Education, Learning, and Homeschooling

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Fora blog concerning all things education. With such an unusual time around the globe as we social distance and quarantine because of the COVID-19 pandemic, I wanted to take this first post to reflect upon learning and schooling because so many of the world’s children are now at home. 

Last week, Dr. Jennie Weiner (University of Connecticut) wrote an OpEd in the New York Times titled “I Refuse to Run a Coronavirus Home School.” In the essay, Dr. Weiner makes the argument that she will not over-schedule or over-enrich her homebound children during the COVID-19 pandemic. I do not think that the sentiment is wrong, but after reading the essay I came away feeling that Dr. Weiner and many others misunderstand what learning is and how schooling, as an institution, does and does not support learning. 

Education and schooling are two separate things, as educational anthropologists have been arguing since the last century. As human beings, we learn through every experience and every interaction. This is education, and it has been happening throughout human existence. In fact, it is really one of the main things that makes us human – the fact that we can learn. The school is merely a formal institution – a place in society – that is demarcated specifically for education to take place. Instead of learning about the world through parents, family, and immediate community members, in a sense schooling places the child in front of a professional stranger. There is an enormous degree of trust in this relationship, to be sure. 

There is a long history of skepticism towards formal schooling. Notable examples include Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s Emile (1762) and Ivan Illich’s Deschooling Society (1971). While I believe that the benefits of formal schooling outweigh the negatives, I am critical and believe that what happens all too often in schools around the world is an extremely narrow definition of learning. We tend to only recognize certain kinds of formal learning such as literacy, numeracy, and fact memorization – and then only assessed through a numerical score. Educational policies around the world increasingly focus more and more on achievement and outcomes. However, there is so much more that is learned both in and out of school – and it does not involve sitting quietly at a desk by yourself and copying from a textbook. This is exactly what John Dewey was arguing against in Experience and Education (1938). He posits that we must learn through experience, through inquiry, through purpose, and through freedom. 

This brings me back to Dr. Weiner’s essay, in that everything she describes herself doing with her children at home sure sounds like learning to me. She writes …  

So far, we’ve seen them digging into mastodons, dwarf planets, the Mars rover and who made Legos and why. They’ve been reading a lot (mostly graphic novels and “Big Nate” books) because my kids were always avid readers and I don’t have to fight with them to do it. But there are no flash cards and no made-up projects to “enrich” them. We do not assign them essays or ensure their explorations are aligned with Common Core standards. There is no official “movement” or music time. We have not set up a makeshift classroom or given our family’s “school” a name.

We bake and have taste tests to see which cookie recipes are the best, because we like cookies and they are among the few things I know how to make. We walk and walk and walk. We eat together. We think about how lucky we are and try to help those who are more vulnerable and without our resources.

… to which I say, “YES! That’s what school should be!” (And, indeed, is in some places.) This is where I think that the title of the OpEd is misleading. Dr. Weiner is absolutely homeschooling her children, and sounds like she is doing a good job of it as well. She is allowing her children the freedom to explore, to follow lines of inquiry, and to make connections between diverse experiences. She is doing some of the things that the best teachers I have experienced and/or observed do. I know that Dr. Weiner’s children are learning a great deal, without knowing them and without giving them an exam. How do I know this? Because they are simply doing things, and doing them together. That is pure experiential learning. 

For those of you that have now taken on the role of ‘teacher’ in addition to ‘parent’ (and, likely, as ‘#WFH adult’), I want to emphasize that really good teaching does not mean that you are constantly hovering, lecturing to your children for eight hours, or forcing them to quietly read a heavy tome and making them take self-made examinations all day. (This is what Dr. Weiner is essentially saying as well but, again, I think she mischaracterizes learning and schooling.) Here are a few tips that I can offer based on my own experience as a teacher, years of research observing teaching in schools around the world, as well as my own experience over the past week of homeschooling my 4-year-old.  

Make Goals and Tasks, Not Schedules. The nature of adult work is rapidly changing to be more task-based and project-based, and many schools are beginning to catch on to this (while many others have been doing this for years). Homeschooling is a great opportunity to break artificial industrial-era schedules and re-tune to the rhythm of the day and of our bodies. In our house, we have created a sticker chart with simple categories such as ‘Art’ and ‘Letters’. My son can decide when he wants to get them done. (And, please understand, we are talking really simple 4-year-old-appropriate things that do not last more than 20 minutes each. There is a lot of free play throughout the day.) This mimics real-life and prepares the child for life as an adult in a much more authentic way than subject-based schedules in schools.

 (Notice on his chart that I did not put his normal, everyday expectations like using kind words (“please” “thank you”) or helping out around the house (cleaning up toys, etc.), because these are a given. However, one skill I did put on there was ‘Playing On My Own’ because I am trying to encourage him to be able to entertain himself with things like toys and books, without needing me right next to him for every second. This keeps me a bit more sane, allows me to complete household things, and maybe even a bit of work and writing.) 

