It may be new for you, because you are not aware that home schooling is not a choice, but a necessity in many countries, in particular third world countries. Children education start and end at home, because of the expensive fees to enroll in a normal school. In some case, the family will not earn the amount of money needed for one child, even if they work during the entire year. Actually, even before you register your child in any school, you must be aware that you did a job more important that you think, and you are the first real teacher. Homeschooling start in the early stage of your child grow, and the most important and crucial development of your child happens between 0 and 4 years. I was teaching French language to non French speakers in the Middle East, United Arabs Emirates, and I rapidly noticed that from year to year, some students wasn't renewing their registration. Actually, there was just leaving the school and starting home schooling. I met one of my grade 12 students from the previous year. An outstanding student as he was very quite in class, and although he wasn't particularly skilled, he was doing everything in his possible to succeed, and he was doing very well. He use to share with me his different projects, because my style is to be closer to the student than the director... I asked him why did he left the school, and I found that his father just couldn't afford the cost required by the higher education. I felt sad, but he told me that he was learning at home, and the fact that he was firmly believing in his success was a positive mindset. Immediately after our conversation, I was thinking about the advantages of home schooling, and I found that in fact, that kind of education was suitable for him and his personality. In class, he used not to speak with his other classmates, and he was listening carefully to me and other teachers as well. The fact that he was a little bit slow if you compared him to the best performers in his class. I noticed, from my experience as a student as well as my experience being a teacher, that the emphasis in education is on performance and being close to the best model. A method which is different and should be studied by parents working at home is Maria Montessori's theory. A question that we can ask to ourselves, is that competition in the classroom is beneficial for students? Each student is different, and doesn't necessarily need to identify himself with a model. |
