If you were to ask a new homeschooling mom what her biggest fear was about teaching her children, what would she say? Nine times out of ten, she'd probably remark that she's worried about covering all the bases. The truth is, no one covers all the bases. No teacher in any school can ever teach your child everything they need to know.
"The problem with trying to cover all the bases," say Andrew Pudewa, a former public school teacher turned homeschool father and advocate, "is that your child's knowledge will be a mile wide and a quarter inch deep." In other words, they'll know virtually nothing about everything.
Case in point: Without looking it up, would you be able to rattle off the four major cloud formations, the third prime minister of Canada, or solve a grade 9 level algebraic equation? You learned these things in school, but because it wasn't taught in a memorable way that related to, or was was necessary for real life, you've probably forgotten the answers (so have I).
The idea that the-way-the-school-does-it-is-the-way-I-need-to-do-it-in-my-home has such a grip on many a homeschooler's mind, that we actually believe if we don't teach math, English, science, French, history, geography, Bible, PE, music, art, and home economics every day, our children might not turn out. This isn't homeschooling. This is school at home!
More than likely, you're keeping your children out of school for one or more of the following reasons:
- You feel it's your biblical responsibility to be your child's primary instructor.
- You
feelknow you love your child and can understand their imitations and abilities like no one else can. - While one-on-one instruction has proven to be a superior method of teaching academics, you're after their heart and don't believe their personal salvation in of the school's deepest concern or responsibility.
- You don't believe your child's individual gifts and talents can be encouraged through a one-size-fits-all classroom approach.
- Your aim is to help prepare your child for real life and don't believe the school model is of any advantage in achieving your purpose.
So, why are we so stressed about trying to do it like the school does it?! Pudewa bravely put it this way, "The greatest handicap a homeschool parent can have is a teaching degree." It's time we quit using a deficient educational system as our standard and start homeschooling in ways that are conducive to our purpose.