OPINION
Tani Newton
The new school year has started, and naturally most parents will have decided long ago what their children are going to do for their education this year. But for those with small children who are still considering keeping them at home, and for those with children in school who are thinking of taking them out, allow me to offer my top tips.
- The school mentality is not obligatory. Society rushes to tell us that if our children are not going to school, then they are being ‘homeschooled’. I refuse to use that word because to use other people’s terms is to signal that you are buying into their worldview. It’s an opinion that childhood is defined by doing this thing called ‘school’ (an extremely poorly defined thing, when you begin to examine it) and nobody has to hold that opinion.
- On the positive side of that, there is infinitely more to find out about and experience than can fit into a school classroom (or into a ‘homeschool’ – boo, that word again.) Research the five most common approaches to home education. Staying out of the grey glue-smelling prison does not mean that you have to turn your life into a pale imitation of it.
- Find your local home-education group and go along to a meeting or get to know some of the families. This can be something of a culture shock at first: you may find that they all bake their own bread, drink herbal tea and appear to have about twenty-five children. But I predict that you will be won over by the warmth of their homes.
- Don’t bother with kindergarten if you’re not likely to carry on to school. You may make friends there, but they will dump you once they’re in school and you’re not. They won’t mean to: they just won’t have time.
- There is legislation requiring that you do business with the ministry concerned. Some people say that they find this process helpful in thinking through their plans. My advice would be to try not to allow it to shape your thinking and instead educate yourself and develop a better philosophy of education.
- Be prepared for battles and opposition, though these are fewer now than they were in the past thanks to the school system’s failures. Probably the most difficult scenario is having parents who are schoolteachers, as they may feel personally judged or rejected. Tact is called for here: brainstorm ways to put it to them positively.
Finally, you do not have to justify staying home to anyone. That is not because we live in a universe where each individual is autonomous and has no obligations to anyone else; rather, it is because the family is the natural environment for children and the burden of proof is on those who would tell you that they should be somewhere else.
Much more could be said, and much more needs to be dealt with in this day of soaring costs, unrest, unease and uncertainty. But I know of no one, in any time or circumstance, who regretted spending time with their children.