Pen 'n Paper Mama » Education and Homeschool

why kids fail multiple-choice exams … and how I become a multi-millionaire successful writer

Norma Hill — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 04:29:08 +0000

April 8, 2010

So I woke up about 6:15 am, and was laying there thinking about things… and started composing an article in my head. Well, I wasn’t really composing an article. I was just thinking about stuff, and realized it was a potential article. Especially after I caught myself thinking about it in outline form! Then I realized I do know a fair amount about a lot of different things – at least enough to write articles about them. And I read somewhere that one can increase one’s web presence – and get one’s name known – by writing and submitting articles to different websites and blogs for possible publication.

So I thought, maybe I should write down the general gist of this outline while it’s still in my head… so here it is… (and yeah, maybe, after all, it’s just a result of my lack of sleep during the night, but just in case it isn’t, here goes!)

Why Kids Fail Multiple Choice Exams

1. They don’t “know” the material
a. they missed the teaching
b. they didn’t understand the teaching
i. it was presented in too complex language
ii. they didn’t have sufficient background knowledge
iii. there was a personality conflict between them and the teacher
c. they couldn’t comprehend the material
i. reading diffiulties
ii. ESL
d. they studied too much or crammed or…
e. they didn’t “study” hard enough

2. They aren’t multiple-choice test-wise
a. they don’t realize they must look for the “one best answer”
b. they don’t realize it is usually best to skip questions one isn’t sure about
c. they don’t realize that if one must do every question, the first guess is usually
the best guess
d. they are creative thinkers, and see the potential “very rightness” in many of
the choices
e. they don’t realize that the root line in the question is key; so they don’t read
it carefully enough
f. they aren’t trained to look for “trick” questions and answers

3. They aren’t “interested” in the material or in the testing
a. it doesn’t seem to be related to their own lives
i. culturally ii. Economically/ socially
iii. current peer culture iv. Family encouragement or lack of it
b. it doesn’t seem to relate to their goals in life
c. they “just don’t care”
i. they already are conditioned to believe they will fail anyway
ii. it isn’t considered cool to do well
d. they are more interested in mathematical possibilities: if I choose a) for #1, b)
for #2, c) for #3, d) for #4, and continue that pattern, what are the
chances I’ll pass this test? (probably pretty good, actually!)

4. They have “personal” difficulties
a. they were sick on test day
b. they were worried/ distracted on test day
i. home difficulties
ii. bad news
iii. in love
iv. big game coming up later in the day
c. they didn’t have a healthy breakfast
d. they have personal learning styles which:
i. don’t support the particular form of teaching style
ii. don’t support the particular form of learning style/ activities
iii. don’t support the particular form of testing style
e. they were up all night because the TV was blaring and/or the parents were
partying.

Etc. Etc. Etc.

Which is why once-a-year multiple choice standardized tests (particularly; but also multiple choice tests generally), are often very poor indicators of learning; and why determining how well a child is actually learning, or even what they are learning (often many unintended lessons occur while the intended lesson is completely missed!), is a very complex business.

And thus assessment should take place constantly throughout the teaching, learning, practicing and testing processes. (Yes, the teaching process too, since that can very often be failing, itself. Sorry, teachers…).

Furthermore, learning really is “proved” at some later point in life when the child has the opportunity to use that knowledge in real ways. And those ways are not always job-related, or further-education related, believe it or not. They are more likely to be “proved” in:
- off-the-cuff conversations with some random person in a coffee shop,or
- in the understanding of what some one is explaining; or
- in relating to a movie or story or video game or magazine article, or
- making a good dinner, or
- drawing a picture, or
- making an informed decision about something seemingly quite unrelated to the
original learning, or
- trying out new-to-you foods and enjoying them, or
- adjusting to new/ different situations

Etc. Etc. Etc.

Which is why most prospective employers, love interests, organization recruiters, friends, allies – and increasingly, higher educational facilities, could care less about the results of a kid’s multiple-choice test marks.

Ho! Ho! Each section of my notes above could be developed into a lengthy article of its own – yep, I could even write a whole book. And it all came out of my head, at 6:30 in the morning. Based on my own experiences. I’m an expert! Yay!

(Obviously, I just need to jot down the key points of every conversation I take part in or overhear, every situation I observe, every set of meandering thoughts when I can’t sleep. Then write them as articles, submit them to appropriate niche sites and publishers – on or off line – and…

Voila! Instant successful author, writer, millionaire!

LOL!!!!

Reflecting on “An apology for idlers!”

Norma Hill — Sat, 16 May 2009 18:42:27 +0000

May 4, 2009 (yes, one more entry!)

Just read “An Apology for Idlers,” an essay by Robert Louis Stevenson. It’s great – a lot of wisdom in it… and I no longer feel so guilty for not living a “respectably-busy-busy” life (nor for escaping from the school system…)! Thank You, Lord. I believe it was in some way a gift from You today! Yay!

(Well… just wrote cover letters for 3 potential employers for Lionel… and updated his cover letters to make him more “unique” among the many applications they get… one of the applications is for Haida Gwaii… the others for Vancouver Island… Your will be done, Papa!

A few quotes from Stevenson’s “apology”… enjoy!

Idleness so called, which does not consist in doing nothing, but in doing a great deal not recognized in the dogmatic formularies of the ruling class, has as good a right to state its position as industry itself. It is admitted that the presence of people who refuse to enter in the great handicap race for sixpenny pieces, is at once an insult and a disenchantment for those who do…. It is a sore thing to have laboured along and scaled the arduous hilltops, and when all is done find humanity indifferent to your achievement…..

A fact is not called a fact, but a piece of gossip, if it does not fall into one of your scholastic categories. An inquiry must be in some acknowledged direction, with a name to go by; or else you are not inquiring at all, only lounging; and the workhouse is too good for you. It is supposed that all knowledge is at the bottom of a well, or at the far end of a telescope. Sainte-Beuve, as he grew older, came to regard all experience as a single great book, in which to study for a few years ere we go hence; and it seemed all one to him whether you should read in chapter xx, which is the differential calculus, or in chapter xxxix, which is hearing the band play in the gardens. As a matter of fact, an intelligent person, looking out of his eyes and hearkening in his ears, with a smile on his face all the time, will get more true education than many another in a life of heroic vigils. There is certainly some chill and arid knowledge to be found upon the summits of formal and laborious science; but it is all around you, and for the trouble of looking, that you will acquire the warm and palpitating facts of life. … Many who have ‘plied their book diligently’, and know all about some one branch or another of accepted lore, come out of the study with an ancient and owl-like demeanour, and prove dry, stockish and dyspeptic in all the better and brighter parts of life. Many make a large fortune, who remain underbred and pathetically stupid to the last. And meanwhile there goes the idler, who began life along with them – by your leave, a different picture. He has had time to take care of his health and his spirits; he has been a great deal in the open air, which is the salutary of all things for both body and mind;

Extreme busyness, whether at school or college, kirk or market, is a symptom of deficient vitality; and a faculty for idleness implies a catholic appetite and a strong sense of personal identity… As if a man’s soul were not too small to begin with, [extremely busy people] have dwarfed and narrowed theirs by a life of all work and no play; until here they are at forty, with a listless attention, a mind vacant of all material of amusement, and not one thought to rub against the other, while they wait for the train….

Being in Your flow… “schooling”…. doing vs being…

Norma Hill — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 22:07:58 +0000

April 14, 2009

So my back is sore again…

But we did go to the coffee time this morning… and I took along all the unwanted candy kicking around the house… it was joyfully scooped up by everyone there!

