you a break. You know I will.
Hmmm. After reading your blog for a few years now, I’m wondering if this pressing need to homeschool is really more about your need for something to obsess over? I understand your children’s education is critical, and that the system is in decline, but, to isolate your children like that when you are already living in a rural community (I assume it would take time and resources to get them out and to activities where they could be socialising with peers) just seems like such a loss. For them. People go to public education institutions, and go on to college. Or not. To put yourself in the position of being parent AND educator to your child seems like an incredible burden, and an incredible opportunity to obsess over and immerse yourself in some big new venture. Instead of a new business/website/whatever, it’s schooling. And isn’t THAT just the most important thing! Therefore, it requires even more obsessing!
Seriously. What matters as much as the ability of your childrens teachers, is the values towards education imparted at home. If you value education, reading, learning, inquisitiveness, and model those things to your children, they will pick up on that. Removing your children from the school system, and doing a hit-or-miss job of teaching them will make you feel like a better person, perhaps, but what about in the long term? The strain of devoting yourself to ensuring they get the BEST EDUCATION POSSIBLE might not leave a whole lot of time or energy towards just *being* with them. Being their mother.
Children need significant adults in their lives. By cutting off their school life, you are not only cutting off their socialising with peers, you are also cutting out potentially valuable relationships with other adults. Potentially valuable opportunities to learn about themselves, how to negotiate and problem solve.
So really – is this really about the failing education system, or is this about your latest obsession?
I mean, what you’re actually saying is… Career Ruin: Children.
Home school or no home school, having children takes up a lot of your time.
Our son spent his first 4 years in public school, and his last 5 years in Catholic school. Our zip code has excellent public schools. The Catholic school wins hands down for teaching kindness, compassion, service, regular school stuff, and the parents and kids we have met have good values and are smart and sincere. Our son will go to the local Catholic high school. I am reading the flyer right now and it looks good. The programs look pretty amazing, parents speak highly of the school and it doesn’t cost a fortune due to Catholic committment to good education for all (with financial aid readily available). I am a smart person. Could I do as good a job or better than these schools? Maybe. But honestly, the experiences my son is having at this school (and his future high schoold) would be difficult for me to replicate. And guess what? I DON’T WANT TO BE A TEACHER. NEVER DID.
Rebecca, I am responding to your last line, where you say you don’t want to be a teacher and you never did.
I hope you see, though, that parents ARE teachers. Comes with the territory. And if you had decided to homeschool, you would have gotten more and more into the role. It is both humbling and liberating.
Knowing nothing (about math/science? or?), you know everything. Because you then have the hunger/curiosity to “find out” right alongside your kids as they move ahead with their math skills. You figure things out together. You “look it up”. You consult with a tutor if you need to. You ask the school for their text. Or you do whatever you have to do.
And that is the whole point. You have a question. You work to find the answer. You are curious. You look for answers. You pursue areas of interest or of deficit. It is truly a wonderful system for both kid and parent. It is rewarding. And, like Maya Angelou says, “When we know better (more), we DO better (more).”
What about getting social skills?? Adapting to other people and to other places rather than the protected environment you get at home?? I think that is just enough reason to send your kids to school.
You have a poor understanding of homeschooling.
And if people truly got social skills at school then the world would be filled with socially adept people by now, and it surely isn’t.
You have a poor understanding of homeschooling.
And if people truly got social skills at school then the world would be filled with socially adept people by now, and it surely isn’t.
I didn’t want my kids to learn their social skills from other kids, who seemed to be un-socialized or even anti-socialized (i.e. bullies). I wanted my children to be socialized according to my own values: ultra-courteous, ultra-respectful of others’/ideas, more civilized than all the other kids. I wanted their vocabularies to be top-notch, not the-same-as. I wanted them to make better choices than the other kids would (go to the cafeteria and witness the food choices–ugh!).
Yes, I DID protect them longer than other parents would. There is a “saying” that says you must first give the ROOTS and then give them WINGS. I wanted their roots, their foundation-in-values to go really deep before exposing them to counter-values. I wanted to be the one to give them their roots–no, I don’t mean religious teaching. I wanted the stamp of my style on them. I didn’t want the stamp of the style of the masses/mass culture on them.
Thing is, you don’t know till years later if your strategy worked. Now, since my kids are adults, I DO know that the strategies worked. I have 5 kids, so there are degrees of success, of course. My greatest joy is that I see qualities of altruism-to-the-nth, and drive and perseverance. I see that several of them are quick studies. I see that they are not afraid to try new things. ( I wasn’t quite so thrilled at the earlier manifestation, which was heavy on the risk-taking, but it worked out . . . ) I see that they pick themselves and dust themselves off and try again following a mistake.
I take credit for being at the root.
