Homeschool vrs "Real Education."

My kids were home-schooled in the 80s. This was a time when home-schoolers were HIGHLY criticized as well. We were breaching "normal" protocols. ; )

F*** that! Like, I cared? My son's well-being and a REAL education was MY concern.

Back then, my then 7 year son, had a predilection for astronomy and the sciences, so ALL his studies were geared towards his interests. But he got a powerful education that still provided the full range of readin', ritin' n' 'rithmatic, plus things like handwriting, social behavior and civics. It was very organic. It didn't follow classroom procedure. It was more like Aristotle being followed by his entourage of students. A meandering learning process, it had no set structure.

I used the book Teaching As a Subversive Activity by Postman and Weingartener as my guide. His mother complained a lot about how casual it all was. She'd ask me WHEN he was getting an education. I said, "When is he not?"

Yet, he knew things even a majority of adults can't answer. Like the difference between fission and fusion.

My Mother, a teacher herself then and my Mother -in-Law were like, "How is he going to become socialized?"

I'd say something like, "Socialization occurs in the interactions between adults and children, not children and children,... or have you never read Lord of the Flies?

That usually dropped them in their tracks.

By the time I divorced my wife and she had screwed up all the home-school teaching I had arranged in my place, he took a standardized test before she placed him in public school, he placed 3rd qtr of the 8th grade in language communications and the sciences, 3rd qtr of the 5th grade in English and Math.

He averaged out in the 5th grade...

He was 7 at the time.

She apologized to me, but the die was cast.

The school administration put him BACK a grade for his chronological age. So, like 1st grade I believe it was.

He did not thrive until he came back to live with me, wild and free in Mexico.

Imagine that.



Stolen directly off a message board I moderate, written by a poster who goes by the handle
"IxCimi".

Go here for some mathematics activities on my website that might be of use to home schoolers and parents of public school students alike.