We had a snowman in our yard
Feb 29, 2008 Homeschooling
But small Madison knocked it down. Noah was furious (Noah built it) and Madison got a bit of a lecture. She felt terribly guilty when she learned that Noah had built it to show Brett.
“But I’m just a little girl,” she said, crying. “It’s hard to wait sometimes!”
Evidentially Noah told her they could knock it down after Daddy came home and she took it upon herself to tackle it before this happened.
But she did take responsibility by apologizing to Noah and asking for a hug and then she decided to give Daddy a coaster that happened to be sitting on the end table to make up for the loss of seeing the snowman.
Jess asked about how Noah’s school is going. Ummm, it’s kinda going. Whatever. That’s how we feel about it around here. No one is liking K12 anymore, least of all Brett who was originally the most enthusiastic. Although I think it’s been good for us. It helped me see how unschool-y I am at heart. It helped Noah see that he could stretch a little. It helped Brett confront some of his assumptions about education. All good things but I’d quit if I were in charge. Brett is grimly determined to finish the year. And when I see grimly I mean with gritted teeth, furrowed brow and an ulcer.
Not that Noah is doing the work as listed. We’re marking him done on stuff left and right. Listen, the kid is going to flunk fifth grade anyway because we aren’t making him do any of the busy work. We just mark him done on it and don’t mark the answers to the questions, which I think will make them not count. If they don’t count, they can’t mark him as passing, I guess. But WE DON’T CARE. We’re going to back to regular old unschool anyway next year and our teacher supervisor person (for homeschooling) will say Noah’s in whatever grade we say he’s in. Because our teacher supervisor person is an educational anarchist.
Brett wants Noah to take the proficiency exam at the end of the year so he’s got Noah working on the Study Island practice tests every day. I’m against this but not so against it that I feel I need to do anything more than occasionally saying to Brett, “Yeah, I’m against that.”
Here’s what I noticed with Noah and this typical school curriciculum:
- Interest in grades and scores that are outweigh his interest in the material.
- Fascination with his performance compared to other kids (in their virtual lectures where the kids work together).
- A tendency to label segregated learning as more real than learning in his every day life.
- An announcement that “I hate history!” which is a lie. He just hates the stupid history curriculum, which is when Brett and I tossed it. Instead they read a book on the history of comics and lo and behold, Noah ended up being very interested in the Great Depression. So there, k12 curriculum masters!
- To be fair, he did find out he had some interests he didn’t know about. (Taxonomy — but hell, I told him he’d love that two years ago only couldn’t find a curriculum for his age that didn’t emphasize creationism.)
(By the way, Kristen is a K12 drop-out. I’m jealous.)
(108 responses to the survey so far! Has anyone shared it at the Bethany Boards or whatever Soul of Adoption is called now or Adoption Teatime? Pretty please?)
February 29th, 2008 at 1:30 pm
I always enjoy your schooling posts. Not that I could or ever would home school (being a single working mom makes that into a bit of a crazy idea) but I like the idea and enjoy reading about your experience.
Schooling issues are so complicated at times. I wish I had taken my son out of our lame, blue ribbon, public school sooner. He is still public, but its a magnet school with a curriculum based on Gardners theory of multiple intelligences. It has been WONDERFUL for my oldest (who had been struggling in the original school) and it is STARTLING to see the difference in my youngest as a kindergartner in this environment compared to his brother in the other.
The teachers are amazing, they are so flexible, so catering to children of all types, so in tune with my son. His old school was clearly catering towards the average kid. If you were above average, or below, or had any special needs, you were screwed. Not in this new school. They are so proactive. Guh, I could gush for ever.
But yeah, love your homeschooling posts. Appeals to the intellect in me. Even if not utilizing it, I love knowing about it.
February 29th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
About the grades- for the first six years of the school we were on totally a portfolio system. The “report cards” were pages long comments from the teachers like “your child is doing really well in fiction, but I’d like to see some more interest in non-fiction so he can learn to differentiate the kinds of writing.” Only they had to write roughly three pages of stuff like this on every kid. Some teachers in upper grades had 36 kids because of class switching on some subject matter. The teachers begged to come up with another system. So now kids still do portfolios of their best work, but the “report card” has a few comments and “On target” or “Below expectations” or “Not yet introduced” instead of grades. If your kid is “On target” you get very few comments, because they concentrate on struggling learners to try to bring up their understanding.
When our kids get to seventh grade, grades are added. We don’t have a high school, so we want a couple of years for the kids and the parents to see the transistion to grading. It made Mallory more responsible for getting her work in on time and well done. But by that time she (and most of the kids) really did understand that learning often had nothing to do with the grade on the paper.
In high school, it’s all about the grade for her. Not in all classes, but most. It’s jumping through the hoops and getting good grades so she can go to whatever college she wants.
February 29th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Dawn, I came here and buggedyou when I first commented (years ago now) ’cause I expressed my positive statements about formal schooling in an inappropriate way.
But, in your list, I can’t help but notice that there are things that Noah does that he might be fine with (all comparison is not bad — different personalities use it to different degrees. You hate it as a motivator; I’m more neutral; others may thrive on it). Will Noah get a say about whether he continues the program?
As I’ve mentioned before, there’s certain things that are difficult to learn without a fair amount of what might appear to be busy work. Math, in particular. And math, knowing it now, and not learning it when you’re twenty, is necessary for a bunch of things one might want to do.
We have different educational philosophies, and I like learning about yours, but the problem with choosing them for one’s children is that it’s easy to choose one for yourself.
My own daughter is very capable (an academic star, even) in formal schooling. But, she threw me for a loop this morning, after not quite getting one of her practice spelling words right, when she said “I feel like you only like me if I never get anything wrong.” Not at all true, but clearly, we’re not doing our job well enough if she feels it. It’s a narrow line to walk, to support her accomplishments (she’s missed no spelling words all year), without making them required.
So, I like reading about the education of Noah, because, presumably, that’s one worry you don’t have about him.
February 29th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Okay, between this and the post that talks about k12 teaching to the test, I’m REALLY glad it isn’t free in our area, because I occasionally freak out and think that I’m missing stuff and just want a curriculum in a box, even though I really DON’T. Yuck. NCLB is one of the main reasons we’re homeschooling.
Have you read Tested by Linda Perlstein. I found it fascinating, if depressing, especially as it focuses on a school that’s in my home state.
February 29th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Jess, I haven’t read Tested! Off to add it to my wishlist (that’s where I store the books for when I’m at the library)!
March 1st, 2008 at 1:06 am
I threw it up on the Bethany Boards. People want to see the results when it is done
March 1st, 2008 at 7:07 am
Thank you, Erin!!!
March 1st, 2008 at 9:00 am
I put it on TT this morning
March 1st, 2008 at 10:03 am
Thanks so much, Camille!!