Aha! I Finally Found Phil....

11:17 PM - Jun. 9, 2006 - Add to the Wildness

The first time I was going to write about my philosophy of homeschooling, there was a hue and cry about the Pearls and child abuse. I don’t mean to say I started it or was in any way involved; I just got distracted by it for a moment.

Given an inch, a moment of distraction will take a month or more. Like Robert Munsch’s mud puddle, distraction kept jumping out at me just when I thought I’d have some time to muse and write. There was the garden, and some church nonsense. Then a bunch of rain. The other day, you know, we had a bit of funnel cloud. Right over our house. Oy, but I’m getting distracted again.

The garden is in, the weeds are up, and I’m just sitting and meandering in writing. So then, here at long last, far more than fashionably late, is my Philosophy.

Rule Number 1: All parents can homeschool. I am living proof of that. I never intended to have kids, much less to get married, and far less to get stuck at home full-time with a total of four children. That was NOT my idea. Nope, no sir. Because I don’t like kids that much, and I really don’t relate to them. Especially when I feel required to by geographical or other constraints. So when so-and-so says they could never homeschool because they don’t have the patience, the answer is: You got that right, buckaroo. None of us do. But you end up with it after awhile, because the alternative is a homicide conviction or the looney bin. It’s called adjusting.

Rule Number 2: Kids don’t need school-at-home in order to learn. I hate textbooks. I hate sitting down and doing worksheets. Give me something interesting and real! Don’t ask me to read the manual unless I can’t invent my own way of doing it. Like, you know, fixing the carbs on my bike. I’ll be getting a manual for that.

Some kids are the same as me. Some, like my little Banana Brain, love bookwork. Some would be happiest learning from a computer. Some like to be read to. Some must learn to do by doing, or they’re sunk. And it varies by subject and age. That’s why public school sucks for actually becoming an intelligent, thoughtful human being.

Rule Number 3: That and the miserable social, emotional and spiritual conditions. If you wouldn’t send your child to evangelize Pakistan, why are you sending them to "evangelize the heathen" here? Prepare them properly first, let them grow into full people before you ask them to change the world. Let’s see: Less than a handful of grade-school "preacher kids" versus a couple hundred swearing, smut-talking maladapted ideological clones of varying sizes, ten stacks of spiritually-biased textbooks and a bunch of teachers whose overloaded schedule wouldn’t allow them a conversation in which to be evangelized even if they wanted to be.

That’s about how it plays out here in the sticks. In the city, the odds are worse.

I’ve gone from resenting my husband’s insistence on homeschooling (after all, he’s not the one bearing the responsibility) to knowing that, even in the midst of burnout, I’d have the kids here where they’re free to be themselves and learn creatively while I flake on the couch or hide on the computer, rather than send them away for even a year. I just couldn’t. Even our worst days are better than the best days I had in the system. The main reason? Here, there is love to cover all our transgressions against each other. Out there, no relationship is unconditional. My kids certainly have enough conditional relationships out in society without making it their main source of community input.

...I believe I just triggered another rant. More in a bit.

Patience, shmatience

Eeeww, I hate hearing that one, too. "I just wouldn't have the patience to homeschool my child." Right. Like any of us do. Until we actually get started. Then God stretches us. And it's not like we're ultra patient every day. Heavens, no. But each day gets a little better...the rubber band of patience sometimes shrinking back, but then it can stretch a little more the next time. (Kinda like my pregnant belly.)

Stephanie10 - 1:58 AM - Jun. 10, 2006

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Untitled Comment

One of my friends recently told me that she knows her kids would be better off at home, but she couldn't stand them all day. Then she told me that I should at least apply through the county for respite care. ~ She thinks I am a saint!!!

I told her, that one year of homeschooling is not nearly as bad as one Individual Education Planning meeting. Sitting alone across the table from all the "experts" while I fought tooth and nail for services. When Marissa was in public school, I went to one of them at least once a month.

AcceptanceWithJoy - 7:48 PM - Jun. 10, 2006

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Light

I get so annoyed by fellow Christians that think that we should send our kids out into the public schoolds to be a light unto the world. Did Jesus send his disciples out without preparation? Why on earth should we do so to our children then. Don't get me started on this one!

dinomomm - 8:48 PM - Jun. 10, 2006

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