Education in a box?
I have been thinking a lot lately about what a homeschool education should or should not cover. And whether my children are missing out on certain knowledge or information!
We seem to cover some bizarre topics – and yet miss totally those standard ones. I don’t want them to struggle later because they ‘have gaps’ or don’t know certain things.
I am coming to the conclusion that most curriculum writers (school or otherwise) think that an education should look like this:
There is a defined wall around the things that ‘people ought to know’.
If it is in the box it is ‘good’ or ‘useful’ knowledge. Outside the box? You don’t need to know it. I am sure the people designing the box had only the best intentions. I am sure that they looked at the sum total of all human knowledge and weighed very carefully what should be fitted into the curriculum and what shouldn’t. I am sure there are very good reasons why some subjects are ‘in’ and some are ‘out’. Let’s not worry about the fact that some curriculums are different to others. That people disagree about what important elements should make up a ‘complete’ and full education. Or that the box seems to be getting ever smaller as schools struggle to force people to learn the box’s contents.
The box is what society has deemed as a ‘suitable education’.
Of course, most people’s formal education really looks like this;
Depending where (and when) you went to school. Which teacher inspired you to learn lots more about a subject. What you choose to remember and what you forgot. No matter how nicely that curriculum was planned out, humans are going to mess it up somewhere along the line. I guess we can live with these small deviations in education because we are a varied society that can still function without everyone knowing absolutely everything that has been deemed necessary.
But what if you don’t use a curriculum in your homeschooling? What if, heaven forbid, you are unschooling, or try to fit the education to your child, or even (perish the thought) use some of the ideas in www.homeschooling-ideas.com?
I think then your child’s education is going to look like this:
Hmm.. That’s still an education right? That is still things learnt and remembered? But wait – there is a big gap over there that didn’t get touched upon.
If you are like me, and you worry about the bits that are in the box that you haven’t covered – let me share with you my realization.
The box DOESN’T COVER the things OUTSIDE of the box.
Sure, those things have been deemed ‘not necessary’. But what if they are? What if technology should change, society should change or a scientific discovery turns everything on its head? What then? What if our children are going to NEED to know the things outside the box?
Duh! Then people would go and learn them, right?
So maybe, just maybe, I am giving my children a head start by starting them outside the box ALREADY!
Very thought provoking Julie; looks like we’re following the jellyfish approach to learning! I think you know you’re on the right track when ideas and new things to find out seem exciting and fun…
Best wishes
Sonya