It’s an uncomfortable place to be. I offer sympathy to those before and coming along behind in similar situations.
It’s difficult when you don’t quite fit into any camp. Not quite home educating, not quite schooling, the bit that we do pick up isn’t mainstream. A mother who does actually guiltily enjoy working, but would also enjoy being at home, and is torn in two and can only do either well at the expense of her own personal time and space.
Society is constricting. It’s made up of ppl. Ppl are mostly comfortable with what they know. It was suggested to me recently that I could publicise this blog more by submitting articles to various home education carnivals – I can’t really see that working when three days a week my children are in school. But they are also at home 4 days a week – weekends are just a slightly blurred time when it’s a bad time to go shopping, they don’t practically make all that much difference to us in what we do, in terms of educational activities, as we’ve never been ones for timetabled school at home.
So where do we fit? This isn’t to say that I’m uncomfortable on the blogring, or at home ed camps. Although I do feel a little fraudulent, but my children don’t appear to. Perhaps that is the answer – we’re forging our own path. I know it’s different to many, but my children only know it as their life.
There *are* ppl in home ed circles who are rabidly against the idea of school. In many cases these are ppl who only found home education when it became obvious how unsuited school was to their needs, and with all the zeal of a recent convert, they are trying to save others from repeating similar painful errors. But no two ppl get the same experience, and no answer fits all. That’s the problem with a national curriculum and national schooling system after all, and it’s the same problem if we try to make everyone home educate the same way.
A little while ago I blogged about how I think things should work. Learning centres, one in every village and community. Preferably one within walking distance of pretty much every house, although I can see a case for mobile learning centres for remote hamlets, in much the same way you have mobile libraries.
What would a learning centre consist of? A library for one, lots and lots of books. Equipment that you could book to use there or borrow to use at home. Science equipment, games, crafts, computers, art – all the bits that it’s next to impossible (and economically and practically unviable) to have for yourself. The things that you can’t afford to buy to try, but would love to try just in case.
Perhaps there would be a kitchen, or art room. Maybe a softplay zone. Sports facilities so that local teams would come together there too, so that learning, sport and community would all have a base.
And how would it be staffed? Well, I see a couple of administrative type staff around at most points. And I see peripatetic teachers (bad work, but can you think of another?) on a kind of rota, so that at different times there would be access to different skills. Music staff, arts, crafts, science, maths, computers, languages – so many skills that could be lead by someone in a day or so a week.
Oh yes, of course it would be difficult to coordinate. Some of the time something you wanted would be with someone else, or two teachers that you desperately wanted to learn from would clash timewise in their availability. But it would be up to the individual to work around that, to decide what was the most important thing at this time.
You could have local employers sponsoring their employees to take time to go into centres and share their skills – actually find out whether ppl wanted to do the work and let them learn the skills before they walk through the door. No more complaints about school leavers not ready for the world of work. I’d bring back apprenticeships, and I’d recognise them in a lot more areas.
It would allow families to coordinate their use of a centre and provide child care for each other, so that younger siblings could be just as involved as older ones. It would be more time efficient than schools, so you wouldn’t need to be there all day every day, and you’d be following things up outside of it anyway. Bring learning and life back together, make them the centre of community and stop institutionalising our children.
So how’s that? I know there are other ppl out there with similar ideas. I know of ppl who are trying to implement them now, and I wish them all the luck in the world. I just wonder when the rest of the population is going to work out how badly a one size fits all system isn’t working, and what we’ve got to do to fix it. And that isn’t to try to squeeze children into it earlier.
Comments
23 responses to “Sitting on the fence.”
I like your idea of learning centres Jax. I also know that we all have to find our ‘own path’ – no 2 home edders/parents/children are the same. If school some days a week suits your family there’s nothing wrong with that – in fact it’s great. Only thing wrong would be if you feel judged – and whatever you do someone will judge you for it! You’ve carefully chosen your childrens schooling – you’re hardly falling into the trap of sending them somewhere unfortunate and turning a blind eye. Give yourself a pat on the back – someone who thinks so deeply about their choices is going to do very well by their children.
