Back to School

I've been taking a re-look at my son's schooling again recently. A year or more back I mentioned the homeschool/unschool option, after reading about something similar on Rachelle's blog.

Things have changed in the past year. My son is doing much better in high school than he did in primary school. He recently got an award for excellence in art, and his maths grades are very good. He's happier, he goes off more enthusiastically to the Daily Institution. Yet...

This is multi-faceted. I'm paying over R20K a year for his education, but I don't think he's getting his "money's worth". Yes, it's a private school with friends and teachers he knows in an environment he's comfortable. Yes, it's a Christian education - which my brothers and I all got and seem to have survived. It's a bit of a sheltered existance (which has both good and bad points). Yes, there are some teachers who are absolutely awesome - the guy who taught me Biology in high school teaches him, and is a wealth of knowledge imparted in a fascinating way. The Technology teacher has practical skills that are being handed over to his students - yet there's simply not enough time or scope to pack all that he knows in. Trying to crowd-manage and teach at the same time isn't optimal, and this is what's happening in schools everywhere. Minimal time for learning, maximum herding from here-to-there and behaviour control. Teachers do their thing and hope some of it sticks. Kids attend classes, wear their ties, keep in a line, shut up and hope they progress to the next grade.

Along with the exorbitant school fees, there's added costs of uniform, books, the regular R5 for civvies day, and a rapidly-increasing bus fee which recently saw a one third jump in cost per trip! For the first time in my son's school career I'm behind on the fees. I hate it.

So I'm considering options again.

There's a local government school instead of private. I'm not entirely sure he'll survive the experience. Perhaps I'm being too protective, but he's shy and doesn't dive in to friendships easily - I can see him withdrawing completely when overwhelmed by a huge class. Which again introduces the problem of mass crowd control instead of learning. But does teach him to get along with a wider variety of people. The government school is literally a "school of hard knocks" - and although thousands of kids do OK in them it will be a rude awakening for him. He's at that hormonal teen stage, where depression arises easily and insecurities reign - do I really want to feed that and make it worse?

There's the art school. Not an option, in spite of initial rave reviews and options for future study. With all due respect to arty folk, it's a bad bunch that hang out there and I don't want him getting involved with the drugs and stuff that are freely being used. He's also not passionate enough to go arty full-time, nor does he have the skill most of the kids there do (though everyone has to start somewhere).

There's the home school option. And amazingly there are many options for home schooling in the area, and in South Africa. There's quite a wide support base with a pool of experience and knowledge available - but a few pitfalls too. Like having to register with the government as a home schooler, and associated drama. Add in the fact that the kid comes home from school and disappears into his room on his computer, only emerging for meals and pee-breaks, or to occasionally help when summoned. He's getting a bit better, but it's all too easy for him to slip into hermit mode and never leave his room! So part of the whole home-schooling thing would be a plan to socialize - to join the karate classes, or the surf club, or go play golf, or take photography lessons/outings. Or even do a single class with the current high school on a part-time basis (though not sure they'd agree to that).

With the home schooling option he could get through his schooling as quickly as he wants to, register for exams and get his certificate - then go out into the wide world to experience life. He'd also get a chance to learn what the real world is about through how education in that system works. It ties in to the ideals I've had with wanting to take him travelling - and there's a chance he'll get a bit of travel in too, as he's due to go whale-shark diving in Australia for Mandy's birthday next year. I want to send him off backpacking Australia for 6 months when he's old enough too. Get him out there to see what the world's all about - which one can't do tied to a desk with a school uniform on.

Which is where unschool comes in. Skills learnt according to interest, interaction and involvement, a natural falling-in-to-society that happens as kids discover their place in the world and start making their lives work within that framework. It's a dangerous, scary journey to those who follow societal expectations of school/uni/job/climb corporate ladder/retire. It flies in the face of all that, but provides life skills far above what a classroom can do. Part of the learning curve involves the concept of apprenticeship instead of / together with further study - which fits in well with just about all the other options too. Yet see the "motivation and hermitation" worries above.

So all this is busy mulling around my skull. I've been talking to Favourite Man, bouncing ideas off him and getting his input. I've been talking to the kid, trying to get an idea of how he sees things and what he feels. I've been examining all the angles, all the options. But as yet, there's no direction. It's simply a work in progress.