Why would you do that?

What’s funny about homeschooling around here is that people can’t figure out why I’d  bother. The simple reason is that I want my kids’ education to be what mine wasn’t. To wit:

I want my kids to have a history education imbued with a sense of order and causality.

I don’t want a disjointed multi-year social studies program. I want a HISTORY program.

I don’t want a science curriculum that is cobbled together off of random web sites and then treated like the inconvenient “extra” (ranking even lower than art, music and – heaven forbid – P.E.) I want them to read a little science and then get their hands dirty with experiments. All the time.

I want a language arts curriculum that includes writing and grammar, not just spelling and vocabulary. I don’t want a language arts curriculum that assumes writing is covered “somewhere” just because other subjects assign writing projects.

I want a curriculum that includes logic and critical thinking, not an education where facts are spoon-fed to the student and their pass rate depends entirely on their ability to regurgitate on command.

And the last reason why: I’ve got three students on different levels, moving at different speeds with different learning styles. But there’s only me and them – not me and 18 or 23 or 26 of them. I have great respect for teachers: given their restraints, it’s amazing they turn out what they do with the 18 or 23 or 26 at a time. But it’s still not enough. When we made the decision to cut loose from schools, we’re not just freeing them from the bonds of an institution – we’re letting them go as far and as fast as they want.

I just hope we’re not too late.