I have been thinking a lot about the differences between the ideals of classical education, Charlotte Mason and unschooling.

The Classical Approach

I've already read most of the classical education books out there - The Well-Trained Mind, Teaching the Trivium, etc. I think it sounded most palatable to me as a newer homeschooler because it sounds more like traditional school than anything else.

However, it is very, very stressful, rigorous, and especially in the early years, extremely tedious for the student at times.  All that copywork and drills and required recitation and everything else. We used First Language Lessons by Susan Wise Bauer for a few months in the first grade and tried everything else they recommended.  It was too rigid and, frankly, too repetitive and boring for us.

We still love The Story of the World, but since PJ has such severe attention and auditory deficits, I had to wait until he was skilled enough to read at least some of the material on his own in order to use it. I thought that Ur and Mesopotamia were very inaccessible subjects for the average 6-year-old, the age range recommended for Vol 1 of the series. Instead, we did a lot of studying of the general topics covered in Vol 1 and 2. Now we love Vol 3 as we use it formally, and use it more as a unit study on history and geography.

For example, the chapter about France's Louis XIV yielded a desire to study about Paris, the Louevre (which PJ, ever keenly interested in art and art history, is literally desperate to visit), the French Revolution, the musical Les Miserables, the French language, French cuisine, and extensive reading about France in the child's atlas we have. There were also numerous discussions about social castes and social justice and how today's French socialism has reactionary roots in the excesses of Louis XIV. That's how it goes for every chapter in that book. We are now on Germany/ Bach/ nationalism/ you get the idea.

As a result, here we are in May and we are not even halfway done with Vol. 3. We will probably keep going through it in the summer and just pick up Vol 4 whenever we're done. We just have a lot of fun with the book. Otherwise, classical education was way too counterintuitive and frankly condescending of the child. There is a sense in classical education that the child is an empty vessel who must be filled with ideas by us, the superior adults. The reality is that children are better at learning than we are! There is a certain contemptuousness, I find, a removal between parent and child, in the classical approach. It wasn't for us.

Unschooling

The other end of the spectrum is unschooling. I have been reading The Unschooling Handbook by Mary Griffiths. I am nearly done, and feel more sure than ever that this approach is not for me, even as I agree very much in the basic principle that one learns best what one enjoys learning. However, I think that this particular book, and perhaps unschooling in general, takes that idea and makes some fairly unsupported conclusions. Despite touting itself as the most universally applicable approach to education, I find it is very narrow in scope.

For starters, there is a presupposition of the parent as a competent, well-rounded resource.  If an unschooling parent has no idea how to do an Internet search, or doesn't really know how to suggest all the educational ramifications of, say, baking a cake or buidling a treehouse or mailing something at the post office, or hasn't set foot in a library in 20 years, that parent is going to be an inadequate "facilitator" of quality educational experiences in any guise. I know a few "radical unschoolers" whose parents are neither well-educated nor good at making those kinds of intellectual connections between knowledge pools, and their kids are very ignorant in general.  There is one 13yo in particular who is functionally illiterate. "He'll pick it up when he needs to!" says his mother. I hurt for that kid, I really do.  He probably has some learning disabilities that no one has discovered because no one has ever sat him down with a workbook and pushed him in a direction that would reveal his very real limitations.  There is a young woman who is now struggling and struggling as a first-year medical assistant student because her mother never made her do any math, ever. It's just so unnecessary.

The book is scarily vague about how you can tell if your child is being adequately educated. "You just KNOW!" it says, over and over. Many of the testimonials given by kids flout parental authority - there is an account of a 12-year-old, for example, "deciding" to go to school, much to the pain and consternation of his parents, who are apparently physically incapable of saying no.  This is treated with sympathy by the author, but she nevertheless doesn't suggest, oh, being a parent and putting your foot down.

I am a Christian and I believe, as the Bible says, that it's my responsibility to "train up my child in the way that he should go."  But this is bordering on cruelty according to Mary Griffith. The book also politely skirts the questions such as "How will a child know how to put together a well-constructed essay?" and "How would anyone know they're good at physics if no one has ever had them learn advanced mathematics or study physics as a subject?" and "What if the kid never practices the instrument you paid hundreds for, and never makes any progress, but still insists on taking lessons?" and "What about kids who are naturally inert and really WOULD spend all day, every day, playing mindless video games if left to their own devices?" and "Okay, fine, 'you just know,' and you have to 'trust the process,' but how can you really tell if they are going to be academically competent enough to enter a university if your homeschooling logs consist entirely of things like watching PBS specials, sewing a bookmark, and emailing? Seriously now."

It is so much circular reasoning with little or no pedagological or empirical support. I feel like it is a huge social experiment and the kids are the guinea pigs.  And I'm sorry, no matter how voracious a reader is the child that learns to read fluently at 14 instead of 7, they're missing out on so much. I find so much in every chapter that is inaccurate, illogical and just unsupported generalizations.  And the fact that, at a time when it is estimated that the percentage of special-needs learners among the homeschool population may be double that of the public schools', the book devotes a single passage to unschooling the special needs learner is absolutely shameful.

