What do homeschoolers want to deschool from: let’s get specific

What is the school mindset that so many homeschoolers want to deschool?

This is the question that homeschool families have a hard time answering for themselves.

We know that we leave the school behind but leave the schooled mindset behind? We don’t always know what we’re trying to leave.

So what do homeschoolers want to deschool?

Since I was conventionally schooled and I brought my kids home after my oldest daughter finished second grade and my second daughter finished kindergarten, I’ve had to deschool a few things.

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Why do homeschoolers want to deschool?

Culture teaches us how to teach our kids.

• We assume kids should always be busy.
• That kids must have a constant exposure to new things.
• Kids need to identify in a particular grade.
• We assume kids need teachers to learn stuff.
• And we assume learning comes best through lectures, textbooks, and testing.

The conventional education creates a pre-recorded soundtrack to how we presume a home education must sound.

• Do we assume kids need to learn certain things at certain times?
• We assume kids typically are at the same developmental level to receive knowledge bits at similar times.
• Sometimes we assume kids will be interested in things we’re interested in because we’re interested in them.
• Do we need to organize learning and create systems of learning?
• We assume teachers need to be certified.
• Must we switch from the role of mother to teacher depending on what we’re discussing?

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Naturally, homeschool mamas learn so much about learning IN REAL LIFE. Not just in textbooks and not just in homeschool philosophies either. We learn from our kids.

• We assume there are only certain times of the day that kids can learn.
• Are there really only certain subjects that are considered learning?
• We assume that children don’t know how they should be educated.
• Does an education need to be pre-planned even for that child and that can’t just happen as they go.
• We assume that kids’ emotional connection & attachment can be put on hold for seven hours.

Turns out, homeschool mamas learn that the most important things in life are the people in their home, their parents, and their significant attachment people.

• We assume that the most important people in a child’s life are his/her peers.
• Assume that someone else, a prescribed system, developed by the experts know better than parents, how to advocate for an education for our children.

So, when you do this homeschool thing long enough and learn that no education is complete. None. And that no curriculum of knowledge is gonna fill all the gaps either.

• We assume that there is a certain time in life to learn and there is a certain time in life to produce.
• Also, we assume everyone needs a base knowledge.
• Or we assume there is only one way to get a base knowledge.
• We assume that base knowledge has to be learned in sequence.
• A base knowledge learned in a sequence is remembered because we tested.
• We assume that because we tested, kids know. Even if we know that they don’t care.
• Assume that imparting anything to kids is a good done for them.

Now, what would you add to this list of things that homeschoolers want to deschool?

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“Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid”.

Albert Einstein

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