Look, I know that you hate whatever it is that schools are making your kids do – “school via Zoom.” I don’t blame you. I’d hate it, too. I bet your kids hate it, as well. After all, the only fun part of school, that pretty much anyone can think of, is socializing – and that sentiment is limited to the kids that don’t get bullied constantly. That’s one of the many reasons why my wife and I decided to homeschool our kids. But, we don’t do whatever you guys are doing – that’s not homeschooling. “Real” homeschooling takes many forms, but, almost never what you guys are all being forced to do. Also, don’t believe any of that rubbish about how your kids are going to fall behind – it is statistically proven that nearly everything taught in school is forgotten shortly after the course ends. That’s why public schools spend 5+ years in English classes teaching the same monotonous rules, even though the students have been tested on them over, and over. Not to mention the fact that textbooks are notoriously terrible, and often inaccurate. So, in many cases, it’s a good thing that your kids will forget what they were taught. People involved in the education complex need to believe that kids will fall behind because of all of this – it validates them. To accept what is plainly true, and, scientifically proven, of our educational system would be devastating to anyone who has made that their life’s work.
I do have some credibility here. I was a kid who hated school, received mediocre grades (at best), and, was generally headed nowhere. That was me until the end of 8th grade, that is. In the late spring of my eighth grade year, I discovered homeschooling, and, promptly harassed my parents until they agreed to homeschool me – a great sacrifice to both of them. I had what you’d call a bit of a turn-around, and went on to graduate from a state university, and, eventually, from a well respected law school. My kids have been homeschooled from jump street. They are all ice hockey players, who, outside of hockey, have wildly diverse interests – fossil hunting occupies the majority of my twin sons’ attention these days, that is, when they don’t have hockey sticks in their hands. My daughter is the avid reader, lover of all things science, and, of all things art. My wife does the majority of the teaching. I jump in on a few subjects because, well, I love the subject matter. My wife and I each focus on the subjects that we enjoy teaching. I have no fear of them not getting into college, because, colleges LOVE homeschoolers, because, homeschoolers think outside the box (having been raised outside of it), and, are generally extremely well educated.
Now that you know what my credentials are, allow me to say this: homeschooling doesn’t have to include endless hours of work. Our normal “school day,” is your normal half-day, and, our approach is based on good science – yes, there is science on how to educate. On top of this, learning, for us, never really stops. Think about your favorite hobbies. What formal classes did you take to gain your (most likely, dense) knowledge of the subject? In all likelihood, none. Furthermore, when you see an article about some cool weather event, or, some recent discovery, why do you bother to read it? Because learning is interesting, and exciting, and, what we are naturally drawn to doing! It takes real effort to do what we, as a society, have done to learning – to make it a thing not to be desired. This doesn’t mean that it’s all puppy dogs and rainbows – although, there really are a lot of puppy dogs and rainbows. There are still classes that I hate, that my wife hates, and that our kids hate, and, that we collectively suffer through. Math (which is left to my wife – I don’t want to take any credit for that sort of suffering), for example, is not anyone’s passion, in my house. Still, math makes up 30 minutes of our day, and, then it’s over.
As for the dinosaurs? I couldn’t tell you anything about dinosaurs, except for what I’ve learned from my kids. That’s their passion, and, they are very well versed in the subject – an impressive feat for two kids who just turned 13, and whose only motivating force is their own interest. How do we attempt to motivate them in any given subject? Usually by looking for the lighter fluid of intrigue – that thing that makes a thirsty mind need to know more. Fossils came from a road trip, where we literally got to see dinosaur tracks embedded into the earth. That was it for that one… they were off to the races! Our home butterfly growing kit was all it took to get my 10 year old daughter asking if we could look up resources to learn more about the metamorphosis process. All we did was order some caterpillars online. We didn’t force anything. We guide, we try to be the intellectual match, and provide the lighter fluid, but, that’s all that we need to do. We got into the universe, and solar systems after we made a road trip from NJ out to Kentucky to see the 2017 solar eclipse. Get the picture? We are not rich – money is almost always tight. Lawyers from my generation – especially as a first generation college student, have large amounts of student loan debt. However, for our family, it is hard to call any of it a sacrifice. A sacrifice would be sending them to public school. That would be hard on all of us. We enjoy our time together – and, we are keenly aware that it is limited. In the immortal words of Darius Rucker – “it won’t be like this for long.”
I’m telling you all of this because, I can’t imagine how horrible it must be to try to do public schooling from home – for student or parent. I want you to know that there is a different way, that doesn’t involve misery, and, where you get to actually enjoy your time with your kids, instead of fighting with them over whether they have done their hours of busy work. I also don’t want you to call what the public school system is having your kids do “homeschooling.” It’s not homeschooling.