This is great, and I appreciate it as a homeschooling mother.
I think an interesting addendum is homeschooling in relation to missions. Ages ago western missionaries sent their kids back to the West and they were essentially raised away from their parents (or at least fathers).
Missionary boarding schools rose as a viable educational option, ending around the time I grew up overseas. A couple of my peers were the last of those sent away to boarding school at six years old, returning home for Christmas and summers. Those mothers worked full time in the field because they did not have children in the house for long.
The recognition of the limitations and dangers of this approach grew as homeschooling grew in popularity in the evangelical community. Now, I homeschool my children where families used to send their kids to boarded school. There are no English educational options and local education is very poor. We would not be here without homeschooling. However, the role of women has changed as well. All of the women in my area are full time homeschooling moms and unable to do much work outside the home because of the need to homeschool.
While I deeply appreciate this perspective on homeschooling, it absolutely ignores one of the main problems I see in homeschooled students in my first-year college classes: underpreparedness. It’s very difficult for one person, often a person without an educational background, to prepare a learner for college in every subject. This is where homeschooling cooperatives have an advantage, but I still find that my homeschooled students have weaker writing and critical analysis skills than their school (public or private) educated peers. I know a handful of homeschool parents who focus on critical thinking and expressing ideas, and a multitude of them who think that good writing is just academic English and correct punctuation. I wish more homeschooling cooperatives existed in our area to share their strengths in instruction, but until they do, the homeschooled students’ wonderful minds are being hobbled by missing skills.
This is great, and I appreciate it as a homeschooling mother.
I think an interesting addendum is homeschooling in relation to missions. Ages ago western missionaries sent their kids back to the West and they were essentially raised away from their parents (or at least fathers).
Missionary boarding schools rose as a viable educational option, ending around the time I grew up overseas. A couple of my peers were the last of those sent away to boarding school at six years old, returning home for Christmas and summers. Those mothers worked full time in the field because they did not have children in the house for long.
The recognition of the limitations and dangers of this approach grew as homeschooling grew in popularity in the evangelical community. Now, I homeschool my children where families used to send their kids to boarded school. There are no English educational options and local education is very poor. We would not be here without homeschooling. However, the role of women has changed as well. All of the women in my area are full time homeschooling moms and unable to do much work outside the home because of the need to homeschool.
While I deeply appreciate this perspective on homeschooling, it absolutely ignores one of the main problems I see in homeschooled students in my first-year college classes: underpreparedness. It’s very difficult for one person, often a person without an educational background, to prepare a learner for college in every subject. This is where homeschooling cooperatives have an advantage, but I still find that my homeschooled students have weaker writing and critical analysis skills than their school (public or private) educated peers. I know a handful of homeschool parents who focus on critical thinking and expressing ideas, and a multitude of them who think that good writing is just academic English and correct punctuation. I wish more homeschooling cooperatives existed in our area to share their strengths in instruction, but until they do, the homeschooled students’ wonderful minds are being hobbled by missing skills.