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It’s not just homeschooling advocates who recognize the plight of government education and desperately desire to make the public aware of the disadvantages it gives to our children. Especially now with common core standards. Besides veteran voices like John Taylor Gatto, Peter Gray and Roger Schank, who have been pleading for a de-centralization of government schooling for a long time, a recent retiring school teacher has joined them with his retirement letter-gone-viral:

“My profession is being demeaned by a pervasive atmosphere of distrust, dictating that teachers cannot be permitted to develop and administer their own quizzes and tests (now titled as generic “assessments”) or grade their own students’ examinations. The development of plans, choice of lessons and the materials to be employed are increasingly expected to be common to all teachers in a given subject. This approach not only strangles creativity, it smothers the development of critical thinking in our students and assumes a one-size-fits-all mentality more appropriate to the assembly line than to the classroom. (emphasis mine) Teacher planning time has also now been so greatly eroded by a constant need to “prove up” our worth to the tyranny of APPR (through the submission of plans, materials and “artifacts” from our teaching) that there is little time for us to carefully critique student work, engage in informal intellectual discussions with our students and colleagues, or conduct research and seek personal improvement through independent study. We have become increasingly evaluation and not knowledge driven. Process has become our most important product, to twist a phrase from corporate America, which seems doubly appropriate to this case.

After writing all of this I realize that I am not leaving my profession, in truth, it has left me. It no longer exists.” -Gerald J. Conti, Washington Post

Slowly, and thankfully, many parents want their kids out. But some feel that homeschooling isn’t an option. What then?

My first suggestion is that homeschooling may very well be an option. Before other alternatives are even discussed, I want to knock down some common assumptions about “why I can’t homeschool.”

Myth 1: “We can’t afford it.”

While it may be true, in some cases, that without two incomes, or without a second parent in the home, the basic bills (food, shelter, utilities, clothing) simply won’t get paid, this is hardly ever the reality. The real reality is that major sacrifices may have to be made to cut back to one income (in the case of a mother and father). I am speaking from experience, that when your belief in the enormous advantages of homeschooling (as opposed to the alternatives) is strong enough, you will do drastic things to make it happen.

It might mean cutting things you’ve been accustomed to, eating differently, shopping differently or living differently. It might even mean moving to a more affordable house/area. It might mean exploring work-from-home options. But there’s never been a truer statement: “where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

Additionally, due to our presuppositions about schooling, homeschooling can be done in the evenings, as well as in the absence of parents, if children are old enough to stay by themselves.

Homeschooling can also be done virtually for free.

When I first quit my job to come home and begin homeschooling, we had a yearly income of about $15,000 and I was expecting our third child. It can be done. (Where There’s a Bill There’s a Way: Our Story)

Myth #2: “I’m not qualified to homeschool my kids.”

You don’t have to be. Because education isn’t dependent on your knowledge (contrary to what you may have been conditioned to think). Education is helping a child learn what he needs to learn through experiences, books, tutors, videos, projects, conversations–through life and the human experience. Just like a young child learns what he needs to learn with adult guidance, he continues to learn the same way when given the freedom and opportunity to explore and find answers to his questions. (Read more: Am I Qualified to Teach My Child?)

Myth: 3: My Kids Won’t be Socialized

One of the very reasons we homeschool is precisely because we don’t desire the socialization that comes with a peer-driven culture. As Christian parents, we should consider strongly the Bible’s admonition that “he who walks with the wise will become wise; but a companion of fools suffers harm.” Children learn best how to do life by the experience of being closely associated with those older and wiser than himself, especially as he learns proper social behavior. Besides that, homeschooled children have enormous opportunities to spend with peers, if that’s your desire. (Read more: Socializing at School or Home)

Bottom line?  YOU CAN DO IT!!! Take the plunge and see.

Are there other myths? I’d love to answer them!

Want to read more about how homeschooling isn’t as hard as you think? Check out Think Outside the Classroom: A Practical Approach to Relaxed Homeschooling

Another homeschooling question from the reader, Tonya:

(Read Part 1, “Will My Kids Miss Out?”)

“I’m thinking  of homeschooling and have a question: How do you teach a subject that you personally struggled with?  I’m not sure I have the skills it would take…”  Tonya

This question ranks right up there with the socialization question in terms of fears parents have about homeschooling. This fear is absolutely unwarranted, and I’ll try to peel back the several layers to show why.