___ talked and talked to some of us about living “in the flow” (zone/mojo/whatever)… and how that kind of concept maybe relates to living in the moment in the Holy Spirit… and how there are “seasons” in the spiritual realm just as in the natural realm… and how the husband/wife (and children, I dare add) relationship is meant to be to some degree a reflection of the trinity of God… (And if was confirmation to me to just keep waiting, living with You, “in the moment,” for Your timing, Your way).

(I got an email from a friend I haven’t seen in years and years… she’s been teaching in China for 3 years!)

And then ___ came in and we had a long talk about school/ Christian school/ home school etc. God had provided them with a wonderful home, and she’s thinking it would be perfect for home school… but wondering what “curriculum” to follow or whatever…. I’m thinking maybe if God supplied the place, He’ll also supply the right “educational” choices eh….

I was talking to her about my feelings about Christian schools… that maybe it would be better off to really determine what their highest priorities are… and then be EXCELLENT in those areas, instead of trying to offer a smattering of a lot of things… not try to compete with the public schools, but instead focus on what they (the Christian schools) really believe in, and do their very best in those areas…

And of course I talked about the whole “special ed funding” thing… and about government funding that goes with it (not to mention the regular government funding per student)… and all the strings that are attached to government funding and programs… and how that can really water down the “vision” … yes, stifle the flow!

On the way home I was thinking that I love to teach… and would be happy to teach for free (putting my whole heart into it, even)… IF I wasn’t tied to a particular curriculum, and to learning outcomes I don’t believe in, and to forced examinations and time schedules and report cards… well, that’s pretty much a pipe dream, isn’t it, if you’re strung up to a system that controls you, for it’s own agenda.

I want only YOUR agenda, Father – Papa!

I want to be in Your flow… living every moment “in the vine”…

We were talking (well, I was!) about the Christian School conventions I used to attend… and most of the teachers would rather go to “practical” sessions where they could learn some new classroom technique or program or craft or entertainment, than to go to “philosophical” sessions… I loved the latter – but pretty much no one else on my staff was interest… they actually good-naturedly laughed at me (though the principal encouraged me)… there seems to be this gap between what we “believe” about education/ learning/ schooling (all somewhat different things of course) and how that translates into “doing.”

And yet, what value is there is our “doing” if we ignore the “being” part? __ was talking about that, too. When it comes right down to it, can’t truly “do” for You, until we “be” in You. We can’t start a program, and then try to attach You, and ask Your blessing. We can’t do the world’s thing of goal-setting, with built-in “accountability” measures – and at the same time “be in You” – living in Your eternal present.

In fact, I have come away from all this discussion willing to not even move… though I’ve looked forward to it so much. I just want to BE in You… and let the “doing” be the natural result/outcome.

(Now I understand a lot more clearly my gut abhorrence of the whole testing and reporting thing…)

Isa 2:3 Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. HE WILL TEACH US HIS WAYS, SO THAT WE MAY WALK IN HIS PATHS. 22. STOP TRUSTING IN MAN who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?

…. later… wrote another 2 or 3 family stories, and scanned and uploaded photos for them to both the story site and to fb. Went for a little outing with hubby.

Totally amazed that it’s already past 7 pm. Even though it’s been a gray day (only got up to 12 C) it’s still amazingly light ouside! Summer can’t be too far away, can it?

organized vs You-lead…. church in the park… education: taking risks for your values? … freedom…

Norma Hill — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 02:00:07 +0000

February 1, 2009

hmmm… interesting thought… the activity of the church (aka the body of Christ) when directed by Jesus = His wedding feast preparations!

Another thought: what’s the difference (is there really any?) between organized, programmed activities; and the things one does as opportunities present themselves? For example, regularly helping out in a church’s “kitchen ministry” (organizing potlucks, special dinners, even a soup kitchen outreach or whatever); vs keeping one’s eyes and ears open to what’s happening in the neighborhood, among friends, etc and then just filling those needs, (like babysitting for free for a tired mom, or making meals for families with illness or recent loss, or inviting lonely-looking people to join your picnic or whatever?) Any thoughts? One thing I’ve noticed is that in some ways the former sure seems easier or more convenient or whatever: a regular, set time; more likely to have others “sharing the work;” seemingly safer (would you really want those soup-kitchen clients in your kitchen at home?), more “fun” maybe to be among friends than strangers…

There’s a “church in the park” in our community every Sunday morning from about 8 to noon, drop-in… there isn’t a “program” or “worship team” or “sermon” or anything, and while it’s pleasant to be outdoors in the summer, those rainy spring and fall days, and these freezing, snowy, gray winter days aren’t quite so pleasant… but there’s always lots of hot coffee and good, filling breakfast, and a half dozen or so people who love God are there just to be friends with the street people … and to “walk the talk” …. It IS “organized” in that they are faithfully there and there is coffee and food… but beyond that there isn’t a program… what happens is pretty much whatever is needed (besides coffee and breakfast!)… talking, praying, maybe giving away your mitts on a cold day to someone who needs them more than you, finding out needs and figuring out ways to help… whatever… following the Spirit’s lead… giving a cup of cold water in His name… I wonder, how is that different than the “church up the street”? (And no, it isn’t a “ministry of a church up the street” … just some people who want to share God’s love….) Hmmm…

I heard tell that the pastor of some church that hosts a very nice “Christian School” in their facility, has been wondering about the whole question of accepting government funding (and thereby being required to follow the “program” to a large extent)(without raising tuition costs…) – realzing that withdrawing from accepting funding might well mean not being able to hire paid teachers (any teachers out there willing to volunteer their services, hmmmm?) nor to be able to offer the accoutrements of education that we’ve come to expect… and who’s going to send their kids to a school like that? What kind of value system, world view, etc, would attract potential parents to send their children?

…… I kind of feel like right now I’m going through “dechurching” … like the “deschooling” people go through when they decide to homeschool their children in a way that is not a carbon-copy of “the system” ….

……. “It’s only in Your will that I am free…. ALL FOR JESUS!”

Home school / life-long learning

Norma Hill — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 20:24:38 +0000

Well, I am back home – and back to blogging! I read an interesting email on a home-school e-list I belong to, and sat down to answer it. I thought I’d share my thoughts with you as well. It’s kind of long (no surprise…) so grab a cup of something wet, and take a look. I’d love to hear your responses, by the way, and am willing to carry on e-conversations with you…

Sometimes it is hard for one’s spouse to get into the whole home school thing – and you don’t want to let it disrupt your good relationship…. That said, you may be able to bring your dh around to your way of thinking by “home schooling” outside of school hours for the time being… and even during school hours by being as proactive with the school as possible – volunteering in your son’s classroom and/or on the playground, personally communicating with the teacher, administration, secretaries, librarian, etc on a really regular basis (at least once a week)… if you are positive with them, trying to find positive solutions rather than being too negative, and being willing to be part of the solution (as long as your son must be in the school), you will likely find that you can get lots of great ideas and positive help that you can use to home school out of school time now, and in the future when your dh decides to allow you to hs your son. The thing is to let him see what you are capable of doing, and it may give him the confidence to let you actually home school.

I think that a really important thing to remember is that learning is a life-long, 24/7/365 thing. Ideally, home schooling is not school-at-home, but rather learning integrated into every part of life. So if you can see it that way, and really aim toward that, I think that your husband will begin to see the value of home learning (a phrase I prefer over “home-schooling”).

