It is gratifying to see that tutoring works best. I did a lot of thinking about homeschooling before our son was born. I thought about how people managed before we had "school" and knew that those from means were tutored and those of less means were taught at home in a variety of ways and yet it seems like people were a lot more intelligent then and we've only gone downhill since. Then I discovered John Taylor Gatto. 🙃
My husband and I chose to homeschool our son for a variety of reasons but foremost was to avoid having him be exposed to whatever the propaganda du jour is and also to minimize the influence of peers. On both of these counts we probably needn't have worried as from the time he could walk and speak he was his own man. LOL! He is not impressed with authority and is capable of making up his own mind.
However, it was still a good choice as he has a high IQ (like his Dad) and combining that with the above description of him would have made him "difficult" in a classroom. Speaking for myself (although my husband would agree), the amount of time we've spent with him has been invaluable. I went into this thinking we'd use some form of "school work" like I had known but that was not to be. The rote process that is used in classrooms would have been the beginning of the end for him. I also discovered how his thinking works especially when it comes to math. It has also been a source of wonderment in watching how he grows and who he is becoming.
Great essay. Have you ever read John Taylor Gatto? I homeschooled all my kids, with a lot of help from a friend. Now my daughter is homeschooling hers. It is a constant struggle to break out of the school mindset, and I don't even believe in it. I stressed that I was somehow leaving my kids behind, failing to bring them up to standards, etc.
Do you think there are innate ability differences between people? I think one of the most important things to figure out when educating a child is what they are actually capable of. If they are not capable of mastering a topic at this time, don't bother pushing it, and don't stress out about it.
For instance, suppose you try to teach a 12 year old algebra, and he isn't learning it. There are 3 possibilities: 1. he has the ability to learn it, but is fighting it. It's a problem of discipline. 2. He isn't ready yet. Back up a bit, and wait a few months or years, he'll get it eventually. 3. He will never do well with this level of math. Don't bother. Discerning which one of those it is will help the educator approach the learning problem.
My take is, you don't need to bother teaching it. If 1 or 2 is true, the child can learn it if he is sufficiently motivated. If he goes off to university and needs it, he can learn it quite easily. This describes me, since I failed algebra in junior high, and never did well with math in high school. I went off to college, and decided, now that I was free from that oppressive school system, I would teach myself algebra. It took one week. I then majored in math and physics and got scholarships and graduated at the top of my class. My early struggles didn't ruin my ability to learn math. I suspect it won't ruin any kids ability to learn math, or anything else for that matter, so long as the child is not psychologically crushed by inappropriate demands to learn something they aren't ready for.
If 3 is true, then trying to teach a kid algebra wastes his and your time, and only adds to frustration. They are never going to need it, and are never going to go into a field that needs it. Figure out what they are good at, and encourage them in that. Let them be.
Mar 22, 2022·edited Mar 22, 2022Liked by Mathew Crawford
Yes indeed. A corporatist model, beating the spirit out of children, making certain both parents have to work so as to destroy the family unit after having separated the family from community, now every person in competition with every other. Separating those who are now the PMC, weaponizing race, gender, misogyny, bigotry, xenophobia to batter the working class and poor deplorables with.
My college professors wanted me to pursue a doctorate and teach. But I could see how race was being weaponized by professors and students while they were getting fleeced by the ever expansionist administration. All that debt too I presumed to be about forcing people to sit quietly at a desk for Corp, Bank or Gov. No thanks.
"Let them eat training," sayeth the Liberal Democrat, about the destruction of farming communities, about the evisceration of our productive capacity and those tens of millions of middle class jobs lost for people without a college degree.
I work among the working class, in maintenance. I find most of them to be more sovereign thinkers than most PMC I know, immune to the moral panics and overt authoritarian impulses of the "highly educated". The latter supporting mandates and lock downs from their zoomer jammies, their hatred of the working poor evident in their blithe and banal indifference to widespread suffering. Projecting onto the unvaxxed their own eugenicist predilections.
So many reasons to homeschool... I did well with the traditional school system, valedictorian at my high school, but I thought it was a stupid system. When I was 11, my neighbors with little ones planned to homeschool and I knew then that that is what I would do. My husband was homeschooled and we homeschool our 8 kids. They do the basics in the mornings and then play, explore their own interests, participate in social groups, work, etc.
We ripped our daughter out of public (charter) school for a variety of reasons - pitiful approach to "gifted" kids education was probably the main reason.