Charlotte Mason: The Best of Both Worlds

I love the principle of interest-directed learning, but I do not like the principle of child-led learning.  Charlotte Mason's principles of "spreading a sumptuous feast [of knowledge]" for the child is what works best for us. I choose the topics and in what order they are presented. There is a baseline of depth of coverage; past that, if PJ wants to spend hours reading about the history of the orchestra (a current pet subject) I am going to encourage this as much as possible. But I guarantee I wouldn't have a 9-year-old who knows what an overture or a cantata or a counterpoint are if he was left to his own devices, or if he had a mother who had no idea those things even existed.  He would also probably still be dyslexic, still be unable to write, etc. had I not formally taught him about these things. And he loves to read and write now, so obviously I didn't smush his love of learning there.

That said, we do TOO much formal learning now, I think.  I want to do less "To the computer with you!" style homeschooling and do more "real life" learning.  We talked a little today about how I want learning to be all around us.  He asked if window-shopping at the mall (a favorite past time) was educational. I said yes, because we are learning to be good consumers, learning how to conduct ourselves in public, and of course, deal-comparing and things like that.  Today was our fine arts day and we did the following that I consider educational:

• PJ spent most of the morning making his own magazine about his own invented video game, an amalgam of Pac-man and Star Wars. The magazine featured advertisements, a joke section, and many illustrations. After a failed attempt to bind its many pages with scotch tape, we binded it with staples instead. I was given the magazine as a gift. :)
  
• We went for a nature walk around the neighborhood for about 20 minutes.  We identified several species of flowers, including the hybiscus, to which my best friend is allergic.
  
• We listened to several Bach cantatas, as well as a 1980s pop music marathon on the radio.
  
• PJ went with me on a visit to a client software training, and got to witness that. He also got a minor verbal lesson on business etiquette vs. informal social etiquette, which he thought was very interesting.
  
• We read a brief children's illustrated prose version of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. PJ thought it was very, very funny. This version included snippets of the actual Shakespearean dialogue, which PJ appeared to understand. I ordered these paper dolls, which should arrive any day now, and suggested that when they arrived, we could put on the play ourselves using them. I suggested that we could make our own scenery as well. He reacted with great enthusiasm; however, the language really is very difficult, and I am pondering whether I should get one of those versions with the "modern translation" on one side of the page and the regular text on the other from the library.
  
• We had our first drawing lesson from Drawing With Children.  PJ still has a great deal of trouble following spoken directions and he is a bit resentful of "learning to draw" because he says he already knows how to draw. (His drawing is much like his writing due to his dysgraphia - several years below grade level, and yet I don't want to quash either his enthusiasm or his confidence. I am trying to frame it as something we do together "to do even more with drawing." It was a little frustrating. 
  
• We read the first chapter of Luke in the Bible, and discussed John the Baptist briefly.
  
• We sang the first three verses and the last verse of  "O Come All Ye Faithful" as the begining of this week's hymn study. We also sang "I Sing The Mighty Power of God" once through, which was our study from last week. There was some discussion and practical application of good breath control, posture and diction in singing, as well.
  
• We looked through our Spanish for Kids Larousse course, lesson 3, and did the corresponding activities.
  
• We read one chapter from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of N.I.M.H. out loud.  He thought he'd hate the book when I first told him the premise; after two chapters he was begging me to read "just one more" and asking all kinds of questions about it.
  
• PJ read one chapter of The Sign of the Beaver and two chapters of Introducing Bach independently.  He generally enjoys historical fiction and biographies.

Not bad for a day's work, even though we didn't really do any "formal schooling." I would have liked to have thrown in some art appreciation there - we have a few books about John James Audubon I'd like to get to soon - but, you know, not bad for a day's work. :)

What is the difference between auditory processing delays and just really bad, underdeveloped listening skills? I have been asking myself this for weeks now.

My son, whom I'll call PJ, age 9, is diagnosed with very mild high-functioning autism, as well as ADHD and sensory integration dysfunction.  He used to not be so mildat all; he didn't speak until he was 5,  his perseverative behaviors used to be much more pronounced and he used to barely be able to carry on a conversation. I think there are still many social subtleties he struggles with, but after four years of homeschooling and actively working on his social skills and expanding his understanding of things like sarcasm and idioms and chit chat and social etiquette, his pediatrician (the father of a profoundly autistic daughter himself, and pediatrician to dozens of children on the spectrum) says he believes that PJ no longer qualifies for the Asperger's/HFA label. I was surpised when he said this... but I don't disagree.

One of the things that he still has a lot of trouble with is retaining information that he has heard.  At his previous occupational / physical therapist, they told me that he did not exhibit any signs of having any kind of auditory processing delay, but I was dubious, as this is a child that watchest television with the closed captioning on so that "I don't miss any of the words"; he asks me to repeat things over and over; he will, when asked to do something in the next room, go to that room, and return, asking "I'm sorry - what did you want me to do?"  He will not be able to answer basic questions about a passage we just read. So SOMETHING is going on; I just wasn't sure what.

