What about the social training? How can a child schooled at home all the time “fit in” with the rest of society? Will they have any friends?The Socialisation Question is often uppermost in people’s minds.Homeschoolers themselves and researchers both in NZ and overseas, regard “socialisation” as a non-issue among home-educated children. They consistently demonstrate superior socialisation skills and have as many friends as the next child and are far less likely to knuckle under to peer group pressure in order to gain acceptance.

Children do not need other children to teach them how to be children.
They need warm, responsive and responsible adults to teach and model proper social graces.
Generally speaking, it is in the area of socialisation that home educated youngsters excel most clearly, for they are able to fit in comfortably with a wider age range and are not dependent upon nor intimidated by their peer group.In short, it is simply a myth that children need large amounts of time with other children in order to be socially well adjusted, secure and self-confident.

What about sports, drama and other group activities?
Often local schools will be happy to accept homeschoolers onto sports teams, or to be part of a drama production.
There are also plenty of out-of- school sports and social clubs looking for members. Local homeschooling support groups often provide these kinds of activities, too.

Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and reject not your mother’s teaching. — Proverbs 1:8

 

How can parents armed with only love for their child and good intentions provide an education anywhere near as good as a professional with a teaching degree?

Ok, ok, I can already hear all you veteran home educators out there choking and gagging at this one. But let’s break it down and examine it.The stated issue is that trained and certified teachers are obviously superior teachers to untrained parents. The assumptions behind this are many: that certified teachers are far more knowledgeable than parents about what constitutes education; that the money and resources behind certified teachers in registered schools are clearly superior to what all but the more financially endowed parents can provide; that the entire school environment, from dedicated Ministry personnel and curriculum developers to textbook providers to overworked school administrators and board of trustee members to the enthusiastic teachers at the coalface and the brilliant variety of peers within the typical classroom, that all these things combine to provide a palpably well-rounded and comprehensive educational experience the like of which an isolated mum at home with only some out-dated School Certificate passes could never hope to match.These assumptions, however, are all false for they are based on the false foundational idea that politically conceived, taxpayer-funded, secular and compulsory mass schooling is equivalent to even a basic education. Leaving aside completely the argument as to whether Christians should allow their children to attend secular schooling institutions, let us examine the simple logistical advantages of one mum teaching a small number of her own beloved children at home compared to the conventional classroom situation.

Most of us are aware of cases where teacher certification has not meant the same as teacher competency. In addition, there is the almost unrecognised fact that classroom logistics can make even the best teacher’s efforts an exercise in futility: over-crowded classrooms, lack of discipline, unsupportive administration, inability to give needed individual attention, time restraints which force them to move on to new material before the previous material is comprehended. Teacher certification does not ensure a quality education. In fact, many students who do not catch on at school must go home and get their parents to help out. There are already many parents out there who do the real teaching at night after school while the certified teacher gets the credit.

Home education is a tutoring or mentoring situation. One mum can give her full attention to one or two or three children at a time for whatever period of time is practical and comfortable for them all. Or she can focus on just one child for a piece of time and move to the next and then to the other. Overall she will have far, far more significant one-to-one time than what occurs in the typical classroom where the teacher can often expect no more than one minute of significant one-to-one time per pupil per day. Because of this the home school mum can cover a vastly increased measure of subject matter in the same length of time even though she may be dealing with a range of ages, possibly including a toddler and a newborn. She can assess more exactly whether each child has grasped the concepts or mastered the skills for she is observing the child for most of the waking day, is far more concerned for the child’s welfare and future prospects and is more intimately in tune with the child, being her own flesh and blood, than even the most highly trained and skilled professional teacher could ever possibly be. The enthusiasm, commitment, love, vision, intimate knowledge, and one-to-one tutoring situation of the home school mum, combined with the God-given heart-desire of the child for its mother, ensures that the average home education teacher/parent is starting with vast logistical and relational advantages the classroom teacher can only dream about.

