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Today Was Rough

Many people know by now that I’ve chosen to fully homeschool my children. We’re taking all of my research on culturally inclusive curriculum and best practices in education, lining that up with the state standards, and seizing the opportunity to teach my children things they wouldn’t normally learn in school. Like civics and voting politics (and voter disenfranchisement). And Lost Civilizations (heavy on the role of colonialism). And a two-week mini-unit on the writings of James Baldwin. The units are interdisciplinary and project and research-based. We’re talking all of the best practices in education here.

But today, my youngest (Alexander, age 10) had a meltdown. The assignment was to watch a video on the disappearance of the Mayan civilization, then skim a handful of short articles about different theories and make a short animated video describing their own theory about what happened to the Mayan people. Alexander had two issues: None of what he’d watched or read explicitly told him what happened to the Mayan civilization, and he was struggling to figure out the program I’d told him to use to create his video.

My children have very different personalities. Alexander is “good at school,” because he is great at all of the things the American education system is set up to promote. He’s amazing at memorizing random facts and remembering them forever. If you show him how to do something, he’ll likely remember how to do it. Definitions? Got them. His vocabulary is amazing. He is good at following directions, and has inherited his mom’s sometimes-paralyzing quest for perfection. He is great at reading passages and answering direct questions from them. But what that means -- what it meant today -- is that he’s not always a strong critical thinker. Today, his frustration was primarily derived from the fact that the assignment required him to develop his own theory about what happened to the Mayan people.

Many people know by now that I’ve chosen to fully homeschool my children. We’re taking all of my research on culturally inclusive curriculum and best practices in education, lining that up with the state standards, and seizing the opportunity to teach my children things they wouldn’t normally learn in school. Like civics and voting politics (and voter disenfranchisement). And Lost Civilizations (heavy on the role of colonialism). And a two-week mini-unit on the writings of James Baldwin. The units are interdisciplinary and project and research-based. We’re talking about all of the best practices in education here. strong critical thinker. Today, his frustration was primarily derived from the fact that the assignment required him to develop his own theory about what happened to the Mayan people.

Alexander, after crying in frustration and breaking to take a bubble bath to calm down in the middle, finally produced a great video that very logically combined several of the things he’d read about -- conquistadors, erosion, climate change. He beamed proudly as he showed me his video. I complimented his resilience, and we talked about how the real lesson for today was that sometimes you have to step away.

Here’s the thing, I told him. In 20 years, it will not really matter whether he knows what happened to the Mayan civilization. What mommy really wants from homeschool is to produce good thinkers, more so than doers. Children who can interrogate information and think critically to form their own opinions. Children who strive for excellence, who are resilient, who don’t give up -- even if they have to step away and come back. Who are well-rounded and can converse about Baldwin and colonization and draw parallels to how they’re still relevant today.

We’re going to get there. I am sure of it. (But feel free to send more bourbon.)



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