We were at my in-laws for dinner tonight. My dh is a teacher, they were teachers, and I also grew up in a family of teachers. I am considering p/t unschooling and p/t democratic school for dd. Dh is not so sure.
My MIL said that she understood my desire to homeschool - after all, as a teacher she thought that she would be able to teach her children better than anyone else could. That it was hard letting go of the control. But that we could do so much outside school hours during dd's extracurricular activities.
I said that wasn't really the issue for me - I don't want control of dd's learning in that way. I want her to control her learning. My concern is more about curriculum. I don't like the idea that curriculum becomes more and more restricted as school goes along and that everything else in life is placed into the "extracurricular" box, for overtaxed kids to do when they're not doing school.
I don't know if my parents-in-law will come to understand this in time, but it is important to me that they understand that to me, homelearning is NOT about me controlling what my child learns.
If you had to explain that to someone, how would you do it?
My MIL said that she understood my desire to homeschool - after all, as a teacher she thought that she would be able to teach her children better than anyone else could. That it was hard letting go of the control. But that we could do so much outside school hours during dd's extracurricular activities.
I said that wasn't really the issue for me - I don't want control of dd's learning in that way. I want her to control her learning. My concern is more about curriculum. I don't like the idea that curriculum becomes more and more restricted as school goes along and that everything else in life is placed into the "extracurricular" box, for overtaxed kids to do when they're not doing school.
I don't know if my parents-in-law will come to understand this in time, but it is important to me that they understand that to me, homelearning is NOT about me controlling what my child learns.
If you had to explain that to someone, how would you do it?