An Open Letter to Home School Families for the New Year

    

New Year's is traditionally a day to reflect, to consider the past, and postulate the future. (It's also a day when a lot of football gets played, but I don't really like football much, so I'm just going to spend the day ROOTING FOR MY LAKERS TO BEAT THOSE PESKY, ROTTEN SACRAMENTO KINGS...sorry, that just escaped before I could grab it...)

We are all aware that this last year has been a difficult one for many people, and for many reasons. We are asked in song, when faced by hard times, to "Look For The Silver Lining", a hit during the Great Depression of the 1930s. As we step into a New Year in the midst of some hard times for many people, I'd like to suggest that there is some silver, and maybe some gold, in those dark, forbidding clouds above.

If you're reading this, then you are probably a homeschooler, or a homeschooler's parent or teacher. That means you have chosen to be a member of the oldest educational institution on Earth. For thousands of years, families have taught their own. Confucius tells us that it was an ancient tradition in China to study along certain lines, certain subjects, in his day. This great Chinese thinker was a contemporary of Plato's. Plato started the first school in the West, in Greece. Plato, too, advised study along certain lines and certain subjects. Both men assumed, by the way, that a child's education and the shaping of that child's life began in the family. Confucius felt that in so far as the family was strong, the nation would be strong as well. I agree. I'll bet that you do, too.

There are so many reasons to homeschool, we don't need to get into them, here. You have your reasons. One of the glimmerings of silver shining down on us is that we can home school. It may require a continuous dance of legal fine print and parental scheduling and financial voodoo, but we can home school and we do home school. Whatever a family's reason to take on this enormous responsibility, in most places you have the right. (There are notable exceptions where one does not have the right to home school, such as Germany. Does that remind anyone of the Great Depression era, too?)

After my wife passed away in 2001, we three pulled together and started homeschooling, as part of my effort to let my children know that I was going to be there, that I wasn't going anywhere. That was an act of faith, by the way. Though I'd been a teacher for many years, I had not designed courses of study in areas outside of the arts up to that time, and I did not know if I could "handle" my daughter and son on an all-day, everyday basis. I just decided that it was the "right" thing to do, and went to work.

The first day I started writing the first history course, I spent some 15 hours, and by the end of that day, I knew that this was not going to go as I had hoped. I was not going to be able to do what I do with creative projects like screenplays, "wing it" (make it up as I go), and get it all done in a week. Creating a workable curricula was going to take me...um, well, at least a few weeks.

The clouds gathered overhead. I was alone with my children, taking full responsibility for their well-being and their education. I was walking away from work I knew and loved, to do something that I didn't want to do and would not have done if I could have found a curricula to satisfy my children's needs. I wasn't making any money doing any of this. As the true magnitude of the task stretched before my horrified eyes, I slowly came to realize that this was going to be the work of years. Those dark clouds started raining on my uncovered head, and for awhile, I was pretty sure I'd relocated to the Amazon. Who knew it could rain that long and that hard? Money became a problem, of course, so I sold my house so I could keep writing the courses.

As homeschoolers, I knew that we had unique opportunities. I no longer homeschool my two children since they've both completed school, but I did homeschool for about 6 years. I had many more than my own children at my house and doing my courses, for a long time. I know it can be a real struggle to be Dad and Teacher, and that when my children decided that they didn't need to listen to "Dad", that meant that they also didn't need to listen to "Teacher". Like all children, mine decided at some point that they know far more than I do about everything. This was a rather painful barrier to get past and it took work on my part. (Still working on it.) But because my children homeschooled with me, they now know me well and I know them. They never fell into the traps many other children struggle with, such as drugs or a violent environment. Homeschooling definitely played a part in this result.

It is now almost eight years later, eight long years of authoring courses day after day. For me, part of the silver lining is that I'm nearly done writing curricula, and will finish sometime early in 2010. In 2009, I was able to spend a few months doing what I love, writing creative pieces. That was a good thing, and I will be doing more of that this year. But another part of my personal silver lining is that I know a lot of children and parents are using the courses I wrote for my children, and that many of them are finding them useful. If someone had told me eight years ago that I would be writing curricula for around a decade, and that many others would find it and use it, I'm pretty sure I would have laughed and then kicked them out of my house. But in following through on the ancient New Year's ritual and considering the past, I do believe that this work has all been done to serve a valid purpose.

As the New Year begins, as I postulate a future, I wish to share my hope for the student. If you are a homeschool student, my hope for you this year is that you learn more this year, and develop more skills this year than you can possibly imagine. I hope the world opens up for you. I hope you find many pieces of yourself, and are able to put them together into a vision of you that you can admire and strive for. And I hope you grow fully aware of how hard your parents and others are laboring on your behalf, and truly find the ability in your heart to respect and admire their contribution. The admiration of others is a quality of great men and women. It is not a sign of weakness, it's a strength.

To you parents, in way of postulating a future, I want to say to you that I believe in you and your families, and I believe in the value of home schooling. I know it's often a very hard road. You've chosen not to take the easy way out and turn your children over to the state, or even a private school. You've decided to maintain your responsibility for your children, and at a level that is considerably higher than most people in this civilization are willing to go to for their kids. I believe that such families and parents are the silver lining in the black clouds hanging over society today. In way of postulating a future, I look forward to you and your children's educational triumphs, as the next generation of leaders step into the world not from our ruinously failed schools, but from the arms and homes of their families.

Happy New Year, homeschoolers!

     Steven Horwich
     December 29, 2009
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