Don’t Call It Homeschooling
Emails are coming to my inbox fast and furious: PR experts are offering this comment from a homeschooling expert or this homeschooling program to parents who now turn out to be twice as many full-time teachers as they navigate the new online learning world we live in. … …
I considered the idea of writing a post outlining good resources to use to “homeschool” my children during a pandemic, but I hesitated. On the one hand, some schools don’t really give parents much guidance right now, and some of us really need extra help; on the other hand, there are tons of parents who are already buried under stress at work, financial stress and stress at home, and oh yeah, there is a cool Zoom meeting at noon and a package of assignments due by Monday and they don’t. I don’t have to put anything on their plates.
Something about this thread seemed unpleasant . It was only when I stumbled upon this tweet that I was able to really figure out why:
Call it Emergency Distance Learning if you like it, or I don’t know Complete Nonsense if you feel brutally honest. There should be a term for what parents are doing right now, but this is not “homeschooling,” just like what is happening now is not equivalent to regular online learning.
Homeschooling is a deliberate act. This requires a genuine commitment on the part of the parent (which is often also does not work outside the home). There are online communities and local communities and homeschooling cooperatives that share resources and support each other and come together for classes, field trips or social gatherings. Yes, homeschooled children still leave home .
Back in 2012, when everything was normal, Jamie Martin wrote an article, “Homeschooling 101” for Parents.com, which discussed the requirements for the parents of students at home:
According to [John] Holt, bestselling author of “Learn to” the most important thing that parents need to teach children at home – a “love them to enjoy their company, their physical presence, their energy, passion and stupidity. They need to enjoy all their conversations and questions, and also enjoy trying to answer those questions. ” For most homeschooled parents, the only prerequisite is the desire to do so along with dedication to the learning process.
Do you all feel this desire? Is your dedication to the learning process deeply rooted in your soul?
My point is that we don’t need to put additional pressure on ourselves right now. As more and more states to announce that the school will actually be closed until the end of the school year, we need to do something to help our children to continue to learn, whether it is any confusion in the online training courses, which managed to organize in our individual districts, or something to encourage. together at will.
But we’re never going to match the image in your head of a creative but organized homeschooling mom with school supplies neatly arranged in colorful baskets and folders full of activities. This is different. This is temporary. These are emergency distance learning and emergency distance learning.