Friday, August 21, 2015

On Public and Private School

Ok, another possibly controversial post. You've been warned.

Our children are homeschooled and we intend to homeschool them through graduation, unless the Lord steps in with thunder and lightening and a still small voice, and says not to.

There are many reasons we homeschool, but one of the biggest for me is that the current public school system seems unnatural to me.  In more than one way. But let me address TIME.

Because for most children, during the school year, school dominates life.

The child goes to school for 6 to 7 hours. Often the children have to get up ridiculously early to catch a bus (there are buses picking kids up before 7 a.m., which seems crazy to me!)    After school, many children then do some kind of after school activity associated with the school (like sports or drama). THEN, the child comes home and does as bunch of homework.

I honestly, truly, look at that scenario and wonder -- how did we get here?  How did we get to the point, as a culture, that we are peaceful with our children's lives revolving almost exclusively around school?

Even YOUNG children are coming home with homework now. I have heard from so many parents that evenings are a stressful and unhappy time as the parents have to sit on their kids and work with their kids and nag their kids to get through a bunch of homework.  Many children (and teens) are not getting enough sleep because they don't have enough hours in the day to go to school, do those requisite activities, and then do homework.  And around the edges, they fit in eating and bathing and, who knows, actually spending some time with their families?

And maybe that is the very crux of it for me. We want to spend time with our children, and we certainly don't want to spend that time bugging them about homework.  We want our children to spend time with EACH OTHER.  We have plenty of quarrels and crankiness around here at times between the siblings, but our kids play together and work together and make amazing creations together.  They are friends.  I really doubt they would be friends if they were spending the vast majority of their time apart.

I read about pioneer days and I read about my grandmother's day and I know the culture has shifted.  Laura Ingalls Wilder was a very accomplished scholar (her husband less so), and both of them didn't spend much time IN school under the age of 10.  Public school orbited around family life, not the other way around. Children were frequently excused from school to help with harvests.  The school year wasn't as long.

My great-uncle wrote a book about his life growing up on a Michigan farm in the early 1900's.  The school year was longer than in Laura Ingall's Wilder's day, but school still broke for weeks in fall so the children could help with the potato harvest.  My great-uncle also wrote that there was rarely any homework sent home.  GOOD!  I hate homework, especially for young kids.  Research shows it doesn't help them.  So why do it?  Why swallow up MORE time.  Let the kids play!  And read for fun!  And create!

I realize we live in a different era and there are different, and probably more, things to learn, but there seems to be a push push push for more hours of school and more homework, and the data doesn't support that it is helping.   The public school day isn't very efficient either, as children spend a lot of time moving from one classroom to another, teachers deal with discipline issues, etc.

I realize I've been out of school a very long time (I graduated in 1987 from high school) but I missed 12 days of school that year due to illness (yes, I was sick a lot) and easily achieved a 4.0 that year.  I liked to learn and I was a good student, and I could just read the books and do my work in, probably, 2 hours a day.  I realize not all students can learn without much teaching since my learning style is visual and word based BUT...I really really question how much time is spent in the classroom, and believe much of it is wasted.

Many parents choose not to homeschool, and I understand that.  Many parents cannot homeschool. Homeschooling has taken off as an educational option, but it is still a rare choice.

Since most kids are in a public (or private) school, I would love it if parents and teachers and administrators and politicians would dialogue about how to best serve these precious little souls in public school care.  Instead of pushing for more hours and more days in the school year, could we pare DOWN the time in school?  Could we focus on the basics of academics and drop so many of the (to my way) insignificant extras?

Could we move back towards family life being a vital center of a child's life?

I'd like to see that.




2 comments:

Sarah said...

I think many more parents would homeschool, in relation to the thinking that "many can't", if given the tools and also how to learn to live on one income - today's society makes it seem as if you need two incomes or even three or four if both spouses also have a part time job. That said I know I'm rare - my husband was a planner - he made sure that we'd be secure with not one life insurance policy, but two (the 2nd one was a total surprise) and of course him paying into OPERS versus SS, which if I was getting SS and going to work they'd cut back what I receive but OPERS won't and I'll continue receiving the full amount whether I work full or part time. Me going to work part time is more about having a little extra money to pay for extras like dance shoes or a fun field trip or a museum pass. Don worked with several women who weren't married, had adopted, worked full time and homeschooled. I have another widow friend who also is continuing to homeschool. Personally, I think it's more of an excuse than any real reason why many chose not to homeschool - it takes a lot of work and some people don't want to put the work into it.

Pam in Ohio said...

I agree with you Laraba. The time expected for young children to put into an education is ridiculous. I have expressed this to my family as well. As you know we're not homeschooling this year but my heart has always been homeschooling for these past 10 yrs and it saddens me to see the level of intensity for children these days in academics v.s. real life. My children have classes like art, gym, study hall and so far this remains to be seen that they are being overworked but I am sure it's coming. I was asked to initial our 2nd grader's homework last night of cutting out addition cards (about 100) and 10 min of reading. I guess that ensures they are doing it. I know we're in a small school too which likely helps.