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The topic
of "Are They Learning What They SHOULD?" comes up over
and over in relation to children's education.
Homeschoolers, public schoolers, and private schoolers
alike. Parents and teachers and school officials all
want to know that the children are learning, and
learning what they "should." In any of these cases, this
question is based on a huge assumption...That there is a
"right schedule" of "right" things to learn at certain
ages. There are even homeschoolers that follow this
philosophy, as the very popular "What
Your (insert grade)'er Needs to Know" series is
evidence of, as well as perusing any homeschool forum
will turn up thread after thread after thread of newbie
homeschoolers (even veteran homeschoolers!) worrying
about their kids learning the "right" things. *I* have
even succumbed to this myself! I own the kindergartner
book in that series mentioned above and have printed up
the "Typical
Course of Study" from World Book. It's only recently
that I'm finally seeing the problem with the question of
what "should" my child know...
The
problem with this question is that the answer is
completely subjective...It's open to interpretation. If
you take a public school teacher, and a private
Montessori school teacher and a private parochial
(i.e., Catholic school) school teacher and a private
Waldorf school teacher and a homeschooler following
the
unschool approach, or a homeschooler following the
Enki approach, or a homeschooler following the
Charlotte Mason approach....you will get completely
different answers as to what children "should" be
learning, how and when. There simply is no cut and dry
answer when it comes to education.
Not
only that, but what might be right for one child might
not be right for another. Some children will thrive
under the Waldorf approach, others will do better in a
classical approach to education. Some children are
ready to start learning to read in kindergarten and some
are just not ready until after 1st or 2nd grade or even
later and no amount of cramming it at them in any form
will get them to learn it any faster, and may even be
detrimental to the process.
So
when someone learns that I am homeschooling my daughter,
and they ask me "How do you make sure she's learning
what she SHOULD be learning?" I know that they are
basing their question on the assumption that there is a
model of education (usually people are referring to
public school because that's what they know) that has
the "right" order to learn a specific order of skills
and topics. And along with this assumption is the belief
that my child should be learning things in just the same
order and timing that the children her age in public
school are learning them.
But I
would like to open the eyes of people who see things
this simply. I would like to help them see that just
because the California public schools have decided that
their children should all learn about the California
Missions in a certain grade and learn algebra in a
certain grade doesn't mean that my homeschooled child
needs to be on that same timetable. There's nothing in
child development that says these topics HAVE to be
learned at a certain age, or even learned at all!
There's no reason why my child can't learn about the
Missions earlier, if she and I are interested, or wait
until longer to work on algebra.
Take
the topic of evolution. In many parochial schools they
don't believe in evolution and so they do not teach it
at all. Public school kids will learn it in the time
frame that the system has (most likely, arbitrarily)
decided they need to learn it. Private schools may
introduce a modified version of this topic in a
completely different timetable. What about the first
introduction of academics (reading, writing, arithmetic,
etc)? Public school has kindergartners doing worksheets
and homework on math and reading topics, whereas Waldorf
and Enki schools will not begin to introduce any
academics at all until 1st grade, believing it is
actually detrimental to children before that age and
will instead focus on supporting young children's
imaginative play.
And
here's another thought...What IF they don't learn a
topic? What happens then? Does the world fall apart
because my high school aged homeschooler never learned
trigonometry? Or my college bound child didn't learn how
to diagram sentences? (Incidentally...do all children
leave public or private school fully understanding all
these topics? I think not! We've all heard stories of
children graduating high school still not knowing how to
read! I think that says a lot right there!) Is it a huge
catastrophe and your lives will never recover if you,
horror, missed a topic during their home education? No,
they will learn! And probably learn a lot faster and
internalize the info better than the average student who
was drilled on the subject in a way that didn't make
sense to them anyway. Teach the love of learning and the
children do the rest willingly and far more efficiently!
If you missed anything, they'll catch up.
One of
the (many) beautiful things about America is that I
have the right to have MY child educated in the
manner in which I choose. And my right is upheld
by the law. So if I don't agree with the government
(public school) model of education, I can choose another
form of education for my child...be it private school or
homeschooling or whatever other mix of methods I may
choose...it is MY choice because it is MY
child.
So the
answer to the question: "How do you make sure they are
learning what they should be learning?" is....I do my
research and I decide, using my own belief system
and values. No one knows better than their parents what
MY children should be learning and when and how.
I make it my life to know this information. No one has
invested as much in my children and no one gets more out
of the outcome of my children's education, than their
own parents. No teacher, no school board, no government,
NO ONE.
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