(I am taking him to an audiologist this month to rule out physiological issues, but he passes every hearing screening with flying colors, and in fact, has eavesdropped on whispered conversation from the other side of the house. I seriously doubt he has any kind of hearing loss. Still - the fact remains, he does not retain or even appear to catch much of what he hears.)

This year, for history and literature, we use the Story of the World curriculum by Susan Wise Bauer. We're doing Volume 3; I loosely covered the topics of Volumes 1 and 2 in the previous two years, but I was not able to use Volume 1 with him when he was of first grade age as per their recommendation.  I tried for a few weeks, but it would literally go in one ear and out the other for him. He could not sit still for one section of it, and he could not remember anything I had read, sometimes with me just reading the one sentence and asking him to parrot what I just said.  After the third or fourth try when we were both near tears with frustration, I gave up and used the first grade history curriculum from Christian Liberty Press. It wasn't bad, but I was so disappointed - SOTW is an excellent curriculum, and I would've loved to have been able to use it, but it seemed that my child was not at all an auditory learner, and I had to try something new.  This year, he reads well enough to read it on his own, so I tried it again to great success. We love Story of the World and recommend it far and wide!

About halfway through this year I discovered Charlotte Mason's gentle philosophies of child rearing and educating and fell in love. The trouble is, the act of narration - the child describing his thoughts, impressions and recollections from the narrative you just read the child - is an underpinning of her philosophy. I have tried unstructured narration with SOTW Vol 3 and it was a mess. Much prompting was necessary and since we did "buddy reading" of the passages - he would read a paragraph, I would read the next - he still didn't retain much of what I was reading, nor, in fact, was he retaining much of what HE was reading, either.

A few weeks ago I had a "lightbulb moment." It occurred to me that narration is the training of the child's attention, and nothing more. The child has to PAY ATTENTION to what you're saying in order to narrate effectively and, indeed, learn at all. I realized THIS is what is going on with PJ. He does not have auditory processing delays. He does not have hearing loss. What he does have is the attention span of a gnat. He misses what's said because he simply isn't paying attention. 

If he were in a public school, he would certainly be heavily medicated by now. This was the recommendation during his few weeks of kindergarten.  I have never considered it because he tests well above grade level in every subject and is an otherwise happy and well-adjusted child, so I didn't see the point, but I am seeing now that his attention deficit has cost him dearly in many areas of life, and desperately  needs remediation.  So per Miss Mason's recommendations, I still require narration, I just "meet him where he is." Instead of reading the entire passage, I only read one or two paragraphs before asking him to "tell me everything you remember about what I just read." Sometimes this is too vague, so I say, "Tell me three things that you thought were interesting about what I just read."  I also - and this is crucial - tell him ahead of time that he will be expected to listen to the passage and narrate for me; I tell him that it will only be read once. In this way, he knows he has to pay attention. And guess what? He does.

In fact, it is amazing how well he does. Don't get me wrong; it is still a work in progress. Usually when I read the first paragraph, he can't remember anything because he hasn't been paying attention. It's still something he has to actively "turn on." I know that eventually it will be second nature; I realize that we are in the process of literally "rewiring" his brain, so he still often warms up with that first paragraph or passage. There is no punitive measure against this, of course. I simply remind him that we are to do our best with schoolwork and that we are now going to do the second paragraph and that he is to try much harder. If, let's say, it is a four-paragraph passage, INVARIABLY by the fourth paragraph, not only is he retaining everything I said, he is EAGER to narrate. He can hardly wait for me to finish reading so he can proudly show off everything he remembers. He is not just parrotting, either - he is asking questions and editorializing and everything. I am amazed.

Baby steps. Eventually I will be reading longer passages.  Eventually I will include dictation. He is now able to sit still and listen to an entire chapter of a book being read. We are going through Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of N.I.M.H., one of my own favorite books as a child, which he initially said would be "boring" but is now begging me to read "just one more chapter!" and for the first time in his life, actively asking questions about the story.  (Considering that this year the only books that have caught his attention were Charlotte's Web, Babe the Gallant Pig, The Adventures of Paddington Bear, A Cricket in Times Square and now this, it is safe to say that my child loves stories that anthropomorphize animals.) For the first time, I have verifiable proof that he really is listening - and comprehending. For the first time, we are actually discussing and appreciating literature together!

We have a very long way to go, but I will say that when I first started diving into the CM method of doing things, I never dreamed it would be therapeutic for PJ as well as educational.  Homeschooling helped my child overcome dyslexia (thanks to Handwriting Without Tears), a diagnosis which he no longer has; it has helped him overcome a great deal of his autistic struggles; it looks as though it is now going to help him overcome his significant attention deficit and get SO much more out of the world around him.

I thank God every day that I am able to homeschool, and that I discovered Charlotte Mason. It has transformed not just our homeschool - but our home, as well.