Our homeschooling charter is part of a larger charter school that has five programs in all. Three are site-based, our homeschooling program and a fifth program that is a hybrid independent study/online program. We are currently undergoing our WASC accreditation process and our school has always done really well- earning the maximum possible accreditation. It's my first time as an administrator through the process, though I've done it before as a teacher.
It's important to understand all this background because it's been my life for the past few weeks. I didn't realize how deep the preconceived notions about homeschooling ran through fellow educators until this week. It's been eyeopening, sad and a little shocking to say the least. Even some of my own colleagues, who have known me for years and know I'm pretty mainstream, have these underlying biases about homeschooling that are tough to crack through. I've got a few bones to pick and a little frustration to get out there after a few days on the defensive. My fellow homeschoolers, I can hear you cheering from here.
First off, let me say that homeschooling does not require a teaching credential and nor should it. I never anticipated this to be the second most annoying homeschool question (after socialization). Nothing I learned in my credential program prepared me for homeschooling. In many ways, it actually tainted our early homeschool experience. I am trained for 140 students a day, in 45 minute chunks where I wash, rinse, repeat- all day long. The total sum of my special education training was about 30 hours, in one class. My GATE training was one of those hours. Yes- you read that right, ONE of those hours. It went something like this "You'll have smart kids, so figure out what to do with them so you can catch the other kids up. They'll be ok on their own."
I write some kick-ass lesson plans, only for my homeschooler to blow through them in an hour and say "Now what?" I can't just reward him with some chat time for good behavior, then wait for the bell to save me. I can't put off grading until I'm in the mood, or until I'm at the coffeehouse with a latte. My student expects immediate feedback, immediate results and fast-paced, engaging lessons that are just in time, not scripted from his textbook. None of this came from my credentialing program.
Did you teach your kids to tie their shoes? To get dressed? Goodness knows that the fortitude required to potty train a toddler is FAR more pertinent to homeschooling than any cross-cultural language acquisition class I took. Getting my husband to do his "honey do" list while making my own grocery list and getting the kid off the computer show the kind of multitasking skills I required high-level training for homeschooling. I even had a special class in brain development in my credential program- of which more than half has since been disproven. You know what works with kids? Whatever works with them. Until it doesn't. They don't teach you that in credentialing programs!
The hardest part of conversations with educators is constantly defending homeschooling as a suitable and often better educational choice for students. I have shared our personal journey no less than ten times in the last three weeks, in an effort to get people to understand that you cannot squash an irregular pentagon into a round hole and expect it to come out shiny and perfect on the other end. My 10 year old is a 6th grader on paper but has a learning disability and is sometimes an 11th grader, sometimes a 10th grader and prints like a 7 year old. His friends are almost all 12 and 13. How do you squash him into a class of 30 same-aged peers? What would he get out of such an experience other than heartbreak and a broken spirit? He's been there- he's really good at reading quietly in the corner waiting for his classmates...for weeks...
I'm beginning to realize that perhaps this is an ego thing with other educators. That they believe that since I've chosen to homeschool (like many other teachers), it is a comment on how their own classrooms aren't good enough for my student. Well. Perhaps it isn't. I'd like to think that teachers everywhere look at the rapid growth of homeschooling in the past 10 years and think "What do we need to change, to get them back?" "Where did we go wrong?" Instead, I fear they just shake their heads, thinking "Another one of the wackos has gone off the deep end."
Come on in, the water's fine- I'm quite enjoying the deep end.
The water is warm here, too.
ReplyDeleteMost educators, friends, and family all want to know how I can teach my own kid. I tell them that we get along fine. The stubborn, defiant child they might see in the classroom does amazingly well when his intellect, emotions, and opinion are valued by his teacher.
Others ask me how I would help others, without a credential, learn how to teach their own student. I tell them that you only need to learn how to teach when you have 32 kids in front of you with different needs and abilities. Differentiating for one child or your own children is not as difficult and can happen naturally, at a moments notice.
And guess what? When you don't have to worry about stuffing information into their head to prepare them for the next person to stuff information in their head, suddenly pacing and standards mean less. If you want to spend more time on learning about space you don't have to worry that "...the big thing in first grade is learning all of the continents..." because you know that you can build Pangaea and discuss plate tectonics including learning the names of the continents this summer or next year.
Finally, when the neighborhood kids first found out we home schooled, they thought it was weird. Six months later they are asking me to do Science in the afternoon, when their school gets out. They get little science and investigating the characteristics of living and non living things in terms of Gummy Worms Vs Earth Worms seems fun.
Is there a term for homeschooling public school students after school?
I don't even remember the last time I did any direct teaching with my son! It mostly looks like "I don't know, let's google it together and find a video" or "Did you watch Crash Course and see?"
ReplyDeleteAnd there is a term- it's called "Afterschooling" and it's what a lot of parents are having to do with kids who just aren't getting enough at school all day!
Hi Tracy,
ReplyDeleteThis is a great post. There are a few things that really resonate with me- and I have to say that my credential program also didn't prepare me for teaching of any kind- homeschooling, or in a site based program. I always wished I'd had the chance to student teach, because learning from other educators is my favorite way to learn! And I think you are absolutely correct when you talk about the kind of education your son expects... "immediate feedback, immediate results and fast-paced, engaging lessons that are just in time, not scripted from his textbook. " That sounds like the kind of education all students need. I so admire the work that you and Kirsten do, and the vision with which you are moving your school forward! I definitely have a lot to learn about homeschooling! If I ask questions, it's truly because I want to learn more. My only prior experience with homeschooling was the setup in my previous district-- and that was just boxed Houghton Mifflin sent home to students each week-- which doesn't work for any kids any where :) Thank you for all you do!
Thanks Jennifer! I always love honest, heartfelt questions. We didn't get too many of those from our visitors last week- mostly just "gotcha" kinds of questions, waiting for us to step in it!
ReplyDeleteI didn't student teach either, since I was doing my student teaching in an intern-type position. I had a master teacher who came to see me twice. He was a drama teacher for 40 years and had never been in a 7th grade classroom until he walked into mine. Needless to say, I got very little out of that experience beyond a pile of paperwork!