Thank you all for the kind and thought-provoking words about my last post. I may make a follow-up, I got such good responses via email. But now for the  point of this post:

AmericanHeritage.com is giving away a free pocket-sized copy of the United States Costitution in its entirety, and the Declaration of Independence. http://www.askheritage.org/Premium.aspx I own a hardcover version already, but I just thought I’d pass it along!

Institutions are structures and mechanisms of social order and cooperation governing the behavior of a set of individuals. Institutions are identified with a social purpose and permanence, transcending individual human lives and intentions, and with the making and enforcing of rules governing cooperative human behavior. The term, institution, is commonly applied to customs and behavior patterns important to a society, as well as to particular formal organizations of government and public service.

From Wikipedia. Emphasis mine.

I was inspired to give the concept of a social institution some consideration today by the thoughtful and articulate moms at our homeschooling group. We are very blessed to have such a diverse, compassionate group of families to turn to for support, encouragement and advice; even when I am disagreed with, I am always disagreed with respectfully and with interest to my opinion. I do not take this for granted and know that it’s rare and fine in society in general, let alone homeschooling circles. I digress, but it’s a good digression.

The subject at hand today was the idea of school as a social institution. Not individual schools and buildings but the institution of government-controlled public education made available equitably and universally for free. The concept of school, as it were, not just the physical existence of them. There is this idea that the government should decide what children will learn, and at what age, and where, and how, and by whom, and that’s the whole story. The vast majority of Americans believe this is the normative standard for learning and education; I beg to differ.

In this sense, I was institutionalized at the tender age of five. We sometimes call this “kindergarten.” Unlike the long laundry list of complaints about school that homeschoolers often trot out in criticizing the institution of traditional education, I did well in school. I was the ideal student; self-motivated, eager to please, curious about many subjects, an early reader, a strong visual-auditory learner, compliant and feeling a great deal of satisfaction in endless busywork. I always got good grades, not because my family wanted me to, but because I wanted to. I was socially successful and had many friends and didn’t experience bullying or peer pressure of any kind. I enjoyed the structure of traditional academics. In reality, I just liked learning things and this was the only outlet I had to do so. The curriculum I went through never satisfied my curiosity, so my coping response was to learn as much of what I was given as perfectly as I could. Quantity over quality. I willingly signed myself up for Advanced Placement courses in high school; I took the hardest classes I could find in college (and continually got straight As, or very close to them).

Here’s something that you rarely hear from a homeschooling mother: I liked school.

When I first heard about homeschooling, I was reading about religion in college, and came across a Christian mother’s forum where they were discussing homeschooling, and thought they were a bunch of fringe lunatics who were probably screwing up their kids for life. I was wholly ignorant and believed that the primary purpose of homeschooling was to indoctrinate children into the fanatical beliefs of their parents. The irony of this is not lost on me now. It would have never occurred to me as a high school or college student or very young mother to homeschool. I would have thought you were insane to suggest otherwise.

You see, I was institutionalized. Even after I had left college – which I loved so much I took six years to finish – I was still in the school mentality. Learning was something that happened in a very specific context: a specific building, with a specific dynamic between the person disseminating the information and the person studying it. I think of this now much like the aphorism of circus elephants, who do not run away to freedom even though they are allowed to walk around without shackles. It’s just that by that point, they’ve been in shackles for so long that they don’t need the actual shackles to be physically present to be controlled. Graduating from college and finding myself the single mom of a special needs preschooler was something like that. I thought – this is disastrous, because how will he do in school?

I can’t blame this on any particularities of the school environments into which I was placed. I went to good schools in good areas. I had many wonderful teachers throughout my entire academic career. Perhaps it’s more accurate to say that I had the approval and encouragement of the majority of my teachers – I was after all, the ideal student by nature – and so in a morass of bored children, I stood out and often developed strong rapports with many teachers over the year. These teachers, I know, were all wholly committed to facilitating the absolute best education they could for their students; they strove to connect with each one on an individual level, and I have no doubt each of these men and women did their level best to encourage and inspire creativity, individuality and critical thinking in each and every one of their students.