Let me assure you: your son sounds very normal. In fact, schools only really “suit” about 20 to 30 percent of children, those who happen to learn in the very narrow parameters of how schools teach. And even those children often suffer from socialization and other issues (oddly enough, “socialization” is the trumpet call of the public school system… sadly, it is for the majority of youngsters one of the greatest difficulties they face… but that’s for another rant!). As a parent who has home-schooled my 5 children, in addition to having taught in both public and independent schools, and having had my children in school at various points, I can assure you that there are many good people in the schools who try really, really hard to provide a good “education” for children. Unfortunately, they have to work within the bounds of a system that is huge and unwieldy, and whose priorities, from the start of public schooling, have been less on learning for life, and more on producing pliable “citizens” (emphasis on pliable!) and on moving large numbers of people through the system as efficiently as possible within limited time and economic constraints (okay, that’s for another rant too…)

Let me also assure you: the majority of children have their own difficulties! Every line you have written here about your son’s difficulties, immediately brought to mind memories of my own children’s situations! Let’s start with that unhappy year in kindergarten. My first daughter was obviously very bright, learning to speak in full sentences etc very early – and yet she “failed” kindergarten! She was just not socially ready – for the classroom situation, that is (is any child?). She had been very happy at home and in the neighborhood, with her younger siblings and her many friends and cousins, and her parents, grandparents, adult family friends, aunts and uncles, church members, etc etc etc… in other words, well socialized into real society. She could carry on a happy and interesting and intelligent conversation with people of any age. She loved listening to us read Shakespeare and philosophers and discuss politics and religion and current events, and would ask intelligent questions and give interesting and thoughtful commentary on all kinds of topics. This was just from being part of a large family, both nuclear and extended, as well as part of community family in the church and other organizations (for example, she came with me to Girl Guides even when she was a baby – I would only be a leader if I could bring along my baby!). Then she went to kindergarten – and began being “socialized,” stuck in a room with 25 or so other little people who “just happened to be born in the same year” and being expected to live her life by a clock, doing things that were considered “age-appropriate.” So, for example, even though she had begun, without any coaching, drawing detailed pictures from the age of about 2, suddenly she was expected to use giant crayons and paintbrushes, because supposedly she did not yet have small-motor abilities! (She also was left-handed – and the teacher aide made her sit on her left hand, and use her right hand for printing and cutting! Another rant topic…) Of course this applied to many things she did in Kindergarten. So basically she sat in the corner for the whole year, intensely unhappy. Her teacher recommended she repeat kindergarten because supposedly she hadn’t learned anything. (Within a year after that, she was reading anything and everything, far, far above grade level… so much for “not learning”… and later, after some years of homeschooling, was teaching adults at a BC Government Skills Center how to do website design – while her fellow age-appropriate-students were still struggling in grade 11 at school… and that was without a single hour of classroom instruction – or even parent-instruction: she taught herself! – in the use of computers. In other words, she had grown up from the start to be interested in all aspects of life and to be a self-motivated learner and participant.

Next… being left outside at the end of lunch… sadly, the school playground does encourage “socialization” alright! But is it the kind of socialization you want your child to encounter? …

(As I mentioned, at various times my children were home-schooled, other times in school. I did not even realize home-school was a legal alternative until my oldest child was about 9 yo, and the only people I knew then who hs’ed were simply having their children sit from 9 to 3 daily, filling in workbooks, which seemed pointless to me…. Of course, we were actually home-learning in our entire lifestyle, but didn’t realize it. So by the time we started the full learning-at-home adventure, my oldest daughter was at the grade 7 age level. Her little brother, our youngest, had just had a year of kindergarten. When my children got into their teens, some chose to continue with learning-at-home, while some incorporated public school classes into their learning, some used Learning Centers, and so on… but it was their choice, and I gave them great freedom in course choices. And sometimes, school is almost unavoidable… like when I was in hospital for a few months…. Three of my children have ended up with “Dogwood certificates,” while 2 have not officially graduated. Yet they are all successful in their adult lives and now that they are having children of their own, they are making sure that their children really experience lifelong learning. Some have gone on to graduate from higher education, others are working in their own businesses, etc. I mention this, because there are times that you can actually “make use of” school facilities and activities, especially if you have already created a positive relationship with your local schools. Your home school/ life-long learning adventure can and should be an adventure, using a lot of imagination and methods… you know your child better than anyone else, and you can figure out your child’s needs and take advantage of what works for them. For example, one of my girls was very athletic and very competitive, and I arranged with our local neighborhood school for her to be able to take Phys Ed classes at the school, and do be part of their track and field team. Also, our children have First Nations heritage, and they were able to go over to the school to take part in language and culture learning activities, even while officially home-schooling. Some schools are more open to these things than others, but it never hurts to find out… which is why I also suggest that as long as your child has to attend school, you become very pro-active at the school – emphasizing the “pro”! That is not to say you have to agree with everything – but when you do face problems (and of course you will), if you come across with constructive suggestions and willingness to be involved in creating solutions, you are setting up a good situation for yourself… and even likely learning some useful skills you can use at home! ). And you will be showing your dh that you are indeed “capable” of being involved in your childrens’ education – full time!

All that to explain my childrens’ experiences with socialization on the playground (yes, they have attended school off and on)… One of my daughters (the athletic one) was physically strong, and would not be bullied: when she started at a new school, the very first day the playground bully (who was several years older than her), pushed her onto the ground. She was incensed – and jumped up and confronted him. When he tried to push her down again, she fought back – hard – and instantly earned the respect of every bully on the playground. But her sister, who was only a year difference in age, was a totally different temperament, quiet, gentle… and easily bullied. Fortunately, her sister stood up for her… and then we started home-schooling… The government and schools make a lot of to-do about how they are overcoming bullying – but how can they do it effectively when there are only 2 supervisors on a playground with perhaps 200 children (or more)? Of course it happens in the classroom too… even when there is one adult for “only” 25 or so children… Anyway, yes, you do have a right to be concerned about your child’s playground experiences! And yes – he is normal in this regard… the playground is not a positive experience for MOST children!

Next, you say your child is not ready for school. What makes a child ready for school? What does that mean? If school is really about developing learning skills, then your child’s eye problems perhaps have put him “behind” in that our school system is big on little people reading a lot of small print. But really, eyesight is only a very small part of learning (blind people learn just fine and are very successful…). Of course, in a classroom situation, it may become a big problem, because the classroom is set up to serve children with good eyesight, and the teacher does not have time or energy (and very often simply is not permitted to, by constraints of cost, equipment, and even the “curriculum”) to adjust the learning situation to help your child with his “special needs.” It doesn’t matter what a child’s “special need/s” is – the truth is, all children have one kind or another, for no child is truly the average student the system is set up for. It is wise, as you consider home-schooling, to think really, really carefully about what you believe about school/education/learning (and they are not all the same thing!). Talk to your husband about this too… ask him what he thinks constitutes a good education… let this be an on-going topic of discussion, perhaps a bit at a time… and as he comes up with his own thoughts about it, start doing things at home that show him you can offer that to your child… in a better way than the school is doing it, most likely!

