Quick link–it’s been a busy week–to a U.K. home schooling blog. Don’t know if you American readers have been keeping up with the difficulties facing British home educators (if not, have a look here and here). Read up.
Either way, thought, this particular opinion echoed some of the ideas we’ve started to discuss here.
From Home Education Heretic:
Any dispassionate and objective observer looking at home education in this country cannot help but be struck by the almost complete polarisation which has emerged between those seeking a change in the status quo and those hoping for the situation to remain unchanged. It seems as though some titanic, Manichaean struggle is taking place; the forces of good ranged against the power of evil, darkness against light. This, at any rate, is how things seem to be seen by many home educating parents.
Read the whole piece here.
More shortly…
The core question here begs, “Who is at the top of the in-charge pyramid?”
I have become increasingly frustrated with my generation of parents. We seem to be constantly searching for a stand-in who remove the responsibility of parenting from us. Someone. An expert – of course. A knowledgeable individual with all of the answers to the tough parenting questions who will just tell us what to do. We are desperate to find someone else who will be in charge.
But we decided to be in charge when we became parents. Really, folks. We did. :-)
So I continue to remind my fellow parents that the education of their children is still their responsibility. Even if they have chosen to delegate that responsibility to the folks over at the public school. The ps will handle the day-to-day for you, but you are still in charge, my friend. At least you should be.
We have decided to home school. In the beginning, my friends used to ask me about state-oversight. They were astounded that there were no official reporting requirements in Jersey. “What? You’re not under the school district’s control. Your kids don’t have to take standardized tests?” I would usually follow up by enlightening them that standardized tests are used so that the school can prove to the parents and the taxpayers that they are doing a good job. We aren’t testing the students. We are testing the efforts of the district. At first my comments were met with blank stares. “Huh? What do you mean?”
“When the district tests your second grader, they are proving to you that they have ‘covered’ the accepted second grade curriculum with your son. He has mastered the material at a pre-determined level. (And it might be worth your while to find out what that means, so you aren’t surprised later on.) And the bell-curve scores of all of the elementary students help me as a taxpayer know if I’m getting my money’s worth. Is the district, that is perpetually asking for more money, using the money that I am giving them to complete the task that I have paid them to complete? Are they educating the children in my town toward an acceptable level?” I remind my friends that like all things parenting, they are the ultimate authority. They are at the TOP of the responsibility pyramid. Even if they send their child to the public school, the school answers to them – not the other way around. And then I ask them, “Really. Think about it. Wouldn’t you rather live in a world where the parents are taking the responsibility of raising their kids rather than in a world where the institution or the government holds the ultimate position of authority? Which is best?”
It is then that my friends used to point out the few cases of abuse if the parents are not being watched by the state. True. Granted. It is a dreadful shame and a horror that there are bad people in the world. But then I ask them again, “Granted that. It’s terrible when a person doesn’t accept their responsibilities – when they shirk. And I’m no cold-hearted fool who shoots only for the greatest good for the greatest number. The group is made up of individuals; individuals matter. One lost life is a terrible tragedy. Truly! But, again – ask yourself: Which way of thinking is really best? Should a parent be in charge of raising their kids or should we allow parents to step away from that role? How will that really work long-term? Can we as a society afford that kind of thinking that constantly passes the “I’m taking responsibility for THIS” medallion? Which will ultimately benefit society the most? Who should ultimately report to whom? Who should ultimately be in charge? Parents, even fallible mistake-making parents, who grow up and step up to face the overwhelming task of shaping a life. Or the state – which never makes mistakes?? Who is likely to do the most complete job as a final authority figure for the greatest number of youngsters?”
Folks usually comment that they have never really thought about it that way. I have. A lot.
Peace,
Janice
Enjoy your little people
Enjoy your journey
With apologies for the pedantry, England does not equal UK, nor vice versa. The BBC article rightly makes clear that this is happening in England, but elsewhere this is ambiguous.
We are in Scotland (still within the UK), where we have our own unique education system, devolved to the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Government’s Home Education Guidance document (http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/207380/0055026.pdf) provides a somewhat different perspective from the one mentioned here.
Just thought I’d clarify.
Apologies for the imprecision. :-)
Good points, Janice. I will have to remember those the next time I get into that type of conversation.
I think the assumption that you refer to is a reflection of our society at large and the incessant need for experts, especially if those experts can tell us how to live (did you know the self-help industry is a $19 BILLION one?). I’ve even known a couple who had a child and who could have afforded to have one parent stay home, but chose not to, because “we’d rather trust the people who know what they’re doing to take care of our baby during the day”. Yes, they actually said that. And it’s not the first time I’ve heard things like that said.
Parenting is now largely out-sourced – day care, classes, learning specialists, after-school programs, Kumon, etc. (Please note that I do not have a problem with any of these thing individually, but when I compare all that is available to parents today versus to my parents when I was little – I’m in my 40′s – it is quite clear that you can pretty much outsource everything but where the kid sleeps now.)
But I digress. Those of us who wish to be experts of our own homes and own children need to stick together! The experts do not know more than I do when it comes to my children!
Thanks for posting.
You can out-source the sleeping too. It’s called boarding school. On our not-so-stellar home-schooling days, I muse about the possibilities. :-)
Peace,
Janice
Ok – I agree I’m the parent, and I’m the one who is ultimately responsible.
However….I *would* like for someone somewhere who is more knowledgeable about these things than I to say, “THIS skill-set is “suitable” for a 9th grader planning to go to an average college.” Then, I can judge for myself whether we are shooting for an “average” college (would that be 2nd-tier???), a “community college”, or an Ivy League. Or, better, if somewhere there was a master-curriculum rubric similar to the “tracks” in a typical Algebra/Geometry Teacher’s Manual for basic, average, and above average students. Even at the local school, kids choose from remedial, regular, college-prep, honors, and AP tracks for each individual subject. But, how is a homeschool parent to know which “track” they have opted for?
Not that I want the government to mandate that all homeschooled students should meet x-standard. I don’t want to play the “my homeschool is better than your homeschool game” either. But, I will be much better able to judge what standard I should hold my child to if I know where we are, and where we’re going, and how long we have to get there. And, it would be reassuring to know that such a list wasn’t just one person’s opinion based upon their own experiences, but a carefully researched evaluation tool that I could use to temper my own life experiences.
You posted earlier about homeschool becoming “mainstream”; I sense that homeschooling will never be mainstream until the average homeschooler is, in fact, “average”. Unfortunately it seems like homeschoolers are always at the extremes – either greatly exceeding educational norms (the ones others look upon as doing it “right”), or flat out rejecting them. I guess I don’t see the norms as “evil”, but simply a guideline. Yes, there are always exceptions to generalities, but generalities are still helpful.