Yep, you heard me right. I went to a homeschooling conference.
There. I said it.
This topic is such a touchy subject. I think it's up there with birthing options, breastfeeding, discipline styles, and the like. So, let me back up a bit.
Had you asked me a year ago if I would homeschool my children, I would have likely said I'd rather homeschool than pay for private school. But other than that, I would have said no.
If you asked me three and half years ago if I thought I'd stay home after having children, I would have probably said no to that as well. I didn't really make my mind up about that one until after having Fletcher. And before getting pregnant, I had always just thought I would work full time whether I had children or not.
But, I stayed home. And now, I'm thinking of homeschooling.
So, here's the situation. When we purchased this house, we didn't really think of school districts. We also didn't think we would be here this long. But we are, so it's time to start figuring out what our options are for schools. I figured since I'd be looking into the public school, local charter schools, and local private schools, I owed homeschooling a chance as well. The problem is, I didn't know much about homeschooling.
But that didn't stop me from being pretty judgemental about the whole thing. I always went for the go-to argument as well, claiming that homeschooled children were not socialized the right way and that there are so many things children learn in school that they just can't get from their home. While that argument will likely continue through the years, my stance on it has somewhat changed after being immersed with homeschooling families for three days.
I had contacted a few friends that I knew homeschooled to see why they decided to homeschool and what they could tell me about it. It's nice to have a sounding board. One of them told me to search for a conference in my state. I didn't even know they had homeschooling conferences.
In the back of my mind, I also thought...there has to be something with the numbers. The number of homeschooling households increasing at such a high rate. There has got to be something to this and I need to open my mind to the possibility.
Another and much larger background is in the picture when it comes to education. Many, many, many things were bothering me about our education system while I was teaching. Teachers were micromanaged beyond belief, likely because their administrators were as well, most likely because there is so much pressure on districts to perform well and look outstanding in the public eye. There is something wrong with that even if all intents and purposes behind legislation is to improve education for every child. What's wrong is this: I feel like so many children get lost in the herding process. As we try to differentiate and individualize education, we are asked to keep up with the Joneses in other classrooms, other schools, other states, and even other countries. I personally don't feel like you can provide a quality learning experience for each and every student when you have to be on Lesson 8.6 on Day 4 at 12:33pm and be done by 1:07 because all teachers in 2nd Grade need to be reading pages 56-63 in their Social Studies book. The way we were asked to teach went against most of what we learned in college. What a disappointment.
The pressure on school districts to push everyone through the system is forcing everyone to focus on data to the point children are tested continuously. I remember having kids take chapter tests, unit tests, post-tests for school data collection and a pre-test for the upcoming unit all in the same day. And that could be just for one subject. The pressure is not allowing teachers to focus on teaching children, fostering their growth, enlightening their minds, and motivating them to achieve more. Rather I feel like there's no time for that and more and more programs for it have been cut as well.
It is very disheartening and I don't blame any single person or organization for it. It's definitely not the teacher's fault, or the principal's for that matter. It's just become the standard and expectation. The system. A system that fails to acknowledge that working with children (that come from various backgrounds with different home situations, not to mention different learning styles and abilities) is not the same as working with inanimate objects, where you can apply a standard and maintain it and garauntee that it will meet objectives 100% of the time.
I ask myself "If this was bothering you so much when it wasn't your own children, how are you going to feel about things when it is?"
I can tell you that I haven't been motivated about teaching for quite awhile. (And I used to love it!) I was psyched after attending the conference. I had planned on trying to go with some friends that are also interested, but in the end, I am so glad I was there on my own. I could take it all in and make up my own mind about things without the influence of others. After attending, I was shocked to hear huge words of encouragement from people about the idea. I was bracing myself for judgement and instead, I found confirmation. Now, there have been judgemental comments as well, but for the most part, the people I've shared this with have either been interested in it, or have shared that it is, in fact, what they intend to do with their own children.
If you're interested in more of this, I can send you my notes from all of the seminars over the weekend. There's a ton of information. Also, I don't want it to sound like schools are horrible. There are many schools doing a wonderful job and many children are gaining a quality education. I know some fabulous teachers. I just also know the systems they are having to work around.
In the meantime, I had already intended to take Fletcher back out of pre-school and keep him home until he was six-years-old anyway. (This decision was based on some reading I've done with regard to boys and our current education system.) I have time to decide for sure, but I'll tell you something...knowing the ideal learning environment and student to teacher ratio, and how so much depends on the teacher and the other students in the classroom...homeschooling sounds even better after seeing the whole picture a bit more at the conference. Not to mention all the extra curricular stuff that kids can do outside of the home these days to interact with other children.
Here are some pictures from that weekend.
Here's the view of Winston-Salem that I had. It was rather nice to have a hotel room all to myself. I was so busy in seminars and at the curriculum vendor fair that I was rarely in the room though.
It was nice to walk and eat out on my own. (Sorry kids, but you're a lot of work when we're at restaurants.) The first place I went (Finnigan's Wake), had one of Jesse and my favorite beers...Hoegaarden. So I started with that and some raw oysters. I don't know if you can see the poster in the back, but it says Holden Beach. Isn't funny how there are reminders of your children everywhere...even when you're away?
The other picture is from Foothills Brewery. Jesse and I like to go to breweries to try out new beers. I also just like the atmosphere. Interestingly enough, the guy next to me started up a conversation and shared that his nephews were homeschooled. Later the bartender shared how he and all of his siblings were homeschooled. I recently found out that our photographer was homeschooled and everyone that works with Jesse homeschooled their kids. I swear this topic has come up so many times since I've started to give it serious thought. It's like when you buy a car and then you see that car everywhere.
I went to the talent show they had one night. I didn't attend the graduation or the sports championship games (I didn't want to drive.), but I love stuff like talent shows. This band (The Snyder Family Band) was great. I might post a video. The day I left, I went to Krispy Kreme, which was created in Winston-Salem. This was not the original store, but I didn't want to pay to get into the historic part of town.
Then I headed over to the campus at Wake Forest University. I was in the area and we like to look around different college campuses. It was gorgeous.
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