Instead, they institutionalized us.

It wasn’t on purpose. It works like this.

You are 7. You struggle in math, but your teacher is dry and boring and the day is beautiful and you would rather be outside climbing the monkey bars. You think learning your times tables seems like a profoundly pointless endeavor; the teacher has not attempted to disavow you of this notion in anyway, even as you are still made to do it. You cannot refuse; you are recorded as being a FAILURE if you do. Or -

You are an 11-year-old who loves to write. You have a warm, attentive English teacher with a gentle spirit and a heart for children, especially children who love to write. This teacher encourages your love of writing, beams at each new creation, reads your best work to the class with the understanding that your writing is superlative. You appreciate this recognition of your academic strength and you strive to continue to write well enough to sustain this pseudo-parental investment and praise. However, at the heart of this is anxiety – the next poem about your dog that you pen may not inspire the same kind of praise, and you, being a child left to fend for yourself in an institution, this is the closest thing to a mom you have for eight hours a day, and the primary undercurrent of your academic focus becomes teacher approval. When the teacher starts teaching you how to read a novel, or interpret literature, or write a good essay, you listen. You take it all in. It becomes a part of you, and governs your behavior and interaction with the written word possibly for the rest of your life. Or -

You are an articulate 16-year-old high school student. You have a history teacher that is charming, sincere, accessible, and teaches their subject in a clear, concise and interesting way. This teacher is clearly knowledgeable, and you find yourself thoroughly engaged. You ask questions because for the first time in your life, you are curious about history; the teacher is eager to engage you and any other student that wants to know more. The teacher has an informal style of teaching, and takes the students very seriously. The teacher’s worldview and interpretation of history is thusly swallowed wholesale as gospel because the teacher is an authentic authority figure to the student. Eventually, even if a student somehow manages to think outside the box and question the teacher, there is tremendous social, academic and emotional pressure to not make yourself vulnerable in that way and risk “looking like an idiot” – to your peers, or to a teacher you respect. You are institutionalized. Or -

You are a 19-year-old college kid on your own for the first time, taking a class about your favorite subject. Your teacher is affable and passionate about the same subject you are, so there is an instant shared connection. You are allowed in class to follow your imagination’s rabbit trail for the first time in your life about this subject. You have long, heated discussions in which you are given specific resources to read, and are expected to absorb and regurgitate them in a satisfactorily measurable manner and it is called “open debate” when in reality it is the slow adoption of the confines of the syllabus; this does not bother you, because you love this subject and you love and appreciate this teacher and you don’t know how else to go about learning this. One day, the teacher mentions in passing that he is a socialist. You think: I like this man, and he knows more than me, and he is right about a great many things; maybe he is right about socialism, too… And when you try that on for size and find that it suits you, it becomes a slippery slope. As in: maybe when he calls Christianity “just another religion myth,” that’s the language I will use to describe it, too… etc.

While each and every one of these things happened to me, the real point is that regardless of how well-intentioned, teachers are perpetuators of the institution of public education. It can’t be any other way. The institution of school is anathema to creativity, individualism and critical thinking by its very design. It’s not meant to produce a society of individualistic free-thinkers; it’s meant to produce a sea of obedient, compliant citizens for a government. If you don’t believe me, see for yourself. Read the documents that drafted public education as a national institution into being – these people were quite explicit in their aims, and let me tell you, their aims were not to create a society of free-thinking free spirit intellectuals.

But Andrea, a rebuttal might say, isn’t that going to happen no matter where a child learns? Even in homeschooling, a child might learn or do something to please his or her parent. A parent will indoctrinate their child with their value system. What is the difference?

To which I will say: that’s an institutionalized socialist response, coming from the perspective that there is no qualitative difference between a stranger/child relationship and a parent/child relationship. To the academically institutionalized, they are not just easily interchangeable, but a stranger/ child relationship might actually be superior for the fostering of academic growth. The majority of people, if asked, will agree that teachers are more qualified to teach a child than his or her parent.

The problem is that this is completely blind to the reality of the parent/ child dynamic, and that is – yes, it is possible that my kid learned his times table to please me, and I sometimes function as his “teacher,” but that is not the whole of our relationship. We are also: traveling companions, reality television devotees, mutual computer geeks, fellow gardeners, and people who curl up and watch youtubes of music we enjoy, or read a book that has caught both our interests. We are mother and son. The academic piece of our relationship is a tiny fraction of a dynamic that is based on something no teacher can ever have for his or her student, no matter how well-regarded: unconditional parental love and intense interpersonal investment. This is the space in which homeschooling occurs. If my kid doesn’t learn all the times tables fast enough for my liking, I might gripe, or nag, or require him to revise the material… but then we go bake cookies and go visit a park and drop off stuff at the post office and…

By contrast., the academic piece is the entirety of the teacher-student relationship in an institutional school. Should the student not memorize the times tables to the satisfaction of any given math teacher’s standards – that’s it. That’s the bottom line. The kid gets a big fat F, and the teacher is not so happy with him, and that is the end of the story. My son has never had this experience, and so he views each new piece of academia with which I present him as something that is potentially worthwhile – but on which it’s not contingent for him to be socially successful with me. If he fails or even declines to learn it, I’ll still love him. I’ll still be there. He will not have jeopardized his emotional or intellectual security by thinking for himself, at his own pace.

It is in this context that my child learns in our homeschool. While homeschooling is not a de facto guarantor of critical thinking, academic excellence, creativity and individualism, it is a context in which they all occur far more organically than in school.

My child is free to learn, live, think and create, as best as I’m able to grant him. My child is not institutionalized.

My child is home.

The subject line was a series of questions Shorty threw at me today, after I read to him a short blurb I’d stumbled upon from my “Break Time!” email from HomeSchool, Inc. I thought it was fun and interesting, and called him over to read the email with me. It was this:

Did you know?…

Alexander Graham Bell’s notebook entry for this day – March 10 – in the
year 1876 documents the first successful experiment with the telephone.
With his assistant, Thomas Watson, in the next room, Bell uttered those
famous words, ‘Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you!’

His
notebook entry reads, ‘To my delight, he came and declared that he had
heard and understood what I said.’ Bell and Watson were on opposite
ends of the very first phone call.

Three days before his
life-changing experiment, on March 7, Bell had received U.S. patent
#174,465 – the very first for the telephone. Months later, during the
Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, Bell would introduce his
telephone to the world. He was 29 years old.

In 1877, the Bell
Telephone Company was established and within 10 years, an estimated
150,000 people in the United States owned a telephone. Rutherford B.
Hayes is believed to be the first U.S. President to have a phone
installed at the White House. His first call was to none other than
Alexander Graham Bell who was 13 miles away and waiting for the
President’s call.

This lead to a bunch of questions I naturally didn’t know the answer to, then Wikipedia searches, then clicking around a few telephone history web sites – all on his own (with supervision, of course).  It wasnt on our to-do list for the day, but learning took place just because a child’s imagination was sparked by something incidental, and he was given the means to pursue it.

Due to time constraints, as well as my desire to encourage Shorty to become a more independent, self-motivated learner, I have been assigning a great deal more of our history, science and language arts reading for him to do on his own, instead of me reading it all to him and requiring narration. He now has to do short written narrations – a precursor to essay writing, coinciding nicely with our current study of beginning paragraph-writing. We still do some read-alouds, such as the Nim’s Island study and lap-and-notebook we are working on alongside our animal and habitat study of the world’s oceans from WinterPromise’s Animals and their Worlds. We only have another 3 or 4 weeks on the whole thing, combining it with the Coral Reef lapbook, and then doing a separate, 2-week study on dolphins and sharks, for which we’ll do a smaller lapook. I bought the curriculum in October, 2007, so we will have taken about a year and a half to do the complete theme, maybe a little bit longer, instead of the year it’s supposed to have taken, largely because Shorty just got interested in the topics and wanted to know more and more and more! Like how we took nearly 2 months to do polar animals, just because he loved Mr. Popper’s Penguins so much. He had so much fun, and the lap-and-notebook he produced was really pretty amazing!

I am certainly eager to move on to something else – after this, we’ll be doing a study of ecosystems and the environment, aided by HandsOfAChild’s Ecosystems lapbook and study guide to correspond with Earth day and my increasing interest in sustainable living, Christian stewardship and responsible consumption. The unit is for grades 2-6, but could be beefed up or watered down for slightly older or younger, and it is currently downloadable for free on their web site. I actually saved the WinterPromise section on Wetlands for when we do our survey of Florida history over the summer, since Florida is mostly wetlands and I thought it would all tie in nicely. 

Anyway, for the last few weeks, every two weeks or so, I have been going through our history and science readings from our curriculum and deciding which ones can be read by him independently instead of me reading them to him, such as encyclopedia readings, plus jotting down his own reading, notebooking and activities that WP already assigns as independent tasks.  Then I write out a day-by-day checklist for him of assigned tasks, readings and projects for the next two weeks. (Never more than that – you never know what will come up). Typically in a work week, WP assigns several artsy craftsy projects for both history and science. Since he’s not really that artsy-craftsy of a guy, and there are a LOT of them, and we are only doing each subject 2-3 days a week, on his checklist there is a list of optional projects, of which he must choose at least one, but more if he wants. We’ve been doing this three weeks, and each week he’s chosen more than one because they’re fun projects, and then he’s doing schoolwork because he wants to, not because I’m making him. Huzzah!

In addition, he’s currently plowing through the Encyclopedia Brown series of books, of which he is very fond, because each chapter is like a little logic puzzle. They’re not very challenging reading, but they are wholesome and cute, and I figure he is being plenty challenged by the schoolwork. I like that he reads them for leisure and because he really likes them (and of course has started his own detective agency, little home-made sign in our front window and all). I think after this I might introduce him to the Hardy boys, slightly older versions of Encyclopedia Brown.

Because of Nim’s Island, which has as part of the story, Nim’s oceanographer dad being lost at sea due to a hurricane, Shorty’s also got on his checklist the free Hurricanes and Oceanography units from School Express. There are over 1000 similar units there, and we’ll be using them from here on out as independent work. They’re good introductory, tangential explorations of subthemes of our studies, and he likes the worksheets and the presentation, so it’s a nice way to beef up what he’s already interested in. Finally, he does one math worksheet per week independently (we have daily one-on-one math lessons otherwise), as well as 3 worksheets from Comic Strip Grammar, a cute grammar teaching  tool that uses little comic strips.

I do not necessarily see this as busywork, though it does help to keep him busy while I work in the mornings or afternoons. I am appreciative of the fact that he’s being so cooperative about taking on more of his schoolwork independently. He’s done so without complaint, which, since he complains a lot otherwise   I’m taking it as a sign that he’s actually ready to learn more independently. So far we have been a LOT more productive in our academic endeavors with the check-list. We’re clocking along quite nicely, even caught up some in some areas, and are on track to reach all our goals for the year by the middle of June.  But what’s pleasantly surprised me more is that Shorty has taken a little more initiative in what he’s learning and isn’t seeing learning as “schoolwork” as much anymore. Yesterday he asked when we were going to finish watching that Lewis and Clark: Journey of the Corps of Discovery DVD. Today I found him reading his animal encyclopedia past the assigned section – he’d been assigned jellyfish, and after that, had read the section on kangaroos. “I just thought it was cool,” he shrugged. Really? An 11-year-old – correction, my video-game obsessed 11-year-old, choosing to spend his free time reading an animal encyclopedia, because it’s “cool” and not because mom is breathing down his neck? I was pretty darn happy with that, let me tell y’all.

