Thursday, August 21, 2008

The Truth About What School Can Be Like

Many of us have pink-tinted memories of our experiences in school. We have a tendency to think back affectionately on the people we knew and cared about, and to forget the painful situations that often arose.

Dana over at Principled Discovery has had the courage to tell the truth about what school was like for her. She generally says she had a positive school experience - but when she thought back to what she had learned in school, there was a lot of pain stored there. Her post is called, "Homeschool stereotypes vs. public school realities," and it's worth reading all the way through. The lessons she learned in school reflect, to a large extent, what public school "socialization" really involves; and they ought to stimulate each of us to think seriously about what kind of socialization we really want our kids to have. I know one thing - the things she learned are not the things I want my kids to learn. That's why I homeschool.

One of these days maybe I'll get up the nerve to write about my own experience in school as a child. I hope my kids will have much better childhood experiences to write about someday.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your kind words, and I hope you do write about your experiences.

I think about what my daughter will write someday, and silly me worries about her picking out every mistake I've ever made. Yippee! What every parent looks forward to, I'm sure. :)

Judi said...

I found your blog via Thatmom and your comments on this post http://thatmom.wordpress.com/2007/12/03/are-patriocentric-views-of-a-womans-role-causing-homeschooling-freedoms-to-be-at-risk/ I'd be interested in your thoughts, etc. on the direction that CHEC is going as a fellow Colorado homeschooler. I just looked over your most recent posts and I especially enjoyed your post about feminism and homeschooling. :)