Homeschooling hell
Sep 19, 2002 Homeschooling
Here’s my problem. I am drawn to both unschooling and so-called classical homeschooling. I’m trying to figure out what it is about each of these methods that appeals to me and also trying to figure out how much structure and direction Noah needs/wants if any. I don’t think I could take a purist unschooling stance right now but I hope that we can grow into it.
This is very hard. Thinking practically about homeschooling is forcing me to confront my values about school. What do I think is important in education? What do I think education is?
Right now I’m liking the idea of “living books” as described by Charlotte Mason and I’ve ordered one of the Five in a Row books from the library to take a look at it. That’s the part of me that likes classical homeschooling — no dumbed down texts and “twaddle.” But the lessons — the sitting down and doing lessons — part of it doesn’t appeal to me. Still, I can explore the various books out there as a way to dip into the different teaching methods. I do wish that all the cool resources weren’t from a Christian point of view but I can modify ‘em.
I think I need to deschool myself. I have such attitude problems with authority even when that authority is me. Noah may *like* sitting down and doing “lessons” if I can just bring myself to do it.
Anyway, right now I’m doing a lot of reading and thinking. I thought I was ready to dive into this but then when I dove, I realized that I have a lot of schooling issues of my own that are in my way.
September 19th, 2002 at 2:22 pm
I don’t know what to say, other than that I have the exact same problem. I love the intellectual rigor of classical homeschooling, but the rebellious liberal in me thinks that unschooling is the only way kids really learn anyway. It’s a tough call. I’m still doing this homeschooling thing in a very half-assed way, but somehow Logan is still learning anyway. Go figure!
September 20th, 2002 at 9:49 am
I too find the classical stuff tremendously appealing. I’ve heard enough about A Well-Trained Mind, for example, that I am afraid to touch it — I know it will bring out the overachieving school kid in me, whom I have worked so hard to leave back in high school and college. (I’m not saying that everyone who uses this method has those issues, just that I most definitely do. It has been hard for me not to push that onto my kids.)
I think of it like driving a car. If you’re drifting in a direction that isn’t comfortable, you steer another way and adjust, or you turn and completely shake things up. As you know, we were totally into unschooling and it worked great, but for a variety of reasons, we’re moving in a more structured direction. We’ll assess that in a few months and see where we want to go — it may be more toward the classical side, or it may be back to unschooling.