Costco kerfuffle
Aug. 29th, 2008 03:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mamagotchaSo Costco decided to take on homeschool certification in their throwaway magazine. My response will probably go straight into their round file, so I'm gonna post it here just so I don't feel like I wasted the last 20 minutes.
Dear Debate Editor,
I've been homeschooling my kids for over 20 years. While I have actually tested for a teaching certificate in California, that was about five years before the first child was born, and I never completed that training or certification. However, I did enough to figure out that what the state wanted from a teacher was actually nothing like what really teaching my kids involved.
As a lifelong autodidact, I am here to tell you that teaching is less about sitting down and adhering to scheduled infusions of particular pieces of knowledge (ie, following standards and curriculum), and everything about opening up the world to my kids. It took a while to really figure this out on my own, so I suppose I can't really fault anyone else for not having it sorted out yet... but I would never EVER deign to tell a parent that I knew more than they did about what their own kid needed, and it takes a lot of cojones for anyone else to, either.
A true teacher is one who opens doors, who facilitates real learning, who can create the kind of atmosphere that nourishes and supports the growing curiosity and intelligence of a child. Think about the best teachers you yourself had, whether in grade school or college or a job mentor... it probably wasn't the teacher that used all the state texts and strictly adhered to a lecture schedule, but rather the one who was truly passionate about their field, who would drop everything when a new discovery arose and spend an entire class period debating the ramifications with their students, who generated discussions where the students themselves argued and reasoned and concluded on their own... not the one who spoon-fed facts and figures.
Now, unless things have changed a LOT, those aren't the qualities being promoted among certified educators. They themselves are wrestling with state and federally mandated testing requirements. When the certified teachers themselves are being hobbled by administrative regulations, how on earth can parents be expected to jump through similar hoops? Realistically... they cannot.
What is the single best way to ensure your child has a positive experience in school? Over and over, we hear "parental involvement." Get in the classroom, participate in the PTA, sit down and do homework, drive and donate and organize and fundraise and volunteer. Well, there's no certification involved in any of those activities, and if that's the major source of success for kids, it seems to me that it works just as well in the home as out of it.
So what happened to the poor kids of that woefully uncertified homeschooling mom? The oldest has just begun a one-year, all-expenses paid internship in Japan for an international exchange program. The next started community college at age 11, and is currently, at age 17, a junior at Clark University pursuing a PhD in psychology. The third started college at 12, and is exploring law school options at age 14. They all have held or currently hold regular jobs, manage their own money, are involved in community and political organizations, study music, participate in sports, read voraciously, and do volunteer work. (The fourth is only four, so we don't figure he'll be enrolling in college soon... but if his path leads him there, we'll do our best to support him in his dreams, just like his siblings.) They are all happy, healthy, productive members of society, and I feel that homeschooling them was the best thing I ever did.
I can state unequivocally that I learned to teach them NOT from my education classes, but by observing and interacting with each one, and then by best using our family's resources to facilitate their goals... by driving and donating and organizing and fundraising... hey, that sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it? Perhaps, as some homeschooling detractors point out with unintentional irony, I'm selfish by limiting those resources to my own children instead of sharing them with a classroom full of other peoples' kids... but my kids are my highest priority. There's no certification or regulation that can change that, and I honestly feel offended that some bureaucrats indicate otherwise.
Thank you for your time, and I appreciate the opportunity to respond to this issue.
Katje Sabin
(long-time Costco member and homeschooler)
Dear Debate Editor,
I've been homeschooling my kids for over 20 years. While I have actually tested for a teaching certificate in California, that was about five years before the first child was born, and I never completed that training or certification. However, I did enough to figure out that what the state wanted from a teacher was actually nothing like what really teaching my kids involved.
As a lifelong autodidact, I am here to tell you that teaching is less about sitting down and adhering to scheduled infusions of particular pieces of knowledge (ie, following standards and curriculum), and everything about opening up the world to my kids. It took a while to really figure this out on my own, so I suppose I can't really fault anyone else for not having it sorted out yet... but I would never EVER deign to tell a parent that I knew more than they did about what their own kid needed, and it takes a lot of cojones for anyone else to, either.
A true teacher is one who opens doors, who facilitates real learning, who can create the kind of atmosphere that nourishes and supports the growing curiosity and intelligence of a child. Think about the best teachers you yourself had, whether in grade school or college or a job mentor... it probably wasn't the teacher that used all the state texts and strictly adhered to a lecture schedule, but rather the one who was truly passionate about their field, who would drop everything when a new discovery arose and spend an entire class period debating the ramifications with their students, who generated discussions where the students themselves argued and reasoned and concluded on their own... not the one who spoon-fed facts and figures.
Now, unless things have changed a LOT, those aren't the qualities being promoted among certified educators. They themselves are wrestling with state and federally mandated testing requirements. When the certified teachers themselves are being hobbled by administrative regulations, how on earth can parents be expected to jump through similar hoops? Realistically... they cannot.
What is the single best way to ensure your child has a positive experience in school? Over and over, we hear "parental involvement." Get in the classroom, participate in the PTA, sit down and do homework, drive and donate and organize and fundraise and volunteer. Well, there's no certification involved in any of those activities, and if that's the major source of success for kids, it seems to me that it works just as well in the home as out of it.
So what happened to the poor kids of that woefully uncertified homeschooling mom? The oldest has just begun a one-year, all-expenses paid internship in Japan for an international exchange program. The next started community college at age 11, and is currently, at age 17, a junior at Clark University pursuing a PhD in psychology. The third started college at 12, and is exploring law school options at age 14. They all have held or currently hold regular jobs, manage their own money, are involved in community and political organizations, study music, participate in sports, read voraciously, and do volunteer work. (The fourth is only four, so we don't figure he'll be enrolling in college soon... but if his path leads him there, we'll do our best to support him in his dreams, just like his siblings.) They are all happy, healthy, productive members of society, and I feel that homeschooling them was the best thing I ever did.
I can state unequivocally that I learned to teach them NOT from my education classes, but by observing and interacting with each one, and then by best using our family's resources to facilitate their goals... by driving and donating and organizing and fundraising... hey, that sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it? Perhaps, as some homeschooling detractors point out with unintentional irony, I'm selfish by limiting those resources to my own children instead of sharing them with a classroom full of other peoples' kids... but my kids are my highest priority. There's no certification or regulation that can change that, and I honestly feel offended that some bureaucrats indicate otherwise.
Thank you for your time, and I appreciate the opportunity to respond to this issue.
Katje Sabin
(long-time Costco member and homeschooler)