Homeschooling - The Talk

Two days ago we had “The Talk” with our kids over dinner.  NO, not that talk, rather the talk about the kids leaving public school next year and being homeschooled.  If you read our previous blog post about this decision you already know we did not take the decision lightly.  (click here to read previous blog post).  This nationwide social trend of homeschooling and private schooling is becoming increasingly popular, and for obvious reasons.  Our current public education system is failing our children.  Nearly everyone agrees on this conclusion regardless of political affiliation.  The only thing people do disagree on is who to blame.  Rather than go on about politics, we’d rather share our kids’ responses and through those responses illustrate exactly why we believe that homeschool will be beneficial for our two kids.

Our daughter’s reaction was very positive and optimistic, on the verge of excitement.  She was as stoked as an adolescent could possibly be.  Immediately she recognized that she would have the one-on-one attention that she constantly craves but seldom has in the public school setting.  She did not say this in so many words, but she did mention the positives about how she learned better from us than from the school.  She also expressed excitement that her days would be more structured.  When we asked both kids whether they learned more at home or in school, and if they understood more when taught at home, both answered in the affirmative.  Our daughter was concerned about not having the school library, but when she was assured that weekly trips to the public library would be scheduled she was OK with it.  She loves to read!

Our son’s reaction was one of a little more concern and deep contemplation.  His concern centered around the possibility that he would have more work to do.  Maximum benefit for minimum effort seems to be his implied mantra.  Another question which he asked was whether we would be going on more than one field trip per year.  He was excited to find out that we will be planning many field trips.  When we asked him if he was ever truly challenged at school he replied that he wasn’t. Actually the conversation was more among the lines of,  “do you ever find anything really difficult to understand at school?”.  After a long pause his response was, “yes, swinging on the swing set.  I can’t get it to go.”.  We then asked if learning anything in the classroom was ever challenging.  After another pause his response was, “no.”.

The bottom line is that the system teaches each kid to reach a minimum standard.  The ones that can reach that minimum standard are ignored, and in our son’s case, expected to slow down and come back to the rest of the group.  In our daughter’s case, she gets the minimum amount of attention needed to reach that minimum goal.  As I have said before many times, public schooling teaches kids how to be mediocre. 

We also need to reiterate, that we do not blame the teachers for this educational epidemic.  We feel that teachers have their hands tied by the bureaucracy and the system for whom they work.  They can seldom be teachers and rather have been forced to become administers of tests and indoctrination.  Both of us are products of the public school system and find it unfortunate and appalling what the system has become.