“teach your own”: homeschooling in america

homeschooling in america

“Under our adversary legal system the task of the coursts is not so much to decide what ‘justice’ is, as to deide which of the parties before them, in terms of existing laws, court decisions, etc., has the strongest argument.” p. 210

“One of the most striking legal points Holt makes is one most parents aren’t aware of, though most children are: If you learn, the schools get the credit; if you don’t, the students get the blame. In short, you can sue a school for educational malpractice.” p. 212

how to get started

“Most important, homeschooling allows you to give your children time to explore and think about things on their own. Children who figure out things on their own, for their own purposes, literally own that knowledge and can build on it.” p. 228

“…homeschooling doesn’t have to be like regular school and you don’t have to be like a typical school instructor. Instead you can be a facilitator and guide for your children’s explorations of areas in which you don’t feel particularly well versed.” p. 229

first steps (p. 234-7)

• know your state’s laws and regulations: local homeschooling groups are great resources; write your state department of education for a copy of current regulations
• develop your curriculum: “you can write your own curriculum based on your family’s philosophy of education and change or adapt it as needed throughout the year and not run afoul with educational authorities”; to get an idea of what is expected of kids in school at various ages, ask local educator “for a copy of the curriculum outline for the grade your child would be in”; free pamphlet: typical course of study, K-12; Living is Learning Curriculum Guides by Nancy Plent; “ask your local Waldorf, Christian Independent, Montessori, Catholic, or other private school for their curriculum outlines to see what they think a ‘well-rounded individual’ should know; use the library and other free or low-cost community resources.
• enjoy your family: “teaching and helping our children learn is an inherent part of parenting that we seem to forget we do once we send children to school.”; “try not to compare yourselves too much with other homeschooling families; each is different.

“Homeschooling changes and adapts to the needs of the learner, as well as to any special circumstances that may happen in the family (illness, a new baby, new job hours for a spouse, and so on). You do not, no matter what the state law is in your state, need to plan out in precise detail what you will do for the entire year. However, you will probably want to have some sort of plan, or list of ideas, at the start.
      “It is also good to know where you stand philosophically so that you can present your home school in the best possible light to school officials who may question your approach. At the same time, it’s important to remember that homeschooling is flexible.” p. 237

“Unschooling…The advantage of this method is that it doesn’t require you, the parent, to become someone else, i.e. a professional teacher pouring knowledge into child-vessels on a planned basis. Instead you live and learn together, pursuing questions and interests as they arise and using conventional schooling on an “on-demand” basis, if at all. This is the way we learn before going to school and the way we learn when we leave school and enter the world of work …[reading texts, taking courses, or doing projects are not] dictated to the learner through curricular mandate to be done at a specific time and place, though parents can influence and guide their children’s choices.” p. 239

in a letter to author:
“One thing i’ve found useful, when helping kids [find out where they want to start learning] is to make three lists. One list is for things that come easily, things that you would do anyway, whether you sat down and made a plan about them. The second list is for things that you want to work on but feel you need some help with — maybe suggestions of ways to pursue the activity, or maybe some sort of schedule or plan regarding it. the third list is for things you want to put aside for a while, things you don’t want to work on right now.
      [list one shows kids] “that they are already dong worthwhile things, and don’t need outside intervention for everything”; [list two show kids] that it’s perfectly OK to want help in some areas, to have a list of things that you want to do but aren’t sure what to do; and [list three shows] that it’s OK to put some things aside for the time being.” p. 241-2

“Each family is different and each child is different, so don’t assume that what worked for one child will work for all. The most important thing, besides love, that you can bring to your home school is the trust in yourself to help your children learn and the trust you have in your children to learn in their own way.
      “[parents] are more facilitators, ‘askers’, travel agents, general contractors, and counselors than instructorss doling out lessons…parents do not have to be the sole instructors of children.” p. 243

“By expanding these exceptions [to school] to allow children and teenagers to observe real work or engage in it as apprentices, we will help them learn waht is needed to do work well [i.e. real world skills & experience]. Children also learn how to interact with other to get jobs done, and how to leave work they don’t enjoy and find work they want to try; these skills are not only not taught in school but actually tend to atrophy in most schools.” p. 245

“Children typically use fantasy play, in particular, not to escape from the real world, but to get into it: When they pretend to be doctors, firefighters, police, and soldiers, they are using their imaginations to explore these roles.” p. 246

record keeping
“The first thing you want to do is find out what you have to do legally…In any case, whether or not your state has record keeping requirements, you may find, as many parents do, that you want to keep some kind of record of your homeschooling, for your own peace of mind and for the fun of chronicling your child’s growth — just as parents have always saved their children’s drawings, stories, projects, and so on.” p. 246

“Many famous people who where homeschooled or who never graduated from or attended college have made important contributions to society such as: Susan B. Anthony, Pearl S. Buck, Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill, Charles Dickens, Michael Faraday, Benjamin Franklin, Jane Goodall, Alex Haley, Patrick Henry, Eric Hoffer, Claude Money, General George Patton, Bertram Russel, Harry S. Truman, Woodrow Wilson, Gloria Steinem, Mark Twain, and the Wright Brothers. Attending school, and college in particular, is not the only way for people to become valuable members of society and contributors to our culture.” p. 254-5