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There’s an art and science in medicine, I’ve been told.
If one could type symptoms into the Google bar and spit out a diagnosis, would medical doctors be required?
There’s a certain experience and constant exposure that surrounds the assessment and diagnoses in medicine that can’t be captured in the Google bar.
Let’s get a perspective shift on the art and science of an education.
“Education cannot make a person into something; it can only provide space for a person to discover who they are. Being fully human is not derived from doing things the way that someone or something has told us to, but by being who we are, the person we were born to be”.
Life Learning Magazine
There is an art and science of an education (& how to make it too!)
We could try to jam a bunch of facts into the minds of our children and hope they spit out the requested knowledge later.
But I believe that education would merely be judged inadequate, adequate, above average, or excellent.
What value is that?
Isn’t an education more than just cramming knowledge bits into our brains?
At least once a week, I participate in this conversation with a random stranger:
So you homeschool?
Yup. Smile. (I’ve learned not to explain my choice, nor defend it.)
So there is a government curriculum you follow?
Nope, we’re independent.
Silence.
The curious bystander wonders how I could enact an education without the efforts of a government school system.
Where do I find the curriculum? (Um, it’s everywhere: online, bookstores, conferences).
How do you do math?
Do the kids just hang out in pajamas and use their screens all day? (Roll my eyes, OF COURSE, we’re in PJs all day, ha, we’re homeschoolers, but no to the screens in my house).
Do you spend more time than a schooled kid on academics, or you can do it faster, right?
I hear kids are smarter than regular kids. (Some kids. But what does that matter anyway? We have the kids we were given).
Are you a trained schoolteacher? (No. I got my Bachelor of Science in Nursing and married to a medical doctor: does that make you feel better?)
Can your kids read? Are they geniuses? (Insert my rant about ALL children being geniuses in their own way–roll your eyes if you want, but I actually believe that.)
We do formal studies in a certain season.
The kids know the drill, they know the routine, they know the seasonal shifts from project-based unschooling in May-ish and unschooling in summer, and a formal, though child-directed educational approach in the fall-ish.
We do academic STUFF, but what is an education anyways?
Workbooks and textbooks might be an element of an education, but an education is not defined by a government-determined bookworm.
- Or shiny test scores.
- Or cleverly worded lectures.
- Or trying to fulfill the Core Curriculum or the provincial learning outcomes.
I’m not a classroom teacher teaching twenty-five kids or responsible for a few hundred.
I am watching my four children, and how they learn, listening to their interests, and trying to provide them with an intentional and tailored educational experience.
When they’re especially interested in a topic, they absorb information quickly. In other words, they LEARN.
Zach stares out the window as I am washing up dishes…“Mom, the sun is refracting a rainbow!” (No kidding, my five-year-old knows about refracting. Didn’t know he knew that–probably learned from his older sisters, maybe Sid the Science Kid, or maybe retained that from our discussion on qualities of light when he was three but the girls were older.)
They learn differently.
My husband and I both thought we would be helpful resources for our thirteen-year-old daughter as she practiced her lines for a summer play, “Dr. Doolittle”. She was cast as General Bellows. Turns out, she preferred memorizing them independently. She always preferred/prefers working that way. And she can work like a machine when she sets her mind to something. When production day came, we were mighty surprised at the difficulty of the words in her lines, and she pulled them off perfectly, without our help.
You can still learn the academic game when you need it.
I was energized by a conversation I had with an HSLDA lawyer (Homeschool Legal Defense Association), who has homeschooled himself. He told me he had to learn to play the “academic game” in order to complete his qualifications to become a lawyer, but “learning” is a different animal. He learned to jump through hoops, learned to effectively test, write papers, and participate in group work — all of this formal education is necessary for many professions. But these things don’t necessarily equate to educating a human.
The art and science of an education can be summed up in John Taylor-Gatto’s quote:
“Whatever an education is, it should make you a unique individual, not a conformist: it should furnish you with an original spirit with which to tackle the big challenges: it should allow you to find values which will be your road map through life; it should make you spiritually rich, a person who loves whatever you are doing; wherever you are, whomever you are with; it should teach you what is important, how to live and how to die”.
John Taylor-Gatto
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Call to Adventure by Kevin MacLeod
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I like the distinction between the academic game and learning. They are definitely not the same thing, although both are important.
“What my kids won’t miss is a tailored education.”
What they won’t miss is being schooled… not at all the same as gaining an education. (Gatto)
What they won’t miss is losing the parental attachment in favour of peer attachment. (Neufeld, Mate)
What they won’t miss is the endless pursuit of achievement at the expense of their psychological well-being. (Wong Keltner)
Kudos to you… this is an excellent blog!
Yup, you are so right! Love Gordon Neufeld. I wish my teenage daughter thought the same as me though. I think sometimes she thinks she’s missing out!
Are you practicing enough daily attachment rituals? Keep it on the down low until you have reeled her back in, however. Or if you meant she is now grown, you can still reach out to her… it is never too late.
Attachment rituals? Which book is that in?
Gordon Neufeld and Gabor Mate recently wrote, ” Hold On To Your Kids: Why Parents Need to Matter More than Peers. It’s all about breaking through peer orientation and re-attaching to our kids. Best book on parenting I have ever read. It cuts right through all the new age solutions and gets to heart of the matter.
However, once you are done that, you may realize that there are a lot of emotions that interfere with creating and implementing the much needed attachment rituals – this can be from the parents and the child(ren). To solve that problem, I use EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) http://www.strictly-stress-management.com/eft_tapping.html combined with the teachings of the Enneagram (personality typing index) http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/. I use the two together because you have to truly understand what makes you tick in order to figure out which emotions are likely tripping you up.
In other words, I work on my own issues and that frees me up to help my children solve their issues and eventually, I taught my kids EFT and the Enneagram as well and they use it to self manage their own needs now that they are older. It’s all about keeping our own internal house in order so that the relationship can be the priority. Good luck and cheers!
If you are having struggles with your teen daughter, you may want to try this. http://strictlystressfreemom.com/2016/03/14/the-master-snuggler-strikes-again/
Thanks for this great post. It’s really encouraging as I’m entering my second year homeschooling, and my first with two kids being educated. The other ones will tag along but are still under 5.
I’m enjoying writing more about homeschool on my blog, too, and am going to put a link to this post in one of mine soon. I really like the flexible, passion driven approach to learning…I think kids can benefit so much from this. This morning my 6 year old read a phonics reader, “Fat Cat on the Mat” to herself. She read the whole thing because she wanted to, and because she had time. It’s only a line per page, but is nearly 200 pages! I love that she was able to do this, and that it was her initiative.
Keep up the great work, and happy homeschooling!
I really connected with this piece. Hun and I, who plan (are) to homeschool often discuss the difference in learning and knowledge versus education. School is everything and everywhere. Right now, with our 3yo and our 10mo, they know so much more than family members’ children who are older and/or attend school settings. Monkey Boy (3yo) is very very interested in reading and words, writing, and letters these days. I’m working to foster that as he directs – sometimes with sheets I’ve printed for him to trace names, other times through identifying letters in books/movies/signs. It’s amazing to watch our children grown and learn and connect things, even just practical skills. 🙂