Why do people not question things?

Lately, I have been thinking about and wondering why no one really thinks for themselves when it comes to (what I consider) important topics. If you tell someone you home-school your child, one of the first questions they ask you about is socialization. They ask you, "How will your child learn to live in the real world?" And they are SERIOUS. They don't  realize that our school system puts kids in a building all day, with a teacher standing in front of them telling them what they're going to do and not do, when they can go to the bathroom, when they can get a snack or a drink of water, when they can sharpen their pencils and it goes on and on and on. Their days are run by bells; bells ringing in all sorts of time intervals and they start and stop what they are working on 20 times a day. I take that back. 20 times within a 6 hour period. Their behavior is manipulated by comments like, "Wow! Look at the great job that Jane is doing, sitting so nicely!" or they are threatened with ludicrous things like, "If you don't get your work done, you'll have to stay inside for recess and finish it. And if you get done early, you can just sit there and read!" They don't even realize by doing that, they're making reading a punishment. Students in public school are only with kids who are born 6 months before or after them and THIS is what most people consider the REAL WORLD??? It makes my head explode. WHY do people not question things?

New Realizations

Today's rambling is about Homeschooling and Unschooling. I have had so much on my mind about this lately and I want to just put it out there in hopes that I can build on it, if that makes sense.

We haven't been doing much of anything lately, as far as lessons. I used to have Q do work every day but it has become less and less as time's gone by. I feel like what he needs to know is how to take standardized tests at his grade level. That's the only thing anyone is ever concerned about. "How does he do on a state assessment? How will he do on tests if he ever does go back to school?" I have realized that I HATED "teaching to the test" when I was working in the school system but that is exactly what I need to do now that I'm homeschooling. I want Q to learn what he wants, when he wants. I think there is much more motivation and deeper learning that comes from that. But I also know he needs to "prove" that he knows things so if he does well on a standardized test and the rest of the time learns as much or as little as he wants, so be it. What's really wrong with that?

It all comes down to what I think is best for him to know and spend his time on. I'm thinking that it is much less than I thought it was. I think back to ALL of the things he was "learning" in school and realizing that he wasn't learning at all. He was just "doing." That's it and nothing more. Kind of an a-ha moment for me. :-)

Trying it again...

I haven't written for so long. I'm going to try it again...

So much has happened in the past year. My oldest son is getting married in less than a month, my middle son has moved out and I have gone through a lot of changes, as far as homeschooling/unschooling my youngest son who is now 11.

Since school is starting up soon (and has started for many kids already), I'm reminded of how peaceful and happy I feel that my child doesn't have to go to school. I'm reading a book called The Death and Life of the Great American School System and it has been very eye-opening. I had no idea how much corporations had their "hands" into the system. The SCHOOL system. So many people are making decisions about our education laws who have no business doing so. They are not educators or scholars of any kind. They are politicians and CEO's. On top of that, "The most toxic flaw in NCLB was its legislative command that all students in every school must be proficient in reading and mathematics by 2014. By that magical date, every single student must achieve proficiency, including students with special needs, students whose native language is not English, students who are homeless and lacking in any societal advantage, and students who have every societal advantage but are not interested in their schoolwork." A pair of researchers who conducted studies on NCLB said, "no educator believes this goal is attainable. Only politicians promise such things." SCARY. I knew our school system was not only falling apart but failing; I had no clue it was this corrupt.
Anyway- getting back to my point about feeling peaceful, it's due to the fact that every day, practically, I am hearing more and more negatives about " public school" and I don't have to be immersed in that type of life anymore. When your kids go to public school (this is also true for private school, co-ops, any type of "going to school in a building" setting), you are tied to a schedule that affects every other aspect of your life. I'm very glad, and proud of myself frankly, that I have stopped to consider something that was so ingrained in me- so much a part of who I was- or who I thought I was. I'm now looking at it all from a completely different perspective and it's something I can never un-see. And that's ok. :-)

Feeling good...