I think if a person does not earn a lot of money, or if their income is very unpredictable, or even more so if they are LOSING money at their business, then of course they should home school. Homeschooling is also a good option for people with socially awkward children who do not fit into the mainstream due to health problems, developmental problems, etc. But for parents with viable professions, good incomes, and well adjusted children who thrive in a good public school, public school is a great choice. Our children thrive in public school. I’m challenged to find children who are more advanced academically than ours–reading, mathematics, science, etc. I’m sure they’re out there, but they’re a tiny minority. So why give up on public schools? Why roll the dice? Of course, if public school is a miserable experience for the parents and/or children, then any alternative is worth a shot. And that’s what I’ve observed with homeschooling. I don’t see a lot of homeschooling parents and children who were successful in public schools and thought, “You know what? We’re successful, but maybe we could be even more successful!” Rather the vast majority of parents and children who choose homeschooling did so because they were floundering in public schools, or they knew better than to even TRY public schools. Public school is indeed not for everyone, and I’m glad that some parents are wise enough to realize that, for the benefit of everyone involved. But please don’t insinuate that public schools are bad for EVERYONE just because they don’t work for you. That’s rude, reckless, and irresponsible. But why should we expect any less?
Not sure I understand the last sentence in this otherwise lucid comment — it seems gratuitously ad hominem — but I think a key point here is that “good public schools” are very different from “public schools,” axiomatically.
“Bad” public (and parochial) schooling is almost certainly worse than “good” home schooling, of course — whatever “good” and “bad” may mean and whatever everything else in between is defined as. These adjectives can be very small but contain a great deal.
I would love to have somebody else homeschool my kids. That’s about as far as I can get with the contradictions.
Penelope’s observations after only a few weeks of homeschooling are completely consistent with what I’ve concluded after doing it for six years.
I have three children, ages 11, 10, and 7, whom my wife and I have homeschooled from the beginning.
Academically, homeschooling is unbeatable. Each child gets a customized education from someone who is very concerned about the child. Our children are required by state law to take standardized tests at the end of each year, and they always do outstanding on them.
Homeschooling also allows our children to focus on non-academic pursuits in a way that would be nearly impossible if they were in a traditional school. Our daughter wants to be a concert pianist, so she practices 3-4 hours a day. Our oldest son enjoys cooking and chess, and so he cooks most of the meals for the family and practices chess about an hour a day on the computer.
As for "socialization," the preeminent worry of non-homeschoolers, I am convinced that homeschooling is actually the best way to teach social skills. Good social skills are not learned from other elementary school children.
There is one, and only one, significant downside to homeschooling. If you want to do it well, it is hard work. Really hard. There are very few economies of scale as in a traditional classroom; each child must be handled separately, which means it is like teaching three grades at once. My wife is completely overwhelmed most of the time, and she has long since given up the idea of pursuing a career. I end up doing a fair amount of work as well, either directly (handling subjects in the evening that my wife couldn't reach that day) or indirectly (doing tasks that my wife would be doing but for homeschooling). On those occasions when we second guess our decision to homeschool, the primary reason is always that it would be so much easier to send our kids to school.
Homeschooled for 14 years. They are both in college now. Loved the experience. I asked my college sophomore what he liked about homeschooling, and he replied, “I liked that I learned to love to learn.” Job is done.
For those of you who insist that bullying is good for kids, check out this very, very sad story: http://unicornbooty.com/2011/09/14-year-old-it-gets-better-filmmaker-commits-suicide-after-endless-bullying/
There are hard lessons in life to be learned from responding to bullies. But I agree with you, Chloe, that the cost typically outweighs the benefits.
Right, Ron. Bullying is not a good way to socialize children any more than tossing them into the deep-end of the swimming pool is a good way to teach swimming. Egads!
I am a contracted teacher for groups of homeschoolers. Mostly, I teach college prep classes (along with a few middle-school classes). Parents tell me that I’ve not only relieved them of their weariness but also taken their children far beyond what the usual achievement levels are.
What we’re doing in the group with which I’m affiliated is yielding excellent results. Two of our last four graduates (boys) achieved a perfect 800 on the writing section of the SAT — and got scholarships that amounted to at least a half ride at the colleges of their choice.
Homeschool families do not have to “go it alone.” There are homeschooling networks that homeschool parents can use to great advantage — not only financial, either.
I am a contracted teacher for groups of homeschoolers. Mostly, I teach college prep classes (along with a few middle-school classes). Parents tell me that I’ve not only relieved them of their weariness but also taken their children far beyond what the usual achievement levels are.
What we’re doing in the group with which I’m affiliated is yielding excellent results. Two of our last four graduates (boys) achieved a perfect 800 on the writing section of the SAT — and got scholarships that amounted to at least a half ride at the colleges of their choice.
Homeschool families do not have to “go it alone.” There are homeschooling networks that homeschool parents can use to great advantage — not only financial, either.
It seems that the terminology of “homeschooling” as used here may be very misleading… It’s really a form of alternative education that just plain avoids institutional school settings. I guess “alternative” is a scary word for a lot of folks, though.
I am a contracted teacher for groups of homeschoolers. Mostly, I teach college prep classes (along with a few middle-school classes). Parents tell me that I’ve not only relieved them of their weariness but also taken their children far beyond what the usual achievement levels are.
What we’re doing in the group with which I’m affiliated is yielding excellent results. Two of our last four graduates (boys) achieved a perfect 800 on the writing section of the SAT — and got scholarships that amounted to at least a half ride at the colleges of their choice.
Homeschool families do not have to “go it alone.” There are homeschooling networks that homeschool parents can use to great advantage — not only financial, either.
