WHY SETH GODIN AND OTHER EDUCATION REFORMERS SHOULDN’T DISMISS HOMESCHOOLING

 Guest post by Patricia Zaballos | Cross posted on A Wonder Farm blog 

         Recently, author and changemaker Seth Godin published the e-book Stop Stealing Dreams, a manifesto on the future of education. It’s a sweeping declaration of why schools are broken and how they ought to be fixed. In section #121 Godin gets to homeschooling: “Thousands of caring and committed parents are taking their kids out of the industrial system of schooling and daring to educate them themselves.” A promising first line! Then suddenly, without even a paragraph of consideration, Godin swats homeschooling aside, as if it were a senseless idea in a brainstorming session. It’s too challenging for most parents, too big a time commitment. It doesn’t give kids enough freedom to fail.

            Sigh.

Reactions to Stop Stealing Dreams

If you haven't read Seth Godin's Stop Stealing Dreams I recommend you consider downloading the free eBook and as it provides a great platform for education reform conversation. If you've read the book and want to talk about it, you can join this group where folks are not only doing just that, but they are also writing their reflections via articles and posts. Want to know what people are saying? Read these articles. If you're writing about Stop Stealing Dreams join the group and add your post here.

Article Name: Learning Math through Programming

Blog / Magazine: Shuback

Author: Jeremy Shuback

Link: http://jeremyshuback.com/learning-math-through-programming/

Brief Description: In Part 113, Seth Godin asks "Is the memorization and drill[...] of advanced math the best way to sell kids on becoming scientists and engineers?" A look at how various schools are teaching math by teaching programming.

Article Name:Those Kids Could Dream

Blog / Magazine:Between the By-Road and the Main Road Looking Up

Author: Mary Ann Reilly

Link: http://maryannreilly.blogspot.com/2012/03/those-kids-could-dream.html

Brief Description: An art piece and an essay exploring dreaming, parenting, and school.

Article Name: A Today's Meet by 5th graders

Blog / Magazine: TodaysMeet.com

Author: 5th graders

Link: http://todaysmeet.com/stopstealingdreams/transcript

Brief Description: 5th graders read part of the manifesto and then began discussing the ideas with their classmates and teacher

Stop Stealing Dreams - Homeschooling works for parents who try it

In Seth Godin’s new education manifesto Stop Stealing Dreams (visit this link for a free download) he shares 132 sections for us to consider around the topic of ed reform. He’s divided this up this way in hopes that it will be easier to share and discuss. To that end, I took a look at section 121 where he says, “Homeschooling isn’t the answer for most” and explains why he believes most parents won’t take to homeschooling. 


The reasons he provides are indeed those which come up most often when I hear parents explain why they don't consider homeschooling as an option. The reality though, from the homeschooling parents who have done this, is that these obstacles that Godin identifies are not the reality. While there are several homeschooling parents who believed some of these myths before they began homeschooling, once they tried it, they discovered they were unfounded. As a learning advocate, I have witnessed the amazing success home educators have had with their children and it is my hope that other parents will consider this option. To do so of course, we need to break down some of these fears. I knew just the right people to do that. So in the spirit of Godin's manifesto when looking for those who might be best when it comes to responding, reacting, and discussing this section of his work, I turned to the insightful members of the Homeschooling, Unschooling, Uncollege, Opt Out, DIY, Online Learning group. You can see all the responses from that group here. Homeschooling expert Pat Farenga shared his response in a form of a astute essay.  Below you can read the section of the book along with Farenga’s insightful response.

121. Home schooling isn’t the answer for most
Thousands of caring and committed parents are taking their kids out of the industrial system of schooling and daring to educate them themselves. It takes guts and time and talent to take this on and to create an environment that’s consistently challenging and focused enough to deliver on the potential our kids are bringing to the world.

There are several problems, though—reasons for us to be concerned about masses of parents doing this solo:

A—The learning curve. Without experience, new teachers are inevitably going to make the same mistakes, mistakes that are easily avoided the tenth time around… which most home educators will never get to.

B—The time commitment. The cost of one parent per student is huge—and halving it for two kids is not nearly enough. Most families can’t afford this, and few people have the patience to pull it off.

C—Providing a different refuge from fear. This is the biggest one, the largest concern of all. If the goal of the process is create a level of fearlessness, to create a free-range environment filled with exploration and all the failure that entails, most parents just don’t have the guts to pull this off. It’s one thing for a caring and trained professional to put your kids through a sometimes harrowing process; it’s quite another to do it yourself.

Pat Farenga’s Response

There’s a lot I like in Godin’s piece, but also a lot I disagree with. Calling a program like the Harlem Village Academies “the future of education” is one such statement I would challenge. Can’t we think of bigger things for our children to do and learn from, in addition to or in lieu of reading books? 


Here is my response to this 3-part question: