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“But they need to be with friends their own age.” Her eyes revealed the earnestness with which she believed her words. She wanted to homeschool, but…. Homeschooling or not, too many parents have a deeply-ingrained belief about peers that is not only incorrect, but extremely damaging. I feel emboldened to say that peer dependency (and…

  Homeschoolers face a number of stresses. They have to answer neighbors and strangers alike about qualifications, feeling the constant need to prove the effectiveness of homeschooling, though its validation has been long proven. Curriculum choices abound and we are always looking at our homeschooling friends to see how they are doing it, always knowing…

Practical application After asking, are school subjects necessary?, considering how schools kill creativity, discussing the overrated college degree and apprenticeship and the philosophy of ‘school’ vs. ‘education’ , we’re finally ready to talk about some practical way to kindle a love of learning. The most important thing: “So what does educating look like if not like “school?” The good news is, it…

If you’ve landed here before reading Part 1, 2 or 3 of the “Rethinking Education” series, I highly recommend reading those first. Part 5 will address the “nuts and bolts” of today’s topic. Education and School are not the same. If you have agreed with the authors I’ve featured in this series, and there is something unsettling to you about the “assembly…

https://youtu.be/x246jE3zFJ0 “I don’t think we’ll get rid of schools any time soon, certainly not in my lifetime, but if we’re going to change what’s rapidly becoming a disaster of ignorance, we need to realize that the institution “schools” very well, but it does not “educate”; that’s inherent in the design of the thing. It’s not…

(Part 1: Rethinking Education: Are School Subjects Necessary) Problem with the way we educate I decided to do this series on education not because I am opposed to the public school system (which I am, on many levels), and not because I think everyone should homeschool (which I do, more or less), but because all of us…

Schooling is ingrained in us Ever since I taught in a high school classroom, I have felt that something was inherently wrong with the way we teach. But I still came home, fourteen years ago to homeschool, and tried to recreate all I knew–all any of us know–the only way to “do school.” Then I…

https://youtu.be/C42NNrTG_e4?si=nhyRD_xWXoi3BfFo Raise a virtual hand if you can remember what years WWII was fought. Can you find the length of the hypotenuse? Do you know what a hypotenuse is? What element on the Periodic Table is abbreviated Sn? What about Os? Can you identify an intransitive verb in a sentence? How about a diphthong? And…