I am in favor of homeschooling and hope you can make it work. I am aware that your sons are learning to do “chores.” They appear to be at a good age to start incorporating household and personal maintenance activities into their “schooling,” as mentioned by a previous commenter. Indeed, one of the best features of homeschooling is the development of an “integrated” perspective on life as opposed to the idea that life is naturally divided into work, play, school and home.
Very true. My children’s friends’ parents were often surprised to find that my teenaged children did their own laundry, cleaned their own bathroom, were responsible for dinner on assigned nights, went grocery shopping, etc, etc. Most of these parents were still treating their teenagers like toddlers doing everything for them. A normal 18 year old should be able to do higher math AND run a household. It isn’t too much to expect.
Very true. My children’s friends’ parents were often surprised to find that my teenaged children did their own laundry, cleaned their own bathroom, were responsible for dinner on assigned nights, went grocery shopping, etc, etc. Most of these parents were still treating their teenagers like toddlers doing everything for them. A normal 18 year old should be able to do higher math AND run a household. It isn’t too much to expect.
I am a public school teacher. I plan to homeschool when I have kids, for many reasons.
I consider myself a good teacher. I work very hard to develop lessons that stretch my students’, to reach every student, to involve their parents, to interest the uninterested, and so much more. But I also know that a 30 to 1 ratio in every class, and a 90 to 1 ratio every semester (high school, block scheduling) means that there may be someone I don’t reach.
I also understand a lot more about learning and how it occurs now that I’ve been teaching for a while. Children are all different, and they learn at different paces and in different ways. Sitting in a classroom with a bunch of other kids isn’t always the best way. There are many other methods, and homeschooling is only one. Online asynchronous classes are another, and I’ve been privileged in my school system to be involved with starting this program.
Finally, the funding problem in our public schools is at a crisis point. And it’s NOT that school systems don’t have enough money. It is that school systems are so TOP-HEAVY! why on earth one school needs 4 assistant principals is beyond me. Why we need 6 or 7 assistant superintendants is mind-boggling. Why does every subject need 3 supervisors (1 for elementary, 1 for middle schools, 1 for high school)? Don’t forget the assistant to the assistant, and then the secretaries – for the asst. to the asst., too…
Don’t get me started on the discipline issues. I’m fortunate this year that I have only two students (so far) with whom I’ve had any discipline problems. And I do teach in an almost-inner-city area. But SOOOOOO many parents excuse and back up the lack of respect that their children display in school. Stuff that would have had my parents spanking me for weeks. But many school systems are backing down to these parents, not supporting the teachers and the students who have no discipline problems. Those disruptions do take a lot of learning time away from the good kids.
So homeschooling is a viable option, and one I plan to explore. Keep it up!
Yo Teacher Sue,
I’ve been a schoolteacher, too, though I’d never submit to “certification” nor would I ever send any kids I cared about to an Amerikan publik school.
What I can’t fathom is this: you seem to say that your class size is 30. The average cost to the public is this country is about $12,000 in a nine-month school year (non including the school buildings). If you were to work with a colleague, each teaching 3 hours per day for a 6-hour class day for the pupil, you would each command a gross revenue of $180,000 in nine months, or $240,000 in 12 months. I know you don’t earn anywhere near that, and maybe you even work more than 3 hours per day. But where the hell does all that money go?
Yo Teacher Sue,
I’ve been a schoolteacher, too, though I’d never submit to “certification” nor would I ever send any kids I cared about to an Amerikan publik school.
What I can’t fathom is this: you seem to say that your class size is 30. The average cost to the public is this country is about $12,000 in a nine-month school year (non including the school buildings). If you were to work with a colleague, each teaching 3 hours per day for a 6-hour class day for the pupil, you would each command a gross revenue of $180,000 in nine months, or $240,000 in 12 months. I know you don’t earn anywhere near that, and maybe you even work more than 3 hours per day. But where the hell does all that money go?
Jimbino, your question doesn’t make sense. That money doesn’t go to the teachers. It goes to the school system. And like I said, lack of money isn’t the problem. The main funding problem in public schools is the same problem facing universities right now – the organizations are top-heavy.
Yo Teacher Sue,
I know the money doesn’t go to the teachers. That’s exactly the problem. Here I am a single, childfree guy paying higher taxes than the breeders for sending their kids to extravagantly expensive schools where the poor certified teachers are paid so poorly that no real teacher, like me, would ever deign to teach.
Here it is laid out for you as simply as I can do it:
Assume class of 30 pupils for 9 months.
Assume school 180 school days each of 6 hours for1080 hours of instruction.
Assume teacher day of 3 hours (two teachers per day for the pupils).
Current messed-up system:
Cost to taxpayer = 30 * $12,000 = $360,000
Cost of school buildings = paid out of other funds.
Salary of teachers = $60,000 each or some $55 per hour each.
Cost of supplies and Administration = $360,000 less $120,000 = $240,000 !!!
A better system where you and your colleague take over the schoolroom:
Cost to taxpayer = 30 * $6000 = $180,000
Cost of school buildings = paid out of other funds.
