Holt: why the home is a natural place for learning

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Family; Quotables on 6 Apr 2014.

A family chooses to educate their own children at home for many reasons. It is usually because schools have failed them. For a lot more people, it’s because they want to fill up what schooling threatens to take away through negative socialisation – namely, the inculcation of values or faith convictions, modeling of character, intimacy, nurture of family affections, the exercise of parental authority, time for children to be and grow, acquisition of a broad range of knowledge, etc. Due to social and economic factors – and political expediency – brick and mortar schools will probably remain a vital necessity for a long, long time.

In many societies, schooling may be the only means of education and possibly the first steps to a hopeful future. Does this mean that homeschooling is only for parents who can afford it?

The late author and educator John Holt however, thought differently. Holt, who is credited with pioneering the unschooling/homeschooling movement, shared the following insights during a magazine interview in 1980.

Why homeschool?

“THAT’S A BIG QUESTION. The great advantage is intimacy, control of your time, flexibility of schedule, and the ability to respond to the needs of the child, and to the inclinations. If the child is feeling kind of tired or out of sorts, or a little bit sick, or kind of droopy in spirits, okay, we take it easy, and things go along very calmly and easily. When the child is full of energy and rambunctious, then we tackle big projects, we try tough stuff, we look at hard books. And I think schools could do much more than they do in this kind of flexibility, but in fact they don’t.”

I want to make it clear that I don’t see homeschooling as some kind of answer to badness of schools. I think that the home is the proper base for the exploration of the world which we call learning or education. Home would be the best base no matter how good the schools were. The proper relationship of the schools to home is the relationship of the library to home, or the skating rink to home. It is a supplementary resource.

But the school is a kind of artificial institution, and the home is a very natural one. There are lots of societies without schools, but never any without homes. Home is the center of the circle from which you move out in all directions, so there is no conceivable improvement in schools that would change my mind about that.”

Homeschooling: The Rakyat Post doesn’t get it

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Alternative education; Commentary; Malaysian schools on 3 Apr 2014.

A RESPONSE TO THE RAKYAT POST
Why homeschool critics are missing the point

I appreciate that critics of homeschooling may be wondering what’s the fuss about alternative education? Arguably, ‘school’ is not necessarily a very bad idea after all. Be that as it may, schooling in Malaysia leaves much to be desired, and that’s not good. Indeed the state of Malaysian education is dire. Very. Which is why homeschooling parents and advocates like myself believe alternatives are valid as well as necessary. All you need to do is talk to stakeholders. Let me point out 3 groups:

Do our educationists and academics believe in Malaysian schools? The overwhelming evidence is that schools in the country have not only failed, they have failed miserably. Ask educators. Ask the World Bank. Ask Malaysian graduates who have left the country by the thousands. Talk to employers. Few people deny there is systemic failure. We see it in declining education standards, outdated teaching methodology, crowded classrooms, questionable pedagogy, dumbed down curricula, overt politicisation of education, thoughtless flip-flops, unending quarrels over medium of instruction, etc. That every Minister of Education has seen it fit to introduce all kinds of change during their tenure is telling. Hence all that hand flapping every other year at the parents’ expense!

We are now told the new blueprint for education is the way forward. Is it? (See The Penang Institute Roundtable  on Education report) Will it turn education around for the better for our children and their children? Will factory-model schools prepare our kids for today’s knowledge economy? Sir Ken Robinson doesn’t think so. Are we turning out thinkers and problem solvers? Do our kids leave 12 years of schooling with a greater sense of patriotism and love for their country and its people? Why is there rising concern that our schools are contributing to polarisation and increased racism?

If our academics and educationists admit to serious reservation regarding the state of our schools, is it not highly irresponsible to subject another generation of children to a dodgy enterprise such as this?

Are Malaysian parents happy with their children’s schooling and education? Do our parents greet the school day with delight and enthusiasm? I think not. No parent will dispute the importance of education. But almost every mother will tell you with a wan smile that they wish our schools were better, or that teachers were more competent and caring. And don’t get them started on all those extra tuition so Junior learns what schools are not properly teaching. Besides, isn’t the school curriculum padded with propaganda? If they could afford it, their children would be in a reputable private international school (but that’s another story).

Is it any wonder that one of the primary causes of stress and family tension across the nation is our children’s schooling? All in pursuit of a piece of paper that is valued less and less in centers of learning abroad. Like our neighbour across the Causeway. No amount of pontificating over socialisation, holistic education (whatever that means in Malaysian schools), patriotism, etc will hide the fact that a tree is known by its fruit.

