Part 1 of 3: Education and Our Children by Joanna Steven

by Joanna Steven

Is anything really wrong with our modern school system?

Homeschooling. Few things are as dividing as the simple concept of teaching our children at home. This definition, however, could be a big part of the problem. People against homeschooling often imagine a child staring longingly out of the window at other children playing in the school yard during recess, while an often uneducated mother wastes his formative years keeping him cooped up at home. To me, while this scenario might happen sometimes, it is not an accurate image of what homeschooling can (or should) be.

After doing a quick survey of my friends and family members, I realized that very few of us have fond memories of school. Condescending teachers, unfair punishments, the feeling of wasting one’s time while unruly students have to be unsuccessfully disciplined, studying subjects for hours knowing full well most of them would be completely useless a few years down the road… These are only a few reasons why school is rarely considered a happy place for kids.

I am no exception. Sure, when I was little and had my first Christmas vacation, I actually cried not understanding why I wasn’t going to school anymore. Later on, I had some very good professors who made me look forward to attending their class (if not school in general). Now, though, I am seriously considering homeschooling my child (I am currently pregnant and taking a good hard look at the so-called necessary institutions). What happened to me along the way? What turned me from a school-loving little girl into an anxious, and even fearful child and adolescent?

While preschool was apparently quite fun for me (I have no memories of it), school quickly became a nightmare. By age 6, I had recurrent stomach cramps due to stress, and gradually, I started wishing I could be homeschooled. There were several subjects in which I naturally excelled, such as French literature, but a few like math gave me a lot of grief. I realize now that the fear of being called up to the front of the class, the humiliation of getting bad grade after bad grade, and my general feeling of hopelessness were a big reason why I felt like giving up. I thought I was irremediably bad at math, but as soon as I got a private tutor, my grades went up, to the surprise of my teachers.

Later on, in college, I enrolled in advanced math courses and suddenly found myself at the top of my class (without the need for private lessons).  And while everyone thought I was hopelessly bad at chemistry, once in college, I suddenly was at the top of my class and was asked by the Dean to tutor others. Obviously, the problem was not with me, but I had never thought homeschooling was possible. I even thought at the time that it was probably against the law to not send your children to school!

This is why I think our school system is flawed. In a perfect world, every child would be nurtured and able to enjoy every class. I know full well, and most people will agree with me, that a teacher can make or break a class. I remember that my French grammar and literature teacher in 9^th grade was an absolute nightmare, and my grades were not very good with her. The year before as well as the next, I had two different wonderful teachers who loved anything French, and I had great grades with them. I didn’t suddenly become dumb and unable to “apply myself”, I just was not motivated by my teacher. It’s really simple, if a child is excited about a subject, he or she will do well, or at least much better than in the same class with an inept professor.

Our modern school system is also made to teach children about competition, what a necessary thing it (supposedly) is, and how important it is to try and be in the teacher’s good books. But many studies in the field of psychology have shown that teachers actually have to take a back seat, and let each child be a necessary part of a group in order to maximize learning. As long as classes are designed with each child sitting by him or herself and staring at a teacher standing in from of the group, the outcome will never be satisfactory. Because of this, I see modern schools as simply day care for older children. Children are sent there to be out of their parents’ hair, and to supposedly learn great life skills. But how many of us can look back at our school years and feel that they were amazingly formative, useful, and full of good memories? Personally, I cannot, and I cannot in good conscience send my child to go through the same experience without at least researching various local schools and keeping a close eye on my child’s development.

Unfortunately, schools do not create happy individuals, and it is a sad fact that when a human being is unhappy, he or she will seek to hurt others. After all, misery loves company. In my readings of Buddhist writings, I realized early on that no person is evil, but that unhappiness can lead a person to commit evil things. The world is often shocked to hear about school shootings, bullying which lead to suicides, and other horrible events. But, should we really be so shocked? I personally believe that many more tragedies happen, and we are not told about them. I guess someone has to die for the news to spread. But so many children die inside every day because of what happens to them at school, and these tragedies go unnoticed.

I need so make something clear. I do know that the world is full of hurt and unhappy people, and my goal is not to shield my children from this ugliness. But I also do not think I should knowingly thrust them into such a toxic environment just to teach them that “life isn’t fair” and “it will build their character”. We wouldn’t put our kids in jail to teach them about human nature, but we pay institutions money to keep them locked up for more than half the day to “socialize”. Clearly, there must be better ways to help our children learn about the world, develop friendships, etc. without sending them to sub-par schools where we ourselves were most likely unhappy.

This concludes the first article in the series. The next article will be about socialization, why homeschooling can be better than regular traditional schools, and whether or not parents can actually teach their kids everything they should know.

Joanna Steven is the co-author with Tonya Kay of the first ever Raw Nutritional Analysis eBooks, detailing Tonya Kay’s diet for an entire month. She is also the co-owner of the online raw food store, http://www.sirova.com, and writes about raw food related topics on her blog, http://joannasteven.blogspot.com. Her next book on raw food pregnancies will be available on the Raw Mom website this winter 2010