From my column, this week, and already causing a bit of a stir.

Schools Remind Me Why I’m a Homeschooler

The evening news reminds me that the job market is getting tight. With layoffs all around me, I know that I am blessed to be working. This knowledge also motivates me to branch out and take the work that is available now.

I am consulting again, commuting this time. I try to find ways to coax a few words out of children who have no interest in communication.

My attention has been diverted away from my children’s education, perhaps a necessary consequence of spending more time out of the home. Brian is our primary teacher anyway, but I feel a difference, one I don’t like, as I keep trying to stay involved in our homeschool and focus on my job.

Perhaps this is what other moms deal with when they send their children off to school then head off to work themselves. But I see the schools and am grateful daily that it is my husband, and not a series of strangers, in charge of educating my children.

I am a double outsider, a contractor in special education. I travel to three schools over three days, giving me a sense that I don’t quite belong anywhere. Once there, I need to rustle up pens, pencils, paper and other basic supplies just to do my job.

Some days, I want to sit around the fireplace with the students and read stories, take a walk in the yard, stopping to chase a bug or pick some fruit, just as I do with my own children, but this is not possible. My day is regimented by bells and scheduled accordingly. I see dozens of children and then fill out the paperwork to prove it.

Over the years, I have worked on a number of public school campuses. I find many excellent and dedicated people working there, but institutionalized, mass-market education cannot meet the unique needs of each child. While some are nurtured and encouraged, others barely get by and still others lose their spark of creativity.

The asphalt jungle sprouts few trees, none suitable for climbing. Many types of play structures are banned, citing the various dangers that may be present. Instead of training children to be careful, we take away the opportunity to learn safety in a natural environment. At recess, staff remind children of the dangers of chasing or playing tag.

There are time outs for saying “hallelujah,” and lines that can’t move forward until everyone’s feet are pointed in the same direction. How, I ask myself, does this enhance learning?

Hallways lined with posters about saving the environment lead to the cafeteria that tells a different story. Students pick up a plastic-lined paper tray then fill it with a foil-wrapped bun, a dried-out hamburger patty in a shrink-wrapped plastic bowl, condiments, boxed fruit, small cartons of milk and another shrink-wrapped bowl filled with lettuce.

The children rip apart containers and pick at their food. Some eat, and you realize this may be the most reliable means of nutrition available to them. Others throw their meals in the trash in favor of chips and cookies stashed in a backpack. I stand in line to get some milk and wonder what the ecology lesson really is here. Sure, some schools have recycling programs for their green and paper waste, but why not avoid using those extra resources in the first place?

I see all of this and more, and I am grateful to homeschool. While I realize that homeschooling is not for everyone, I would like to see more people give it a try. Even as that happens, there is no quick fix for those children left behind, pointing their feet in the wrong direction, saying “hallelujah” and heading off to time out.

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