Salary of teachers = $90,000 each or some $83 per hour each.
Cost of Administration = $0
Cost of Supplies = $0 (the teachers buy a few books, paper and pencils)
Good to see your thinking. You have pointed out a very important thing.
But first, compulsory schooling must end. It must be voluntary — for both teacher and student.
Then, let us liberate our teachers, free them from the prison called “school” and provide them with great, independent classrooms. Let them individually contract with parents to teach children. Fund each classroom of 15 voluntary students with $200,000 per year. Let them travel. Let them do serious things. Provide the conducting “teacher” interest free financing for classroom technology and resources, and let the teacher pay themselves out of that.
Let teachers contract directly with the parents — and disband the Department of Education. Let the teachers and the parents experiment. That which a child in is the process of becoming cannot be competently imposed by fiat of remote expert any more than a remote expert medical school professor can successfully heal a patient they have never attended. Let the parents, the teacher and the children work it out. Let the parents direct their money to the respective teachers of their choice.
Athletics can become “gymnasium” and operated community-wide with tribal competitive groupings among the different sports. This has a role too. Athletics does not need to be captive in a school system or otherwise involved with academics. The same with music and theater, and the other classical and technological arts. Let these specialties operate as different systems.
In such a liberated institutional framework, children can then be taught some mastery of mechanics and physics; how to fix things; how to make things; how to invent things; how to tell what things are made of and how they do and do not work.
And dangling rotted carrots like “College prep” should never be allowed along the way. Such to introduce a corrupting and elementally dishonest motive.
To paraphrase today’s disingenuous and sadly common meme: “Here child. We shall cheat them. And you will make me look good. And they will be so impressed with all the tricks I teach you and all the impressive things that I will help you list on your application. And then you will make lots of money and be important because you obeyed your teachers, did what your were told and went to college! Now you can be a somebody instead of just a nobody!” It’s bad enough the typical high-school student of today hits university with their brains turned-off, many of them never learned to turn their brains on.
Think I’m joking? Go talk to the more productive professorate in the quantitative and classical sciences. It’s a nightmare. The new crop of public school product doesn’t think; doesn’t want to, doesn’t like to — they’re there because they’ve been told to and they don’t know what else to do. And they don’t like to work, unless it translates directly into a grade.
The nature of the child is otherwise. The nature of a child is to learn.
If they are learners; if they are thinkers; if they read and write well; if they have a disciplined love for understanding the world around them; if they can master the basic core of “study engines” like Khan Academy, then they themselves will be looking for something real when undergraduate school comes alone – and unlike most of the “prepped” kids today with pretensions of motive – they will also have something visceral and renewing to offer the university professorate they engage.
This sounds like a very appealing poltical platform willem. You have my vote. Let’s start to shift some of these ingrained paradigms about what school is supposed to be. Then funding can be prioritized to teach kids to learn and hopefully inspire their curiosities in pursuit of their own motivations.
The nature of a child is not to get screamed at and still get what they want. Very few kids actually want to go for higher studies and the rest of it because the one and only reason they go for it is for a JOB. For money.
Truth is, you can’t live on air or knowledge. And knowledge does not always lead you to good places. So. Yeah. If I’m not getting a grade, or some other perk, I don’t want to spend my time learning something. Something, like 99% of other learned things, will not be put to use.
“Those disruptions do take a lot of learning time away from the good kids.”
This was my biggest issue as a teacher. The kids that disrupted class knew there would be no serious consequences for their behavior. Bring back reform schools to deal with these kids.
I work part time and home-school. The key is efficiency. Your kids don’t need to be doing school 6 hours a day to “do school.” So write out the assignments for each boy, and tell them that when they’re done and done perfectly, they can have TREAT. For me, the bribe I use in Wii time, you probably have your own privileges to give and take. Don;t bother with homework–if the little ones (under 4th grade) spend 10 minutes of focused time on a subject a day, they’ll pass their peers. The bigger kids should probably spend 20 a day. Do “year round” school so you don’t have to cram as much in a day. Send them outside unsupervised for an hour at a time, and work like heck in those periods.
I work part time and home-school. The key is efficiency. Your kids don’t need to be doing school 6 hours a day to “do school.” So write out the assignments for each boy, and tell them that when they’re done and done perfectly, they can have TREAT. For me, the bribe I use in Wii time, you probably have your own privileges to give and take. Don;t bother with homework–if the little ones (under 4th grade) spend 10 minutes of focused time on a subject a day, they’ll pass their peers. The bigger kids should probably spend 20 a day. Do “year round” school so you don’t have to cram as much in a day. Send them outside unsupervised for an hour at a time, and work like heck in those periods.
Rearing kids should be like starting a business: you need to make a business proposal to gain the funding on the promise that you are the very person suitable to rear kids.
Anything else is just asking me, a single childfree person, to subsidize your Mercedez. I won’t, of course, if I have any sense. When it comes to funding education, clearly I vote NO. When it comes to making streets and parks safer for children, I vote NO.
Other people’s kids is the reason that this libertarian welcomes the ban on kids in bars, bordellos and casinos. If we didn’t have these refuges, we’d be declaring war against all the breeders and the brood they inflict upon us at our expense.
maybe this should be titled “You can do anything wrong”
Penelope —
I hear you loud and clear.