If you can find ways to do it unobtrusively, involve your husband in that too. For example, if he thinks “science” is a big deal… start involving your child in outdoor activities that not only are “playing” in nature… but are “learning” too… Maybe your husband likes fishing… so encourage him to share his knowledge (while fishing together, of course) of not only the skill, but the life of fish, their environment, what they eat (why they are caught in certain places and with certain kinds of lures)… and as you drive places together as a family, talk about the environment you see… and what humankind is doing to the environment… and if your child asks questions, go to the library on the way home, and get books on the topic, and read them together… and maybe set up your own terrarium or aquarium, not just as a “pet” thing, but as a learning thing… a family learning adventure… and your hubby will begin to see the excitement of your child’s learning, the depth of it (compared to filling in blanks on a worksheet at school!) etc. Talk about what you see/hear on the news everyday… This is real home-schooling, by the way… integrating learning into every part of life… and you can do it right now! In fact, you have been doing it all along, one way or another – you are a good teacher and/or learning facilitator! Who taught your child to walk, talk, etc etc etc? But now, if you really want to officially home-school – and get your child into life-long learning rather than 9 to 3 “school education” only… take all those daily activities and consciously encourage deeper learning, deeper involvement and participation (not just lifting the lid and plopping in information).

As for your child’s scribbling… you can provide lots of small-motor activities at home that will help him develop better hand-writing, without actually focusing on hand-writing. Fun activities, like playing crocinole, or building legos, or measuring and mixing in the kitchen… and on and on and on… Every activity you do is “educational” (another good thing to point out to your hubby). My son, at five years old, was already really good at fractions… because he loved to help me bake pies etc – and we had a big family, so recipes had to be increased by 2 or 3 or 4 times… and then the finished product had to be cut up in even parts to serve everyone… and at five years old, I could tell him that the recipe called for 1 ½ cups flour – but we need to increase it by 3 times – and he could tell me (and measure, himself) that we needed 4 ½ cups! This, by the way, from a child who by the end of kindergarten had been labeled with a “severe learning disability” by the school – and did not learn to read until he was 9 years old, or to write (other than copying) till he was 12… and then chose to do grades 8 to 12 at school, and was on the honor roll every single report card, with a full academic load (just given extra time to write exams). Yes, I homeschooled him much of his elementary years… and we did endless amounts of hands-on stuff, and I read to him and talked with him about anything and everything he was interested in (he learned to read, finally, because he was into Pokeman in a big way, and wanted to be able to read the Pokeman handbook, which is not a “beginner reading” level by any means), as well as including him in all our “adult” conversations (we always invited many people into our home, and discussed whatever their interests were… our daughter took “Architectural and Building Engineering Technology” at BCIT because of the influence of a friend who was an architect, and who helped us design and build our “ideal home” when she was only about 10 years old). Our son was a “scribbler” too… but he did end up with good legible printing (handwriting is another story – but print is easier for teachers to read anyway…). He has just graduated from high school and possible career choices right now (which his teachers and counselors have recommended) include being a lawyer or a history professor at a university (even though the school re-tested him every year or two, and was convinced to the end that he is “SLD”/ special needs)…. At any rate, most boys don’t really start to refine their motor skills till around ages 9 or 10, so again your son is likely quite “normal” in his scribbling!

If you are going to allow the school to do “special ed” with your son, again be very involved. Go to every IEP meeting, and if possible, sit in on sessions with his special ed teacher, so you know exactly what they are teaching him. You can then support this at home, of course, but also educate yourself. Use what you see and discuss with the teacher, to go further and discover more about whatever so-called “special needs” the school claims your son might have. Some special needs teachers are really excellent, so use whatever useful information you can – and again, work it into many aspects of your daily life, in as natural ways as possible, not as “special ed” activities per se. Again, your child is normal, in that nearly every child varies from the “average”!

As for speech difficulties, my second daughter had the most unintelligible speech you can imagine. By the time she was 2 years old, she had heard a great deal of English (our first language), French (she was allowed one children’s show on TV for ½ hour a day, every other day, and for some reason chose Sesame Street in French!), and Inuvialuktun (the language of her babysitter). She loved to talk, but she mixed all the languages up… and she also had trouble with her “r’s” till she was about 8 yo. We didn’t realize it was a “problem” until she went to school… all her family and friends understood her just fine, but her teacher and new students were another story… again, she wasn’t the school’s definition of average. So the school insisted she have speech therapy. Again, I attended her sessions, and learned all I could, and used it with her at home – but again, not in a “formal” way but integrated into all our activities. By the way, if your child does end up having speech therapy, you will be expected to work with him every day… and this will again be an opportunity for your husband to see what you are capable of… and hopefully, he might even get involved!

About left-handed and good at doing puzzles… there seems to be some evidence that left-handed people are often right-brained learners, who are more likely to learn in ways that are more kinesthetic (tactile) and/or visual (graphic)… so this combination in your son sounds “normal” to me! However, school learning is generally around 80% emphasis on left-brain learning methods. So it is not surprising that your son has been having some difficulties with the learning styles employed by schools. You may have already encountered, in your reading, information on the multiple ways in which people learn… and while good teachers do their best to include a variety of learning styles in their teaching, again the simple realities of the “system” mitigate against a child having much opportunity to learn in his/her most natural learning style. Of course it is good to develop the ability to learn in a variety of ways, but if one’s natural learning style rarely is made available, it can be a major hurdle right from the start. Again, this is an advantage of home-learning, where you can really help your child make the most of his/her own natural abilities and learning styles. But even if your husband at this time wants your child to attend school, you still have many, many opportunities all day, every day, to involve him in activities that emphasize his own natural abilities and styles, in every aspect of his life. So educate yourself on these things, observe your child, and find “natural” ways to help your child become a great self-learner for life. And again, your husband will see what is happening, and gain confidence in your ability to help your child learn.

Finally, one last observation. When I started to home-school, I knew very little about it. But I did know a lot about how to teach school! So the first day of home school, I had my living room outfitted with 5 desks, a whiteboard, a teacher desk, a bell (really!), and a very carefully planned time-table and curriculum. By noon the first day, my five little scholars had informed me that “if we’re just going to do school at home, we might at well go back to school.” So by the end of the first week, the desks and bell were banished, and my careful time-table and curriculum began to crumble away. Home school – learning at home as part as life – became an adventure of discovery for all of us – sometimes I felt as though I was learning far more than my kids – and a lot of the time, they were my teachers! So don’t be afraid to take time to look around, get ideas, try different things out, be willing to change… And feel free to keep asking your great questions!

I just came back from visiting my third daughter and her husband – and their first baby born on August 26^th! They are already planning to home-learn … from the start! Good for them! And good for you!

School Way Back When, When the Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth

Norma Hill — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 23:36:05 +0000

Greetings! I was planning to post up a rather humorous story I wrote yesterday about my experiences living in trailers in Haida Gwaii. However, I’ve decided instead (for now at least) to share some thoughts about education when I was a child. If you’d like to see the trailer story, though, feel free to go to my website and click on the link to “About my Family” and go down the “Family Stories” list to “Trailer Stories – Haida Gwaii.” I think you’ll get a chuckle out of it!

At any rate, today I was adding stories to my “Our Story” site, and the next question on the list read:

“How would you describe attitudes toward children and education at the time you started your first school?”

Well, I just couldn’t pass that question up, so I tackled it, and here is my response:

Ho! ho! This is a dangerous question to ask someone who comes from a family where becoming teachers is a highly contagious disease! Well, I will try to restrain myself and answer in a reasonable fashion…

I wonder how many people remember their first day of school? I clearly remember my first day of grade one (as we did not have kindergarten back when the dinosaurs ruled the earth…). School in British Columbia always starts on the day after Labour Day in September, and my little brother kindly put in an appearance on September 2, which meant my mom was in the hospital on my first day of school. Despite having a mom and a dad who were both school teachers (secondary), my impression of school was that I was going to learn to read and write and do arithmetic; I was basically unaware of any other possibilities, if I thought about it much at all.

