To School or Not to School?
arun on Sep 17 2011 at 4:45 am | Filed under: homeschooling, parenting, unschooling | Click here to go HOME | or find out about SUBSCRIBING TO THE PIT |
You may have noticed a serious lack of posts on this blog… I actually considered canning the whole thing because I’ve really been enjoying not blogging. But for now it survives, so it’s about time for an update.
Since my last post we moved to Melbourne. We did this because of all cities in australia, it has the most choice through the largest and most active homeschool community, plus the broadest range of alternative schools.
M (9yrs) has almost reached her 3nd term of schooling, is now at Village School, and really enjoying it.
Z (5 yrs) is currently homeschooled and we suspect will continue to do so all the way through (he has little interest in school and i don’t think it would really meet his needs at all).
H (2yrs) likes to honk people on the nose.
When i look at what M enjoys about school— it’s the activity and friendships that she can access every day. Ironically now we’re back in Melbourne, we would more be able to access similar things through the homeschooling community much more easily.
We’ve talked to M about this and she is tempted to try homeschooling again next year, but Im cautious. The mysterious health issue i referred to in my last post was Anne having chronic fatigue. This has been an ongoing issue and she has valiantly been working with countless health practitioners and alternative bods over the years, to move her iron levels from the non existent to creep onto the scale.
She does amazingly well given the energy she has, and has some high powered days mixed with some which are very challenging. As a result, often a generous chunk of parenting, household & business responsibilities fall on me.
We talk to homeschoolers who do it with little effort and are occasionally tempted to go for it again. Certainly that’s anne’s feeling—as wonderful as Village School is, we do appreciate the choice and social environment provided by homeschooling in particular.
However for me, homeschooling and unschooling in particular, requires a great deal of parental pro-activity. And I think at this stage, I’m still not up for that.
Having said that, it’s still our aspiration as Anne’s health improves and we get back on track. Until then, Im thankful that M has such a great option to experience.
Whoo-hoo! Good to hear your voice again. Glad y’all are doing ok and I hope for better times for you in the future.
Hey Aaron,
Lovely to hear your ‘voice’ again. Melbourne is definitely unschooling country, from all that I’ve heard. Selfishly, of course, I’d love you guys to venture back to the land of unschooling/homeschooling as your voice is one that’s great to hear;) But I also know that the most important thing is that everyone’s needs are met – and at this moment in time, perhaps homeschooling isn’t what would be great for all of you.
Again, so lovely to read here again. I hope you come back here really soon:)
Kim
Hiya!
So lovely to hear from you and get an update – you are muchly missed around these parts.
love and blessings
Hi Arun
Thanks for your update. We have heaps of Melb friends in common (Liz & Rob, Flis & Sarah) and a shared past in activism, but I don’t think we’ve ever really met (though I do remember your face from around uni). I read your blog up to your momentous returning to school post, and now that we’re getting closer to making school decisions, returned tonight to see how you were all getting on.
I’m interested in your comments about M’s friendships, as that is probably what’s bothering me most about unschooling.
Our other option is part-schooling (maybe 3 days p/wk) Reggio at Collingwood College, where lots of my son’s friends will be. Most unschooling discussions miss the point for me, because I actually feel relatively confident that many (though not all) of the things that people rightly criticise about mainstream schooling seem not to be issues in the early years stream at Collingwood.
One of the things that attracts me to partschooling at CC is that E’s friendships won’t need to be entirely mediated through adults (except insofar as I make the bigger decision to place him in that environment).
In a well-functioning, nurturing kind of school, friendships can ebb and flow over a course of days rather than in discrete single play dates. We play regularly with various children … at our place, at theirs, at events, just hanging out, and on ‘excursions’, plus various fun ‘classes’ … but that doesn’t feel quite the same as what happens when a larger group of children regularly spend time in their own company, with minimal adult involvement and not necessarily with parents.
When I think on kids in school-free parts of the world, my impression is that they largely spend daytime in multi-age groups, evolving deeper friendships with some children but also playing with different people in different ways as they feel so inclined.
Today I am leaning towards partschooling now, with a view to unschooling when E is of an age when he can free-range and go see whoever he likes, when he likes. Tomorrow I might be back to fully unschooling again.
Anyway, apologies for this long ramble. Basically, I’d love to hear your thoughts on friendships and more importantly, friend-making in the context of unschooling.
Thanks
e.
Just realised in my attempts to cut the length of my comment, I made it sound like kids in school-free places just get to play all day. Most of those children do, of course, spend much of their time working alongside their parents and sadly their time is hardly unmediated by the pressures of the adult world.
Hi Arun, Appreciate your constant re-assessment of your situation. We do that too in my family. We go from, “Let’s have more home days so we can sink our teeth into current projects and also invite friends over” to “Let’s just get out of the house so we do something different from washing up or watching DVD’s.” I also occasionally check in and ask if they would be interested in going to school, particularly when they are complaining about the lack of friends or activites etc. So far my children think school would be even more boring than what they are currently enduring. Lovely to read your blog and feel like I am in conversation with you. Love to you all