I’m a college-educated woman, and I’ve been homeschooling for four years. This will be my fifth year. Frankly, I always feel I could do better. But somehow, it’s been working. I sometimes long for a break. I am never in the house without my three kids. But if all I need is a break, that doesn’t mean my kids will be educated just because I send them somewhere else. In fact, I think that by working out our issues together, we’ll learn to get along better in the long run. And although I feel I repeat myself dozens of times until I’m hoarse, it must be better than just sending them along somewhere else where I’m off the hook. They’ll still come home at night, and we won’t have worked out our issues, and they won’t have learned their math and writing.
My older girls have scored above the 90th percentile on standardized tests each year. They know their stuff, and so much more. (One of our local fifth-grade teachers has such horrible spelling and grammar that we use her website for our editing class sometimes,)
My 6-year-old son is dancing and singing to “Horrible Histories” on the iPad. He has grown up free from peer pressure and he’s a treat. I have never seen a kid enjoy life so very much.
They have friends, they do drama, co-op, swimming, etc.They wear what they like, and they tell me they are never bored. We are part of a Classical group that memorizes things and gives presentations. My kids aren’t afraid of speaking in front of a crowd.
I blogged for a while — it was an economics blog. I’ve grown to hate the computer and the time it takes away from the kids. If I had it to do over again, like you Penelope, I would figure out how to minimize my computer time and devote more time to my children. My oldest is a 6th-grader — I would love to go back in time and do it all over again, but without the computer monster.
We are starting a new business now – a basement commercial Meadery. It’s my husband’s dream. I rebelled against it for so long. I wanted MY ideas to be what we did. I wanted to make the money and get the glory. But I realized last week that I can do a ton to help him. He desperately needs it. For a long time he was always catering to my wants. And so I determined to start truly helping him this week, and I’m amazed at what I’ve accomplished and how good it feels. I took my kids to a winery auction over the weekend, and we bid and won 192 boxes of empty bottles that we needed. We had to unload them into the garage today. The kids were *thrilled* to help. I have never seen them so excited about something. My son was SO proud of himself. He kept saying he HATES cleaning the house, but he LOVES doing real jobs.
So, my advice might be to find something both you and the kids do together to make money. This summer, for example, we found out that McDonald’s Smurfs sold on Ebay for more than we paid. So we collected a few hundred, and the kids got the money. For yard sales, when they help, they get 10% each. Today we had a blast stacking boxes. The kids need something to feel special, too, just by themselves. They feel like you do — they need to feel that special sense of reward like you do with your job. So think about that, too. They used to like it when I’d give them a jelly bean for each page they completed in schoolwork, or another reward system which might lead to a special toy or trip.
Once you’ve homeschooled for a few years, you’ll long for less breaks, because you’ll have learned to live a new way of life of companionship with your kids. I enjoy it when my kids go away to an event, but I miss them like crazy. Taking a break with my kids is a wonderful break for me – taking them to the beach or to a water park or to a museum is mentally refreshing somehow.
Penelope —
I hear you loud and clear.
I’m a college-educated woman, and I’ve been homeschooling for four years. This will be my fifth year. Frankly, I always feel I could do better. But somehow, it’s been working. I sometimes long for a break. I am never in the house without my three kids. But if all I need is a break, that doesn’t mean my kids will be educated just because I send them somewhere else. In fact, I think that by working out our issues together, we’ll learn to get along better in the long run. And although I feel I repeat myself dozens of times until I’m hoarse, it must be better than just sending them along somewhere else where I’m off the hook. They’ll still come home at night, and we won’t have worked out our issues, and they won’t have learned their math and writing.
My older girls have scored above the 90th percentile on standardized tests each year. They know their stuff, and so much more. (One of our local fifth-grade teachers has such horrible spelling and grammar that we use her website for our editing class sometimes,)
My 6-year-old son is dancing and singing to “Horrible Histories” on the iPad. He has grown up free from peer pressure and he’s a treat. I have never seen a kid enjoy life so very much.
They have friends, they do drama, co-op, swimming, etc.They wear what they like, and they tell me they are never bored. We are part of a Classical group that memorizes things and gives presentations. My kids aren’t afraid of speaking in front of a crowd.
I blogged for a while — it was an economics blog. I’ve grown to hate the computer and the time it takes away from the kids. If I had it to do over again, like you Penelope, I would figure out how to minimize my computer time and devote more time to my children. My oldest is a 6th-grader — I would love to go back in time and do it all over again, but without the computer monster.
We are starting a new business now – a basement commercial Meadery. It’s my husband’s dream. I rebelled against it for so long. I wanted MY ideas to be what we did. I wanted to make the money and get the glory. But I realized last week that I can do a ton to help him. He desperately needs it. For a long time he was always catering to my wants. And so I determined to start truly helping him this week, and I’m amazed at what I’ve accomplished and how good it feels. I took my kids to a winery auction over the weekend, and we bid and won 192 boxes of empty bottles that we needed. We had to unload them into the garage today. The kids were *thrilled* to help. I have never seen them so excited about something. My son was SO proud of himself. He kept saying he HATES cleaning the house, but he LOVES doing real jobs.