My dad taught at the high school across the street from the elementary school, so we walked to school together. All the mothers and grade one children were required to line up outside the school until the bell rang and then were escorted in by the teachers; however, since dad had to get to work (and the high school opened earlier than the elementary school), we sailed past the lineup, up the steps, and into the school, not without drawing some rather indignant looks from the waiting crowd. He found a teacher, and asked directions to the grade one classroom, where he quickly explained the situation to the teacher, Mrs. Reid. She was very gracious, and let me choose whichever desk I wanted. She also encouraged me to go to the toy corner and choose a toy to play with. I immediately picked out a little “dinky car” and was soon happily sitting at my desk running it back and forth, and quietly making appropriate sounds. After all, I lived in a neighborhood with about 9 boys and 1 girl (me) and had grown up playing cars.

After a few minutes the bell rang, and the teacher went out to greet the students and their mothers. Before long, they all came trooping into class in their neat line, but as soon as they were inside, certain students rushed to claim desks, others rushed to claim toys, while a few hung back shyly hanging onto their moms’ hands. Apparently I had, without intending to, claimed a prime piece of classroom realty when I chose my desk, and before I knew it, there was a young lady standing, hands on hips, glaring at me. “You have the desk I wanted. You wouldn’t have gotten it if your dad didn’t bring you in early. What’s the matter with you? Don’t you have a mom?” I was speechless! Then she continued, “And what are you doing playing with a car? Don’t you know real girls play with dolls?” Then she flounced off and found another desk.

So, surprise, surprise, my first unexpected lesson at school was that there was a social hierarchy, a pecking order, and those determined to be at the top claimed their positions immediately. Later in the day, another very shy, nervous little student, too afraid to raise her hand and ask the teacher to be excused, had an unfortunate accident. Needless to say, the newly self-appointed queen of the class had some rather pointed, and none too kind, things to hiss under her breath to the students she had already chosen as her royal court, which resulted in the requisite giggles, and a speech from the teacher about being kind.

Clearly, I was not to be part of the privileged social class, and every day was the subject of various verbal digs, as well as not being allowed to play with or go to birthday parties of said queen’s courtiers. In the winter it was very cold one day, and my mom insisted I wear pants under my skirt to walk to school. Entering the courtyard, there was the queen holding court under the big tree, and as I walked by, she loudly commented, “You can tell Norma is poor! When she wears leotards they are those ugly brown ones, and now she has to wear pants. I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing pants under my skirt! And I’d never wear cheap leotards! Did you notice she even wears the same skirt two days in a row sometimes? Thank goodness I have enough dresses to never have to wear the same thing twice in a week – or even in a month!” Another time I wore green and red, which resulted in a loud exclamation of “Red and green should never be seen!” In fact, I could probably write a book of similar stories, but you get the idea.

Welcome to what is still touted as one of the most important aspects of public school: socialization! To tell the truth, I remember little else about grade one. I do remember that each day we were given a little piece of paper which we folded in half, and wrote a letter of the alphabet on the front, and a suitable matching picture (“a” = apple) inside. I remember that I was extremely pleased with myself when I learned to spell the word “please,” which for some reason I had struggled with. And I remember being in the “turtles” reading group until Christmas, while the class queen had quickly moved on to the “rabbits” and then the “eagles.” It turned out that I caught on to reading and writing very quickly, but only did it at home. After the teacher had a chat with my mom, she took me aside, had me read to her privately, and immediately graduated me to the “eagles,” much to the disgust of my nemesis! It wasn’t long before I passed her in pretty well all the academic areas, and earned her wrath for the entire 12 years of school!

But of course that really isn’t what the question about “attitudes toward children and education at the time you started your first school” is really about. Or – perhaps it is? Truthfully, school for me, other than my low position on the social pecking order, was generally enjoyable and simple, as the emphasis was on academics, which came quite easily for me. We did not have a gymnasium until I was in grade six, and our “physical education” was comprised of skipping, swinging, playing softball, and so on at recess and lunch time, which we took part in vigorously but without being marked or being on any kind of formal “teams” other than those dictated by our social position; and there were also occasional sessions of games like “7 UP” on Friday afternoons in the classroom. “Art” was mostly drawing to illustrate stories. In fact, elementary school really was about reading, writing, and arithmetic, for the most part.

It took a long time for me to realize that there were some other rather peculiar things happening, at least at we would consider them today. For one thing, there was a “special” class in our school, which was composed of a number of students who were mostly in their teens, and who, to a small child not used to seeing people with disabilities in such a focused group, seemed big, strange looking, and kind of frightening. They certainly kept (or perhaps were kept) away from the rest of us, but we would see them passing by in the halls. Furthermore, by the end of grade one, every student had been labeled as academically successful or (and yes, this was an accepted term) “slow learners.” This was unfortunate for me, because when I entered grade two, almost all my best friends had been put in another class – and there was an unspoken “rule” that one played with one’s “own kind,” so to speak. Another important aspect of school was good behavior; when the bell rang we all lined up in neat rows, and solemnly followed the teacher into the classroom. We did not dare to speak out loud (or even whisper), until we had raised our arm, and been given permission by the teacher to speak. In the same way, we did not leave our seats without permission. We learned to stand at attention to sing the national anthem. We did not run in the hallways. Speaking back to the teacher was an unforgivable offense, and along with a long list of similar offenses, resulted in a trip to the office to have the principal administer the strap.

Our principal, Mr. Hopper (commonly known as “Mr. Grasshopper,” though of course never in the hearing of adults), was a former British headmaster, and had no use for school activities which were not academic. I quickly discovered that though I was not part of the social hierarchy, I did have a strong advantage in that I easily did well academically, not to mention the fact that I had beautiful printing and handwriting, and every year earned the H. B. McLean Writing Certificate for my grade, which put me in very high esteem with the administration. In grade six, we had a young male teacher straight out of that hive of radicalism, the new Simon Fraser University, and he had the unmitigated nerve to stand up to Mr. Hopper, and insist, first, on having real art lessons in his class, and, even worse, giving me “straight A’s” one report period – something which had never before happened under Mr. Hopper’s illustrious leadership, as he believed that students should always be encouraged to work harder by giving them poor grades.

When I was in grade seven, five students from our school were chosen, first on the basis of our classroom marks, and then on the basis of IQ testing, to attend another school to be part of “Major Work Class.” This was a fairly new idea, separating the “acdemic cream of the crop” to place them in a group of peers who would provide strong academic competitiveness, while also affording them an “enriched” environment with such things as several sets of classroom encyclopedias, and actual hands-on science experiments (I especially remember a lab in which we dissected a cow’s lungs before lunch, and then during the lunch period, the teacher left the room, and the boys sliced up the experiment into tiny bits and had a wild time flinging them at each other and all over the room. So much for academic excellence! Turned out we were pretty normal kids, after all).

Meanwhile, my brother was in grade five. He had shown such “intelligence” when he was small, that my parents had enrolled him in a private kindergarten to provide him with some challenge. Unfortunately, when he entered grade one, it became very quickly apparent that learning to read and write was not going to be one of his strengths, and at the end of the year, he was of course delegated to the “slow learners” grade two class. He must have shown some potential, however, because despite the fact that by grade five he could still barely read or write, he had managed to pass every grade, which was surprising in that day and age. Grade failure was a very common experience for many students, and indeed, by grade seven, the end of elementary school, there were always quite a number of students in their teens, who of course quit school as soon as they turned 15, so quite a few never did go on to high school. There was certainly no such thing as “social passing.”