Do Malaysian students enjoy their day in school? Are they engaged learners in their classroom? If we would only talk to our children and ask them what their school days are like, what they think of their countless exams, we will see how much schooling means to them. You can tell something is seriously wrong with our schools when coercion and an act of Parliament are the only means to keep our kids in school. When students wish they were somewhere else, you know schools are missing the point.

On the other hand, those who homeschool or educate their own children at home, are strikingly different. Here’s how:

Education reformers agree homeschooling is nothing to scoff at. Research and longitudinal studies have shown how well homeschooling kids have performed compared to those in conventional schools. Simply google and you’ll see numerous reports that show how homeschoolers have excelled. The brilliant and exceptional ones notwithstanding, these studies show that homeschooling students do just as well if not better than students in traditional schools. If homeschoolers have not been significantly disadvantaged academically and socially, how is this a bad thing?

Homeschooling parents are among the happiest folks around! They’re enthusiastic, resourceful, socialise across ethnic and religious boundaries, celebrate diversity, and are proud of their children and their achievements as homeschoolers. They teach their own kids using all kinds of books and stuff. They are involved parents whose investment in their children’s education is driven by love and not by fear.

It’s not often said, but homeschooling families are patriots whose children’s education does not eat into the Ministry of Education coffers or waste taxpayers’ money. They do not have to fill in forms or engage in faux political sloganeering; they don’t have fancy facilities and gadgets or buy textbooks they won’t read; they don’t wait for permission from authorities to engage in joint-activities, and neither do they care for politicians to flag off their get-together and meet-ups. These are parents who come from all walks of life, believers in life-long learning, volunteers who make time to learn and play together for their children’s sake.

Is not this positive socialisation a thing to encourage? Why are these families able to do what so many of our schools can’t unless you wave a stick at them? Simple – because they truly believe and love what they are doing as homeschoolers. Happy homeschooling families who interact across age, race, and religion put the lie to claims that conventional schools in the country do a better job.

Homeschooling children are among the brightest I have met. Ask any homeschooling child if they enjoy being educated at home, and I’ll bet you’ll get a resounding Yes! They love learning because they find security and acceptance at home, and they have the freedom to do it at their own pace. Educator John Holt can tell you that’s how children learn – they have time, and they are given space.

Our homeschooled kids are respected and loved; they are gifted, smart, a little weird perhaps, but mostly they dislike being boxed-in or typecast. More importantly, they are all exceptional individuals who will make a difference in our world in their own way and on their own terms. Our homeschooling children are big on formal and non-formal learning, and they are loving it. Aren’t happy self-directed students what this country needs? If the proof of the pudding is in the eating, these children are a testimony that homeschooling works.

Of course, not all parents should homeschool, but those who do know they’re into a good thing with few regrets.  Let critics say what they like about how homeschooling misses the mark. You know what? We have seen Malaysian schools for what they are, and we’re not missing what they are offering.

How we started homeschooling Pt 3

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Homeschool on 24 Mar 2014.

Continuing the story of our homeschooling journey and what we learned along the way. If you missed the previous installments, Part 1 looks back at how we arrived at our decision. Part 2 tells about early days when we started out. Here’s Part 3.

Learn, unlearn, relearn
SOMEONE SAID THAT TEACHING HAS A LEARNING CURVE that’s steeper than most other professions.  Now, you only have to take responsibility for your own children’s education to know how true that is.  This is probably the reason homeschooling in our first years was very much about getting into stride, or as they say, “finding your groove.”

It’s not hard to understand why.  We had barely begun – not unlike first-time travellers, hearts thumping with a mix of excitement and apprehension as they arrive in a place they have never been before.

To top it all, we had to deconstruct a deeply flawed mindset that mistook schooling for education, teacher-directed instruction for learning, and examination grades for intelligence.  That’s the sticky part.  But if we wanted to homeschool and facilitate our children’s education, we too would have to take care to learn, unlearn, and relearn.

Lessons from a misstep
Shortly after we began homeschooling, Sook Ching bought into a pricey home-based accelerated learning programme.  There were flash cards of the human body, musical instruments, vegetables, and math problems.  Pretty soon our sons were effortlessly impressing friends and family with their “encyclopedic knowledge.”

It didn’t take long to discover that (a) kids really have a natural appetite for learning, and (b) I could make my own flash cards cheaply – which I eventually did.