So, my advice might be to find something both you and the kids do together to make money. This summer, for example, we found out that McDonald’s Smurfs sold on Ebay for more than we paid. So we collected a few hundred, and the kids got the money. For yard sales, when they help, they get 10% each. Today we had a blast stacking boxes. The kids need something to feel special, too, just by themselves. They feel like you do — they need to feel that special sense of reward like you do with your job. So think about that, too. They used to like it when I’d give them a jelly bean for each page they completed in schoolwork, or another reward system which might lead to a special toy or trip.
Once you’ve homeschooled for a few years, you’ll long for less breaks, because you’ll have learned to live a new way of life of companionship with your kids. I enjoy it when my kids go away to an event, but I miss them like crazy. Taking a break with my kids is a wonderful break for me – taking them to the beach or to a water park or to a museum is mentally refreshing somehow.
Homeschooling is approaching a tipping point that is making it a viable option to more and more people. There are some incredible resources available out there! I moved to an expensive, suburban area for the schools only to find homeschooled kids in the country getting better education than my daughter was getting at her wealthy public school.
We homeschooled the last three years of highschool, and the only thing I did alone was compile the transcript. My only regret is that we didn’t start sooner. However, I’m a single-mom who has never received child support. The decision to homeschool was a scary one to make for me. We used every resource that made sense for us: a local homeschool group; local science and math tutors; a college professor teaching an unaccredited class with weekly conferences calls; online AP classes; community college classes; university classes; etc. She graduated from high school with 30 college credit hours and got accepted into a competitive university.
Academically, I wanted her to be ready for college, and that success is easy to measure. We were able to fill the gaps in her education that came from her many school moves. She got into the school of her choice. But the real value in homeschooling was the intangible rewards. We were able to re-ignite her passion for learning. She was able to pursue some of her passions. The alone time she had during the week helped the introvert in her to recharge her batteries and she actually became more social. She developed strong relationships with a couple of mentors. She found a lot of friends from very different backgrounds whose values matched her own. And she is much more engaged in directing her own life rather than following a path someone else has laid out before her.
The homeschool journey wasn’t perfect. She still has some educational gaps, but we were able to customize her education for her needs. There aren’t many people who will read this note… way at the bottom of the comments. But I wanted to drop a line of encouragement to anyone who WANTS to homeschool, but is intimidated by the prospect. There are a lot more resources out there than what you would have seen just five years ago.
This is going to sound mean, but it’s a potential answer to your question:
1. Get the children’s father involved, if at all possible
2. Find another husband and get married. Raising kids, in or out of public schools, is easier with two.
Another idea, which is what my wife and I are doing right now:
Send your kids to public school, and supplement with home learning. We use the Kumon program and are very happy with it. My goal is for my kids to be at least slightly ahead of the curve with reading, writing and arithmetic. They can enjoy the sports and other school activities without my having to worry too much if they’re getting everything they need, learning wise.
The main thing I’m dreading as they advance in school though is homework. I would happily see schools forgo sports and pretty much everything else if it meant they did meaningful work at school and didn’t have to bring home piles of homework. My goal, though, is to prepare them enough at home so that most homework will be fairly easy. We’ll see..
Sorry, I read your bio and found out you are married! Not sure how I got ‘single mom’ out of your article here. Carry on. Nothing to see here.
I haven’t read the comments, but have been homeschooling for awhile–where do you live? HAve you thought about tutorials? The children are taught by tutors for 1 or 2 days a week, usually school hours, (parents pay, of course!) and then bring home work for the rest of the week. Some in our area are top-notch and have been going for years.
A veteran friend told me the year we started, you will have 10 % excellent, awesome days, 10% “they need to go to school NOW and I need rehab” and the other 80% are average. Can also tell you that after 12 years, and with our oldest now 20 and on a full ride to college (which won’t happen with all of our children, but still…)–the relationship we have with our children makes every single day, every sacrifice worth it–absolutely nothing else even remotely comes near the value of our family relationships, cemented in the day to day working together. God is good.
I haven’t read the comments, but have been homeschooling for awhile–where do you live? HAve you thought about tutorials? The children are taught by tutors for 1 or 2 days a week, usually school hours, (parents pay, of course!) and then bring home work for the rest of the week. Some in our area are top-notch and have been going for years.
A veteran friend told me the year we started, you will have 10 % excellent, awesome days, 10% “they need to go to school NOW and I need rehab” and the other 80% are average. Can also tell you that after 12 years, and with our oldest now 20 and on a full ride to college (which won’t happen with all of our children, but still…)–the relationship we have with our children makes every single day, every sacrifice worth it–absolutely nothing else even remotely comes near the value of our family relationships, cemented in the day to day working together. God is good.
Great post and comment thread.
When I was growing up, attending public and private schools, I viewed homeschoolers as basically abnormal.
After I graduated from high school I began to realize just how heavily I had been conditioned in my modes of thought and awareness by public school.
Penelope is right on.
Reasons I homeschool my kids:
1) Public school was generally boring…lack of intellectual stimulation. Not an optimum environment to develop a love of learning.