At any rate, my brother’s grade five teacher noticed one day that, in a handwriting exercise, he had neatly and faithfully copied the sentence all the way down one side of the page, then turned the paper over, and wrote it all the way down the other side – just as neatly, but entirely backward! She also noted that he had developed some interesting coping devices in reading, such as reading all words which had “ch” at the beginning or end, as “church,” which of course conveniently had the letter combination at both ends. She had been reading an article about something new called “dyslexia” and brought her observations to my parents’ attention, also telling them that there was a new psychologist in town who was willing to test for this condition.

My parents went to the principal, who very firmly told them, “That dyslexia stuff is a bunch of garbage! I know you are both teachers, and intelligent people, and that your daughter is also intelligent, but you need to face the fact that your son is slow and always will be!” Since the school district would not pay for such testing, my parents took my brother to be tested, paying for it themselves, and of course it turned out that he did indeed have dyslexia. This was a bit of an epiphany to my mom’s relations, for there had been several cases in the family tree of boys who had been “dumb” in school, and gotten kicked out in grade 2 or 3, but who had ended up becoming successful businessmen. My parents were gratified to be told that their son was not “slow” after all, but it took several months of a group of parents advocating to the district office, until for the last three months of the school year, a number of students from throughout the district were bussed to a special class taught by a professional with this new knowledge of learning disabilities. At the end of the three months, my brother was actually reading and comprehending quite well, though it never became easy for him. He did well enough, however, that he later graduated from British Columbia Institute of Technology, and for some years was a high school Industrial Education teacher, later ran his own very successful welding business; and now is a youth pastor!

Of course, for those of who went on from elementary school, high school was another interesting experience. Our academic streaming intensified, and our parents were asked to choose which non-academic courses they would like us to take. I desperately wanted to take art; however, my parents signed me up for band, and I traveled on through the 5 years of my high school education with a rather protected, and somewhat elite, group of academic-band students. Also, while boys were allowed to take cooking and sewing, girls were firmly forbidden to take any “male” courses, even courses like drafting! Perhaps I will write more another time about high school education, and post-secondary education “back in the day.”

(And yes, although I firmly intended to do something exciting like go to Carleton to take journalism, or back-pack through Europe, or become a meteorologist, or, as I wrote in my grad yearbook, become a ski bum, I too ended up with the dread family disease, and like many of my grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and now nephews and nieces, I became a school teacher – at least part of the time!)

Posted: Aug 23, 2008

Companionship and learning and being the church

Norma Hill — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:39:27 +0000

Good morning from the peacefulness of my gazebo “cave.” I slept out here because the weather forecast was calling for more thunder and lightning, and I didn’t want to miss its glory! Well, as it turned out, I had to settle for a sudden whipped-up windstorm which made the covering flap furiously, and then rain pounding down on the huge white tarp that wraps itself around this gazebo and turns it into a desert igloo! Still, it was great – and with the fresh, cool late summer air, I slept like a baby…

In the past few weeks, I have daily been reading a Psalm (or part of a long one) and recording the names given for God, His attributes and His gifts to us, and how we can respond to Him. Here’s my record for Psalm 119:57-64:

The lovingkindness of the LORD fills the earth. He is my portion. He teaches me His statutes. I keep His words, seek His favor and graciousness, follow His testimonies, keep His commandments, remember His law, and thank Him because of His righteousness. I seek companionship with those who fear Him and keep His precepts.

And here is my response, my thoughts…

As I recorded the lines above, it not only reminded me of the importance of knowing and following Your word, Father God, and of Your love and grace to me, but it also spoke to me of the importance of finding my human companionship among those who fear You and keep Your precepts. Of course we cannot – and should not – avoid interaction with those “in the world,” but “companionship” in this context, I think, refers to more than just general acquaintances, or even the type of friendships we have with those we work with, or share a neighborhood with, or whatever. I think it looks at deeper friendship, a sharing of values, indeed a sharing of the heart, a walking together with You – which cannot happen with those who do not know You.

At any rate, we do need each other, the body of Christ, Your church – if You are at the center (otherwise, of course, it isn’t Your church, no matter what we claim). And we need each other beyond simply acquaintance at a weekly meeting (in which we mainly sit or stand and look at the back of each other’s heads, and of course at the pastor or worship team or whoever has the place of honor up front). There have been times and places when the choir would be at the rear of the “church” – with the congregation in the middle area – all facing forward toward the altar or cross or whatever symbol (even an empty chair) where the people imagined You seated. There is something to that; though of course always the danger of worshiping the icon or space where we place You.

It does seem that as fleshly beings we feel driven to – or at least safe and comfortable with – a God that we can physically see and touch in some manner, or at least place in some distinct location. I think we tend to regard the Old Testament Israelites with some scorn for so easily succumbing to following idols, or at least worshiping icons like the brass serpent on the pole. And yet don’t we often do that ourselves with the holy places, temples, church buildings we erect and faithfully trek to, for the supposed purpose of meeting You and worshiping You. (Though You Yourself have made it clear that we ourselves are the “temple of the Holy Spirit” when we believe in You.) Furthermore, within the holy places we construct, don’t we even have a tendency to bow toward the space which we dedicate, consciously or subconsciously, as a holy of holies, and don’t we also tend to appoint and bow to people we consider as especially holy, as we somehow expect this will draw us nearer to You. And then, doesn’t our worship begin to focus on other things: on the ability of the pastor to preach a powerful sermon, or on the ability of the worship team and/or leader to sing and play beautifully, to give us a wonderful feeling of God’s presence, or even on the beauty of the building itself or the artwork it contains.

And yet – what happens if we reject the established, traditional church building and ecclesiastical, denominational structures? It seems so often that we instantly seek after a new structure, or even simply move the old structure into a new building, whether that be a storefront location, or a theater, or a gymnasium, or even a house. How difficult it seems for us to escape our traditions and structures, including our buildings and icons.

I have companions who have left formal association with traditional “churches” and now, as “free range Christians,” they seek to move among the body, the church universal, and just enjoy companionship with Christ among his family, wherever they meet them in whatever context. Alternatively, others who have left traditional structures now seek to find their spiritual life in personal relationship with Christ, and in interaction with the body through books, emails, TV preaching, personal friendships, and so on. Others seem eventually (or quickly) to move into other “established churches.”

Of course, another possibly alternative is “house churches,” though in my community they don’t seem to really develop “successfully.” Some people suggest it is our local “culture” that mitigates against house churches. For me, personally, the aspect of starting a formal house church as an “alternative” or even as a supposedly total change, from “traditional church” seems kind of frightening. I remember when our family started home-schooling, which, without intending to, I almost instantly turned into “school at home.” Fortunately, my children objected loudly, pointing out that if we were just going to do school at home, they might as well go back to school where there was a gymnasium, library, etc (not to mention all their friends!).

So I ended up loosening up with the whole school thing. I didn’t have the courage to totally un-school, but we did start to de-school, talking to a lot of other people about their learning journey, trying out a lot of different paths, and gradually beginning to learn in a way that worked for us, that gave us joy, that allowed us to become, more and more, life-long learners, rather than simply “getting an education/ schooling” as a discrete and temporary part of our life. After awhile, our journey even allowed us to take advantage of system things, like Learning Centers and even schools, to the degree to which they met our needs, but did not take over our lives or become our only, or even main, way of learning.

