Educational Choices: Homeschooling
Posted on February 18, 2008
Filed Under Social Issues, Personal, Parenting, Dr. Dobson's Broadcast
Our oldest son is away at college, and by all indications is doing well there. He was educated at home — beginning with kindergarten and continuing all the way through his senior year of high school. Despite the skepticism of others and the self-doubts along the way, home schooling was the right choice for him and for our family. Why was that?
One advantage: The opportunity to customize an education for a particular child, playing to their strengths and allowing them to explore outside of preset boundaries. We didn’t have to fit him into the box, we were able to design the education for him.
Another reason to consider homeschooling: Protection from the “forced maturity” that seems part of our culture and educational system. I am not against helping kids grow, but I am against the headlong rush in exposing our children to inappropriate media, and the incessant move to loading up their schedules with activity. Far too many kids are juggling too much, emotionally and physically. I think the “forced maturity” experiment is a failure, by and large. It seems only to have delayed true adulthood for far too many children. A result: we’re seeing 20 year old adolescents who are incapable of real work, who don’t have the emotional toolbox needed to cope with life, who are preoccupied with self and not at all thinking of others. Harsh judgment here, but I believe kids should have a full chance to experience childhood…play time, space in their lives to read and be bored, and a freedom from the weight of the world - appropriately - as there will be plenty of time for adult worries later on in life. The present educational system seems to foster this sense of “forced maturity.”
I’m pretty passionate about this. More later. Meantime, listen here for more on the benefits of home education.
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