The Western Confucian is contemplating an interesting topic. Any thoughts on the concluding remarks?
I had a TA in college who said her job as a public educator was to stamp out creativity wherever it reared its ugly head. My job as a homeschooling parent is to inspire the child to creativity and to teach her how to mold and shape that creative energy into something useful and applicable to the world.
We as homeschoolers tend to make learning personal and relevant to our children, incorporating the entire community rather than following a strict curriculum that is the same for an entire grade level with occasional excursions into the world. Life and learning are more intimately intertwined. The joy of learning and hence of private reflection, thought and discourse is not squelched so young.
It seems clear that institutionalized schooling often results in stultifying conformity and herd mentality. It is no stretch of the imagination to think that homeschooling often produces the opposite.Homeschoolers are often portrayed as indoctrinating their children, especially those of us who do so at least partly for religious reasons. But whoever controls the education of a child wields great power over who that individual will become (although not absolute.) Who should possess that power?
I had a TA in college who said her job as a public educator was to stamp out creativity wherever it reared its ugly head. My job as a homeschooling parent is to inspire the child to creativity and to teach her how to mold and shape that creative energy into something useful and applicable to the world.
We as homeschoolers tend to make learning personal and relevant to our children, incorporating the entire community rather than following a strict curriculum that is the same for an entire grade level with occasional excursions into the world. Life and learning are more intimately intertwined. The joy of learning and hence of private reflection, thought and discourse is not squelched so young.
