| Cover story |
Home schooling
A labor of
love that wouldn’t be possible without mothers
By
Debbie McGrath “Education
is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire.” W.B.
Yeats They
say a mother’s plate is always full––raising a family, managing a
household, keeping a marriage and often, working outside the home. For a
multitude of Ozark moms, home schooling is also on the list. Over three
million children nationwide receive their education at home. The figures
are less clear in the Ozarks because Fathers
often assist with curriculum selection, special projects, science labs,
and occasionally teach in the evenings after work. But the bulk of the
work belongs to mothers. “Sometimes
I feel overwhelmed,” says one Catholic mom into her second year of
home schooling. That’s when she calls a good friend, who is a
twenty-year veteran, for reassurance and advice. “I have no time for
myself,” admits another. “There were no other Catholic families home
schooling when I started,” says a mother of five, who has utilized
public, private and home schools. Yet, the underlying common thread is a
fierce devotion to their children and an unwavering commitment to
provide the best possible learning environment for them. “Every
child deserves to be educated to their individual needs,” says one
Newburg mother. A Rolla
parent adds, “Nothing beats one-on-one. The low stress environment
builds self-esteem.” A third mother puts it this way: “Our focus is
on love of learning, family, and individuality. My children are growing
up free to be who they want to be. They don’t follow the crowd or bend
to peer pressure. I get to have a wonderful, close relationship with my
children and see them grow.” In
the book, Home Schools: An Alternative, Cheryl Gorder states,
“Parents have the right to educate their children in conformity with
their moral/religious convictions….it puts parents back in the
driver’s seat for their children’s education.” Missourians
must log one thousand hours per child per year (one hour = one lesson),
with six hundred hours toward basic subjects like reading, language
arts, math, science and social studies. The other four hundred are
electives, including field trips. Parents must also keep a portfolio
containing samples of the student’s academic work and a record of
evaluation of the student’s progress. This is all done on the honor
system, which is only as good as the people using it. However, most
parents maintain proper records and appreciate the freedom from
excessive government regulations. There
are as many different ways to home school as there are ways to cook an
egg. Some folks use set curriculums, complete with lesson plans and
tests for each subject and grade level. Others mix and match books for
more individualized needs, i.e. Johnny reads at a second grade level,
but does math on a sixth grade level. One mother wrote her own
curriculum. You can even buy curriculums through Sam’s Club. Catholic
home schoolers can learn basic subjects through the lives of the Saints
and missionaries. Other Christian series incorporate Bible stories and
moral values. Secular curriculums include There
are over seventy-five suppliers of home school curriculums nationwide.
Closer to home, My Father’s World is a mail-order business located in
Rolla, which provides curriculum packages as well as individual books.
When owner David Hazell discovered that seventy-five percent of the
nation’s home school conventions take place within a six-hundred mile
radius of Rolla, he pulled up his Costs
are variable. Enterprising moms swap textbooks, buy used texts at places
like the UMR Bookstore, and utilize the internet for courses and
materials. One mother even went dumpster-diving for books at a local
public school. Other parents invest $400-500 yearly on supplemental
books and supplies. By
far, the most unconventional form of home schooling is more of a
philosophy than a method, sometimes called “eclectic” teaching or
“unschooling.” Structured curriculums are set aside in favor of life
learning that focuses on the natural interests of the child. The three
R’s are incorporated as part of a larger field of learning.
“Everything we do is a learning experience,” says one mother who has
home schooled for four years and expects to continue through high
school. For instance, if a six year old is fascinated by starlight, mom
might take her to the library for books on astronomy, buy a used
telescope, and visit a planetarium. A trip to the grocery store becomes
a lesson in math and economics. A pregnant mom is a daily experience in
anatomy and physiology. Camping trips are geology and ecology
classrooms. A vacation transforms into a unit on geography and history. These
kinds of learning experiences help students to sense the overall
picture, to see connections, and understand how everything relates to
their own lives. “There are teachable moments in every day,” says
one Rolla mom whose son is graduating this May from It
would take too many pages to list all the social activities available to
area home schoolers. There are weekly play groups, craft days, holiday
parties, camping and field trips. Thousands attended the annual “Rally
in the Rotunda” at The
Rolla Homeschool Athletic Association (RHAA) is entering its third year.
“Our girls volleyball team placed in the top three in the state home
school tournament,” says coach Dan Hall. There’s also a girls team
and boys team in basketball on the junior high and high school levels.
In all, twenty-five to thirty families participate. They are also hoping
to begin a track program this year. Another
Rolla organization, The Christian Home Educators Support System (CHESS)
has many extracurricular activities including ballroom dance, roller
skating, P.E. classes at the Rolla Rec Centre, a writing club, ballet,
piano and violin lessons, UMR outreach program plays, and art workshops.
This month, a high school graduation ceremony is scheduled for at least
a dozen students. In
the end, the most essential ingredient in any home school program is
still a mother–– with a heart as big as the sky, and an independent
spirit dedicated to her children’s education.
Give your mom a hug. If you see a home school mom, give her two.
She deserves all the support she can get. Home archives:Hewn and sculpted from the Ozarks landscape: Douglas home outside St. James is result of years of hard work
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