What makes one educated?

1) how to take care of their bodies and possessions

2) how to manage money

3) how to sustain relationships with all kinds of people

4) how to be responsible citizens of their neighborhood, town, country and world

5) how to cook anything they might want to eat from scratch

6) how to be curious and

7) how to satisfy that curiosity--how to conduct research and find things out.

Everything else is details. They can decide for themselves what to add to this once they decide what they want to do in life.

Lynn Siprelle, Editor

We are hardly unschoolers, but in the course of homeschooling my daughter in the last 18 months I have heard things like, "yay, decimals!" and "let's do a month of geometry," and "can we start history again?"

We don't have a comprehensive philosophy of education, but here are some things that have come up for us:

1. We consider learning to read music a basic life skill, and one that is most easily learned at a young age, but pursuing music beyond that is up to the child.

2. Understanding your world and your place in the world is easier and more interesting when you understand that people have lived different ways in different times and places, often without the things we consider essential (Exhibit A: computer) That is one value of studying history or geography, beyond specific interests.

3. We love foreign languages. In fact, we love language and books in general -- it's family value that we try to pass on.

4. In talking with an online friend about literary studies, I said that my primary goal with studying literature, beyond the ability to read and write will, is to develop the understanding that language is not transparent.

5. I'm thinking that I want my kids to have some shared culture with their neighbors -- folk songs, a connection to the place they live through history, food, stories, art, etc. We're going to learn all the traditional American patriotic songs, for example. (This is a one of those areas where I just woke up one day and said hey, my kids ought to be able to participate in these sing-a-longs!)

How that looks for my 8yo is music and math daily, some kind of history (primarily European Renaissance right now) or geography (currently, reading maps) 4-5 times a week, Chinese 2-3 times a week, Spanish when we can, talking about writing about twice a week, science (currently, ecology) 2-3 times a week, art class once a week plus drawing on anything that will hold still, writing every day, reading every day, youth concerts, living history sites, art museum visits, plays. Oh, and piano lessons, ice skating, and fencing! Oh man, I gotta lie down.

I should note that my 4yo is a lot more hands-on than my 8yo -- more into nature, taking things apart -- especially taking things apart -- operating tools, etc. No doubt as she gets older that will change how we think of education. She is also the classic "Spirited Child,": sensitive, negative, critical, intense, above and beyond the average spunky kid. She's already leading us toward more learning about self-care as part of homeschooling than we had been in the past.

Even though we are more formal schoolers than Lynn, I too don't really think of a pool of essential knowledge that my kids must have (beyond taking care of themselves), but rather helping them develop their learning tools. I've made some choices about what areas we'll look at as we do that (e.g., choosing the subjects for history, and more recently choosing some of the books DD reads) but I feel like those choices are more about what she or I get excited about and not about what I think she really ought to know. It is quite likely that if we homeschool through high school I will insist on the basic science curriculum -- biology, chemistry, physics -- and confirm that they have adequate understanding of American history and politics to start voting. Beyond that I just really want them to be curious about *something* and enthusiastic enough to indulge their curiosity.

Shaun
www.redseahomeschool.wordpress.com

Right now, I want my kids to be able to read well (check, at least with the oldest two. Younger ones are still too young), do well in math, science, history/geography. If they can squeeze in time for music, great. My main goal is for my kids to get into and finish college. Because if you stay in this town, you either farm, teach, or do something at min. wage. I'm putting more emphasis on sports, too. Because if you are good, you can get more scholarships (we have a small town university here, I would be THRILLED if they got a scholarship there).

But arts and languages, I'm not so much for. Knowing famous artists and poetry isn't going to get you far in this town. I'd rather focus on the "three Rs" and science (biology, chemistry, animal science). Being able to take care of yourself is a given: grooming, cooking, sewing, welding, basic carpentry and truck care, driving a tractor.

Of course, I guess they need to learn Spanish, because that is where this country is heading. I want my kids to be able to communicate (though I'm still butting my head on it. Personal issue here). If they want to study another language, it will have to be on their own or in college, because the only thing offered here is Spanish (for all these people that already KNOW spanish and are looking for an easy grade and a class they can just use their native tongue...oops, sorry. Personal issue).

Look at your options that are available in your area. Here, we have public school, one private school (Christian), and homeschool. Bigger the town, more options you have. I've toyed with the idea of sending the kids to town for high school because of more electives offered. But being in a small town, they may not have as much, but they will be at the head of what they do have. Town also makes them pick ONE sport per season, or band, or cheerleading. Well, we don't have band, but we can do all we want of sports.

I'll give you this bit of info on public schools. They are judging everything by the AYP (adequate yearly progress). It's a crappy system. What they do is test all the kids. Then they divide all those up into subgroups (economically disadvantaged, mentally disadvantaged, Hispanic, Native American, Black, etc). If ONE subgroup fails, the entire school fails AYP. So (using my school for an example), every subgroup we had passed, EXCEPT the Hispanics. Because we have so many in our school that are migrant and CAN'T speak English, and WON'T learn English, we have to test them, and we fail AYP because of it (even though we scored well above state average). Nothing against Hispanics here, just saying that AYP is a crappy system. If a school doesn't meet AYP 3 years in a row, the state takes over, disbans the school board, etc.

Ok, so to me, educated is able to read and function well in society. Three Rs and Science and History are important most of all in a basic education. Anything else can be learned in free time or college.

My opinion, of course.