I stumbled accross your site a while ago through EO yahoo sites. I apologise for not having introduced myself ’til now but I kept thinking each time would be my last at being nosey but your witty and honest account of your life kept me coming back for more!
I couldn’t agree more about those who try to convert others to their way of life be that pro-school or pro-home school. All we can do is try to honestly find out what suits us and realise that everyone is very different. It sounds simple of course…
Last week I felt we were on top of the world. After two years of home ed (and a house/career/area move to make this possible) the kids now seem settled and very happy. This week my eldest has announced he would like to try school. OK, so now I am getting over the shock – there is a lot I don’t like about school but there is a lot he doesn’t like about feeling so different and I can understand that.
If only there was more real flexibility. Learning centres would be wonderful for many reasons, not least of all that it would hand back responsibilty and choice to individuals but also because it would be OK to be finding your own way. We’d all be different.
It is hard to fight the tide and hard to find what suits. I suspect that soon, like you I will be trying to mix and match.
Humour goes a long way to help. So thank you for your witty words and sorry it has taken me so long to own up to reading them.
Lindsay (Devon)
Rang loads of bells here throughout, eg: I agree entirely that people should find their own paths and that it is very difficult to predict from one person to the next what will suit. It should be able to see this since I LOVED two of my schools with a passion and simply LOATHED the other, with a morbid depression that would have got most adults committed, but which of course went entirely unrecognised…even by myself, I have to say.
Also agree that one can feel awkward with a foot in both camps, but do hope that others will become more accepting of this position. I personally feel that it should be easy to sell…ie: that if child is happy and learning, what is the problem, sort of thing.
And love the idea of community centre…bring on the day.
Yes, the community centre idea is my ideal, if only school could be like that – I guess a ‘pick and mix’ school could never work for everyone and therein lies the problem, our systems at the moment are geared up to cater for the lowest common denominator.
I think that the picture isn’t as clear cut as some might think. As you’ve said, there are those who do a bit of school and a bit of home-ed, and maybe combine that with working part-time and I expect what you’re feeling is quite common to this set of people.
There are also those who home educate full time, and I’ll assume for now that one parent works full time and the other’s at home full time. The parent at home might occasionally yearn for more life outside the home, a career as something other than a home educator and so on, and maybe feel guilty for feeling this. The parent at work might occasionally wish for more time at home with the children, but also feel guilty for the mornings when they can escape from grumpy children by going to work.
I know families that home educate full time by the parents both having part time jobs. I suppose this is similar to the flexi-schooling arrangement in that each parent is sometimes involved in education and sometimes at work, leaving the education to someone/thing else.
I’m not trying to put anyone down, but I think what I’m trying to say is that life’s not perfect for anyone and the acceptance that Carlotta speaks of should be universal.
…and no doubt thousands of people who are perfectly content with schooling their kids in the one-size-fits all mentality who might not like the inference that what they do ‘isn’t working’. Isn’t working for who?
Lindsay :wave:
In the end, I think being committed to your children, and having them no that you are intetrested in them and what they do, and that you care about their education probably has more of an impact than which particular choices you make.
I expect there are many people “schooling their kids in the one-size-fits all mentality” who care very much indeed about the outcome for their children, but may never have considered that there is an alternative. Until Jax told me about it, I didn’t know that there was such a thing as HE.
WE stumbled upon H.E when things got so bad that we needed to do something different. We did’nt fit at school and tbh don’t always feel that we fit with h.e. I find peoples attitudes get in the way too much. I love the idea of learning centres.
‘having them no’ are you feeling alright Tim?
Chris, you could have picked me up on the grammar of that sentence but you aren’t going to get anywhere implying that there aren’t problems with the system.
I’m not implying there aren’t problems with the system, that’s your inference.
As far as I can tell there isn’t a revolution amongst parents about the lack of effectiveness of the current education system in the air. The vast majority of people appear to be reasonably content, or rather content enough to not want anything done about it really. You *seem* to be suggesting that this is because they haven’t worked ‘out how badly a one size fits all system isn’t working’. I’d be interested to know why you think they haven’t worked it out – are they stupid, dis-interested, ignorant, hood-winked by government?
I am suggesting that actually the majority have worked out that in terms of what they want from their it works just fine (even with the imperfections that are obvious to all).
I’ll come back to this another time, I’m not up for it tonight. Not ignoring you though.
Chance would be a fine thing 😉
We feel the same irritation at those who define unschooling as’ must be done a certain way’. And of any philosophy, unschooling ought to be the one which allows room for the most freedom in implementation.
Excellent post.
I think learning centres, like you describe, would be great in so many ways. They would combine the advantages of home and school based education, and it would be great to see children have a place in their communities. There would be a further advantage in such centres, that there would be no need for special schools; children with additional needs and their parents would be able to support each other better, and take advice from outside sources, when they want it.
So you enjoy working, that is great! What works for your family is all that matters. I think we all have to try to find what works for each of us, in our working or not, schooling or not, and it’d be better if no-one would pass judgement on other people’s choices.
Is the current system working?
No, I don’t think so. Education is meant to fit ppl for a life in their community, without foreclosing opportunities (or at least, that is the standard home educators are supposed to work too) and I don’t see that that is happening with schools. The system was designed a long time ago, for a different age and different needs, and it hasn’t really changed all that much since. It doesn’t make sense to process kids in yearly bunches and give them long summer holidays to fit in with the harvest, but we still do all of that.
so there is no revolution of parents asking for change? was there a revolution of parents asking for a school system in the first place? I doubt it, but it didn’t stop it happening.
Coherence is still not my strong point at the moment.
Still interested to know why you think the majority of the population hasn’t realised ‘how badly a one size fits all system isn’t working’.
I suspect that most ppl just think that’s the way it is and that’s the way it has to be. One of the things that schooling does is teach ppl that they are controlled by a greater authority, so turning around to that authority and saying, you’ve got it all wrong, has got to be quite tough.
Thanks so much for picking me up on my typo, Chris.
By the way, didn’t you mean “Isn’t working for whom?”
I wonder sometimes what society would be like if home education were the norm. Not so much in the difference to the children themselves, but mass behaviour and attitudes and so on. For instance, would everyone still have the big rush to go away over the summer? What would happen to the economy if parents had to do more of the childcare because schools didn’t do it during term time? Would we see a move back to more apprenticeships?
It’s all speculation (therefore possibly not the most productive of activities 🙂 ) and I’m not suggesting that all outcomes would necessarily be positive!
Or, looking at it differently, if we could offer _every_ child and family the choice to have schools, home ed, learning centres and everything, what would people choose?
This is probably me being far too much up my own backside, so no change there then ;-).
Well, lots of families like school becuase it’s free childcare if they both need or want to work. Changing the system to anything that would make sorting out childcare more difficult or costly seems to me like it would be very unpopular.
And I don’t think either of the 2 main schools I went to did much of a job of teaching anyone there that they were controlled by a higher authority! That’s certainly not the attitude I left with anyway.
Jax said “Education is meant to fit ppl for a life in their community”…OUCH!…”, without foreclosing opportunities (or at least, that is the standard home educators are supposed to work too) and I don’t see that that is happening with schools.”
I think that is EXACTLY what is happening in schools. The National Curriculum and standardisation of learning is aiming to turn everyone out with a basic standard fit for this country. That’s also what parents do, raising children to fit in with the smaller community.
At a higher level it is the reproduction of culture, that process that continues the social structures that we rely upon to be able to function in the world. Under the microscope it may not be comfortable but if we do not teach our children the same things we know then they will not understand when we talk to them, nor will we understand them.
But to my OUCH! I think education should be to take people BEYOND the current culture, to deliberately open up new knowledge links and deliberately create opportunities for children to generate new ideas, thoughts, social structures, understandings and to enable them to evolve the very society and culture into which they were born.
The quote was from a legal judgement, it’s the definition of a suitable education. I’m not saying that’s what I think education should achieve, merely that that is what we are legally obliged to offer.
The National Curriculum and standardisation of learning *doesn’t* turn everyone out with a basic standard fit. Huge numbers of children every year fail to reach the minimum literacy and numeracy standards set, let alone achieve anything else.