I Could Never Homeschool

Nance posted on “Cocking a Snook” yesterday about her “aha” moment regarding people who say “I could never homeschool.” Her post brings up what I think is a very valid point regarding the perspective of those who don’t believe in homeschooling

“So picture yourself and your children having attended institutional school for years. Since you were very young. You have always been told not to trust your own judgement, to study what is next in the curriculum whether it interests you or not, to view the world as a set of tasks and tests set out by someone else. You are compelled to participate in this system by your family and the law.

Try to imagine what homeschooling, especially unschooling, must look like from that point of view. It must be quite frightening. Chaos!”

So if that little snippet sounds intriguing, go read the rest of the post. It really is quite well done.

The reason I agree with her is that I had that perspective. It took YEARS of research and discussion of homeschooling for me to let go of my educational paradigm and do something that seemed so weird and scary.

Where I disagree with her is with this point

“None of the information that homeschoolers share with non-homeschoolers really matters.

Because they are absolutely right. They are not capable of homeschooling. It would be cruel to ask them to. (Not that anyone was asking them to . . .)”

If it weren’t for those discussions, where homeschoolers thought they’d never get through to me, or worse, wouldn’t even bother trying, I would have never found the resources necessary to make that paradigm shift.

I’m closing in on the one year anniversary of beginning this journey, and it is the best decision we ever made.  Thanks to all the people I’ve met along the way who have taught me so much about how people learn!

June 18, 2007 | Filed Under Homeschool Issues 

Comments

2 Responses to “I Could Never Homeschool”

  1. "I could never do that!" | Throwing Marshmallows on June 19th, 2007 1:18 am

    […] check out her reflections about folks who say they could “never homeschool”. I agree with her about not writing […]

  2. debra on June 24th, 2007 1:33 pm

    I generally simply say that I am sure that there are many things they do that I could never do either. Unless the asker r-e-a-l-l-y wants more information. Then I have a lot to say.