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The money's being spent, the reform is pending, the discussion is brewing, but have we lost sight of the real goal of educating a child ?
I believe the goal is the same as it's always been -- it's never changed, it never will -- and it's simple: to prepare a child to move from childhood to adulthood. That's it. Prepare my child for adulthood. Period.
Some would say, "I don't want my child to grow up so fast." I'm not suggesting fast preparation for adulthood, I'm suggesting a truth much simpler -- children grow up to be adults, and they will grow there with us or without us; they will grow up guided by their parents or guided by their peers.
Since the actual goal of educating a child is preparation for adulthood, let's ask a few questions. How is it done? Where is it done? By whom is it done? When is it done? When is it complete? These are fundamental questions often lost in the discussion, often never asked by the general population. Most folks just turn their children over to others for academic instruction (which they mistake for preparation for adulthood). Let's take a fresh look at some of these questions.
HOW IS "EDUCATION" ACCOMPLISHED ?
For years I have maintained that a child is prepared for adulthood by mastering five essentials: morals, values, ethics, problem-solving, and decision-making.
MORALS are the principles of right and wrong. Your family has determined that some things are right and some things are wrong. Maybe your family's "rights and wrongs" are different from mine, but you have established a set of morals for your family. (ASIDE: Most of the time our morals are influenced and conform to the standards of a larger community, although the current culture seems to be eroding this aspect.) For a real education, a child must learn the moral principles of right and wrong.
VALUES are the beliefs and feelings which your family has established as "important to this family" -- the things that you value. Again this may be different for each family, but your family does have a set of values. For a real education, the child must learn what he values.
ETHICS are the principles of behavior. Ethics determine how we behave and conduct ourselves. Children pattern behavior. In the absence of a responsive, responsible adult, they will pattern the behavior of their peers (which is contrary to the goal of preparing them for adulthood). For a real education, a child must learn how to conduct himself.
PROBLEM-SOLVING is the skill of resolving difficulties. These difficulties may be as simple as getting the cookie out of the cookie jar, or may be as complex as the wind/drag resistance on a non-aerodynamic 18-wheeler (or figuring out when to tell your dad that you had an accident with his car!). Problem-solving need not be complicated, but it does need to be learned. (ASIDE: A tremendous amount of traditional classroom time is spent on problem-solving, but it is only 1/5th of the map to adulthood.) As was once said to me, let me repeat, "When my children leave home they will not know everything they'll need to know; what I hope is that they know where to find everything they'll need to know." For a real education, a child must know where to find the appropriate information and how to use that information to solve problems.
DECISION-MAKING is the highest form of readiness for adulthood. Decision-making is the skill which combines morals, values, ethics, and problem-solving to determine the next step; to determine in which direction to go. Yes, to make good decisions a child (and an adult, too) needs to call on all the other four. Just as a car moves better with all 4 tires inflated, so our decisions are steered best with no "flats" in the areas of morals, values, ethics, or problem-solving. (ASIDE: When my son got his driver's license at age 16 and drove his own car out of the driveway ALONE, I was not concerned about his morals, values, ethics, or even his problem-solving -- because he can fix just about anything -- what I prayed for was his decision-making.) For a real education, a child must learn to make sound decisions.
So, having determined the goal of a real education and the five essentials needed for moving a child toward adulthood, where is this best accomplished?
WHERE IS THE BEST PLACE TO ACQUIRE A REAL EDUCATION ?
I believe the best place for a real education is in the real world with real people doing real things that really matter. Not in a place where the environment is actually controlled by manipulative age-mates and marginally monitored by an adult. Not a place where the child is exposed only to pre-planned and pre-canned issues. Not a fake place where the problems are made up and phony. Not a place where the right answer is buried in the teacher's manual.
The real world: real people doing real things that really matter.
The education of a child includes observing how mom & dad (& other adults) function in all the systems necessary to survive -- food, clothing, shelter, transportation, communication, health, employment, finance, government, religion, family, friends, community, interpersonal relationships, and more. Such learning observations do not occur in the classroom where the child is sheltered from the real world, where the child is forced to be confined long hours with age-mates. Better observations occur in the home and communities of responsive, responsible, adults who care for their children.
WHO SHOULD BE THE ONE TO DIRECT MY CHILD'S EDUCATION ?
Parents should be the ones directing their child's education. No exceptions. Parents should be the ones making the decisions. From time to time that may mean using professional teachers (or other professionals) as "consultants" for the child's educational plan, but parents should not use such professionals as "controllers" of their child's plan. Yes, professionals and schools should be used as consultants, not controllers. After working 13 years with parents looking for better answers for their child's education, I believe it is a serious mistake to relinquish parental control to others. Sometimes it means re-claiming complete control by homeschooling.
