May. 24, 2008
An Individualized Education
Posted in Homeschooling
Recently my oldest son and I were discussing another family's method of homeschooling: they have all their children enrolled completely in the Seton program. I told him that the mother wanted her children to have an excellent education, and she felt that Seton would provide that. Robert then joked that because I didn't want to enroll them completely in Seton, I didn't want them to have an excellent education. So I said, "No, I believe that an individualized education IS an excellent education."
When I was in high school, I took a class my junior year called "Individualized English." I didn't realize when I signed up for it that it was a euphemism for "Remedial English." We started the year with a battery of placement tests to find weak areas. When I met with the teacher to go over my results, she bluntly asked me, "Why did you take this class?" I said, "Well, I thought I could work on my vocabulary and read some classics that I haven't yet read." She rummaged around and came up with a college-level vocabulary book, and I worked through that despite already knowing most of the words.
Then I read. I remember specifically reading and discussing with her Pride and Prejudice, The Picture of Dorian Gray, The Importance of Being Earnest, Gulliver's Travels and Wuthering Heights. I also shared some of my poetry (yes, I used to write poetry) with her and she encouraged me to study sonnets and write a sonnet.
My point about this class is that it is one of the only pleasant memories I have of high school. The only other class I unreservedly enjoyed was Spanish. It was wonderful to focus on what I needed and wanted to do, rather than what twenty other students needed. It would have been heaven to do my entire high school experience this way, especially if I didn't have to leave home to do it.
Another memory I have from high school is planning my junior year with my guidance counselor. I remember that I wanted to take Biology 2 instead of Chemistry, and that I wanted to add Italian while continuing Spanish and French. My counselor looked at me and said, "What are colleges going to think when they see all this biology and languages?" And I replied, "That I like biology and languages?" But in the end, they won, and I took Chemistry and didn't take Italian.
The tremendous advantage of homeschooling high school in my opinion is the time it frees up to do what you want to do and study what you want to study. I was always so frustrated in high school that so much of my time was just wasted. I used to sit on the bus going to school and wonder why, of all the places in the world, I was going to school. I used to take a book with me in the morning and finish it by the end of the day. Pretty much every day. My mother conveniently worked in a bookstore and would bring home boxes of books, so I never ran out.
Thankfully, I was able to complete my senior year of high school at college. Here's another example of wasted time: although I only needed one credit of American History and one credit of English to graduate, my school would have required me to be present all day. Instead, I took freshman English and American History at a nearby college, and at the end of the school year, I had 12 college credits and received my high school diploma.
And I have been individualizing my education ever since.
Comments
May. 24, 2008 - :)
Posted by CelticMom
Good Morning!
I know *exactly* what you mean about school. I was forced to take classes that fell into the 'college prep' category, instead of classes *I* truly wanted to take. 'Analytical Geometry and Calculus I' has done less than nothing for me in all my days since finishing the course; I still have a bitter taste in my mouth from taking it, however.
I am in the process of organizing our first year of high school that's to begin in the fall, and while I look at Seton wistfully from time to time (usually after having spent hours combing through course options and pulling my hair out a strand at a time), I know without question that this individualized course that we are on is the very best. And the degree of satisfication when I get one more class down for the year is unmeasureable.
Stay the course, and enjoy the journey!
Have a wonderful weekend!
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May. 25, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Carla
Once again, I REALLY appreciate your thoughts! As our oldest gets older (imagine that!) and highschool grows closer, carving out our vision for those years becomes more pressing. It is always very interesting to read your thoughts on homeschooling!
Carla
http://disenfranchisedhousewife.blogspot.com/
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May. 28, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Anonymous
Oh my...when I got back from Germany, the state accepted everything but American Government. So to graduate, I went to school for two hours a day...American Government and English, just because I thought it would be nice after not having spoken any for a year.
My favorite course was a history class in which the teacher gave up on keeping me and my best friend in class. He sent us to the library to design our own class and had us do that instead. We studies so many interesting things, and didn't have to suffer through the text book full of stuff we already knew.
Dana
http://principleddiscovery.com
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May. 31, 2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by Anonymous
"they have all their children enrolled completely in the Seton program. I told him that the mother wanted her children to have an excellent education, and she felt that Seton would provide that."
Jeanne,
I don't know if I am the friend that you and your son are refering to, but I want to clarify that in no way did I EVER say that ONLY homeschoolers who fully enroll in Seton give their children a quality Catholic education.
I have friends who use Kolbe, OLVS, MODG, DYOCC, and many who devise their own program. If done well then all these children are receiving a quality Catholic education. Why I choose Seton and not another method is my own perogative, based on our family. Our choice does not belittle another homeschooler's method or philosophy.
The logic your son showed in stating that if A does something because they think it good does not mean that only that thing is good. That is the same defensiveness we see constantly in public school parents who just by hearing that we choose a different method of education for our children are declaring them poor parents because they are not doing likewise.
Katherine
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May. 31, 2008 - Good points, Katherine!
Posted by cathmom
I did not mean to imply that Seton did not provide an excellent education. I think they do. I am especially impressed with their high school English classes and will seriously consider having all of my children take those classes. I just fall more on the side of
individualizing each child's education to a much greater extent possible than with a packaged curriculum.
And Robert was joking with his comment. ;-) But it is a valid point that other people often feel threatened by our choices for some reason. As you said, if we all were the same, it would be awful (and boring)!
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