While I have no doubt that thousands of parents are grateful for these expensive learning kits, I found out that words quickly learnt were just as easily forgotten in a matter of weeks.  Our infatuation with that big box of flash cards and stuff lasted less than 6 months.  Were we half-hearted about “bringing out the genius” in our boys, perhaps?

Nevertheless, having a lot of information in one’s head is obviously not the same as having knowledge.  Knowledge is understanding concepts, not spewing out random data.  It’s the ability to connect bits of information in a meaningful way, and then apply them effectively.  Like so many parents we too mistook precociousness in a child for advanced intelligence.

Deciding on things that matter
Yep, we fell for the “multiplying baby’s intelligence” sales pitch.  Are you anxious for your kids to have “encyclopedic knowledge” or “Mozart music to enhance spatial reasoning”?  Do they really need all those enrichment classes to make them brilliant before they turn 7?  Think twice before you dig into your pocket.  Don’t buy tickets for guilt trips your kids can do without.

Better to use a natural or more organic approach to teaching and learning instead of over-engineering for quick results.  Besides, what’s all the acceleration for – the child, or her parents?

What did this episode teach us about what really matters?  Get knowledge, not information; nurture wisdom, not just intelligence.  Enlarge the heart, not the head.  These are values you need to work on day by day, one day at a time.  It’s not how fast you’re going, but where you’re heading.  It’s setting ablaze the intrinsic desire in all children to learn, and helping them to keep the fires burning.  Then, you get out of their way.

Next:  What we did in our homeschool

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Founders of HOMEFRONTIER David and Sook Ching Tan have two adult sons who were homeschooled all the way until college. Ethan (24) recently graduated and got married to a wonderful girl Katie. Elliot (22) is thinking through his options and will be down under to do creative writing before the year is up.

How we started homeschooling Pt 2

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Homeschool on 18 Mar 2014.

So we’re sold on the idea of educating our own children at home. The fun begins! Here’s Part 2 of how we started out as new homeschoolers.

IT’S THE STANDARD PARENTING SCRIPT – if your child is 4 years old you put her in a kindergarten. Not knowing better, that was where Ethan was at 4 years. Now that we had decided to homeschool, we would have to pull him out.

Dropping out of kindergarten
I spoke to the kindergarten Principal on the phone and told her that we had decided to stop. She expressed regrets saying Ethan would miss out developing “motor skills” as there would be contraptions and learning toys for his class  in the coming weeks.  Erm, yes,  but he’ll be fine, I said, thanking her and her teachers.

One weekend after a miserable month in kindy, we told Ethan he didn’t have to go back there when Monday came around. We, his mom and dad, would be teaching him and his brother Elliot at home. Every day was going to be like a holiday and we were going to have fun learning and doing all sorts of things together! We said he was going to learn more at home anyway. The boys were nonplussed. There were shy smiles but no audible cry of relief. Ethan’s wide-eyed expression said it all: Yay!

It amazes me every time I see how trusting young children are of their parents. We offered no further explanation for our conviction except to say that we were in it together. Certainly, the boys were simply too young to appreciate their parents’ crazy notions or the significant turn their life was taking then. Double yay!

Starting out by slowing down
Cutting the umbilical cords of institutionalised learning set us free to take it easy. What joy to spend unstructured time with our children, being there for them, watching them grow! Not having a pile of expensive toys at home, the boys displayed an inventive streak stretching their imagination and making do with what they could lay their hands on. Ethan was like a bird let out of a cage while Elliot was content to play along and do what his older brother did.

Meanwhile, there would be a lot of exploring, figuring out our next steps: we dug into a mountain of information and resources available to homeschoolers online and in bookstores in the city. Like most homeschooling newbies, we were anxious about curriculum and were initially flustered. Sonlight? Alpha & Omega? Bob Jones? Thankfully we were advised by a friend to slow down and put all that aside for awhile. Where’s the fire? It’s okay to try stuff, she said. We made the best of what we could afford and took advantage of public amenities such as the Science Centre and the community library.

New routines for mom and dad
What changed most for us when we started was a deliberate ordering of our lives. We agreed on lines of authority, decided on boundaries (i.e, no TV or computer games on week days, etc), worked on values that meant most to us as a Christian family and as homeschoolers.

Parenting became an intentional discipline. We clarified our roles as mom and dad – Sook Ching would be the primary tutor, while I would do my part to provide leadership, read aloud to the kids on certain nights and tucked them in bed. We were quickly learning that homeschooling works, but parental involvement was key.