I'm NOT feeling good today but I AM feeling good about Q not attending public school. :-) Every day lately, I have just had this sense of peace come over me. More and more people are seeing that our school system is broken. There are 4 documentaries coming out now. The War on Kids and The Race to Nowhere: The Dark Side of America's Achievement Culture, just to name a couple. I'm excited about this, but it seems Americans are slow to realize that these issues are in fact issues and slow to realize when it's time to do something about them. As in, the time is NOW. They are also a bit ignorant in realizing that homeschooling is not about letting your kids sleep in, stay up late and run around doing whatever they want, whenever they want, although there are some families who do that and that is THEIR decision. No one else's. Look around- what we see now is what the public school system has been putting out- kids who bully others, committ suicide, steal, vandalize and disrepect people. Of course there are good kids who go through the public school system, but it seems to be fewer and fewer all the time. I'm excited to see all of the great, intelligent homeschoolers and unschoolers who are going to become adults in the next 10-20 years. I bet it's going to be amazing. :-)

Working hard to let go...

Today has been interesting. Yesterday, I gave Q the day "off." He doesn't do more than an hour of "official" school work each day, but I do have him read some and he enjoys a book we have called "Mind Benders" where he can solve logic puzzles. I want him to know his multiplication tables and his basic division facts. I took much of last year thinking about what I, as his mom (and a teacher), want and think he should know, but to be honest, it's not a lot. Just the bare basics. Today, I kept thinking, "Make sure that at least he does some math today..." He has been playing on Roblox.com for a while. He loves that. He's very creative and he is learning math by converting "tix" to "Robucks." They each deal with sets of 500 and 1,000 so he has to multiply large numbers. Yesterday he asked me what 1,040 times 62 was. We worked it out on paper. He "does" math every day. Why do I keep thinking that he has to learn a certain amount/concept in math at a certain age? I mean, realistically, I don't believe he does, but there is this fear of "what if?" that I can't shake. What if he is 15 and doesn't know how to multiply multi-digit numbers? What if someone asks him in the next few months what 78 divided by 3 is and he doesn't immediately know? Q is an excellent reader and he has great comprehension. If he needs to find information, he can find it and understand it easily. I need to figure out why I get so hung up on "he must do some school work every day."

SO, guess how much formal school work he did today? NONE! :-)

(it feels kind of good!)

I'm figuring it all out!

I feel so good about this school year. It was the first "Back to School" season I didn't have to participate in and I can't tell you how FREEING it felt. After I pulled Q out of school, I realized the stress I felt every Sunday night, trying to mentally prepare for the upcoming week, thinking, "What's going to happen THIS week?" or "What will Q get in trouble for THIS time?" or my favorite thought, "What 'mean thing' will his teacher/an aide say to him THIS week?" I didn't have to worry about ANY of that. Then the holiday season came... I realized that we were not BOUND by the "school schedule." I don't just mean 9am-3pm, Monday through Friday. I mean bedtime, morning time, even weekend time. We can stay up late or get up late... Q is learning ALL DAY LONG, EVERY SINGLE DAY. School ended for his public school friends and I didn't have that, "Thank GOD!" feeling like I always had, so incredibly happy that he would be home for the next 2 and 1/2 months. It was just another great day that would lead into more great days... I felt such peace and it was amazing. When school started up again a couple of weeks ago, I had that peaceful feeling again. I didn't have to buy school supplies, only to have them "divied" up between his entire class, I didn't have to buy a pair of "cool" markers for school AND for home (because he would never know what he'd end up being able to keep or not depending on how his teacher set up the supply "system" in the classroom). I had such a calm feeling as I often do now.

I am figuring it out as I go. I'm a teacher and a "hard-core pro-public schooler" turned anti-schooling (for kids under 18, at least). I'm learning new things every day and reading as much as I can. My son is happier and taking in more than he's even aware of. He's finally not saying that he "hates learning" all the time. He's realizing that learning is fun and interesting and that it's not a CHORE; something he is forced to do.

Peace. :-)

Feeling lost...

I haven't written for a while. I go back and forth about what I want this blog to be about. I want people to learn from not only my mistakes, but my experiences and I want to share my journey as a mom (as well as my kids' journey) through the public school system and OUT of it (thankfully). I'm hoping it will help someone who's going through some of the same things I did. I also want to talk about different ways of learning; different "out of the box" ways of learning. Why do we have to do what we've always done, if it doesn't work? Why don't we ever stop to really look and see if it DOES still work or not? I always wanted to be a teacher. I never thought of doing anything else at all. There were no other options for me- I was a teacher at heart and I was a supporter of our public school system. I'm not anymore, and although it makes me sad, I'm so happy that I now SEE so much more than I ever did before about educating children and that I don't just sit idly by saying, "Ok, sure, cause that's just what you're supposed to do."