I’m homeschooling my son to ensure that there is room for creativity in his education.
This may come as a shock to my husband and mother-in-law.
They think I’m homeschooling Alex because he wasn’t learning much in the public school, especially in science.
It is certainly true that with the current focus on school achievement in New York State’s Math and ELA tests given in 3rd-8th Grade, there is a tendency to focus on raising the scores of low-scoring students while the brightest students are virtually ignored as it is assumed that they do not have any special needs. Also, there is a tendency to spend the greater portion of each school day on the Math and English Language Arts course work that will result in the highest scores on these tests. Even 2nd grade teachers have to make sure their classes adhere to the pacing guidelines for those subjects. Other subjects and projects are often given cursory attention, or are dropped altogether.
As students and teachers are pushed to conform so that schools achieve the numbers needed to maintain funding, child-centered learning and creativity are the casualties.
How is child-centered learning and creativity part of our homeschooling experience? I’ve paraphrased the classic children’s book, If You Give A Mouse A Cookie, to describe our recent experience.
If you give a kid freedom to learn, he is going to want to choose his own books.If you give a kid his own book choice, he is going to want to read the entire Captain Underpants series.
If you give a kid the opportunity to read the entire Captain Underpants series, he is going to want to visit the Dav Pilkey website.
If you give a kid free reign on the Dav Pilkey website, he will want to start creating superheroes just like Dav Pilkey did in second grade.
If you give a kid art supplies to create superheroes, he will want to write a book.
If you give a kid time to write a book, he is going to want to write a novel during National Novel Writing Month.
If you give a kid membership in NaNoWrimo’s Young Writers Program, he is going to ask if you want to write a novel too.
And then you get a mommy who is overbooked, but a kid who has lots of time and energy to find new ways to keep mommy busy!
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Barbara Frank 11.07.07 at 8:45 pm
Yes, yes, yes! You’ve caught on very quickly
Thanks for stopping by my blog,
Barb
Barbara Frank 11.07.07 at 8:46 pm
P.S. One of mine is participating in National Novel Writing Month. I’ve told her if she makes it through the month, I’ll have a copy of it printed for her at lulu.com
Kim Moldofsky 11.08.07 at 10:39 pm
I love it!
WhyMommy 11.09.07 at 4:52 am
Wow! Good one! I just found you from DC Metro Moms … and I’m glad I did!
Accepted to College: For Parents 02.25.08 at 1:31 pm
When I was a teacher, I was always instructed to “teach to the middle”. That is, average the desired speed of all your students and teach to that level. Some teachers didn’t like the approach and instead decided to, as you described, “teach to the bottom”. This is great for making sure no one gets left behind, but is terribly tragic for the faster students who are left bored and unengaged.
I tried not to teach to the middle, bottom, or top, but rather teach to all students. A good teacher is able to engage all of their students at the same time, never boring the fastest ones or leaving behind the slowest. But I agree that this is an inherent problem in the public school system and teaching in this style is a technique not many teachers can master.
Do give us some credit, though. Some of us work very hard to make sure all of our students receive their appropriate levels of education.
livingbylearning 02.26.08 at 9:22 am
I concur. There are many incredibly dedicated, imaginative teachers who work very hard to find ways to engage all their students.
However, there are many factors working against these teachers including: pacing guidelines (starting in 2nd grade); large classes; and a myriad of requirements.
Also, even for the best teachers, it takes a lot of time to create differentiated lessons. In a workshop on differentiation that I attended, teachers were encouraged to create one differentiated lesson per month. In one academic year, a highly motivated and energetic teacher may create 9 lessons. Obviously, it’s unreasonable to expect that they would be able to provide differentiated lessons every day.
It’s exhausting - even in the homeschool setting - to maintain the balance between allowing a child to explore self-directed learning while motivating him to move forward in all required subjects.
Thank you for sharing & for being one of the many great teachers!