One of our HOOvillites (those who Homeschool Only One and frequent the message board I have created) shared the following about her son:
[My son] was to color in the fractions in his math workbook. He had to change out the color of his marker for each problem... The markers were rocket ships, complete with tons of noise and hand movement - blasting off, out of the box of markers, quick scribble to do the actual work, then a trip around the galaxy before returning safely to the box...
I started laughing hysterically at my [son]. He asked me why I was laughing. I hugged and kissed him and told him how much I loved being with him. I told him that if he was in school, he would be expected to sit and quietly do his work. He said, "No rockets?! They don't allow rockets in school?!"
Isn't it a sad commentary though that in an institutional setting a child's natural joie de vivre has to be squashed. Can you imagine a room full of rocket ship captains (20-30 children) vrooming and roaring, swooping hands as they go about the mundane task-at-hand of matching answer to question, or filling the blank, or what have you? Not exactly what most people think of when they envision a classroom.
A recent Newsweek article came to light on our "In the News" forum at HOOville. Here's an excerpt from the second page:
...when nearly one in five boys has such serious behavioral and emotional issues that their parents are talking it over with their pediatrician, you can bet we are facing a problem that requires a more fundamental change in our society than medication or weekly therapy. Let's take a moment, before the school year gets any farther underway, and ask ourselves whether we are raising and educating our boys in a way that respects their natural development. And if we are not, let's figure out how we can bring our family life and our schools back into line.
You know the most logical sentence that should have come after the last sentence? "Homeschooling, that's the answer!" Homeschooling, where long may the rockets blast and boys can be boys, learning in freedom.
Donna Conner lives in Fort Worth, TX with her husband, Glenn, their son, Mike, and their dog, Lucia. Donna and Glenn have been homeschooling their son since the beginning of his education. Mike completes his homeschooling this year. Donna is an artist and has always enjoyed writing. She wrote Homeschooling Only One five years ago, after discovering that there were many other families homeschooling only one child. Her website is devoted to those with only one student in their homeschool, with listings of online resources. You can visit her website at http://donnac.com and read her blog at: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/DonnaC
copyright © 2008 Donna Conner ~~ All rights reserved. Content may not be reproduced in any form without written permission of author, except in the case of brief passages embodied in critical reviews and articles where the title and author are listed.
