The Beginnings

I didn't start out to be a homeschooling mom. In fact, I was a public school teacher in two states, four districts, for more than 20 years! My older children went to public school in Iowa, and I was very satisfied with most parts of their education. I believe in public education, and I hope someday that my "surprise" child, who is now 5, will attend public school, but I'm not so sure.

Part of that reluctance is specific to her, and part of it is general to public education in this era. In the last decade, The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law has led our nation's public education system on an insane wild goose chase. I have NO problem with accountability, either for the nation's teachers or for the students. Both should be held accountable for the learning that is essential to an adult in the USA.

I saw lots of good come from the idea that teachers are professionally responsible for their students' learning. Monitoring student learning and adapting teaching methods in a collaborative team environment is an AWESOME way to teach! But as time went on, NCLB's requirements led to punishments of teachers, administrators, schools, and districts, which leads to fear. And fear is the death knell of a collaborative environment.

The idea of effective instruction gave way to the pressure of achieving "success" on the test. And in the last few years, at least in some places, "succeeding" on the test was the only thing that mattered. To the point of teachers being told to stop working with certain students because "they weren't going to pass the test anyway." That to work with them was "a waste of time" and that the teacher's time should be spent only on those students who "had a chance at passing the test." To me, that's a crime.

Then add to that atmosphere the budget cuts that are nationwide, and you get school systems that are struggling to provide the basic services to children in classes of 36 or more in elementary school. What is happening is a very narrow focus on the tested skills, which leads to a very narrow curriculum that is delivered in a non-collaborative environment to too many students in a classroom. Ugh. My last couple of years teaching (2009-10 and 2010-11) were very difficult ethically for me.

I strongly believe that teaching is a broader undertaking with a much more general goal than passing "the test." That the curriculum must include the social sciences, the arts, and a basic understanding of how to get along with people. That the child should determine the curriculum as much as feasible: his needs, her interests, and their passions should be allowed to affect what is taught and learned in a classroom. Yes, we teachers should be held accountable for teaching the prescribed curriculum, but we should be allowed to do it in a way that allows all participants to be fully engaged in their own goals, not simply pushing them through an assembly line school.

For these reasons, I am reluctant to teach in a public school, and even more reluctant to send my 5 year old to a public school.

I think I'll save my more child-specific reasons for homeschooling for another blog entry! Welcome to Stealth Kindergarten!