Various Questions About Homeschooling

[patriciaredstone]

Bobby,

Even though I have homeschooled my son successfully for 5 years, am very uneducated about homeschooling and what is being written out there.

I have read Joseph Chilton Pearce (Crack in the Cosmic Egg, Magical Child, Evolution's End) and attended his lectures. I lean toward his observations that we are breeding the soul out of the species with our modern ideas about the developing knowledge and education of the child. But I have never found a \"prescription\" for homeschooling that appeals to me entirely. So I use this and that. I know I have read some of Hirsch, but you will have to remind me of his big idea.

I did like the idea that children -- especially boys -- will enjoy reading more if you do not rush them into it. And it worked! So until he was 8, we did not teach him to read and he was very satisfied with that. He is 13 now and he is in the living room beside me finishing a 3 day reading of Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. His comprehension is top-notch. His speed is faster than mine or my husbands. But up until about a year ago, we read to him for at least 2 hours a day from classic children's literature and from some of the classic writers and poets. There is also evidence that children who are encouraged to read very young burn out on school in the middle school years.

I have a book titled \"The End of Homework\" by Kranlovec and Buell. It is an essay about how homework is ruining american families and really not doing anything to help children learn. I was surprised to read some quotes from David Davenport, the president of Pepperdine University (but not anymore, he resigned about two years ago) who is, I guess, a crusader against the modern supersititon that homework is a valuable tool for educators.

It's worth a look. I would love to know your wife's opinion about the book.

[patriciaredstone]

Jeff,

Thanks for answering Bobby's question ... sometimes I get off-track.

Our family, like Jeff's has not seen a need to formally address multiculturalism. In our community it just happens. Our son, being hispanic, solves some of the problem. Also, my sister adopted a Choctaw girl and my best friend adopted a Chinese girl.

We do unit studies too. It is a great way to learn about a country -- it's history and culture -- in depth. We even immerse ourselves in the food! We spent a year studying Asia and Africa .... YUM!

Also, my son is very active in a local children's choir, organised swimming and he takes Ai ki do (a Japanese martial art) at a Jewish Community Center ... talk about your juxtaposed cultures! You should see those boys try to roll with those yarmelkes pinned to their hair!

[bobbyV]

My wife and I do not homeschool our children.  We have talked about it many times but for the moment have decided not to.  Pamella, my wife, teaches in the public school (math and biology).  We know that the public school is often fairly weak so we have worked with our girls a lot to make sure their skills are developing.

I have become a fan of E.D. Hirsch, Jr.'s emphasis on \"core knowledge\" so we have bought and worn out \"What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know,\" and \"What Your First Grader Needs to Know\" -- and his Cultural Literacy.  I have also come to like James Loewen's work \"Lies My Teacher Told Me\" (and recommend it to all).

At any rate here is my question:  How do homeschoolers handle issues like multiculturalism?  Is this a concern at all?

I think we may end up homeschooling but we are still trying to figure it all out.

His Mark +
Bobby Valentine
[a href=\"mailto:bvalentine@dixie-net.com\"]bvalentine@dixie-net.com[/a]

[Jeff]

Bobby:

How did all of us learn multi-culturalism twenty or thirty years ago?  We were taught textbook world and American social studies and geography courses, sure, but mostly we experienced it, even in the most homogenous of areas of the country.  I remember one or two Jewish children every year who were \"excused\" to the library during our class Christmas party, or having my mother explain to me why Catholicism led to our school district serving fish every Friday at lunch.  I was brought up in a rural upstate New York and every October we would have six or seven of our African-American classmates leave for Florida with their families after the apples were harvested.  Most of them would return again the following summer.

We're now blessed by living in a metropolitan environment and we interact with a wide range of cultures every day.  When we moved across town a couple years ago one of our goals was to leave an area that was only 3% non-white and, due primarily to the cost of housing, would probably stay that way for quite some time.  On a more formal basis, my wife has built \"unit studies\" that teach our homeschooled children about different cultures.

Sorry to ramble, but I guess the short answer is that you teach multi-culturalism just like you would effectively teach any topic:  gain the child's interest, develop a curriculum and implement it.

[janine]

Maybe because I've seen 'multiculturalism', as a goal or class taught in the public schools, end up stupidly done, I've never liked it as a goal/class in itself.

In our older two kids' early gradeschool years we homeschooled a while.  History, geography, home ec., math, Bible studies... any and every topic ought to provide an opportinity for multicultural education, since just about every topic touches on locations or peoples of more than just \"my\" culture.

We lived in a real 'United Nations' area, population-wise, at the time, & had no trouble finding some sort of festival or food-tasting or theater/dance thingy to attend to find out new things.  All we had to do was go to the park to meet people from everywhere.

What would we have done if we'd been in an homogenous area?  A lot of library research and trips out of town to the reservations, county fairs, etc., I suppose.  The church was surely a good source of multicultural info., since folks from various states & countries came to our area to work, & came together to worship.

I preferred to make up my own curriculum.  Since the state of Iowa at that time was courting homeschoolers and enthusiastically helping them with books & supplies, invites to activities, etc., it was easy.

We enjoyed homeschooling, although the kids were probably glad to 'get away' from Mom when they entered the public schools after we came back down home...

Now it looks like the 17-year-old, having just been diagnosed w/ asthma & missing a lot of school, will homeschool next year.  He was pretty self-motivated as a little kid; I pray he'll have that much focus as a hormonally-challenged teen...