My wife, Karinna, and I have three children, two boys (ages 5 and 4) and one baby girl (3 1/2 weeks old). At the beginning of this past school year, our eldest son was enrolled in a gifted and talented school on the upper-west side called the Anderson School. Karinna would take the two boys (usually on the subway, but sometimes by car) to school and then sometimes she would stay with our youngest son all day in Manhattan (we live in Astoria, Queens) and sometimes she would make the round trip twice. Needless to say it was expensive and too much to handle for anyone, but even more so since she was pregnant with our daughter.
The zoned school by our home did not have a G/T program for kindergarten so we didn't want to take him out of Anderson and leave him where he might get bored. Consequently, we decided to homeschool him at least for the rest of the year. Immediately we met with resistance from family, friends, even complete strangers, etc. (might be nice to provide an example of this "resisitance" a quote, an anectode) Everyone had an opinion and more often than not that opinion was negative. And it was funny that people would say things like, "well, since you are only doing this temporarily or since he is young it is ok". It was as though we needed their permission to proceed.
And people really seem to be afraid or offended or somehow put off by the idea of homeschooling.
Why?
Why are people offended by
Why are people offended by homeschooling? Easy. A lot freaks homeschool their kids. Eg. religious fanatics, Manson family types.
With that said, I contemplated homeschooling my kid (the local Manson family school was full) because I was dissatisfied with the depth of my child's public school education. However, I decided to augment her education instead of replace it.
There are many benefits to homeschooling.
I am always impressed with the number of homeschooled kids who show up at the national spelling bee or geography bee.
I thought of another reason why people don't like homeschooling. At least in theory, public school is supposed to provide some commonality of experience, especially in a country that is not bound together by a common racial history or religion like other countries. If you "homeschool" you are pulling your child out of the mix, rejecting that which the community provides to commune.
I'm glad that you mentioned
I'm glad that you mentioned "augment[ing] her education instead of replac[ing] it". Every conscientious parent does a certain degree of homeschooling. Some work with their children after they come home from school and/or on weekends and others decide that they want to be the ones who determine the course of their children's education.
Hello or Yo yo yo yo to the
Hello or Yo yo yo yo to the hip minded,
The negative connotation of homeschool with fanatics of all sorts has turned me off to the idea of homeschooling. I rather send my kids to a private school than teach them myself because I'm terrible in math.
I do agree with the idea of augmenting what they learn in school. School is so much more than reading and doing a few math problems. There's the social interaction aspect to consider. I will teach and scaffold what my kids learn at home but I would hate to deny them the interactive aspect of school.
Then again, I do not have kids nor do I plan on having kids for quite some time.
Home schooling can work
Home schooling can work under some conditions, but in many cases the parents are not skilled or knowledgeable enough themselves to be good tutors to their children. Also, school provides not just education in discrete content, but helps socialize children to working with peers and living in mainstream society. Home-schooled students need access to this socialization if they want to live in mainstream society or go to traditional schools or colleges after their home-schooling experience.
When our son was in school,
When our son was in school, I never considered the school to be his primary educator. We were. I was. He learend more at home about most things than at school - with exceptions of course. I don't think he would have missed out on much academic education if he had not attended school but he would have missed a lot of social and cultural education. As far as I'm concerned - yes, I'm a teacher - that's the most important thing about a school. Of course, many of our students in the Bronx don't have a rich, educated home environment and that is the real problem.
I never considered the
I never considered the school to be his primary educator. We were.
I completely agree.
How is one socialized to
How is one socialized to negociate and live in a democracy if they did not meet in public school.? Lets say the rich kept their children in rich schools, the Jews kept their children in Jewis school, the Blacks kep their children in Black schools, and the muslim kept their children in muslim school, where would all such kids meet to develop our democratic ideals?
I understand what you are
I understand what you are saying... and yet, some of this does happen.
I think children need to be
I think children need to be with other children for socialization and exposed to others outside of their family to give them different perspectives on people, culture, and the larger world outside of their family. As a parent, I would have found home schooling to be very lonely and unstimulating unless I was part of an organization of some kind. I stayed home with my son for his first year of life and every day I had to have something planned for us with adults and/or babies. It would seem like too much work and responsibility if I had to plan a curriculum, be his teacher, socialize with him, plan his play dates and have time for myself. And I only had one child. More than one would have been even more intense.
Karen Levy, Library Media Specialist Columbus Campus H.S. 925 Astor Avenue Bronx, N.Y. 10469