Are homeschoolers prepared for life? That was the sweeping question addressed at the May 20 installment of “Post-Pandemic Future of Homeschooling,” a web conference presented by Harvard Kennedy School’s Taubman Center for State and Local Government. I have a standing appointment on Thursdays when sessions are held, so I only tuned in for the second… Read More Are homeschoolers prepared for life?
It’s been several weeks since I’ve written here. Finding something meaningful to say about the current “explosion” of homeschooling has eluded me. I’ve never seen more homeschooling-related articles, social media posts, and interest on a daily basis than I have during the past year. I’ve never seen more confusion, either. We all know why, of… Read More Homeschooling: A Question of Definition
I’m definitely late to the party, but I’ve finally read Tara Westover’s memoir “Educated.” I’d been avoiding it for a few reasons. One, the tiresome narrative of extreme-homeschooling-experience-with-autocratic-father seems to dominate most popular mainstream books and movies about homeschooling. Two, friends who know me well warned me that the story contained a sadistic, abusive older… Read More Review: Tara Westover’s “Educated”
Many years ago, a few years after I started homeschooling, our favorite one-ring circus came to town. We heard that the kids of the performers homeschooled, and I thought it would be fun to connect with them. I contacted the circus and arranged for my kids and I to go to the kids’ trailer, their… Read More New to homeschooling? Try letting go of school
In this extraordinary time, I’ve been thinking hard about issues of racism, inequality, sexism, classism, ageism, homophobia, and intolerance. Part of that has been wondering how these “isms” affect my communities. In 2011, my two youngest kids were founding members of the Boston Area Homeschoolers’ Queer Straight Alliance (BAHS QSA for short). Their very first… Read More Building a kinder, more just homeschooling community
The COVID-19 crisis has pulled homeschooling into the forefront of the news. As shuttered schools transfer curriculum online, families are left to administer virtual education while many deal with grief, job loss, income reduction, spikes in anxiety and depression, and other challenges. Established homeschooling families know that homeschooling by choice bears little resemblance to the… Read More Slow homeschooling and my 2020 graduates
This morning I read an interview with a veteran artist, known as much for his teaching as his creative output. He spoke of the importance of solitude, and of absorbing oneself in whatever one is studying. This revisiting, over and over again, the topics, novels, poems, pieces of music, mathematical equations, or whatever one is… Read More Learning and solitude
It was inevitable. Now that families have been holed up for weeks at home, some parents are finding that doing school at home is a slog. As a result, we’re beginning to see stories about parents deciding to ditch the curriculum, and the stress that goes with it, in favor of a more relaxed approach.… Read More Evolving into slow homeschooling
I always peruse the news for stories about homeschooling and unschooling, but in the past two weeks I’ve given up that practice. Never before has there been such an explosion of articles. Except they’re not about homeschooling, or unschooling, at all. What do parents do with their kids now that they’re home all day? How… Read More No, everyone is not homeschooling now
Aunt Teresa was a woman ahead of her time. Born in 1925 into a family headed by my relatively-recently-arrived-to-Connecticut-via-Ellis-Island Italian grandfather, she grew up during the Depression with her parents and three brothers, one of whom became my father. She, like many of that era, retained a level of frugality that could seem insane to… Read More Ode to Aunt Teresa
A Potluck Life 