An Open Letter to Homeschoolers about Thanksgiving

    

In the United States, we are approaching Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving, we are asked to look at our lives and offer thanks for those blessings we find there. Or, to quote the great American songwriter, Irving Berlin, "Count Your Blessings". (A great song that is often used as a part of Christmas celebrations, but which is better suited for Thanksgiving! FYI: Among many hundreds of songs, Berlin also wrote "White Christmas", and "God Bless America".)

One important blessing that you and I share — at least for now — is the right to home school in many parts of the world. (I assume you home school or are considering home schooling, or you wouldn’t be reading this.) We should be able to count on this right and blessing.

The right of a parent to determine for their own children what their education will and will not consist of should be held generally as sacred. But home school as a process and as an institution is under attack in many corners of the world, often attacked by "educators" whose salaries are determined by head count, the number of students showing up to class each day. This is true of all public and private schools.

With the exception of the rare, abusive parent, no one knows or cares more about a child than the child's parents. Parents live with and hear their children as they start to develop ambitions and dreams. In fact, there aren't many things that happen as a part of parenting that are more exciting and rewarding then when our children start to demonstrate interest and aptitude in some area of study or life.

It is a parent's first assignment to keep their young safe. The second critical priority is to provide opportunities for their children, based on observed interests and skills.

Interest is the key to a child's successful education. If you've tried to teach a child math who hates math, or writing who hates writing, you know that there is little that can be done, educationally, with an unmotivated child. A lot of force and threats can be exerted if you feel so inclined, but really, you're not going to get far. This is not to say that children should be let off the hook and allowed not to receive an education in the basics — reading and literacy, math, language, some history and science. It would be hard to get along in civilization today without the ability to read and write, and without basic math and science under one's belt. But that said, not every child is going to get far with math, or writing, or science. Not every child cares to. The same can be said for any subject, regardless of whether that subject is "required".

Herein is found one of the great strengths of homeschooling. A home school curricula can largely be shaped to support a child's interests. My own children were not fond of math. (I unfortunately share their distaste for it, though I recognize the value of well-developed skills in math.) They were far more interested in the arts. Both of them sing, and act, and write. (Their mother was an opera singer. Their father is a writer, and acting teacher. Go figure...) As I started home schooling them in 2002, I had math as a staple, and attempted to enforce it as had been done in the private schools they attended. This made all their educational work painful to them, as they were not being consulted or respected as to their own interests. This failed as an approach. They never really mastered much math, even when assisted by people who love and understand the subject. Interest was the key — they had none. Their interests rested in the arts, and for my son, in history and science as well. In those areas in which they had an interest, they did well. When they had little or no interest, they did poorly. I speak from experience, and I've observed the same phenomenon in hundreds of students over the years.

Unfortunately, schools almost always have to "cookie cut" their educational efforts. There are too many students per classroom, even in most private schools and certainly in nearly all public schools, to tailor the educational experience to the needs and interests of the individual child. The "cookie-cutter" approach to education cannot assist a child in developing their own personal interests and skills unless they happen to fall within the rather narrow bounds of what is offered to all the students. It cannot succeed at this because it does not have the individual child as its target.

The "group" approach to education suffers from other pitfalls. Even if a student is interested in, say, math, he or she is forced to work at a rate that is not optimum for them. Why? Because there will be other students in the room who are simply not interested in that subject, and who will accordingly drag their way through. A classroom operates on the "lowest common denominator" approach — it moves as fast as the slowest students. As the United States government has foolishly accepted — "no child left behind". This approach makes all children in a classroom the victims of the system. "Slow" children are not consulted for interest, hate what they are studying, are not allowed to study other materials or use other methods that might succeed for them. "Faster" students are "punished", forced to move far more slowly than their skills and interests might allow. Why? So no child is left behind, of course. The result — every child is left behind.

One purpose of education should be the preparing of a child for life or a career. A career can be a valid, if limited educational goal. Math, science, and other general education studies are often parts of this goal. But more importantly, education should assist in empowering the child to pursue and catch his or her dreams. The truth is that almost every child will grow up and work. Will they work at jobs they hate, but have been trained to hold? Or will they create their own jobs, and even whole industries, through their own insights and passions? Will work be a daily grind and a curse, a necessity limited in its horizons by cookie-cutter education that rarely if ever took the child's interests into account? Or will they love their work and see it as a blessing? Are we educating toward a bottom line — survival? Or are we educating toward an improved world, and productive and creative lives filled with challenge and joy? Is a job really the end goal of an education — or is a fulfilled and valuable life lived?

For Thanksgiving, I think it's a great idea, as Mr. Berlin suggests in his great song, that we look at our children and add them to the list of blessings. I believe that home school is itself a blessing. It allows the parent to participate and contribute in unique ways toward the realization of their children's dreams, dreams that might never have seen the light of day with our children buried in the system of education civilization generally offers. Let's add home school to our list of blessings. I also believe that our children will count their home schooling as a blessing as they grow older and understand how it — and their parents — helped them build good and happy lives.

     Steven Horwich
     November 20, 2009
     Connect The Thoughts™
     1st Step™