2) Public school is too often a “Lord of the Flies” scenario. Been there, done that. Not a healthy social environment for gradeschoolers.
3) Public school WASTES TIME. It’s a big fat waste of time. The instruction that takes 6 or 7 hours in a public school will take 2 or 3 in a homeschooling environment.
4) Public school is designed to stamp out a uniform product, both socially and academically. I hold to a slightly more counter-cultural perspective.
Hey, we’ve started taking Latin lessons as a family this month. That’s two 8 year olds, a 4 year old and two 36 year olds. Not too many people with a brain will deny the benefit of knowing Latin…but I don’t recall hearing the first thing about it in public school.
Great post and comment thread.
When I was growing up, attending public and private schools, I viewed homeschoolers as basically abnormal.
After I graduated from high school I began to realize just how heavily I had been conditioned in my modes of thought and awareness by public school.
Penelope is right on.
Reasons I homeschool my kids:
1) Public school was generally boring…lack of intellectual stimulation. Not an optimum environment to develop a love of learning.
2) Public school is too often a “Lord of the Flies” scenario. Been there, done that. Not a healthy social environment for gradeschoolers.
3) Public school WASTES TIME. It’s a big fat waste of time. The instruction that takes 6 or 7 hours in a public school will take 2 or 3 in a homeschooling environment.
4) Public school is designed to stamp out a uniform product, both socially and academically. I hold to a slightly more counter-cultural perspective.
Hey, we’ve started taking Latin lessons as a family this month. That’s two 8 year olds, a 4 year old and two 36 year olds. Not too many people with a brain will deny the benefit of knowing Latin…but I don’t recall hearing the first thing about it in public school.
Penelope,
I did a word search on your post & the subsequent comments and was completely surprised to see no mention of Alfie Kohn. I think you’d dig the guy, his work, & his mind as much as I do. http://www.alfiekohn.org/index.php.
Cheers,
Varun
Agreed. Interestingly enough AK is not a fan of home schooling.
the pic: LOLOLOL!!
the article: You, go, girl!
Sometimes when people ask why I homeschool I say it’s because I have nothing better to do. (get it????????????? nothing. better. to. do. ;-)
Penelope–I like the quote “Education isn’t filling a bucket, it’s lighting a fire.” When you’re starting there’s a lot of kindling to do. It will get easier–maybe not less time-consuming, but smoother–when your kids have more experience pursuing their own interests.
Socialization is a red herring that folks who do not understand (or want to try) home schooling bring up. No where else does one have to spend 6-8 hours a day with people of the same age and abilities. Home schooled kids do martial arts, art classes, Scouts, 4-H, club sports, reading groups, volunteer work, etc. VERY FEW home schooled kids stay home all day every day.
A teacher needs only stay one step ahead of their student. Co-ops, tutors, adults in the field, and community college are great places to get help for the parent and/or student if needs be. Learning how to locate someone who can and will help you is an awesome life skill too!
One on one or one on several education works great. If you think you can’t home school or don’t want to home school your child(ren) you are probably right. In this case … don’t. I have a sadness for you but I am reasonably sure you don’t care with what I think/feel. I am OK with that. Please do not suggest I can not do this. I can. I will. I am. If you have something to offer, I am interested in talking to you. If you have something to offer you and/or your child, let me know. I am open to helping.
I can not think of anyone who cares about my children, their education, well-being more than I or their father. I can not think of anyone who enjoys spending time with them as much as I do. I don’t know of anyone who is as flipped out by the milky cereal bowl on the counter as much as I am. My kids … their poop stinks. My kids … I can’t think of anyone more deserving of my time, energy, skills, failings, love, care than them.
I want my kids to be critical thinkers. I really and truly do not believe traditional school is the prime agar for critical thinking.
Penelope – I love your posts about home schooling. I know our family has found what works for us. Sometimes it works better than other times but it works for us. I hope you and your kids find the give and take you all need to make it work.
Socialization is a red herring that folks who do not understand (or want to try) home schooling bring up. No where else does one have to spend 6-8 hours a day with people of the same age and abilities. Home schooled kids do martial arts, art classes, Scouts, 4-H, club sports, reading groups, volunteer work, etc. VERY FEW home schooled kids stay home all day every day.
A teacher needs only stay one step ahead of their student. Co-ops, tutors, adults in the field, and community college are great places to get help for the parent and/or student if needs be. Learning how to locate someone who can and will help you is an awesome life skill too!
One on one or one on several education works great. If you think you can’t home school or don’t want to home school your child(ren) you are probably right. In this case … don’t. I have a sadness for you but I am reasonably sure you don’t care with what I think/feel. I am OK with that. Please do not suggest I can not do this. I can. I will. I am. If you have something to offer, I am interested in talking to you. If you have something to offer you and/or your child, let me know. I am open to helping.
I can not think of anyone who cares about my children, their education, well-being more than I or their father. I can not think of anyone who enjoys spending time with them as much as I do. I don’t know of anyone who is as flipped out by the milky cereal bowl on the counter as much as I am. My kids … their poop stinks. My kids … I can’t think of anyone more deserving of my time, energy, skills, failings, love, care than them.
