Don said the other day that he was interested in hearing about our home schooling and since I’m in the thick of trying to make some decisions about the upcoming semester this seemed like a really good time to post about it. First off, let me apologize if this ends up being excessively long and rambling. There are so many options and issues to deal with that I’m using this post to organize my thoughts. In fact it’s probably going to have to be broken up across several days for brevity’s sake.
Zoe has never been to school although now that she’s older that’s her choice. I feel like the most important thing is for her to learn who she is, and who she wants to be, and to live her life as freely and authentically as possible. It’s hard enough knowing your own mind but to complicate that with peer pressure and necessitated conformity would make it all the more difficult. She’s always been very outgoing and spirited and I feel confident that she has a pretty good sense of self at this point, so my concerns for her autonomy and independence are significantly lessened. On the flip side of that I think that spunk would land her butt in the principal’s office on a fairly regular basis, and that wouldn’t be good for anyone!
When she was little we completed pretty structured unit based lesson plans. The last couple of years though I’ve been trying to encourage more independent study. The idea at this point (unless she decides otherwise) is to continue homeschooling until she is 15. Then (starting out slowly) she’ll begin classes at our community college until she’s 17 or 18 and ready to move to a 4 year university.
So the bottom line is that she needs to keep pace with her peers enough to be college ready without forfeiting her individuality or self esteem. It has always been my hope that she would be excited about, and an active participant in, her own education. You know, that ideally I would have magically and elegantly inspired a lifelong enthusiasm and thirst for knowledge like some kind of rare educational guru...... luckily for her I can take a hint and have given up on that one. She does what she has to do to get the work done but we’re a far cry from self motivated exploration. We're shooting for a solid base of intellectual mediocrity while maintaining high hopes for quality of life and fostering radical, healthy, responsible, nonconforming enthusiasm. And if we can avoid a lot of tattoos and body piercings along the way, all the better!
to be continued..........
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