210: Response to Alistair Bomphray

My response to Homeschool teacher, meet public school teacher. Now hug. by Alistair Bomphray

As a public school teacher who knows very little about homechooling, I would love to know what it takes to be a good homeschool teacher. I have questions like, How do you balance being both parent and teacher to your child?

I balance it in much the same way that I did when she was two and three and four — by living side-by-side with her. I don’t put on some “teacher hat” at 7am and take it off again at 4pm.  I think your question may stem from a notion that homeschool families have little classrooms in their homes, complete with a teacher’s desk, and a blackboard, and the pledge every morning. Don’t get me wrong, some families do have that.  We don’t.  The classroom set up is great for managing large groups, but it’s not particularly useful for most families, especially ones like ours, with an only child.

More fundamentally, though, we believe that learning happens everywhere, and all the time. We don’t have a set start and ending time to our day, our week, or our year. We have periods of intense study and creativity, and we have periods of rest. These happen as a natural rhythm to our lives, not imposed by a calendar. We embrace opportunities to learn new things, and engage in new activities when those opportunities present themselves. If my spouse comes home and asks if we’d like to take off to Paris or Dublin in a few weeks, we say “yes” and then focus our energies on preparing for that, by determining what things are of the most interest to us, and what we can accommodate in the visit. That might also mean that we drop a project we had going, and pick it up again when we return.

How do you incorporate technology into your lessons?
Probably similarly to the ways school teachers do . . . use of the computer for a variety of tasks, use of the internet for entertainment and research (and critical examination of source material), use of the robotics lab for programming, use of the CNC router for creating 3-D sculptures and other projects, use of the woodshop for projects, use of the tools for changing auto and generator oil, use of the sawmill to create posts and lumber, use of the excavator for earth work, use of the concrete mixer to build a foundation, use of a graphing calculator for math . . . the basic 7th grade kinds of technology.

How do you go about teaching a subject you know very little about?
I go about it the same way most people would, I think: I either research and gain an understanding of the subject, or I find someone who already has the knowledge and passion who is willing to share that.

How much homework do you give?
None.
But I don’t think you should, either.

Is it even called ‘homework’ when it’s assigned at home?
There are some families who follow a school model and who assign homework and call it that.

Do your students have to take the same standardized tests as mine?
I’m not sure. Which ones do yours take?
Each state has different requirements for homeschoolers.
In mine, Washington, we have to either test or assess our children annually. We’ve chosen to use a standardized test, and generally use the CAT. This year (7th grade), we chose the SAT instead.

If so, how much test prep do you do each week?
None.
Never have.
Standardized tests weren’t meant to be studied for, they were meant to be a comprehensive look at the student’s abilities in relation to other student’s performances. If a student can read classic works of the western canon, there isn’t any real need to study for the vocabulary or comprehension sections of a standardized test, as the words that will appear there will be ones already in the student’s working vocabulary, and the passages will be simple to read and understand. Likewise, a student who understands and has mastered math will not need separate study for the mathematics section of a standardized test.

In short, I want to know your best (and worst) practices.
The best practices of homeschooling relate to providing individualized educations for children. We’re able (because of small class size) to provide the kind of attention that only the most exclusive private schools can.

And as homeschool teachers, aren’t you just as curious about the life of a public school teacher?
Not really. Most of us were involved in the public schools during our own youth; many of us have taught in institutions. There’s so much attention on classroom management, following canned curriculum, and taking tests in school that is wholly unnecessary in the homeschool setting.

If for nothing else, to rethink and reshape your own teaching philosophies?
While I was in graduate school, I took a few courses in the education department, because I was still tinkering around with the idea of keeping my options open for secondary ed. One of the courses I took was Adolescent Literature, wherein we were to read 13 novels (The Hobbit, Where the Red Fern Grows, I Heard the Owl Call My Name, All Quiet on the Western Front, The Chocolate War, Fahrenheit 451, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, The Great Gatsby . . . you get the idea), write 2 page response papers to each, and discuss them in class. I was the only one there not pursuing an MAT (Master of Arts in Teaching), and the only one who was not planning to be in a highschool classroom the following year. I’m also the only student in that class who read each of the assigned books. My classmates were renting the movies and reading the Cliffs Notes.
This did, of course, shape my teaching philosophy. Like other negative examples from school teachers, it very much shaped my own philosophies. (Age promotion, teaching to the lowest common denominator, low expectations, outright cruelty, and the folly of grades and testing are others I would point to).

There are public school teachers who have influenced my teaching philosophy in a positive way. John Caldwell Holt, John Taylor Gatto, and Robert M. Pirsig have all had positive influences on my philosophy both in the college classroom (where I was for the decade before I began homeschooling my then second-grader), and in my homeschooling.