I read an interesting story on community homeschooling this morning at CNN of all places, Communal homeschooling on the rise. While the story is supposed to be about community homeschooling, it oddly doesn’t spend much time talking about that but I really appreciated this commentary…
Just ask the Sobrals, who are homeschooling their five children. For them, “one size fits all” education just doesn’t cut it anymore. “What we've learned now is that it's unnatural fitting 20 children in a room and learning from one teacher, on the same schedule, on the exact same material in the same way,” says Courtney Sobral.
The Sobral kids each have their own interests and learn in different ways. Sobral says since she’s the teacher, she can experiment with teaching techniques to see what works best.
Her husband, Alex, says that’s not always possible in public schools. “You’re taught that you have to go to A, B, and C…and if you’re not excelling here and there, there must be something wrong with you.”
That is a great perspective. It is completely unnatural to cram twenty, thirty or more kids into a room based on little other than their birthday and expect them to learn and absorb information at the same rate and in the same way. Public schooling says “this is the age you read” and “this is the age for pre-algebra” on an arbitrary basis. I get why because the schools get a whole pile of kids every year and all they know about them is that they live in a certain area and are a particular age. I was a pretty proficient reader before I even started kindergarten and remember sitting in the stairwell with an older student reading from Readers Digest while the other kids learned to read because I didn’t fit into the age expectation and there was nothing else for the school to do with me.
For me, the most compelling reason for homeschool is that I firmly believe it is what is expected of us as Christian parents. But there are additional solid reasons for homeschooling. As I said above, I agree with the Sobral’s in that I don’t see it as natural to expect dozens of different children with different abilities, backgrounds, learning styles and maturity levels to all learn the exact same material the exact same way. In the work world, you aren’t assigned a job based on your birthday and street address. Not everyone who is 30-35 in a given zip code is assigned the same job because not everyone has the same ability or background.
I am always glad to read something positive or at least not negative about homeschooling in the “mainstream” press.
2 comments:
I have felt for a long time that even if I were not religious at all, homeschooling just makes more sense. I feel that way even stronger having friends who are teachers, and hearing what goes on behind the scenes. It just doesn't work, and the evidence that it doesn't work is overwhelming.
In Missouri and Kansas they have actually rolled out a free homeschooling program through the public school system. It's all done on the computer, and the curriculum is provided by the state. I know most Christian parents wouldn't be satisfied by that, but I think it's a really smart idea, especially for those who would really like to homeschool but can't afford to purchase the curriculum. To me, it's a step in the right direction, because it says to me that the state is recognizing that while many children are able to excel in the classroom, many are not. One of my only concerns is that I would speculate that the material is still very age/grade specific, but I don't know that for sure.
Now if we can only get the church to believe the same thing...
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