Welcome to the first of our series where we will be talking about and exploring ways of thinking that inhibit deschooling.
Deschooling is the process by which our kids (& us) “unlearn” school behavior. Why is it important in home schooling? It is likely that if you’ve pulled your kids out of public school, it’s because something was wrong. Your child’s needs were not being met. Throwing out misconceptions of how kids should learn and beginning to understand learning is the first step in deschooling. While my own kids have been home schooled from the beginning, I understand from talking with many parents that deschooling is as much a process for the parents as it is for the students.
I know the title implies that I’m against school and I want to say right off the bat that I’m not. What I am, is pro-school choice. However, the fallacy of traditional school is the idea that the schools have the corner on how to teach children. I know that sounds funny. You’re likely thinking, “well, don’t they?”
Traditional schools (and by traditional, I mean public or private) likely have the research based practices to meet the needs of some students. Teachers generally have to do staff development to keep their certification current. In fact, their programs are chock full of research.
Research Based Practices
However, there are two things that parents need to understand regarding research based practices. First of all, research is measured in statistics. Statistics speak in general terms–but not specifically. In other words, if the educational powers that be decide that whole language is beneficial, they study it in several classrooms. . .and many (not all) students benefit.
The second thing to understand is that in education there exists a bell curve. Most of the students in a class fall within the middle range somewhere. You have a few on either the low end or the high end. It is true that teachers are supposed to find a way to teach all the students in their class. But in reality, teachers teach to the majority of the students and do their best to reach either end.
Consider the “typical” bell curve classroom. If you had 30 kids. . .20 would likely fit in the middle of the curve and their needs could be met by one lesson with little modification. That leaves 10 other kids on either end. Can you imagine teaching 11 lessons–one for the large group and 10 separate ones? Of course not, and that’s not really how it works either.
The Fallacy of School
School is designed to meet the needs of many students–not all. If you’ve pulled your child out it is likely that in some way the school wasn’t meeting your child’s needs.
Despite what some advocates will say, the school does not have the corner on the market of educating a child. They don’t know all the “right” ways to do it. They have some good ideas. . .but guess what? So do you!
So free yourself from thinking that you need to set up “school” at home. You don’t. Get a journal. Write down what your child likes, doesn’t like. Write down a really good lesson you guys had and a really bad one. Turn the T.V. off and write down what your child chooses to do on his own. Use the journal as a spring board for creative ideas to ignite your child’s natural curiosity for learning. This is the place to start deschooling.
If you’d like to share more thoughts on deschooling check out this forum!
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