So what does a true and useful education consist of? For the school teacher it is in a politically determined mix of subjects pitched a certain way for a classroom full of children from all sorts of backgrounds and filtered through legal and other socio-political parameters with the aim a producing an outcome in students’ lives which matches a stated objective in a Ministerial document. If the powers that be decide a change is necessary, it will be a good seven years before the drafts are formulated, trialled, assessed, redrafted, approved, adopted and actually introduced and implemented. By then of course the initial problem has mutated beyond recognition and the target children have passed through the system and a new set are being served a special mix designed for a situation and a time which no longer exist.

For the home educating mum it consists of those basic skills plus general and specific knowledge she knows are required to get on in the world: she and her husband and extended family talk about what it’s like out there to be a worker, an employer, a homemaker, a spouse, a parent. They know the character qualities employers want, that they have always wanted throughout history, and that neither School Certificate exams nor university degrees impart those qualities. Christian parents in particular are individually crafting unique children to serve the God of the Universe according to the syllabus He has provided in the Scriptures. They are not that impressed with the state’s attempts through the schools to improve children, which the politicians constantly tell us are this country’s most valuable natural resource (right up there with wool bales and chilled lamb carcasses), or with the socialists’ attempt to inculcate the simplistic non-judgmental vision of tolerating every perversion under the sun, somehow making our “global village” a “better place in which to live”.

The home educating mum knows that rooms, desks and books are dead things. It is imparting life from her heart to her child that makes an education. The most important lessons in her life she did not learn in the classroom but in the school of hard knocks. This is what she imparts. The children are not left interminably to interact with books or CD ROMs, but are encouraged to interact with mum and dad and other siblings and people in the real world of the home, the marketplace, the workplace and the community. They don’t only do word problems from a text book, but do real-life problems like working out the week’s menu from the available budget, balancing the cheque book or helping plan and implement a strategy for improving the safety of the neighbourhood.

Christian parents in particular can hardly justify leaving their children in the care of those who discount, deny and even despise their Christian faith. Even Christian teachers in state schools have their hands tied, for the NZ Education Act Section 77 declares that “the teaching shall be entirely of a secular character”. Every Minister of Education with whom this writer has communicated from David Lange onwards has concurred that the working definition of “secular” as it is used in the Act is “with no religious instruction or observance”. This clearly is not a neutral stance toward Christianity, but one that seeks to eliminate it from the classroom.

The Scriptures tell Christian parents what teaching qualifications are necessary. Deuteronomy 6:5 says, “And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your might.” Not much left to love anything else. Do you love the LORD this way? Well, one thing is for sure, that teacher in the state school is not legally allowed to demonstrate such a love even if he or she should actually have it. And how many of them that you know actually do? Then Deuteronomy 6:6 says, “And these words which I command you this day shall be upon your heart.” Of course, that which is on your heart will be constantly running through your mind and coming out of your mouth. The Christian teacher in a state school cannot allow that to happen, for it would mean her job. Yet these are the Bible’s credentials for teaching, as the next verse, Deuteronomy 6:7 says, “and you shall teach them diligently to your children.” Note that the word “them” is referring to the words of God. What the Bible commands teachers to teach, teachers in state schools are forbidden by law to teach. Mum at home has no such restriction.
If you are inclined to argue that the verses in Deuteronomy are addressed to parents and not teachers in the classroom, think again. Some say that teachers are still considered in loco parentis, in the place of parents, and therefore theoretically required to conform to whatever parents demand (impossible in our pluralistic society), and Christian parents would need to demand teaching according to these verses. Otherwise the Christian has to justify allowing his child to be filled with nonChristian presuppositions and philosophies, which of course he cannot do and still remain consistent with Scripture. The fact is, Christian parent, you will be held responsible for what you allow your children to be exposed to and influenced by day after day after day.
Deuteronomy 6:7 further says, “and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise.” There is the context and frequency parents are to employ when teaching: all the time in every situation; that is, in the context of everyday life. Classroom instruction is in an artificial environment, segregated by age groupings and separated from the real everyday life experiences in the workplace, the home, the marketplace and the wider community. Classroom instruction cannot do as the Bible here bids. Mum at home can do this as she goes about her everyday business.

In short, marriage, parenthood and homemaking are probably the best teaching credentials one could have.