However, Children Respond to Routines and Predictability. Given what I said above, I do want to emphasize that children crave routine and that their behavior is much improved when they understand the order of events and what to expect. We do not necessarily need to keep certain activities to certain times and can allow for deviation or extensions of activities, but having an order to activities can be really helpful. For example, every day in the mornings after breakfast my son likes to watch Sesame Street, then he tells me what the Sesame Street ‘Letter of Day’ is, which we then practice drawing in a notebook (Letters, check). Then he usually wants to do a few pages in a math workbook while he is at it (Numbers, check), but sometimes wants to play trains, which is fine too. He knows that he can accomplish another task after that, and I let him plan it (i.e. “After trains, I want to…”) Morning snack, lunch, and afternoon snack are all offered at the same time, although sometimes he does not want it because he is either not hungry at that time, or too invested in whatever he is doing. That’s fine too.  Today (Monday) has definitely been a bit rougher as my son settles back into a routine after the weekend, and the difference in behavior is definitely noticeable.

Follow the Inquiry. Similar to tasks and schedules – and a balance between the two – good teachers and good learning encourage the child to ask profound and interesting questions then step out of the way to give them the freedom to explore. Homeschooling is great for this, and most formal schools not so great. If your child asks something interesting, they can have all the time to explore it and make connections. 

Make Connections. What makes inquiry-based learning not only profound, but also fun, is encouraging children to make connections and explore a ‘Big Question’ or theme through different modes. This is all too often where the rigidity and outdated-ness of schooling fails our children. The old-fashion division of subjects (‘Language’, ‘Math’, ‘Biology’, ‘Geography’, etc.) – especially into separate units of the day – is not how we learn (in education parlance, this is often called siloed learning). We learn through making connections. A lot of great schools understand this and have made great strides in breaking down disciplinary silos. I’ve been working with a school in Malaysia that is doing just this as its modus operandi. What this means in practice is allowing children to explore a topic without thinking that it ‘belongs’ in one subject or the other. Let’s take the topic of ‘space’ for example, which my son is currently very into. In one day last week, we read a book on the solar system, listened to a book-on-tape gem from my childhood about Planetron, made a picture of the solar system, watched a very fun musical Storybots episode on outer space (which my son sings constantly), and played with some space LEGOs. He now has the planets of the solar system memorized in order and can explain some of their attributes, and it did not mean that we sat and drilled it. Coincidentally, he also became very interested in the Chicxulub meteor that contributed to the extinction of the dinosaurs and now we are down the dinosaur-themed path. I had nothing to do with any of these connections, and I can only stand back in awe and witness the connections he is making between non-planetary bodies in the solar system and its effects on evolutionary trajectories on this planet. (My words, not his.) 

All Experiences Teach Something. I think that what is most important during these difficult times is to relax and know that every experience your child has is teaching them something valuable and interesting. There is even a lot of research in the past few years emphasizing the importance of boredom in childhood development. You can even learn a lot of good things from watching TV or playing video games. I am definitely not one of those no-screen-time advocates (although I think limits and content control are a good thing), but especially now with everyone at home you need to let go a bit. This is where Dr. Weiner and I certainly agree. I’ve just had the joy this weekend of introducing my son to Star Wars for the first time. He did not really understand a lot of it, but he definitely could not wrap his head around why Darth Vader was doing such bad things. It warmed my heart when my son said, “maybe he should just use his words,” and we had a (4-year-old level) conversation about how we can help people make better choices and not giving into hate and anger. (He also kept looking for where the ‘dark side’ was located in the movie, which made me smile.) 

I need to close this post with huge, gigantic, caveat. I recognize that there are huge inequities here. This is why I ultimately believe in the benefit of formal schooling, because it can – at its best – level the playing field and give every child enriching learning experiences. Of course, at its worst, schools perpetuate social inequality. All too often, it is under-resourced schools that serve the most disadvantaged children by doubling-down on rigid, narrow, ‘remedial’ learning. Progressive education that provides all of what I said above is increasingly becoming a privilege and not a right. I do worry that having children away from school will harm many, and make educational inequality worse. This has implications in education, but also more significantly for socio-emotional learning. For many children, school serves as the sanctuary against a chaotic homelife – although for others the opposite can also be true. All experiences teach us something, but not always for the better. 

While I do mostly agree that we should not be so focused on our child’s school competitive achievement while at home, I found Dr. Weiner’s OpEd a bit off-putting in the sense that her argument was coming from a privileged position. Many parents do not have the luxury of pausing the “academic rat-race” while still, by the way, providing enriching learning experiences. I fully acknowledge that I am also coming from a privileged position. I have a job that is flexible and that I can do essentially from anywhere, and provides consistency in terms of food and shelter. The current pandemic is exposing all sorts of underlying socio-economic issues from the uncertainty of the gig economy, the issue of paid family leave, to the disparities of home learning environments. (Issues that were, of course, always there.) We need to be sensitive during these times. It is my hope that what we take away from this COVID-19 experience is the need for greater inclusiveness, empathy, self-sacrifice, and resiliency. I know that I will certainly try to emphasize this with my son – probably by using some sorts of Star Wars metaphor.  

In the weeks and months to come, Fora will be discussing and addressing some of the issues outlined above. We are exploring ways in which we can provide simple home learning resources, or at least point you in the right direction to other, more established and more resourced places for free learning materials. Just remember, we all learn through a diversity of experiences and it certainly does not mean we only learn by sitting at a desk quietly listening to a teacher.