I really think Charlotte Mason was onto something 100+ years ago when she talked about how the role of the educator is best as a facilitator of learning, and not a drill sergeant or dictator of facts. There is something very contemptuous in the view that children are born empty vessels and that we, the all-knowing, wise adults, must fill them with our wisdom.  I am learning more and more that, if left to their own devices and given plenty of information and fodder for thought, even children whose strengths aren’t self-motivation and self-prompting will explore their natural curiosities indefinitely.  That we should present information and educational materials as a “banquet,” where kids have  access to a wealth of information, some that they nibble on, some that they ask for seconds and thirds about. I had been reading about her philosophy for a year before I started dipping my toe in it, just because it’s so hard coming out of a traditional school mindset to trust that knowledge doesn’t need to be compartmentalized and learning doesn’t need to e regimented, and it’s only been this last month or two that I think we’ve really taken off with it. I’ve been amazed at how quickly he’s flourishing with it, and I wish I’d trusted it sooner.

Amanda Fuller from the Old Schoolhouse Magazine has written a really lovely and thought-provoking article about what the benefits of homeschooling can be for a special needs kiddo – and their families:

Choosing to homeschool your child is a huge decision. Then add to that
a child with special needs. This brings up all kinds of mixed feelings,
uncertainties, and emotions. I feel we tend to sell ourselves short
when it comes to our children with special needs because this is
uncharted territory. However, with research, resources, and much prayer
you can do it. Here are ten reasons to homeschool your special needs
child.

Read the reasons and the rest of this really encouraging, uplifting article here.

Borders does consider homeschoolers to be educators. You have to request an educator’s discount card at the check-out counter if you don’t already have one. Typically this entails presenting them with some proof that you are a homeschooler – your local support group membership card, or letter from the county accepting your homeschooling program, or just bring in your portfolio – ask your local store what their policy is. You’re able to use the discount year round on educational materials at a 20% discount, but this is 25% off EVERYTHING. Huzzah! I got this email this morning:

February 27, 2009

Dear Friend,
Every day in the classroom, at home and within school libraries around the country, the commitment of the professional educator shines. Borders has long supported the cause of literacy and learning and strives to recognize each person who works in the education field, teacher, homeschooler, fitness/dance instructor, business trainer, professor, PTA member, religious educator, and school librarian’s efforts to share the love of books and knowledge with their students through our Educator Appreciation Week event. We honor your hard and rewarding work with an “apple” of our own by welcoming current and retired teachers Thursday, March 19 – Wednesday, March 25. If you are not a fellow educator, I hope you will share this with those in your community that are!

You’ll enjoy a 25% savings on personal and classroom purchases of books, CDs, DVDs, cafe items, gifts & stationery and more* when you bring in your current Classroom or Educator Discount Card, educator ID or pay stub. For more information, please visit http://www.borders.com/educators.

Don’t miss our Special Reception, Friday, March 20 from 4:00 – 8:00 PM at Borders stores nationwide.

Thank you for the great work you do! Please share this event information with the educators in your life. We look forward to welcoming you to our stores March 19 – March 25.

Best Regards,
Misty Coltune
Corporate & Educational Services
Borders Books & Music #0083
19925 Biscayne Blvd
Aventura, FL 33180
305-935-5237 (direct line)
305-935-6728 (fax)
mcoltune@bordersgroupinc.com

I’ve spent all morning overhauling, redesigning, updating and adding onto my Work at Home page. I added a clickable dynamic menu so you can jump back and forth through the sections; I updated all the links and deleted any broken ones; I added nearly two dozen new links and resources; I prettied up the graphics and expanded every section. Hopefully this is helpful to other working/single parent homeschoolers out there, or anyone else who may want to work from home.

I want to apologize to those of you who have written to me to tell me that registration in the forums has been giving you problems; I haven’t been able to respond to everyone, but I (think I) fixed the problem. Please do let me know if anyone has any other trouble registering for the forums.

On the agenda for tonight: start to do the same thing to my Homeschool page, and add all the links to my new link directory.

On the agenda for this month: launch fully dynamic link directory, update bookstore, add Facebook group and StumbleUpon, and update the forums/ start a bunch of new topics for people to jump into. And if you see anything else that could make my site even better, please do let me know!