Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Homeschooling.

I have stayed home sick from school for a second day. I alternate between bustling about doing things that I won't have time to do when I'm not sick, and flopping down in a chair and giving myself a break. All the bustling and flopping make me think about the possible future, in which I may be tempted to homeschool our potential weirdly-named children past puberty. I am taking this opportunity to compile a list of circumstances which I feel make that a reasonable choice.

1. Perhaps young Eudoxia or Sophrony will have special needs, which nobody else can deal with.

2. Perhaps we will live very, very far away from any other human beings, and the Call of the Wild will be simply irresistible to us.

3. Perhaps the school system where we live will be completely wretched.

4. Perhaps Farrand will become some sort of public figure, imposing and distant enough that "Going to Father" will be quite a graduation from the apron strings. This would also require that he wouldn't have anything else to do. So he'd have to be a Great Man, but also not busy at all.

5. Perhaps Farrand will take it into his head to join the Navy, and we'll be living in a different country every year. (This is the least likely of all these scenarios.)

In circumstances other than these, I don't think it's a good idea. Judging by my (homeschooled) teenage years, a young person needs to be challenged consistently in school. A mother tends to be by turns too nurturing and too imperious, and I'm sure I'll be no exception. A well-established system and culture of learning provide the necessary stability for the raging teenager to kick against and finally accept. In homeschooling, it's one will against another. Somebody has to win and somebody has to lose. Whether the mom or the student emerges victorious, an element of personal domination has entered into a process that should be governed by reason, not by authority. I think this is absolutely essential if young people are to become honest and strong thinkers.


I do think that if circumstances allow, I would like to homeschool our potential children until middle school or high school. That makes perfect sense to me. Also, all the other choices for high school may be even less ideal for homeschooling. Who knows? This is what I think right now, 7 years after "graduating" from homeschooling, and with 1.5 years of teaching middle and high school under my belt. Maybe in 15 years, Farrand will be prying my teenagers away from my snarling maw. Show me this post if that happens.

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