Homeschooling does not mean that Mom or Dad must teach the child everything. Just as parents are accustomed to hiring a piano teacher or an art teacher, so parents can also "hire" the school to teach that algebra course or chemistry lab. Depending on where a homeschooler lives, several options exist -- an arrangement with the local public school, classes at a local private school, public adult education courses (night school), the local community college, the state university system, private colleges, and don't forget just hiring a tutor to get the job done (sometimes this can be bartered), or even using a neighbor or a relative.
Parents are not restricted by their own limitations -- they can solicit or negotiate or hire others to carry out some areas of expertise. When my homeschooled daughter was 12 years old, she wanted to take a foreign language. She did not choose the usual French or Spanish, she chose Hebrew. After the shock wore off, we found she could join a basic Hebrew class at the local synagogue. She loved it, we were pleased, and we never abdicated our control over her education just because she took a Hebrew course from someone else. (Incidentally, when she successfully finished her Hebrew class, she decided she wanted to learn ASL, American Sign Language. She took evening classes at Maine's Baxter School for the Deaf.)
But quite apart from the academics, please remember that the broader base for a child's real education (preparing for adulthood) is to observe, model, and probe the activities of the parents in real life.
Conclusion? Parents should be the ones directing their child's education. No exceptions.
WHEN DOES A REAL EDUCATION TAKE PLACE ?
Not between the hours of 8:00 AM and 2:00 PM. Over the course of a day, education has no real beginning and no real ending, but in American society we have conditioned our children to believe that academic "stuff" is done during academic hours. Should we happen to ask our child a simple math question in the supermarket, too often we hear, "Dad, I get that in school all day, I shouldn't have to do that now, too!" Sad. Instead of being a chore (because it has been made "work" in the classroom), wouldn't it be great if the child saw this as a logical question for answering an actual real life question about the price of groceries?
Real education does not take place from just September to June each year. Yet educators lament about how much most children "lose" over the summer. Wouldn't it be great if a "teachable attitude" could be a continuum (albeit with ups and downs); but our communities have conditioned the children to shut it off for months at a time by declaring, "School's out!" "We've got the summer off!" "See you next year!" So the "teachable attitude" is shut off until they get back to school.
Real education does not take place between the ages of 5 and 18. You may have heard that approximately 1/3 of everything a child learns, he has already learned before he is 5 years old. What happens after the child begins school? He learns (at least by implication), "These are the things you need to know. And when you know these things, you're finished." Such implied messages are unfortunate, because much more is needed, even beyond the age of 18.
HOW WILL I KNOW WHEN MY CHILD'S EDUCATION IS COMPLETE ?
Homeschooling parents of high schoolers often ask, "How can I tell when my child has finished high school?" That's a great question.
The institutional way of thinking involves the milestones set by institutions -- elementary school graduation, secondary school (high school) graduation, post-secondary graduation, and post-graduate graduation. At each of these stages the institution bestows a "credential" on the graduate. The "credential" indicates that a certain level has been reached and recognized by an institution. Traditional thinking is "the higher the credential, the more complete the education".
But I have a different idea. Let's separate "learning" from "credentializing".
While credentializing can be "finished" or "done," learning is never finished, never done. You probably expected me to say that, so let me continue with something you might not expect. You could believe that your homeschooled high schooler is done with his high school career when he has received the credential you'd like. That may mean a public high school diploma from the local adult education department; it may mean a diploma from a homeschool-friendly private school; it may mean skipping the diploma altogether and enrolling in college course work; or it may mean being accepted and admitted to a university even without any high school diploma. All of which are done every day. And there are many more options, too, but most people don't think of these options. Most people have been "institutionalized" with institutional thinking imposed (inflicted) by the institutions they attended. They not only don't know the answers, they have never considered the questions!
The general public may not ask important questions such as "What is the goal of an education?" or "Where is the best place to acquire an education?" or "Who is best qualified to teach my child what's necessary for a real education?" or "When will I know when my child's education is complete?"
But somewhere along the line, most homeschoolers have asked these foundational questions. And they have come up with their own answers. In fact, in some parts of the country, people have stopped asking "How can we make homeschools more like public schools?" Instead, they ask, "How can we make public schools more like homeschools?" When the general population asks that question, we will be on the way to true educational reform. Congratulations, homeschoolers, you just might have it right!
