This is a series of stories and commentary intended to start healthy conversations for parents to strongly consider homeschooling. My premise is that a one-size-fits-all education is, at best, suboptimal, and has proven worse in responding to the pandemic. We’ve seen homeschooling have phenomenal outcomes—not just in our family’s 20 years of homeschooling, but in countless other families as well. At the same time, taking on your kids’ education entails financial and career sacrifices. Real planning looks at intangibles as well as the numbers. Before you plant your homeschooling flag, firm up your WHY. Let’s start there.
I was out on my deck enjoying the evening coolness, when giddy laughter touched my soul. Unmuted, uninhibited, uncontrollable giggles emanating from a small child in a neighbor’s yard compelled me to smile.
Remember smiling at school? Do you recall collective laughter revealing a new front tooth or new braces or a shiny new smile after the braces came off?
Today, unbridled power centers are banning smiles in school1. Imagine having to wear a mask during basketball practice2! In 2020 we heard that the remedy should not be worse than the affliction. In 2021 the halls of the elite have buried that principle.
Can the most hilarious mouth printed on a mask substitute for the spectrum of genuine, human expressions? We’ve heard about numerous studies concluding that how we speak communicates more information than what we speak. So who wants their child’s formative years deprived of developing that ability to decode full facial expressions?
Because the end of masking kids at school is not in sight, is it?
To Your Success!
#homeschool, #homeschooling #primaryeducation, #secondaryeducation #students
Footnotes
Photo Credit
Torrey Wiley, “Kids” (CC BY 2.0)