Next: Homeschooling one day at a time

[If you haven't read the first part, click here: How We Started Homeschooling ]
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Founders of HOMEFRONTIER David and Sook Ching Tan have two adult sons who were homeschooled all the way until college. Ethan (24) recently graduated and got married to a wonderful girl Katie. Elliot (22) is thinking through his options and will be down under to do creative writing before the year is up.

How we started homeschooling

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Homeschool on 14 Mar 2014.

I received an email asking how to start homeschooling now that they’re close to a decision. Instead of a point-by-point reply, I thought it best to share how our family started to homeschool.

IT STARTED WITH A LETTER from my sister-in-law who wrote about homeschooling her then 9 year old daughter. My brother was completing his Master’s in the US and his family would be heading home to Penang soon; is education compulsory, she asked, and are there laws in Malaysia that forbid educating one’s own children at home?

Why would anyone want to be their own children’s teacher?
This is so strange, we thought to ourselves. Why would anyone want to keep their child away from school? Who would have imagined that in a few years we would abandon conventional schooling and leap into that happy unknown called homeschool!

By divine circumstance, much of what we wanted to know about being our children’s educators came together in one extended serendipitous period.

Our boys were 4 and 2 years then. My wife Sook Ching attended a workshop on homeschooling conducted by an American couple; I found a book by Gregg Harris that made a compelling case against an education system that had more in common with the military and the factory floor. More damning was his take on the casualties of that broken public institution called school. We were sold!

It didn’t take a lot to convince us of the benefits of homeschooling. After all, the messy  reality of schooling in Malaysia was common knowledge. The effects of an education system suffused with the toxic mix of race and religion was the subject of incessant rants in the media. Besides, every one we knew had a horror story of their own about incompetent teachers and dumbed-down curricula.

You never have all the answers
Did we feel sufficiently confident or equipped to teach our children at home? Would we be able to survive on one spouse’s salary and endure the long haul of homeschooling? Should we be worried about legal implications, if any?

In retrospect, we did not have all our questions answered. We only knew what was at stake: what would our children be like after 12 years of schooling (or as we saw it, indoctrination) under a flawed education system?

Sure, there were initial fears and the usual queries about oh, fractal equations (what if we’re idiots at math?) and science labs (so do we need to get an electron microscope?). But we knew in our hearts that the call to parent and raise our children to be all that God wanted them to be far outweighed our natural instinct to take the easy way out.

At some point a line was crossed. We stopped vacillating.  What now? Putting away the what-ifs and maybes and with a heart full of prayer, the grand experiment known as homeschooling began for our boys.

Next: Starting out, digging in

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David and Sook Ching Tan have two adult sons who were homeschooled all the way until college. Ethan (24) recently graduated and got married to a wonderful girl Katie. Elliot (22) is thinking through his options and will be down under to do creative writing before the year is up.

Curiosity

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Quotables on 12 Feb 2014.

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO HOMESCHOOL

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Homeschool; Values on 11 Jan 2014.

ALL YOU NEED TO HOMESCHOOL IS LOVE
By David Tan

[I shall be sharing a series of posts on essentials for homeschool. Here's the first.]

WHEN WE FIRST BEGAN HOMESCHOOLING our two boys, many parents asked my wife Sook Ching if there were  requirements to teaching their own children at home. Did they need certain qualifications? Did they need a college degree to teach or have some teaching experience to begin with? What if a parent was not a good student herself back when she was younger? Is it alright to homeschool despite objections from a spouse (usually the children’s Dad)? Is there a special course to prepare parents to educate their own children at home? Wouldn’t a mother feel bored and trapped at home 24/7 if she homeschooled?

There are any number of concerns, most of which are commonly raised by all level-headed parents – usually the Mom (because she knows she’s going to be the main tutor and facilitator!). I think it’s fine to be asking these questions. I know the feeling: how exciting to break out of the school ‘prison’ paradigm; yet how frightening the thought that my kid’s future is in my hand. What if I threw in the towel midstream when the going got rough?

I don’t have all the answers, and I don’t think there are neat textbook answers for every situation anyway. We are different after all. Nevertheless, I believe the one thing that is essential for every parent is love for their children.

A couple of parents have shared that they “can’t stand children” but they are exploring homeschool anyway as an option to the present education system. Perhaps I am stating the obvious, but the truth is, you can’t teach your children if you don’t love them enough to bear with them! Not the kind of love that comes out in treacly sweet endearments every now and then, or spoils them rotten with an abundance of things. The love that I am referring to is the sort that is as deep and as it is wide.

