Now that was anti-climactic
I went to Noah’s Hebrew school parent-teacher conference all excited because the one downer so far about homeschooling is no parent-teacher conference. (I like to talk about my kid.) The teacher said he’s great, doing fine, a wonderful student, a terrific listener. His contributions in class are “outstanding.” I just glowed.
“So is he also a good student at school?” the retired schoolteacher slash Hebrew teacher asked.
“Well, he’s homeschooled and yes, I would say he’s a good student,” I answered.
“Oh!”
His Hebrew teacher is a nice woman; I like her. It was awkward for a moment and I hate that.
“Oh!” she said again. “And how long until you stop doing that?”
I told her what I tell everybody and what is true. That it’s a year to year decision. That we evaluate a host of factors as we make our decisions. That it’s impossible to tell what decision we might make in the future but for now we are very happy homeschooling and it’s working well for our family and for Noah. I smile. She smiles.
“In high school,” she started. “Well, in high school it would be very challenging to teach them all that they need to know so that would be a good time to send him.”
I smiled back. I didn’t really say anything. I actually think that homeschooling a high schooler would be easier because they can audit courses at this or that college and it would be easier to find them mentors and they can get jobs related to their interests or at the very least volunteer. But I understood what she was saying and like I’ve said, I don’t really care to try to convince people to see our side of things as long as they’re respectful and she’s a very nice woman, likes Noah and is a good teacher. I’m sure, in fact, that she was one of those teachers who made school better for a lot of kids and inspired others to reach for their full potential.
I did say that I thought that maybe the reason was one of the more enthusiastic kids in the class was that he’s the only one who’s not coming off of a long day at school already. He likes the novelty of his classes and is excited to do his twice weekly assignments (one for religious school and one for Hebrew school). When he was taking his science class (it ended last week), he was always in the front row acting like Horshack whenever the teacher asked a question.
Ok, baby needs a diaper change. Maybe I’ll update again later.
I knew a girl who decided to be homeschooled when she was in high school. By the time she was eighteen, she’d finished two years’ worth of courses at community college. The only involvement her parents had in her education was writing out checks to the college. Since she was interested in the sciences, the lab facilities were FAR BETTER than anything she’d see in her high school. (I think that’s the biggest fear people have about homeschooling high schoolers — what about math and science! — but in her case I think she came out far ahead of her peers.)
I am so glad to hear he likes Hebrew school! So many kids really act out because of the afterschool factor and because they just don’t respect Jewish clergy and teachers. (dh teaches Hebrew school) Here’s a twist: I have thought of homeschooling our son instead of sending him to Hebrew School because of some of the trends I see in Jewish education — more kids are going to Jewish day schools so I think that some times, Hebrew school quality suffers — esp where there are a number of Jewish day schools to choose from.
One of our goals for homeschooling is to teach our children to be self directed learners.
Little children have a hard time learning to read and write on their own. They need help. But by the time children are teenagers they can be self directed to a great degree. As adults there are often situations in which we need to learn something, how to cook a particular dish, how to use some new software, how to change the oil in a car, and so on. Most of the time we dig out some books, go to the internet, or in some other way learn on our own a new skill or information.
Our oldest is eleven so this is still theory for us, but from our observations of friends and family, it seems very possible that by the time our children are teenagers they will be able to dig into new topics largely on their own.
That is our goal.
Most public high schools want children to be passive learners. Sit and listen, do as we tell you. This makes it easier on the teacher, but doesn’t prepare the students for life after school.