We’ve been brainwashed by the system to think that education can only happen when an “expert” or someone really good at a subject, transfers that expertise to another person. Actually, this is a very inferior way to learn.

“Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.” -Carl Orff

Most moms homeschool their children for their first 4 or 5 years, “teaching” them more in that time than they’ll learn for the rest of their lives. The first part of my answer is: we need to trust the human capacity for learning things and figuring things out on our own, when we need to. If a child is given the environment to explore, if he’s given access to information, freedom to experiment and learn about the world around him, he will have a richer education than comes from memorizing facts. Albert Einstein said, “Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.”

Secondly, we need to carefully scrutinize what exactly is an important part of an education. When a parent says, “How will I teach Algebra–I don’t remember anything?” he is assuming algebra is a necessary part of a well-rounded education (admitting simultaneously that he doesn’t know it and is fine without it).  It’s not.  At least not in the terms we think. Algebra is the study of finding the missing part to an equation. Now that’s useful. It’s problem-solving. The good news is, there are thousands of ways to learn problem-solving skills without specifically mastering Algebra.

Also, unless your child plans to pursue a career that requires it, algebra is not a needed subject. If he does need it, he can learn it when the time comes. I taught my Dad Algebra when he was 45 when he went back to college. He made a B in the class and, of course, hasn’t used it since. There are too many things to learn that will most definitely be used to waste time on things that most likely will not. We would do well to question “standard” subjects, considering the advances in technology and demands of this century.

Thirdly, and if you disagree with my first two points, a homeschooling parent has far more resources for teaching any and every subject than does a school teacher with one mandated curriculum. I don’t have to understand a subject to direct my child in learning it. Whether it’s a video tutor or typical curriculum that explains a concept, the goal should be to help our children learn how to learn, to discover the myriad of ways to become better educated.

An illustration of this as well as the demonstration of the overpriced, often overrated college education is a typical lecture class. I had one such marketing class that sticks out, though I had many more like it. Big room, lots of students, one man in front almost literally reading the text book. At the end of a chapter, he instructed us to memorize the terms and chapter outline, then we were tested on it. I paid hundreds of dollars to have someone read to me. We call this “higher education.” (By the way, you MUST go read Matt Walsh’s latest post, “Thank God I Wasn’t College Material” for more on this insane idea that most people need to go to college.)

So, Mama thinking about homeschooling, you can give your child a tailored, excellent education, no matter what your own shortcomings are.

Not one homeschool mom doesn’t worry that she isn’t “doing it right” or “not doing enough.” No matter what methods we have chosen or how many homeschool conferences we attend, we all still secretly fear that we are not doing a good job.

To be fully responsible for our children’s education is daunting.

But if I have discovered anything over the past 12 years of homeschooling, it is the almost-magical way children learn, even on our worst days.

In a nutshell, we have relaxed a lot in our approach to education, and still our children are constantly learning, growing and becoming well-rounded people. What God put in them to be able to learn so much in their first five years, didn’t disappear when they turned six! That same curiosity and need to discover the world around them is a remarkable tool that ensures education is happening even when “school” is not.

But to help you relax, I want to mention a few principles that drive the Finland school system. Why should you be interested in the Finland school system? Because on the rare occasion they actually give their students tests, they rank among the top in the world’s best educated.

In my estimation, we should take notes for our own homeschools.

“We prepare children to learn how to learn, not how to take a test,” said Pasi Sahlberg, former math and physics teacher, currently Finland’s Ministry of Education and Culture.

“We value play.” Maija Rintola, Finland school teacher

Teachers in Finland spend fewer hours at school each day and spend less time in classrooms than American teachers…Children spend far more time playing outside, even in the depths of winter. Homework is minimal. Compulsory schooling does not begin until age 7. “We have no hurry,” said Louhivuori. “Children learn better when they are ready. Why stress them out?”

Finnish educators have a hard time understanding the United States’ fascination with standardized tests. “Americans like all these bars and graphs and colored charts…It’s nonsense. We know much more about the children than these tests can tell us.”

Find out more about relaxed homeschooling from “Think Outside the Classroom: A Practical Approach to Relaxed Homeschooling.”

Quotes from Why Are Finland’s Schools Successful? Smithsonian.com