Homeschooling Review

There is no one best way to educate children. Every child is different, and has different needs, learns differently, views the world differently. But school isn't just about learning a particular collection of knowledge or a set of skills. Business people in the marketplace say that we can't teach kids what they need to know to do the jobs they will eventually get in the future because those jobs don't even exist yet. What they need us to teach them is how to be a team player, how to see the world as a global society, how to get along well with others, how to understand that people from other cultures see things differently than we do and not only is that ok - we need to market to that difference and so on. You can not learn those things in isolation. Even home schools that are collections of a few families are not microcosms of society. When students arrive at my high school after having spent their early years in a home school setting - they may read well, they may be very intelligent - but they don't know how to interact with their peers. They don't join student organizations, they don't get involved with any clubs or sports. They continue to isolate themselves.

If you are trying to protect your child from a dangerous world by home-schooling them - you are doing them a disservice. They will be in more danger as they will not have the social skills to be able to communicate and may actually put themselves in a dangerous situation unknowingly. There is a story I always share when people are denying themselves or others something in the name of safety or protection from harm. A student of mine had an aunt who had planned a trip to Europe. The planning had taken over a year and she had been saving for the trip for several years. The night before she was to leave she had a dream about a train she was on crashing. She got up that morning and cancelled her trip. That day she went into Boston to do some shopping. She was coming out of a store when a bus jumped the curb, struck and killed her. Moral of the story - if it is your time - it is your time. Don't homeschool for protection - it's bad reasoning.

Kids need to be with other kids. They need to take classes like robotics, web design, international foods, scuba diving - these are all classes at my school. I would hate to think my daughters would miss these opportunities to be a year or two ahead in reading.