Love is acknowledging a child’s worth and potential. It is believing in them and appreciating their aspirations as well as their fears. Loving a child is embracing her for who she is – including her foibles, weaknesses, and limitations. The loving parent is there to pick a child up when she falls and quick to celebrate when she does well. It is giving them the necessary space to grow as they are nurtured to become the person God intends them to be.

In the course of your homeschooling journey, there will be bumps in the road (I’ve not met a homeschooling family that has it easy!) Sometimes you will feel like tearing your hair out as a hundred voices echo, “I told you so, homeschool is not for you.” Oh, the joys of DIY education! Hopefully those moments will be few and far in between.

But you don’t give in or give up in despair precisely because you love your children – in the same way that spouses don’t give up on their relationship. We homeschooled because we believed there was more to life than what the establishment was trying to sell us; we were convinced there was a better way to raise a family and give our boys an education. More importantly, we educated our children ourselves because we loved them enough to spare them the effects of what we thought was a broken education system. You could say love overcame fear. So we kept at it through good and hard times, because we knew nothing good ever came easy.

You’ll agree with me that love is what makes any enterprise worthwhile. Now that we have come to the close of our own homeschooling journey, I believe love is also the one thing that makes homeschooling possible.

Have a great year!

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David & Sook Ching educated their 2 sons all the way at home until they were both 18 years old. Their oldest Ethan recently graduated summa cum laude with degrees in Political Science and English from Hardin Simmons University, Texas. Elliot their second son completed his foundation year in Mass Communications in KDU and is selecting a major (other than mass comm) when he goes back to Australia later this year.

A poignant look at bullying

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Child Development on 10 Jan 2014.

There are so many sides to bullying – both victim and bully carry scars that do not always heal well. Here’s a beautiful collaborative video based on a spoken word poem written by Shane Koyczan called “To This Day.” There are lessons to learn and it tells us where hope may be found.

To This Day from To This Day on Vimeo.

Are our children losing out on play?

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Child Development on 8 Oct 2013.

David Elkind’s books have had an influence on me ever since I happened on his writings in the late 90s. Books such as The Hurried Child, All Grown Up and No Where to Go, and Miseducation and the more recent one The Power of Play, each had an influence on my own thinking as a parent and homeschooler. Here’s an excerpt from an article on the culture of play that was first published in 2008.

CAN WE PLAY?
By David Elkind

PLAY IS RAPIDLY DISAPPEARING from our homes, our schools, and our neighborhoods. Over the last two decades alone, children have lost eight hours of free, unstructured, and spontaneous play a week.

More than 30,000 schools in the United States have eliminated recess to make more time for academics. From 1997 to 2003, children’s time spent outdoors fell 50 percent, according to a study by Sandra Hofferth at the University of Maryland. Hofferth has also found that the amount of time children spend in organized sports has doubled, and the number of minutes children devote each week to passive leisure, not including watching television, has increased from 30 minutes to more than three hours. It is no surprise, then, that childhood obesity is now considered an epidemic.

But the problem goes well beyond obesity. Decades of research has shown that play is crucial to physical, intellectual, and social- emotional development at all ages. This is especially true of the purest form of play: the unstructured, self-motivated, imaginative, independent kind, where children initiate their own games and even invent their own rules.

In infancy and early childhood, play is the activity through which children learn to recognize colors and shapes, tastes and sounds—the very building blocks of reality. Play also provides pathways to love and social connection. Elementary school children use play to learn mutual respect, friendship, cooperation, and competition. For adolescents, play is a means of exploring possible identities, as well as a way to blow off steam and stay fit. Even adults have the potential to unite play, love, and work, attaining the dynamic, joyful state that psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls “flow.”

With play on the decline, we risk losing these and many other benefits. For too long, we have treated play as a luxury that kids, as well as adults, could do without. But the time has come for us to recognize why play is worth defending: It is essential to leading a happy and healthy life.

To read the rest of this article go here.

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David Elkind, Ph.D., is a professor emeritus of child development at Tufts University and the author of the books The Hurried Child,Miseducation, and, most recently, The Power of Play.

ITALIAN WEEK: A taste of Italy

Posted by DAVID BC TAN under: Announcement on 2 Oct 2013.

HELP College of Arts and Technology is collaborating with the Italian Embassy to host this cultural event.  If you are interested in Italian movies, acapella performances and more, keep these dates free!