“Loving and genuinely concerned parents are the best qualified of all to teach their own children. Who else is more motivated to invest the time, the money, the blood, sweat, toil and tears required for the child’s best interests than the parents? Who knows and understands the child better than the parents?
“Parents only need a shot of confidence to realise that they are qualified to teach, and in most cases will actually do a superior job. Whatever they may lack in the area of formal educational qualifications they will usually more than compensate for in motivation and the advantages of one-to-one teaching.”
– Craig Smith

Home Schooling: Practical Considerations

by Craig S. Smith

There are a hundred and one questions that come to mind as one contemplates the concept of homeschooling their own children. A few of the more common questions are only briefly dealt with below. Other TEACH brochures in the Homeschooling series will shed much light on these and other questions. The best source of in-depth knowledge is to talk to a homeschool veteran. See the TEACH Publications article “Homeschooling Support Agencies” for possible contacts.

Question: Are parents qualified? Could I actually teach my own children?

Answer: Loving and genuinely concerned parents are the best qualified of all to teach their own children. Who else is more motivated to invest the time, the money, the blood, sweat, toil and tears required for the child’s best interests than the parents? Who knows and understands the child better than the parents?

A homeschooling parent has the vast advantage of a tutoring situation: one parent/teacher to one or two pupils, recognised worldwide as the most effective teaching method. Today’s parents have been intimidated by the teaching profession into thinking that only the experts can be entrusted to teach properly. Today’s student results often cause you to stop and wonder.

The unfortunate fact is that teacher training and certification are not indications of teacher competence. Parents only need a shot of confidence to realise that they are qualified to teach, and in most cases will actually do a superior job. Whatever they may lack in the area of formal educational qualifications they will usually more than compensate for in motivation and the advantages of one-to-one teaching.

Q: What kind of time and work are involved?

A: Every homeschooling family would answer this one differently. It depends on how many children you are teaching, are there any preschoolers there too, what level are the students, what lessons and degree of mastery you are committed to, what kind of curriculum you are using.

Generally, homeshoolers find that education becomes a 24-hour-a-day lifestyle. This only makes sense when you perceive education as a total preparation for life. Everything you do becomes an educational experience or opportunity. It seems that 1 1/2 to 2 hours of formal instruction per day plus lots of interaction as you go about your regular routine and do projects together is a common formula.

Teaching reading and basic math principles often require concentrated one-to-one tuition. Subjects such as science, history, geography, and all the arts can be taught at once to a whole range of ages, expecting more from the older ones, and parenthetically explaining parts to the younger ones. Regular preparation and evaluation time for the parent is also essential. And it must be stressed that both parents must be committed to the whole exercise and totally supportive of one another.

Most homeschoolers find the lifestyle of homeschooling rather fun, as they are flexible enough to have field trips, holidays, special projects, extended time on one subject whenever they want. Because the formal instruction per child need only be 2 hours or so, preschoolers can be napping at that time, or other pupils can look after them in turn.

There will be a need to organise your materials and your time, so having a well-ordered house and housekeeping routine as well as a well-organised programme of instruction is a definite necessity. This does not mean you have to be SuperParent. Often it does mean that you re-organise your priorities. For instance, we run our business from home and have one preschooler and homeschool our other three children plus one foster child. Because of this we have had to place “general tidiness” a bit lower on our priority list.

Homeschooling requires a fair amount of self discipline plus the will and ability to discipline the children to help carry out their programme, as you are all a part of your family corporation. Helping the children to see their indispensible place within your family and the way they are depended upon for certain jobs gives them a real sense of self-worth and of contributing.

The biggest job of all is the one you need to do first and which will in fact be an on-going one. And that is to work out your own personal philosophy answering the question, “Why am I homeschooling?” You must be able to articulate this as clearly as you can, and be committed to it, or else the smallest obstacle or the least criticism will be enough to stop you cold.

Q: Where do I get materials and what does it all cost?

