What Makes People Think They Are Qualified To Teach Their Own Kids?

[frazzled]

128. My main objection to it

is that I think it's too parent dependent, which in my opinion is unhealthy, whether you are providing excellent academics (and even extracurriculars) for your children or not. We try to control so many aspects of our children's lives that to become the authority figure of the teacher and school as well seems ... well ... somewhat overbearing to me.

I was lucky to have excellent public schools for my children (though of course there were the rare years when they had a bad teacher ... a very good learning experience for them, actually). We of course supplemented it with all kinds of books and activities and outings and lessons. Perhaps if I lived in some retrograde, out-of-the-way, backwards place I might have felt differently about home schooling. But here's how I felt for myself:

1. I always had to fight mightily against what I thought I wanted my kids to be and accept what they actually wanted to be. To assume the entirety of their education, I felt, would be satisfying my own ego more than their needs. I had enough problems with ruling their lives as it was.

2. My kids would have rebelled against me. (As well they should have.)

3. Both my kids outgrew our (post-graduate) knowledge by about 5th or 6th grade in certain areas. My son outgrew the school in mathematics by that age, but fortunately there was a program at the state University starting at that age in which he was able to move on to high school math and complete it in two years, moving on from there. There's no way we could have satisfied his needs in this area.

4. I felt that we were best at supplementing and implementing the teachers' assignments and making sure that the kids had all the help they needed or extra materials.

5. What my kids lacked most was ease in social situations. They went to inner-city, multicultural schools where they learned to get along with kids of all races, nationalities, and socio-economic backgrounds, which was important to us.

6. My daughter was hearing impaired, and she had to learn how to function in the real world, not in the quiet of our house, and not where we would always cater to her needs.

All this said, I will not judge other people's decisions. I am basing my opinions my own feelings and my own family situation. And home schooling was very rare in my kids' era (they're now in mid-20s to 30). But if you and your kids are happy with home schooling, I'm not going to criticize you for it. Just tread lightly in one area: don't try to make your kids into what you envision them to be. Make sure you let them be themselves.