Stop asking me questions about homeschooling that you’d never ask about school.

Stop asking me questions about homeschooling that you’d never ask about school.

Schools decide the priorities of non-school time as well. In Newton, MA there is an extra period in the day so the school can require kids to try extracurricular activities that will make the kids more appealing to colleges. In Darlington, WI, there are half-days of school when the football team has a home game so all students can spend the afternoon preparing for the event. In Winnetka, IL kids in jazz band frequently travel during school breaks.

If you send your kid to school, the school board chooses the parenting philosophy for your household. If you homeschool, you decide what the point of childhood is. You decide what the goal of family time is. You decide what your role as a parent is.

These are questions we are not accustomed to answering. For most of history children were small workers – in fields and then in factories. Then children went to school where they learned to be good adult factory workers. We have not given much thought to what is the point of childhood because we have not had so much freedom to decide for ourselves.

No one asks the school board to defend it’s parenting philosophy, but homeschoolers end up doing this all the time. Because if you talk about how you make decisions about education you cannot avoid talking about what you think is important about childhood. I have been swayed by different philosophies at different times:

Childhood Institute: making sure children fulfill their potential
Mihaly Csikczentmihalyi: becoming an expert at something
Martin Seligman: learning the principles of locus of control
Bryan Caplan: twin studies show nothing parents do matters

Each of these theories took decades to develop. And the theories contradict each other. So it’s clear that knowing the goal of childhood is like knowing the meaning of life: impossible.

Often while my kids were playing basketball, I was stressing about not knowing my parenting philosophy. Now that I see there’s no right answer to what is the goal of childhood, I wish I had watched more basketball and been less distracted by people telling me I shouldn’t let my kids stay home from school and play basketball.

7 replies
  1. Sara
    Sara says:

    I appreciate how you always break down the rules we have all just lived with for so long. Like just shatter them. It’s so simple and so complex, “What is the goal of childhood?” I love that I get to decide for my child and I don’t even have to answer the question either.

  2. Caro
    Caro says:

    All the schools in Colorado were closed today because of that girl and the Columbine anniversary. That is enough for me to never let my kid set foot in a public school.

    • Celeste
      Celeste says:

      Better not let them go to a movie theater, shopping mall, or concert either. People have been massacred in those places as well.

  3. Bostonian
    Bostonian says:

    Some people choose a school for their kids based on the educational philosophy of the school and how well it fits with their own.

  4. Charlotte Jaques
    Charlotte Jaques says:

    A book is one of the greatest wonders of the world. Why are so many people fond of reading? The world of books is full of wonders. You and characters of books can find on my website. The book is a faithful friend. They form our values and characters. We try to look like the characters of our favorite books: to be brave, honest, not to be silly and greedy, to be true friends. We enjoyed the beauty and wisdom of fairy-tales and fables when we were babies and Granny read them to us. They taught us to be kind, clever, hardworking, to understand other people and help them.

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