RantingWomen.com Women’s Blog

On the topic of public education, I always say, “Don’t get me started,” because I simply can’t stop once the subject comes up. The abuse of our children, the degradation of their tender minds, the standardized testing; all these and other issues within public education boil my blood. Cokes in the lobby - damn right they’re all ADHD. I would be, too!

But that rant is for another time. I want to share the OPPOSITE of forced education, to demonstrate a frightening reality.

I have homeschooled my children for the last fifteen years. I was young, and I didn’t know any better before my oldest daughter started high school. I didn’t realize I could REALLY make the choice to homeschool until the need arose with her; and assumed, like many others, that only middle-aged hippies in Vermont actually pull their kids out of school and teach them at home. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

My daughter, Renee, was ADHD from the moment I began to raise her, at age seven. (I am not her birth mother, I married her dad, who had custody). Renee struggled through school, and in spite of her bright, active mind, her behavioral reports were always frustrating, and she lagged behind her classmates, unable to stay focused enough to finish a complete sentence. Her little brain was a butterfly, flitting from one thing to the next, and academic progress was always just out of her reach.

By her first year of high school, I was forced into homeschooling her. Her frustration with her lack of progress had turned her into somewhat of a “class clown.” To avoid the embarrassment of failure, she had become a silly attention-seeker, no longer even trying to pay attention and learn. I refused to give her Ritalin, and the only option seemed to be to take a drastic step and pull her out of school. Though she played on my nerves like the tension on a violin string, I did know that she could learn, and so we began.

Today Renee is in her third year of college, the only one of our grown children to embrace and love her education. She is majoring in teaching, of all things. I would say she qualifies as a success story.

But even during the early years of homeschooling, I was still doing “school at home” with Renee. We broke from the curriculum when we had to, but overall, I was dedicated to proving her worthy by showing that her test scores could compete with anyone else. Things are different now.

We adopted our youngest two kids at ages eight and ten. Both of them were “ADHD,” and both were behind in school; understandably the victims of the social services system, too much medication, and a three year stint in foster care - not to mention the earliest traumas that led them to foster care to begin with. We had our hands full. I was told that Deborah would not complete her homework, and that her foster mother fought with her every night to finish her work sheets. Daniel was a little animal at school who could not even be contained in a classroom environment. His ADHD was coupled with supposed bipolar disorder… these two were definitely going to be homeschooled. I could not imagine fighting the fights ahead with local school officials.

It was during the process of their adoption that I began reading John Holt. Holt was a homeschooling pioneer, and his writings were shocking to me. He suggested NO curriculum whatsoever, NO testing, and certainly, as little control as possible over a child’s choices in what he learns. He assured his readers that, left to his/her own devices, every child would gain all the skills they needed (even math and science!) by natural acquisition, just by being allowed to explore the world. I was admonished to teach only when ASKED - by the child! The man was obviously off his rocker. Unfortunately, he was also dead. There were only his writings to refer to for counsel. Still… these children were different. They were “special,” in all the subtle shades that word can imply.

Imagine my dismay when the children arrived, and I learned that Daniel couldn’t read at ALL. He couldn’t even tell the sounds letters made. The only words he could read were those he had seen often enough to commit to memory, and when asked to read aloud, he would mumble his way through, quickly skimming, and with no inflection. It was easy to see that the strange symbols on the paper meant nothing to him at all. I took a deep breath, and decided to relax. They were ours now, and they would learn. I still couldn’t let go of the entire “plan” of curriculum, but I did realize that Daniel would not learn to read by force. As a lover of good things to read, I would not turn this into an exercise in torture for him. I wanted Daniel to love it, too.

In the first year, I didn’t push. We made crafts about ancient Egypt, we watched movies about history, Daniel showed a natural passion for all things archaeological, and the Discovery channel became a favorite learning tool for him. We kept it light and fun, and Deborah began to absorb math - because we used HER money as the teacher. I would pay her interest on her savings (she’s a little tight-wad), but only if she could calculate the interest herself. If she got the correct amount, she got paid. If not, no interest. She learned very quickly, and never forgot how, even though this calculation was done only once a month. Contextual. I was beginning to see Holt’s point.

As an experiment, I decided we would take six months off from any schooling whatsoever. There were only three rules, and I believe they are rules that made it possible for Holt to triumph.

Rule #1: Absolutely no video games on week days. Ever. No matter what.

Rule #2: Only one hour of television per day, unless Discovery was showing a science topic.

Rule #3: We read every night for one hour. It didn’t matter WHAT was read, as long as the time was spent in quiet intimacy together - reading.

I was criticized by older friends for making it “too easy” for the kids. When they were reading and asked what something meant, I told them. Friends said, “Have them look it up!” Why? They are reading, and why would I want to interrupt the flow of an interesting story with a boring old dictionary. Enjoy reading? Yeah, they were starting to.

I knew we had triumphed when the first HUGE volume of the Harry Potter series came out. The kids each had their own copy, and they were glued to it. As never before, they read intently, sometimes begging to stay up longer to finish the next page. When the movie came out, for the first time ever, Daniel said, “It was good, but not as good as the book.” Bingo. They were where I wanted them to be with reading.

And now the kids are 17 (Daniel) and 16 (Deborah). Tonight their cousin, Brandon, is sleeping over. He brought his electric guitar and amp, to add to the beautiful sound of Deb’s birthday guitar (and amp), and the drums and keyboard. It’s quite a band. Does it annoy me? Nope.

John Holt’s ghost is among us right now. He is telepathically saying, “I told you so,” as the kids tell me they do not want to be disturbed. I see amps, guitars, and amp cords going down the hall in their hands. Brandon’s hair hangs down over his eyes in teenage rebellion as he tells me sweetly, “If my cell phone rings, just turn it off. We’re gonna be in the living room.”

“Good movie?” I ask him.

He says, “Nah. We’re trying to take guitar lessons, and we don’t want interruptions.” It’s a DVD they’ve rented, and they’re going to learn music - today. I wink at John’s ghost, and test a theory.

I ask Brandon, “Are you going to have a band?”

“We already do.”

Oh, of course.

“Want me to teach you how to make a web site for your band?” I ask him.

“What for?” he counters. “We’ve got MySpace. It’s free.” Ah… and good business sense as well.

So, they’re teaching themselves music on a hot summer night. No one gave them the lesson plan. Deb has a notebook, and she is organizing the schedule for their studies. Daniel is regulating practice time. Brandon is in charge of their “image.” Guess we don’t need any teachers today. But if someone wants to throw a standardized test at these guys… have at it. They’ll kick your school’s test score ass!

Anne Pierson, Editor

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