Every morning I hear the school bus stop on the street outside our apartment. The drone of the engine is so familiar, the rush of the air brakes. The neighborhood kids all chattering and messing around while piling into the bus. I always thought my son would be one of those kids getting on that bus. I grew up in England and we don't have school buses like the ones here in the United States. I was always a little excited to imagine my son getting to the age where he would be taking the big yellow bus to school. He has never taken the big yellow bus to school and probably never will. He did attend public school for a handful of months, very early on, during his Pre-K years but then we made the decision to homeschool him.
I was educated in England and I went to public school. I did pretty good, I wasn't extremely clever but I wasn't completely devoid of the ability to learn either. I always assumed that public education did it's job and a good job at that. I mean, everyone sends their kids to school... you would have to be borderline insane to think about doing it yourself, at home. Right?!
While I was educating myself about home education, I came across a writer by the name of John Taylor Gatto. His books include Dumbing us Down, Weapons of Mass Instruction and The Underground History of American Education. He taught for 30 years in public schools before resigning. He resigned the same year that he was named New York State's official "Teacher of the Year". I highly recommend his books which gave me a great deal to consider while my son was at the beginning of his education journey. I realized that critical thinking is not something that the education system promotes and the more I researched and read about the American education system, the more questions I had without sufficient answers. According to many statistics and research polls, the United States education system is mediocre at best.
Our first year or two were always sprinkled with the same questions and level of concern from friends and family. "Isn't he missing out somehow?" "How are you qualified to teach him?" and the best one "Socialization is so important. How do you manage that?"
It is impossible to convince anyone else of something that you believe in. The only thing we could do was let the proof be in the pudding, so to speak. Our family and friends have seen how our son has excelled in his studies, despite not being in school with a "qualified" teacher. How he has compassion and consideration for children (and adults) of all ages and has friends across a wide age range. His passion for learning has exceeded our wildest expectations and probably his too. Looking back I am glad that we did not listen to the naysayers. I am glad that we pushed on, even when I was questioning my own sanity and whether I had, indeed, made a horrible decision.
There are challenges. There are great days and difficult days, where nothing seems to go quite right but we are now in our sixth year of homeschooling and I do not see anything changing any time soon. We live in New York, which is a highly regulated state for home education but even the regulations should not deter families from investigating the benefits of home education, no matter which state you reside in. If you are interested you can read more about the New York State homeschool regulations here: http://www.nyhen.org/regs.htm
We live in a small community and homeschooling is not common but every morning, as I wake up to the sound of the school bus, I wonder, what if we all home-schooled our children.
