Dec. 16, 2008
Defending the Faith
|
I found myself today in a most interesting position. This morning I received a call from a reporter for our local newspaper. He wanted to talk to me about homeschooling on Guam and to get information for a story he wanted to do. Guam public schools are taking a beating in the news. Parents are looking for options. There was a riot where at least 10 students were hurt at Okodo High School. A middle school had to send children home early today because of water outages. Funding issues and lack of books are always being discussed in the news. So I guess the news is ripe for a homeschooling story. It always makes those of us who homeschool on Guam a little nervous when a reporter wants to do a story. We like to remain under the radar (watchful gov't eyes) as much as possible. All it takes is one senator to get a hold of an idea to make homeschooling "better" and ruin the freedoms we have. They did this to the driving school laws and licensing requirements. So I was glad I got the call. The only problem was he wanted to bring a photographer so that he could take a picture of me doing a lesson with my kids. I almost laughed at the thought. I had to explain we are not a typical homeschooling family. It was a good interview and I feel we made some positve comments in favor of our method of homeschooling. Les was able to be there so we were both able to show how we support each other in our homeschooling. I believe we were able to put quite a positive light on homeschooling and unschooling (though I never specifcially used this term during the interview....I did mention that over the phone) He saw right away that we provided a very rich educational environment. He even joked that our library was probably bigger than Jose Rios Middle School's (I have a feeling they don't even have a library!) and he could see that our situation was very unique...owning our own business which affords us the freedom to homeschool. I did explain how we have homeschooled while working full time as well and that teaching your child at home does not need to be confined to the 9 to 3pm hours. Our parting conversation. The reporter asked a very interesting question. Have we prepared our children for an institutional style life? Could our children go out into the corporate world and survive? We looked at each other and thought about our oldest son, who has entered the ultimate instituition...the US Armed Forces...specifically the Air Force. He is thriving there. So we nodded "yes". What we hope to have conveyed is that character development was the secret. You teach your children good character and they can survive in any environment. |
Comments
Dec. 25, 2008 - Newspaper interview
|
|
|
|
|
Posted by Kandy