Can I say that I have really enjoyed being stuck at home, especially when I have the kids? Quarantine and social distancing have their advantages. One news report I read suggests that 3 out of 5 people are using this opportunity for self-improvement, which is great! I mean, I've started a blog and am writing more, which I consider self-improvement.
One of the things I have been most excited about, and that I have enjoyed the most during the last month, is getting to homeschool my kids again. I posted a few days about how I grew into a better stay-at-home parent through embracing my strength as an educator. Now, staying at home is a new reality, and I am embracing being an educator once again.
Over the past several years, I intentionally made it my goal to learn more about education and grow in this field. When I was doing graduate studies in philosophy, I did cross departmental studies in Philosophy of Education and Ethics of Education (even though the university refused to accept some of these credits towards a degree). I got a job at Emma Willard School helping students with basic study skills. I read multiple books on the topics of education and learning how to learn. I've studied it from a practical standpoint, a neuroscience standpoint, a philosophical standpoint, a political standpoint, etc. I truly love approaching this topic from all angles. And I enjoy putting my knowledge into practice.
During these past couple of weekends that I have had the kids, we read Charlie and and Chocolate Factory. What a wonderful book! The book is so wonderful that I am even contemplating not letting the kids watch the movie! Wesleigh's favorite part of the book was the short story about the Indian Prince who had Willy Wonka make him an entire castle out of chocolate, and it melted and got all sticky. Byron really thought is was clever when the square candies looked round. Of course, neither of these parts is in the Gene Wilder movie. (And I have avoided watching the Johnny Depp version.)
The main topic I want to discuss today is the need parents like myself have for family centered activities (like family story time) being the primary ingredient in homeschooling. Let's get real here. If I or any other parent out there attempts to educate four children, who are all different ages and in different grades, solely by giving them individual attention with individualized content, the amount and quality of education are going to greatly suffer. As Bailey and I have both attempted to keep up with the children's work sent to them from their school, it is nearly impossible to keep track of everything. There's too much to divide our attention between. Family activities, however, serve to pull everyone's attention and focus together.
Just so you have an idea, allow me to detail how my childrens' school has set up their homeschooling program during this pandemic. Colburn, Byron, and Ezra have all been given their individual google classroom accounts, which also comes with individual google mail accounts. Each of them has to be on a computer for online classes with their teachers at specific times, and teachers expect parents to scan and email in their homework. The teachers also give book assignments, so parents need to monitor their children to make sure they are doing the right lesson in the right book. (This resulted in a meltdown one day when Colburn had accidentally read the wrong book.) In addition, they all have specific websites they are expected to go to, and we need to keep track of their log in information, which is different for each child. Ugh!
What is the result of all this? Is it a good continuing education? Can I say no? What tends to happen is the parent (I speak primarily for me) ends up running around just making sure the kids follow the program, and there is very little room to check in with your child to actually be a parent or to contribute to your child's education. For myself, I have to take care of Wesleigh as the other three are doing their things. The administrative cost to my budgeted attention is high.
E.D. Hirsch noted in his book The Schools We Need and Why We Don't Have Them that the attempt to provide individual attention to students very often results in general neglect. (I can't find exact quote, but a similar quote is on pg. 255 of that book.) I believe this is true in many circumstances. At home, a parent has only so much attention to give. The whole purpose of having a classroom is to group together students who are generally all around the same age and stage of intellectual development. (I'm not saying this is ideal, by the way. I do not believe this is how classrooms need to be, but this is how they are.) But in a home, in a house, parents often work with children who are all of different ages and stages of development.
So when teachers attempt to force a classroom paradigm created for the homogeneous classroom into a household what does not fit that paradigm, all this does is create chaos and confusion. It's the wrong paradigm, and it doesn't work for homeschooling. It results in parents' trying to provide individual attention to the needs of their individual children for material that is actually designed for a whole classroom and isn't created for any particular individual. Parents then must split their individualized attention between their individual children to have them study their non-individualized work. Can we see a problem with this?
There are many problems with the modern paradigm of education, and those problems become even more pronounced when parents have to cater to a paradigm meant for a wildly different setting. I will get into some of these issues in future posts. I do want to be clear that this is not necessarily anyone's fault, and certainly not the fault of teachers. If the school paradigm is a square peg, home is a round hole. There's nothing wrong with the paradigm so long as there's a square hole it fits into. The paradigm needs to fit the situation. A paradigm focused on family activity is much more suitable to the homeschooling parent.
Future thoughts are to follow. For now, I will state as my thesis that I am more confident in the education my children received by my reading them Charlie and the Chocolate Factory than I am in the education they have received from their online education since lockdown began. I will be supporting this with my own research going forward.
Postscript: After originally writing and posting this post, I came across this article. It speaks to the frustration parents feel when they are forced to bring a school paradigm into their homes where it doesn't fit.
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