“I’ve noticed a fascinating phenomenon in my twenty-five years of teaching: that schools and schooling are increasingly irrelevant to the great enterprises of the planet. No one believes anymore that scientists are trained in science classes or politicians in civics classes or poets in English classes. The truth is that schools don’t really teach anything except how to obey orders. This is a great mystery to me because thousands of humane, caring people work in schools, as teachers and aides and administrators, but the abstract logic of the institution overwhelms their individual contributions. Although teachers do care and do work very, very hard, the institution is psychopathic; it has no conscience. It rings a bell and the young man in the middle of writing a poem must close his notebook and move to a different cell where he must memorize that humans and monkeys derive from a common ancestor.” (John Taylor Gatto, Dumbing Us Down
This is a good example of why I’m a bit skeptical of tightly-timed homeschool schedules. I do believe we need order and routine, but regularly changing gears by the clock, perhaps every 30 or 60 minutes, smacks too much of classroom bell-ringing to me. (Yes, yes, I know such schedules work beautifully for some families. They’re just not a good fit for mine.)
One of my favorite images of homeschooling comes from a taped lecture by Chris Davis of the Elijah Company. He talks about seeing one of his boys lying on the back of his horse staring into the sky, and deciding not to call him in for his “lesson” just then as he had intended. Chris felt like the boy needed the freedom of the time to think and dream. How many young people today have such a glorious opportunity?
Mary Jo
And a nice reminder about why we chose to homeschool.