We did develop some pretty deep companionships with fellow-learners, some of whom were home-schoolers with kids about the same age; but interestingly, our most significant companions, the ones we developed the deepest relationships with, and learned the most with, were people of all different ages, professions, lifestyles – but who had, as it turned out, two key things in common with us:

1. they loved learning, thinking, exploring – saw it as a life-long adventure that involved every aspect of life, AND, 2. they had a real relationship with God as the center of their life.

We didn’t “meet” with them on any kind of regular, planned schedule. But if we or they were involved in, or exploring, something we knew they’d find interesting, or of which they had knowledge that they could share with us, we’d give them a call, and get together to walk down that path of exploration for as long as it took, and wherever it took us. We’d also feel free to just “drop in” or have them “drop in” – and we’d often eat together, play together… even “go to church” or “take a class or course” together – whatever at that moment met our goal of being life-long learners.

Now you’ll note that I keep saying “we” in reference to our learning experience: that’s because this whole learning, education, school thing became an adventure we were involved in together – in our own family – and with those we shared the adventure and journey with.

Sometimes people would move away, or move on. But our sense of companionship didn’t end. And we didn’t worry about it or try to control it.

Admittedly, it was a lot easier to start and carry on this learning journey in a small community where we lived relatively close to each other physically, and indeed were likely to bump into each other frequently at the store, along the road, at community events, wherever. And because there weren’t nearly as many clubs and lessons and events and such, life wasn’t so busy.

But one thing I’ve been coming to realize recently is that joining up to all those formal things, programs, events, structures that keep us busy, is also a choice we make – and yes, “the church” can very easily become the busiest part of our lives. And it seems to me that when “church” and “busy” start coming together frequently, we are in trouble; just as we are when “busy” becomes an adjective for any aspect of our lives, replacing “joyful, meaningful, adventuresome…” – or, especially, replaces “God-centered.”

Perhaps we do have to do some de-churching if we really want “church” as in “relationship with Jesus and with His family” – just as our family had to de-school in order to really “school” as in “learning as a permanent and integral part of life.” So maybe it really is okay to “free range” – to see how others are part of the real church, and the many different ways the church can be an integral part of our entire lives – lives centered on our relationship with our Creator, Savior, God. And in that journey of exploration, adventure, we learn to let Him guide us, step by step, moment by moment, into life as part of His church, His body, His family, with Him at the center.

And yes, this journey will probably look a little different for each of us, and yes, it will probably change, at least on the surface level, over times and places, as long as it continues to deepen on the foundational level of our relationship with God – with Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit – and with the others in the family.

I suppose in a way it’s like the difference between a journey (travel, vacation) in which every moment of every day is meticulously planned out in advance and carried out with a hired guide who has already guided many others in exactly the same way (“10 European cities in 7 days!”); versus a journey in which one heads out with a backpack, a map, a willingness to ask questions and spend time with the locals, and a goal (“explore and get to know Europe!”). Some folks love the security of the former; others long for the adventure and spontenaity of the latter. Which one, I wonder, really lets one get to know Europe?

And what kind of journey really allows us to know Christ and be His church? Your thoughts?

Education and Home Schooling: Quotable Quotes

Norma Hill — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 20:43:29 +0000

Hope you enjoy these quotes
and facts from many different
sources — and many different
viewpoints!

Wendy Priesnitz, Canadian homeschool leader: [Education] “nurtures independence of mind, thought and action… children learn best when they choose what to study, when to study, and for how long… the best learning is spontaneous learning or self-directed learning.” “…learning of complicated concepts occurs spontaneously as a result of desire and curiosity…”

John Holt, America’s pre-eminent thinker on alternative education: “Most of what I knew [of value], I had not learned in school or in any other school-like environment.”

Kelly Green, Canadian home-educator: “In an ideal world I would prefer to see a collaborative, co-operative effort whereby children and families could take part in the public education system instead of being subsumed by it; where we could have access to gyms and music lessons without being held accountable for every moment of the day… keeping your child out of school is perceived [by some] to be a form of abuse and it’s up to the parents to disabuse the system and the rest of the community of this notion.”

Lara Murphy, university student and former home-schooler: “The spirit of independent inquiry and critical thinking was already well-established [from my home-schooling experience]. In that sense home schooling is much closer to a university experience than it is to high school.”

Nancy Gibbs, reporter, Time Magazine, October 31, 1994: “…there’s no such thing [as traditional homeschoolers] anymore. A movement once reserved largely for misanthropes, missionaries and religious fundamentalists now embraces such a range of American families that it has become a mainstream alternative to regular public or private education.”

Jon Reider, associate director of admissions at Stanford University: Many colleges are eager to welcome freshmen who bring different experiences of learning. “What it really boils down to is getting a sense of a student’s intellectual drive.”

Robert Sternberg, Yale University psychologist: says there are three types of intelligence: 1. analytical, acquiring and memorizing information, usually of others’ ideas (typical of school-type methods) 2. creative, which cannot be measured by objective tests yet is highly desired in the real world 3. practical, also unmeasureable, yet crucially impotant in later life. Education should teach us how to live.

Debra A. Bell, former high school English teacher: “80 separate studies have shown that pupils taught individually achieve 30 percent higher on standardized tests than do their peers taught in a classroom setting… most of these children are taught [formally] for no more than one to two hours per day by parents with high school diplomas only. Besides individualized instruction which honors the child’s internal timetable and his specific needs, homeschooling also affords parents and children the freedom to explore all subjects creatively and thoroughly. The homeschooling parent knows that all of life is a learning experience… No one cares about a child or understands his needs better than his parents [who have already taught him] to walk, dress, eat, and how to use the English language. Why do parents suddenly become unqualified when their children reach age 5? The truth is, they don’t.”

Facts about education: In Canada, homeschooling, sometimes combined with formal religious education, was the educational norm until the late 19th Century. In BC, free public education was decreed in 1872 and made mandatory in 1873. But by 1892 barely 60% of children were attending school. Taking all of a society’s children away from their parents for compulsory public schooling has historically been the exception, not the norm. While it is true that some earlier civilizations had formal educational systems, for all or more often a select group of their children, these schools were inevitably a way of indoctrinating society into a particular brand of religious or political thinking.

Dr. Brian Ray, president, National Home Education Research Institute: “The tutorial method of teaching has always been the superior method. Home education epitomizes this method, providing essentials for success — a close student/teacher relationship, family — consistent values, motivation, flexibility, and individualization.”

Inge Cannon, executive director of Education PLUS: “Many [colleges and universities] actively recruit home-educated graduates because of their maturity, independent thinking skills, creativity, and extensive academic preparation.”

G.K. Chesterton: “The State did not own men so entirely even when it could send them to the stake, as it sometimes does now when it can send them to the elementary school.”

Dr. Chester Pierce, Professor of Education, Harvard University: “Every child in America entering school at the age of five is mentally ill, because he comes to school with certain allegiances toward our founding fathers, our elected officials, towards his parents, toward a belief in a supernatural Being, toward the sovereignty of this nation as a separate entity. It is up to you teachers to make all of these sick children well by creating the international children of the future.”

Brian Watts: “Adam Smith never took a course in economics, but his writings have been classics on the subject for a long time. Karl Marx never took a course in economics or political science, yet he has had a profound impact on both those disciplines. Charles Darwin never took a course in biology; he had a degree in theology, and that obviously did not do him much good. John Dewey never took a course in Education — which means that he himself would not have been qualified to teach in any of the public schools that he promoted! Who is to say that parents are unqualified to raise their children?”

