Are we depriving our home educated children? They’re not going to be able to do school reunions!
I have friends who go off to school reunions – some with pleasure – some with dread. This family recently had a reunion with another home educating family we’ve grown up with over the past thirteen years. The parents have done as much growing up as the kids.
We’ve shared so many great experiences; picnics by the river with pond dipping and swimming, visits to museums, theatres and galleries, sessions of science or craft or field trips and many, many hours of play whilst we chatted about our home education concerns and anxieties, triumphs and successes.
This time we sat and chatted about our concerns over the education our grown up young people are now receiving in various institutions and our shock at the lack of professionalism and quality of teaching.
Don’t misunderstand me – I’m not saying the quality of our teaching was superior because we didn’t exactly teach them anyway; we just provided and guided many a diverse educational experience. But we didn’t have that mass of other influences to taint this education like the institutions do; things like petty politics and grade winning, competition and tutor pleasing, and managerial agendas that crap on good learning experiences. These are the things that impact on an education. And that impact is usually detrimental.
You see, you really can’t teach an education. I learnt this early on. You can impart knowledge but that doesn’t make an education or a learner learn, despite what the institutions would have us believe. But they would, wouldn’t they – they are big political machines that want parents to believe they can’t do without them.
But the thing is; ‘Learning is not the product of teaching. Learning is the product of the activity of the learners’. John Holt.
It was the word ‘activity’ in this idea that governed the way we home educated. Our home learners certainly had plenty of that, most of it non-academic, much of it experimental, some of it left me wondering how they could possibly learn anything from it. But they did. And as a result I don’t think any of our kids have been deprived of a good education even if they’ve been deprived of ‘school reunions’. They’ll just have home education reunions instead.
But best of all, the activities they did over all those years have left their desire to learn intact and strong enough to withstand the frustrations they sometimes feel within the confines of institutional education now. And I know that had they been left in school, where that desire was already being extinguished by lack of inspiring activity, it would have been a very different story.
Ross Mountney's Notebook 
Missing out on school reunions…yet another reason to home educate 😉
Haha! There’s certainly a mix of feelings on them! Thanks for posting.
coupla things: first, even if a child is home schooled, that doesn’t mean that he should not have friends who go to public or other school. the child should still be socializing with others just as if they were going to that other school. second, home-schooled kids are still allowed to participate in a high school graduation, and thus are still able to attend a reunion if they so choose. well, in my state anyway.
That’s quite right Rich, thanks for adding that. x ps – it was tongue in cheek!!
oops.
Does anybody ever actually go to these things? I’m asking because the thought of seeing my old school chums as a lot of 50 year olds leaves me quite cold. The reason is that I found one chum on the internet and he looked like an old man. I was so shocked as I remembered the fun loving boy who used to make me laugh so much. I think I like to remember people how they were. I think this makes me a cowardy, cowardy custard.
You’re not the only one!!
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks that. I just find it a bit unnerving to see someone who I haven’t seen since they were about 14 and suddenly they are 50.
That was one concern when I was considering home ed for our son, that he would miss out on socialising with other young people – and in our area I think that was quite likely. Luckily we did find the right school for him, but I often think back to when we were considering home ed and wonder what would have happened if we’d gone down that path. As usual, thanks very much, Ross for you post!
Aw thanks Lois. We’re quite remote too – but the kids had friends from all groups and clubs to mix with. As with anywhere rural – you do end up spending time on the road, but that’s the same for rural school mums too!
Thank you for the post. I love hearing from you with your kids now older. Everyday I seem to let go a little more and trust that they are learning while we play! Hope you keep posting!
And thanks to you too Nicole, for your lovely comment! So appreciated and very encouraging. Thank you!