I want my kids to be critical thinkers. I really and truly do not believe traditional school is the prime agar for critical thinking.
Penelope – I love your posts about home schooling. I know our family has found what works for us. Sometimes it works better than other times but it works for us. I hope you and your kids find the give and take you all need to make it work.
Socialization is a red herring that folks who do not understand (or want to try) home schooling bring up. No where else does one have to spend 6-8 hours a day with people of the same age and abilities. Home schooled kids do martial arts, art classes, Scouts, 4-H, club sports, reading groups, volunteer work, etc. VERY FEW home schooled kids stay home all day every day.
A teacher needs only stay one step ahead of their student. Co-ops, tutors, adults in the field, and community college are great places to get help for the parent and/or student if needs be. Learning how to locate someone who can and will help you is an awesome life skill too!
One on one or one on several education works great. If you think you can’t home school or don’t want to home school your child(ren) you are probably right. In this case … don’t. I have a sadness for you but I am reasonably sure you don’t care with what I think/feel. I am OK with that. Please do not suggest I can not do this. I can. I will. I am. If you have something to offer, I am interested in talking to you. If you have something to offer you and/or your child, let me know. I am open to helping.
I can not think of anyone who cares about my children, their education, well-being more than I or their father. I can not think of anyone who enjoys spending time with them as much as I do. I don’t know of anyone who is as flipped out by the milky cereal bowl on the counter as much as I am. My kids … their poop stinks. My kids … I can’t think of anyone more deserving of my time, energy, skills, failings, love, care than them.
I want my kids to be critical thinkers. I really and truly do not believe traditional school is the prime agar for critical thinking.
Penelope – I love your posts about home schooling. I know our family has found what works for us. Sometimes it works better than other times but it works for us. I hope you and your kids find the give and take you all need to make it work.
I was a public school teacher. And my kids will never step foot in an American public school.
My average class contained 20 students. REGARDLESS OF THEIR KNOWLEDGE, all kids were promoted at the start of the next school year. This is one of the reasons that 20% of graduates can’t read.
Perhaps the system should be meritorious. A student can advance in a subject only after he/she displays mastery of that specific subject. Bring back reform schools as well, so that teachers have some kind of recourse for dealing with the trouble makers. And place more emphasis on trade schools. Kids don’t have to graduate from high school to learn a skill and be productive members of society. If kids are still at the novice levels by age 16, send them to trade school so they don’t drain resources.
But, alas, we know that the teacher’s union and the politicians aren’t interested in “educating” children, thus there will be no change to public education.
As a single father, I home schooled my daughter, who, G_d willing, will turn 19 before the end of the year. Decidedly, we “unschooled”. The unschooling concept struck me the best model for our situation. It worked extremely well. She did extremely well. My only regret is not learning about Khan Academy before last year.
The greatest mistake I have seen parents repeat is to attempt to mimic and conduct rote “Prussian Schooling” in the home. That parents would betray their children to school technocrats and surrender the child’s home to the demands of outsiders is such a remarkable thing to see. What does a child learn when the family supplicates, is usurped and its privacy violated by outsiders who have threatened their parents? What happens to the psyche of a child when outsiders prove their parents to be complicit; cowards who betray their children to strangers as supplication for approval.
What kind of America is this building? What conditioning is being imprinted here?
If you wish to champion the best intellectual interests of your child and home school, I urge you to study the work and writings of John Taylor Gatto. The research and thoughtfulness of his work was so enormously helpful to me. Once you understand the history and motive of the Prussian system that was transplanted in the United States in the late 19th Century, stewarding a learning child outside of that system becomes more liberated and understood.
Children learn. This has always been true. Where do you think the world we see today came from over the last 10,000 years? From children who learned and became adults who never stopped learning and lived authentic lives of inquiry and consideration. They were not products of “education”. They were reverent devotees of learning who were nearly always running afoul of the orthodoxy who claimed to have the official key to the super-special box that contained all the “actual facts” that one must merely memorize and obey.
Not one teacher your child will have in “school” had a material role in identifying or discovering any of “cardinal knowledge” they are dictated by remote “experts” to dutifully operate in the classroom. Not one. They may be nice and wonderful people, but they are drones in a humanoid colony equivalent to social insects required to conform or face certain extermination.
Not one school we send a child to represents a domain where cardinal knowledge is discovered, studied or passionately researched. They do not hire people who do that. They would fire anyone who attempted to deviate from the pre-determined mediocrity imposed by “experts” upon what has become no better than a corrections culture. The tragicomic farce of today’s school — a modern day prison for children — is as canned and as superficial as any Muzak overheard in any corporately owned retail environment.
No amount of money can rescue this malignant 19th Century monster. Even if they strap the children into mini electric chairs and give them Skinnerian/Pavlovian ‘stimuli’ to punish them into learning, they cannot make these malignant institutions called “schools” become functional.
We need great classrooms. We need liberated learning. We need childhood — to enrich us as the child is also enriched.
We need to trust the evolutionary biology of our species, and especially, our children. This is why home schooling is inestimably superior to the multi-billion-dollar industry of rote autocratic conditioning an imprisoned child.
Set them free. Let them live and learn as children.
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