Profs. John Anderson, Lynne Reder, and Herbert Simon of Carnegie-Mellon University: “All evidence indicates that real competence only comes with extensive practice…. The instructional problem is not to kill motivation by demanding drill, but to find tasks that provide practice — while at the same time sustaining interest.”

Robert W. Weisbery, Temple University psychology professor: “There is evidence that deep immersion is required in a discipline before you produce anything of great novelty. Before you look at significant achievement, expect to see 10 years of deep immersion to gain knowledge.”

A homeschool mom: “The important thing is not whether they learn Math Facts or the Rivers of South America or any other data. The gift that is in your power to give them is an awareness that whatever they need to know can be learned, and a sense that life only becomes more enjoyable as we learn more and more about the world around us. You don’t have to “teach” them this — live it, show them, pursue your own interests and share your genuine pleasure at the new things you learn every day.”

A homeschooling parent: “When [your child] is grown up, it won’t make any difference at all what age he was when he learned to read or add or tie his shoes. Nobody will base a hiring decisions or university admission on that information, his potential mate will not care one way or the other, and his mortgage application will not ask for this particular detail about his past. We don’t have any idea what’s going on in his mind as he drives his trucks around the sandbox, but I bet he’s laying down neural networks like crazy, and any alternate activity that we “plan” for him probably won’t be as effective.”

Wendy Priesnitz, Canadian homeschool leader: “…the essence of learning [is] recognizing patterns, generalizing about them, then applying that learning to other situations. This moving from the whole picture to its details, beginning with concrete experience and moving to abstract rules, is almost opposite from the process we think of as teaching.” “Rather than an adult-prepared currciulum, what learners need most is time to muddle — opportunities to explore, to investigate their questions and ideas. Learning is a process of figuring things out, making connections, getting ideas and testing them, taking risks, making mistakes and trying again.”

Dr Anthony Coletta, PhD, _What’s Best for Kids_: “in the 19902 many decisions about education… are based on the needs of adults, rather than on the child development knowledge already in our possession… Policy decisions about education are in fact based more on economic, social and political factors than they are on this reliable body of knowledge…. stress, low self-esteem, poor learning attidues and discipline problems… [are] a direct result of… the movement to teach kids earlier, create standards for each grade level, and hold kids accountable [which] is counter-productive when applied to the lower grades, because of widely variable maturation rates in children under 8.”

Bruno Bettleheim, author of _On Learning to Read_ states that the children he treated with psychotherapy for emotional disturbance have for the most part been children who failed in their attempts to learn to read in early primary grades.

Charlotte Mason, foundational British educator: “This horse-in-a-mill round of geography and French, history and sums, was no more than playing at education; for who remembers the scraps of knowledge he labored over as a child? and would not the application of a few hours in later life effect more than a year’s drudgery at any one subject in childhood? If education is to secure the step-by-step progress of the individual and the race, it must mean something over and above the daily plodding at small tasks which goes by the name…. Give your child a single valuable idea, and you have done more for his education that if you had laid upon his mind the burden of bushels of information.”

Stephen Moiozo: “Homeschooling isn’t: The same kids in the same room doing the same thing at the same rate in the same way to achieve the same results because they’re the same age.”

Robert Frost, poet: “Education is… hanging around until you’ve caught on.”

Joyce Eynon, president of the Canadian Home and School Federation: “What’s really important is for parents to get involved with their childrens’ education. Every study ever done shows children do better in school if their parents are involved.”

Alan Kay, Computer pioneer, who is given credit for inventing the personal computer, begs educators to remember that if schools cannot solve a problem without computers, they should not try to solve it with computers.

Charlotte Mason: British educator: “Though system [the observing of rules until the habit of doing certain things, of behaving in certain ways, is confirmed] is highly useful as an instrument of education, a ‘system of education’ is mischievous, as producing only mechanical action instead of the vital growth and movement of a human being.”

E.D. Hirsch, Jr. author of _Cultural Literacy_: “To be culturally literate is to possess the basic information needed to thrive in the modern world…. Only by piling up specific, communally shared information can children learn to participate in complex cooperative activities with other members of their community…. In an anthropological perspective, the basic goal of education in a human community is acculturation, the transmission to children of the specific information shared by the adults of the group or polis…. In contrast to the theories of Plato [the specific contents transmitted to children are by far the most important elements of education] and Rousseau [we should encourage the natural development of young children and not impose adult ideas upon them before they can truly understand them]… only by accumulating shared symbols, and the shared information that the symbols represent, can be learn to communicate effectively with one another in our national community…. A people is best unifed by being taught in childhood the best things in its intellectual and moral heritage.”

Susannah Sheffer, author and unschooling advocate: Parents need to “model for their children a life of interest and exploration, so that the family lives with the understanding that learning is not some mysterious thing only children do, but rather an integral part of being alive.”

John Holt, Unschooling advocate and author: “…there are no experiences from which we learn nothing. We learn something from everything we do, and everything that happens to us or is done to us. What we learn may make us more informed or more ignorant, wiser or stupider, stronger or weaker, but we always learn something. What it is depends on the experience, and above all, on how we feel about it.”

Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller’s teacher and mentor: “I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built on the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think. Wherease if the child is left to himself, he will think more and better, if less “showily.” Let him come and go freely, let him touch real things and combine his impressions for himself…. Teaching fills the mind with artificial associations that must be got rid of before the child can develop independent ideas out of actual experiences.”

An unschooler: “Anytime that, without being invited, with being asked, we try to teach somebody else something… we convey to that person… a double message…. I am teaching you something important, but you’re not smart enough to see how important it is. Unless I teach it to you, you’d probably never both to find out….[And] what I’m teaching you is so difficult that, if I didn’t teach it to you, you couldn’t learn it.”

Aaron Falbel: “We adopt the “educative stance” when we feel it is our right and duty to manipulate others for their own good.”

S.S. Macauley: “The truly educated person has only had many doors of interest opened.”

John Holt: Schools teach that “learning is separate fropm the rest of life. If you want to learn something of any importance, you must get it from a teacher, in a school. From this it follows that understanding is not an activity but a thing, a commodity. It is not something you do or make for yourself, but something you get. It is scarce, valuable, and expensive. You can get it only from someone who has it — if he is willing to give it to you. You can’t make your own; if you do, it’s no good, you can’t get anything for it. Some people have much more of this valuable knowledge than others, and because they do, they have a right to tell the others what to do. Since other people will tell you whatever is important for you to learn, your own questions are hardly ever worth asking or answering.”

Source unknown: Once upon a time the animals had a school. The curriculum consisted of running, climbing, flying and swimming, and all the animals had to take all the subjects. The duck was good in swimming; better, in fact, than the instructor. He made passing grades in flying, but he was particularly hopeless in running. Because he was low in this subject, he was made to stay in after school, and drop his swimming team in order to practice running. He kept this up until he was only average in swimming. But average was acceptable, so nobody worried about that — except the duck. The eagle was considered a problem pupil and was severely disciplined because although he beat all the others to the top of the trees in climbing class, he insisted on using his own method: flying. The rabbit started out at the top of his class in running, but he had a nervous breakdown and had to drop out of school because of so much make-up work in swimming. The squirrel led the class in climbing, but his flying teacher made him start his flying lessons from the ground up instead of from the top down. He developed charley-horses from over-extension at take-off and began getting C’s in climbing and D’s in running. The practical prairie dogs apprenticed their offspring to the badgers when school authorities refused to add digging to the curriculum. The turtle was placed in a slow learner class and spent much of his time in detention for failure to comply in flying class.