I am not excited. In my experience it is common for parents of young children to have a lot of ideas on this they are keen to implement but dial back on this as their kids get older. Implementing such ideas is a lot of work! You are not able to pursue a full-time career while fully homeschooling your kids. You would forfeit all the benefits of them growing bigger and needing you less.
Also, my experience is that most parents realise that outdoing the traditional school system or alternatives with homeschooling is a much higher bar than they thought. This was definitely true for me. (My oldest is ~12.)
Yes, Iām well aware that homeschooling is an immense amount of workāespecially if doing it as an individual household. Thatās a big part of why Iād be so excited to see more experimentation with āpodsā or small clusters of (educationally aligned) households. This might involve group homeschooling (which would still be significant work on the part of the parents, but would see non-trivial efficiency gains over each family going solo). Or it might involve āmicro-schoolsā, where they hire teachers to do the bulk of the work, in an informal/āalternative setting with tiny class sizes that allow for genuinely individualized learning. (My wife has actually looked a fair bit into the logistics of such an idea. I could probably share some details in a future post if there was interest.) Or there might be other possibilities I havenāt considered, that could secure many of the benefits of āfully homeschoolingā with less of the costs.
Anyway, Iām glad that the traditional school system is working out well enough for you and āmost parentsā that you know. But itās not for everyone, and it would be really helpful for those of us who are committed to alternative education to have more and better options. (Even if you, personally, are no longer interested in those options.)
Yes! I would love to see more experimentation in this area, e.g. EA home/āmicro/āun-schooling pods.
I am not excited. In my experience it is common for parents of young children to have a lot of ideas on this they are keen to implement but dial back on this as their kids get older. Implementing such ideas is a lot of work! You are not able to pursue a full-time career while fully homeschooling your kids. You would forfeit all the benefits of them growing bigger and needing you less. Also, my experience is that most parents realise that outdoing the traditional school system or alternatives with homeschooling is a much higher bar than they thought. This was definitely true for me. (My oldest is ~12.)
Yes, Iām well aware that homeschooling is an immense amount of workāespecially if doing it as an individual household. Thatās a big part of why Iād be so excited to see more experimentation with āpodsā or small clusters of (educationally aligned) households. This might involve group homeschooling (which would still be significant work on the part of the parents, but would see non-trivial efficiency gains over each family going solo). Or it might involve āmicro-schoolsā, where they hire teachers to do the bulk of the work, in an informal/āalternative setting with tiny class sizes that allow for genuinely individualized learning. (My wife has actually looked a fair bit into the logistics of such an idea. I could probably share some details in a future post if there was interest.) Or there might be other possibilities I havenāt considered, that could secure many of the benefits of āfully homeschoolingā with less of the costs.
Anyway, Iām glad that the traditional school system is working out well enough for you and āmost parentsā that you know. But itās not for everyone, and it would be really helpful for those of us who are committed to alternative education to have more and better options. (Even if you, personally, are no longer interested in those options.)