A: There are excellent materials, resources and curricula available from a great variety of sources. Some national and local support groups keep a range of resources for the use of their members. Many homeschool veterans are happy to lend items not currently being used. The public libraries are excellent. Secondhand book sales, flea markets, garage sales can all yield very useful material. Once you take a higher profile and display confidence and commitment, friends and relatives may come up with some surprises. Take your time when shopping around and do not buy the first thing that strikes your fancy nor buy something for use many months down the track. There is a lot of high-gloss junk for sale, too, plus it is easy to spend a lot on resources that you later find to be unsuitable. Check things out as much as you can first.

Comprehensive package curricula are available at varying costs, and correspondence programmes are offered from a variety of schools in NZ and overseas. Older children can attend night schools and polytechs. Many public schools are now open to the idea of allowing a student to attend only one or two specific classes, chemistry for example. You may have a close friend or relative who would be thrilled to offer tutoring in a subject area in which they are particularly good. In short, there is a vast range of material helps available, and you can spend as much or as little as you like.

Take a moment to reflect on the fact that if you only passed on all the important lessons that you have learned during your own life, you will have done your child an invaluable service. TEACH Publications article “Homeschooling Support Agencies in NZ” provides a few leads in this area.

Q: What about the social training? How can a child schooled at home all the time “fit in” with the rest of society?

A: This question is often uppermost in people’s minds. Parents and professional educators alike seem more concerned about children’s social development than their academic achievements. In short, it is simply a myth that children need large amounts of time with other children in order to be socially well adjusted, secure and self-confident. This question is dealt with at length in the two TEACH Publications articles titled, “The Socialisation Issue” and “Homeschooling: The Christian Imperative”.

Q: What about sports, drama and other group activities?

A: Often local schools will be happy to accept homeschoolers onto sports teams, or to be part of a drama production. It always pays to develop a good rapport with local school personnel for many reasons. There are also plenty of out-of- school sports and social clubs looking for members. Local homeschooling support groups often provide these kinds of activities, too.

Q: Do I have to provide a desk, blackboard and lots of wall space to display work?

A: Only if you intend to run your homeschool as if it were a classroom. Children do like a measure of regularity and routine, so having an area set aside specifically for formal instruction is a good idea. The kitchen table will do. A favourite easy chair with the child sitting on your lap will amaze you at how it tends to lengthen the attention span. And remember that a walk in the garden or sitting out under a tree or going fishing together can create an ideal environment for passing on some of the most important lessons a parent could ever pass on to his child.

Q: How about homeschooling to secondary level and beyond? And what do you do about assessment, gaining certificates, transferring back into a school, and being accepted to university or polytech?

A: Package curricula offer assessment and certificates and help with having their studies accepted by all other institutions.

At present one needs to be a pushy parent to get things to happen, but things will become more straightforward as more homeschoolers seek out higher education. As far as the writer has been able to ascertain, all homeschooled New Zealanders who have sought admission to NZ universities or polytechs have gained admission one way or another.

Leslie F. Barnebey’s Education Doctoral dissertation, “American University Admission Requirements for Home Schooled Applicants, in 1984,” which was completed at Brigham Young University, Utah, in 1986, indicated that 21% of American universities had accepted home schooled applicants. Commenting on her research, Dr. Brian Ray of the National Home Education Research Institute, Salem, Oregon, said, “It emerges that (home schooled) children should be prepared to take some standard tests, and very likely one will be the SAT. (Available in NZ–ed.) If their scores are high, not many universities will question their potential for academic success. If their scores are average or low, the admissions officer will probably be more interested in other verifications of potential for success such as interviews, references, and a sample of the individual applicant’s essay writing abilities.” There do not appear to be any insurmountable hurdles.

The NZ Education Act, 1990, set up the NZ Qualifications Authority. This body has been given the task of developing a framework consisting of many units of learning. The idea is that a student leaving secondary levels could choose a pathway through these many units of learning which would ultimately give him a nationally and internationally recognised qualification in the area of his choice, be it academic or vocational. The Qualifications Authority is specifically endeavouring to formally recognise training, education, skills, abilities and any kind of learning which has been gained outside the public school system. This is clearly good news for homeschoolers. Universities will accept first-year students on a provisional basis. If they are successful the first year, they are usually then accepted for the rest of the course, depending on prerequisites. It seems that affording the tertiary fees may be more of an issue than having the entrance qualifications.