Tell me… How far into college did you get before you thought, “Well, that’s not what I learned in school…” And the response you got back sounded an awful lot like, “Here we go again… Forget everything you’ve ever learned in school… it was wrong.”
How many times have you thought, “Why did they teach me Pythagorean Theorem instead of how to manage a budget or prepare for a job interview?”
How many times did you think, “When am I ever going to use this useless information?”
Or, “Why do we need homework? We learned it in class, why should we have to waste our home time on school work?”
No matter where you fall on the gender spectrum, I’m sure you have seen or experienced the perverted, sexist double standards too, right? Boys can’t have long hair or earrings. Girls can’t show their shoulders, stomach, or thighs. Girls can’t play football. Boys can’t be cheerleaders. The list goes on…
As a kid, these thoughts infuriated me, but what infuriated me even more was that everyone just kept saying, “This is what school is… You will need this stuff, you just don’t know it yet… You’ll be thankful one day… Keep quiet and let the adults tell you what to do… Trust the system…”
Well… the system didn’t teach me sh*t about how to function as an adult. I watched the system bend and break the rules for the rich kids, while knit picking and targeting the outcasts. The system allowed us “outcasts” to be bullied and harassed under the guise of, “Y’all were asking for it.” The system taught us flawed values and backwards morals.
As an adult, these thoughts still infuriate me. Hell, even more so now than back then!
I was incredibly anxious for my kids to go to public school. But, Nanny homeschooled me for pre-K and kindergarten, and I begged her to let me go to public school so I could have friends. So, I didn’t want to do that to my kids. Plus, at the time, I didn’t think think I had the capacity to keep up with trying to homeschool. The whole idea was incredibly intimidating! So, I did everything I could to ensure they were prepared for the nonsense.
Then covid happened…
I thought since the ’19-’20 school year ended with online schooling at home that I had to help with anyway… maybe we’d finally tryout homeschooling.
I totally hyper focused on finding, printing, and creating curriculum and manipulatives. I dove deeeeep into the homeschool world. I got to learn how they learned and processed. I was able to fine tune their curriculum to cater to their interests and learning styles. We absolutely loved it – for the first two years…
Eventually, I had to go back to work… I really thought I could maintain a full time job AND homeschooling FIVE kids…
I’m sure someone is reading this thinking, “Well yeah, I did… It’s not that hard.”
And, you’re right.
But for my family dynamic… it was impossible to manage.
So, in 2024 we decided to put them back into the public school system. At this point, it’s been four years since any of them had been in public school (one had never been), and it had been 14 years since I had been in school… things had changed…
Some things had changed for the better. Other things were far worse than I remembered…
The second time the middle school counselor had to call me to pick up my daughter and take her to be evaluated by a mental health professional, she told us we had to get the out of public school because it’s only getting worse.
We tried to simply say, “Well, we can’t do that right now. We’ll figure something else out.”
But alas, nothing else was ever figured out. Back to homeschooling we go!
The one big thing we all learned after four years of homeschool and one year of public school was that all those infuriating thoughts we (adults) had back in school were f*cking RIGHT?!
Homework? Don’t need it.
Textbooks? Overrated (and often incorrect).
Dress code? Umm… no.
Schedule? Weeelllll this one might be important depending your brain brand.
Why do kids need to go through nine yards of bullsh*t for 12 years, only to have to unlearn and relearn everything in college anyway? Why is passing a standardized test to prove you know what the government wants you to know more important than how to live in this twisted ass world as a fully functional adult?
The fact is… none of that necessary… Now, I know you’re thinking I’m just another nut job who doesn’t give a d*mn about her kids education. Well… hear me out…
Over the years, I’ve learned more about the world (including math, history, science, etc.) from living IN the world… Many things I learned in school, I don’t even remember, so I’ve had to relearn. Many things I had to completely unlearn and relearn properly.
And, I haven’t needed a lesson plan or grade book to prove that I learned and retained the information…
So, I started looking into this new “unschooling” thing. I’ve heard of it before, but like most people I thought it was nothing more than an excuse to not have to teach your kid anything… the lazy way.
Nicole explains it pretty well in her What is Unschooling blog.
Unschooling, put simply, is the idea that kids brains are like sponges – they’re constantly learning from everything they do, say, hear, and see. They retain the information even better if they’re actually interested in learning it. Day to day life could be turned into “a teachable moment.” When you value learning, anything can be educational.
It’s not hard to find or create “curriculum” based on whatever needs or interests your kid may have. It’s even easier to find moments throughout each day to teach something or show something or spark interest.
I think the last couple years of homeschooling before rejoining the system were so incredibly overwhelming for my kids and I because I put so much focus on keeping consistent curriculum, grade books, lesson plans etc. They grew to hate the idea of learning anything because it had turned into the same monotonous nonsense they were getting in public school. Except they also didn’t have friends or anything interesting going on because I was at work!
Now, week by week, we all pick a topic of interest. We research the topic however works best for us, or we plan some sort of family day that correlates with one or more of the topics chosen… and we learn.
Instead of telling them what questions to ask and memorize, I can guide the day or conversation in a way that sparks curiosity so they ask their own questions. Those questions lead to other questions. And as it goes on and on, we all learn together.
Instead of grading their work and making them feel incompetent for misunderstanding, we just do it again.
Learning can be fun. Learning can be interesting. Learning doesn’t have to be monotonous or boring or overwhelming. School may be overrated, but knowledge is still far too underrated. Let’s fix that…
IDEA PROPOSITION: What if there was a curriculum based on D&D? All the elements would be based on real life math, history, science, etc… Each year would run as a campaign, and the campaigns would link over the years. Weekly side quest projects would offer bonus learning opportunities and practice. I’ve made a mock up flyer and an outline for each year’s curriculum.
So, what do you think? I’d love to hear your ideas and suggestions on this project!
