Home Ed Thoughts - part 2
The next question to answer in the book is ‘why do you think this is the best way to educate them?’. I probably covered this a lot in the last question but hey, if something is worth saying then it is probably worth saying twice!
My personal experience of learning is that if I was interested in something I would enjoy it, if I enjoyed it I found it easy (even when it was difficult because I enjoyed the process of digging into the problem). I figured I couldn’t be the only one wired like that, turns out, everyone is wired like that. We are all, according to ‘the experts’, natural born learners. Turns out it is being made to sit in class and learn about things we have no interest in that turns that off. The metaphorical light we hear so much about. I loved the first four years of L’s life with me, watching her achieve so much seemingly effortlessly. The best feeling in the world is watching your kids try something until they achieve and then their little faces lighting up like they’ve just solved the answer to everything. There’s that light again. I mentioned in the last post that L’s light went out within the first few weeks of school. The questions stopped, the interest disappeared, the trying was no longer part of her. So, that way of educating obviously wasn’t working for her. She wasn’t happy. And at the end of all of this that is what I want. I obviously want her to be able to read, write, be interested in science, travel, history, the world and others. But put simply, I want her to be happy. A big ask really, or is it?
But back to my original point, that we learn best when it is something we are interested in. School cannot possibly cover the interests of 30 individual children with the staff and budget they have. They cannot get to know the way our children learn best and implement those activities, not 30 times. I can. Because I only have three children. I have the resources, the budget and my attention for them 365/24/7. And if something doesn’t work, they lose interest, they just aren’t ‘in the mood’ today, we can change. We can do something else, somehow else, somewhere else. We can stop, start, stop again. We have time, no pressure, no tests, no inspections, no targets. Just passion for learning in whatever form that takes. How is that not the best way to educate anyone, anywhere??
