My Kid Learns Just Fine

How can your kid learn anything if he’s not in school? I hear this question all the time, and to be honest I don’t get it. My kid learns just fine. He learned fine when he was in school, and he continues to learn fine now that we homeschool. I don’t think that the building that a child learns in matters. I do think that the environment that a child learns in makes a huge difference.

When my son was in school he was constantly getting in trouble for not sitting in his chair, for not doing his work in a timely manner, and for basically being a child. They requested evaluation after evaluation while all results were the same. “He is bored. You need to give him more work.”. However, the school didn’t like that answer and told me to keep getting him evaluated until someone agreed to put him on medication. That would “fix him”. Ah, yes drugs.. the cure for all that ails.

Since having that conversation I have decided to homeschool my son. Much to many people’s chagrin. They can’t possibly understand how my son can learn without sitting at a desk for 6 hours surrounded by 30 other kids. The funny thing is… he learns better.

Schools were not created to teach children how to learn. They were created to teach kids how to sit down and listen to what they are told. They were created to teach children how to transition to the next assignment that was being given . They were created to teach children how to be cogs in the wheel, and since its creation the school system has gotten worse and worse.

Schools used to teach children valid skills and facts that were needed in the future. My dad could rattle off unit conversions like I could name all the characters of my favorite TV show. They were so engrained in his mind he couldn’t understand me needing my phone to look this information up.

When I was in school we still had Home Economics classes. I can remember people fighting back saying that it’s the parents job to teach cooking and sewing and wood shop and whatever else this “Home Economics” was supposed to teach. Now of course no one can cook or sew, and no one remembers that they taught family budgeting and basic taxes, things that people are complaining about not knowing and that should be taught in school.

Not everyone needs physics, or calculus, but everyone needs to know how credit works and the importance good nutrition. Schools today are pumping out college students who just continue to “educate” themselves on useless topics which doesn’t correspond with anything in which they can make money in the future, and then complain that they didn’t understand that they had to pay back the bills which they incurred over those 4-6 years of studying.

When my kid is homeschooled he can decide which topics he would like to spend time learning. I can decide which topics I think are the most important. I can teach him why knowing unit conversion is so important by having him help me cook meals and fun deserts. or by having him build projects from scratch. Kids, for the most part learn better with hands on experience. They also learn better at their own pace.

We have our regular curriculum. We have our testing to make sure that he is learning the basics for reading, writing, and arithmetic, but we also understand the importance of learning life skills and how to use the things we learn to everyday.