You homeschool. That's great. Homeschooling is a good option with at least 22 blog posts worth of benefits. I wonder if we sometimes lose sight of the bigger picture, though. We love homeschooling, not so much because homeschooling is this magical, fairy tale bliss of perfection but because homeschooling allows us to raise our children well.
From this larger perspective, you're not homeschooling. You are raising a person. Homeschooling is "merely" one of the parts of that. It's a significant part that takes up a good chunk of your day. But let us peek over the daily churn and remind ourselves that there is a reason we do this. We are raising adults and then letting go.
When I feel a need to defend homeschooling, it's typically because I feel someone is implying that homeschooling is bad. It's not. Homeschooling is good. It's worth the effort. Kids can thrive in it.
Growth
But let's not push too far the other way. The benefits and beauty of homeschooling do not require that all other systems be destructive and ugly. We need not bully our way to feeling better. Let us focus on the positives of homeschooling. All we need to do is look at our children and see the growth homeschooling has allowed them to experience.
As we watch our children grow into the men and women they are to become, we clearly see that they are people. And as people, they have strengths and weaknesses. These are not due to homeschooling or public schools, but because each one is a person.
It is no surprise to me, then, to find more research that demonstrates that homeschoolers turn out to be normal college students. Some are brilliant minds who graduate at age 6 and go on to revolutionize the medical world. Others are more like me, happily married, working, and doing what I can to help raise the next generation. And still others follow their own path, wherever God leads them.
You are raising a person. Homeschooling doesn't change that; homeschooling doesn't allow you to control your child or dictate the future.
By homeschooling, however, you are able to spend time with your student, watch your child grow, focus on strengths and tweak for struggles, demonstrate your values and beliefs, and use a homeschool curriculum that allows you to love learning together.
You are raising a person. That's not easy. It's a long process. All more reason to choose an approach to education that you both love.
~Luke Holzmann
Filmmaker, Writer, Guardian
2 Comments