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Five Selfish Reasons for
Home Schooling
By Therese Yeaton
Lots of home schooling columns you read feature delightful tales of large families who work together in a family business and who do their lessons with enthusiasm. Families where the children do their chores with good cheer and willingly volunteer for extra work. Where everyone eats only whole grains and the family sings songs together in the evening. Do those families exist? Sure they do, I know some of them. But this family is not one of them.
My two children (Adam, 15, and Emily, 12) have never been to school. We chose
home schooling early on and for a variety of reasons, most of them high-sounding and altruistic. As I think of why I have continued the sometimes difficult and time-consuming job of
home schooling, I realize that I have continued for some selfish reasons.
First, my children are delightful and enjoyable people, and I like having them around. My son has a sharp wit and a dry sense of humor and tends to see the world in the same slightly skewed way that I do. He loves baseball, a game close to my heart. He reads extensively and loves to discuss books and movies. He is still not totally embarrassed to be seen with his mother. My daughter loves the world of books and creativity. We sometimes enjoy reading a book together. She is, at 12, a great talker about the world of ideas and our conversations are always grand.
Second, I love to read and learn, and home schooling has given me an excuse to do that. If we are studying the Middle Ages, I can read up on that period in history. If they ask a question that I don’t know the answer to, we can make a trip to the library, or do some research on the Internet. I also teach at a
home school co-op we attend, which allows me to do what I am passionate about.
That brings me to my third point, which is that home schooling frees me from having to know it all. My kids know that I am a learner, too, and that we can find things out together. If I can give them the skills and the desire to learn things on their own, I’ve given them wings.
Next, home schooling frees up our time as a family for vacations and activities that traditionally schooled children may not be able to participate in. A few years ago when the original "Star Wars" movies were re-released, we went to the first showing, which was at midnight on a weeknight. We struck up a conversation with the college age young men who stood in front of us in line. They asked Adam if he would be tired at school the next day. He told them he was
home schooled and would just start the day a little later. Assuming, as many folks do, that
home schooled kids are ignorant of popular culture, they decided to take him on in "Star Wars" trivia. Big mistake. He ground them into the dust.
Finally, spending this time with Adam and Emily lets me influence them. That may seem a radical statement today. What, a parent have influence? I want them to be well-informed citizens, well read in the texts that form the basis for our society, good people who will make their society better.
I guess I’m just selfish that way.
I can be reached at: thetokenmoderate@aol.com
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