Taste of School

Way back when, when school vouchers were being debated in Utah, one common objection to them was that the taxpayers would be subsidizing private educations, which didn't "seem fair." I thought it was an amusing objective, since the parents using the voucher money were taxpayers themselves. "Well, if you want a private education, use your own money!" It may have been the argument that killed vouchers. And all the people worrying about "fairness" went happily on to spend everyone else's money on their kids' public educations. (Current education figures in Utah put a k-12 education coming in at more than $100,000.)

Homeschooling ranks on the inexpensive side when it comes to alternatives to traditional public school. And yet, sometimes it feels a bit hard to know I'm paying into the public system I'm not using. Like having membership in a club or gym you never hit.

So we have been successfully tempted into schools that promise either their learning supplies/curriculum for free, OR reimbursement for tools/technologies/and curriculum providers of our choosing.

This relates to my confession about being child-led. I need to get to that. But before I do, briefly I confess that both my school-age kids are enrolled in public online schools. For the goodies. I LIKE the laptop, the field trips, the class offerings like Lego Robotics and Digital photography. And I like having access to MY tax money for MY kids.

BUT there are drawbacks, and we ran into one yesterday. My son and I spent a full 2 hours yesterday trying to figure out how to submit 3 simple assignments to his school. Now I understand all technology has glitches, and as a confirmed technologically challenged adult, I should expect more than my fair share. So in the grand scheme of things, perhaps 2 hours should feel small. But that is 2 hours that could have been used in other endeavors.

FINALLY, having completed all the school was requiring of us, I sat back and did my cost/benefit analysis and concluded for all that time, we gained not one shred of knowledge usable in the outside world. (My husband argued we gained software/website savvy. I argue we didn't. The website we were interacting with was unique to the school. All the training pertaining how to use it will be worth nothing once we don't use it.) But before I let my cost/benefit really get me down, I reflected on school as I knew it.

How long did I spend in school for how much knowledge and skill I could use on the outside? Of the 8 hours kids attend school, how much info enhances their being? Really grows their minds and capacities? Maybe no one measures that way. Maybe they don't because the answers would be too painful. So after a frustrating 2 hours, I had to conclude that it was just a taste of school as most know it.

So, SO grateful that MOST 2 hours spent homeschooling yield greater, more meaningful fruit.