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“But the reality is that if you don’t let your kid pick what they learn then you send the message to your kid that they have poor judgment about what they should learn.”
Not necessarily. Classical homeschoolers usually choose what their children learn, out of a belief that joining the Great Conversation (about ideas in science, art, history, literature, etc.) requires familiarity and facility in certain texts and subject areas.
I like your focus on kids learning what is important to learn. But I also think there are usually fields of inquiry, ways of thinking about the world, that children would never find if they were not directed to them.
This is not to say that a kid’s interests should be ignored. But I think introducing a child to the worlds greatest thinkers, across many disciplines, can actually help that child figure out what is important to learn.
” “But the reality is that if you don’t let your kid pick what they learn then you send the message to your kid that they have poor judgment about what they should learn.”
Not necessarily. Classical homeschoolers usually choose what their children learn, out of a belief that joining the Great Conversation (about ideas in science, art, history, literature, etc.) requires familiarity and facility in certain texts and subject areas.”
“A” doesn’t preclude “B.” You can still push your own curriculum and allow them some freedom to choose what they want to learn. It can be a compromise. Or, you could not push any curriculum at all and focus more on figuring out why certain subjects are important. What you might find is that teaching the subject matter in a dry, and relevance-absent way is just a waste of time. If you focus on getting kids to do real world projects, then a context for what’s important will be created.
If she thinks she’s doing something severely wrong, then she’s doing something severely wrong. She’s becoming aware that she’s not doing some things that will set her apart from her peers and give her an advantage to get into college. A lot of work on both her part and her parent’s part needs to be done to understand each other’s needs and wants. They need to work together somehow in order for this venture to be successful. Also I don’t think there’s anything wrong with curricula as long as it’s your own curricula that is a good fit that works for you and meets your needs.
Yes, a hundred times yes —-> “It used to be that the homeschool community was about sheltering kids from outside influences. Parents did not want their kids talking to an adult who disagrees with them. Today’s surge in homeschooling is fueled by parents who want to open the world to their kids. And the most realistic way to do that is to help kids learn to seek out fresh opinions and informed help.”
It takes a major leap to move away from the idea that the K12 years are *supposed* to create strong generalists, and that all kids need to be strong generalists. Generalist production is the goal of Common Core and standardized testing.
The environment needs more evidence and more thought leadership about the value of nimble specialists. Penelope is in a totally excellent position to understand this. Most people have had the linkage between schooling and work subsumed into a sort of magical thinking, that one builds a bridge to the other. Then parents – and kids!- think it’s an individual, not systemic, problem when their kid doesn’t arrive at meaningful work.
It’s hard for many many people to step away from generalism. Kudos to the student in the post! Hope she can bring her folks with her.
I like the phrase “nimble specialist”. I am going to use this from now on. Thanks.
Penelope
The boy is naive. Psychology is not an easy field to learn just to skate by, it has to be for those wanting to make a difference in the world and study vast amounts of knowledge. This kid is self centered and immature and so this is NOT the field for him. I recommend McDonalds….no wait, you have to work hard there as well. He doesn’t want academic freedom, he wants to have someone support him all his life. Good luck with that in today’s economy.