When researching the appropriate pedagogic approach, I came across Bloom's 2-Sigma paper. I was fascinated by the mastery learning approach (which Kahn Academy uses), but ultimately realized that, in his quest to find the best method, he had already defined the gold standard as one-to-one learning (tutoring).
Tutoring therefore became one of the foundations of our approach to homeschooling. For those who argue that tutoring is expensive, I point out that (according to the Census bureau) the average annual cost of education (pre-K to 12th grade) in the US is greater than $13000. This could purchase about 5 hours of tutoring each week on a year-round basis (assuming $50/hr.).
Now, if we could only get teacher's unions out of the way, and let teachers become independent contractors. (Milton Friedman is smiling in the background).
__________________
Lastly, let me pile on to some of the other comments - John Taylor Gatto should be required reading for every parent or guardian of school-age children.
Another great read, thank you. Be prepared to get continuous and generous amount of flak from everyone, including relatives, neighbors, spouse, and complete strangers if you break from the norm. Staying home and at times home-schooling my children was a no brainer to me. This is actual work though it is not recognized as such. Closely overseeing the nurturing and education of young ones is priceless and you can't go back and make it up years later. Habits, trust, and attentiveness are essential and little ones will thrive under good care and direction. Happiness and intellectual success were the result, and I would urge parents to consider the long-term consequences of their decisions regarding their children's upbringing.
Makes me even happier of being a chronic truant through my teens.. not a single regret for any adventures had playing hookie even without knowing there was educational upside!
So spend decades convincing everybody that being a stay-at-home parent is an inferior position. Arrange a wage structure, patterns of consumption and income insecurity that discourage families from depending on a single income so that they are willing to "store" their children in large government schools. Voila! The "mandarins" are limited to 20%, while the rest are left behind with most rebelliousness and curiosity suffocated.
Where would one start in developing an approach for educating one's children? We started home schooling when the Covid madness hit and continued after realizing that the CRT madness is a problem as well. However, I feel like we're still following the form that was set by the government schools with mixed results. I have a sense (and your article confirms - THANKS!) that a better way is possible that more closely matches the interests and capabilities of our kids with an approach to teaching them, but I don't know how to close that gap...
Right on! What I would have given to have such an education, rather than enduring the pendulation between mind-numbing drivel and humiliating, traumatizing treatment. I coulda been somebody! I coulda been a contender! Lol.
This is excellent info Mathew. I am rather passionate about this topic because I have been homeschooling my kids for a decade. I started when my oldest went from an engaged and curious kid to hating school in Kindergarten. We had always done a lot of exploring and learning in the community since he was little because he seemed to need a lot of stimulation. We spent our days at area MetroParks (utilizing their free and low cost programs) Zoo, Art Museum, Library, etc. When my son was more worried about the clothespins being moved on the classroom behavior chart than anything he was supposed to be learning and was so scared to make any kind of mistake and deal with the humiliation of having his pin moved, I ended up yanking him.
He also had some significant health issues (from post-MMR regression) and homeschooling helped me schedule all all of the therapies he needed to recover his muscle tone, balance and coordination. Because we could take morning appointments, we were able to get PT, OT, Sensory Learning therapy, vision therapy (x2), Brain Bright therapy, HBOT, and even TKD classes and work around his schooling.
My boys are 16 and 13. Today they did some Teaching Textbooks mathematics, used CK12 for science content, used the DuoLingo app for language practice, and each had some novel work from Language Arts (I am working on The Giver with the 13 year old and we read Braiding Sweetgrass and are currently reading Apocalypse Never with my oldest son). They practiced their instruments and then took their bikes to the park to play soccer together.
My daughter is 9. She uses Mammoth Math and some handwriting and phonics books and after those things were out of the way today she spent several hours completing Let’s Make Art projects side by side with her Grandma. We kept her out of the rat race of all day school and it has bought her tons of time not just with us but with her beloved Grandma who plays board games, does arts and crafts and teaches her to bake.
What a gift for my kids. I’m glad I have done it. Few people question me because I have a masters in education and many years under my belt teaching public schools. My kids all have some learning disabilities as well and I felt like I would be throwing them to the wolves if I sent them to public schools.
Anecdotally what you’re saying is true for our family and specifically our 23 month old, that is much further along than children 4-5 months older than him. He’s had one on one care his entire life—with us and his nanny. There’s no other way for us to explain his development.
Going forward we’ll be utilizing nanny shares and learning pods for homeschooling so we also give him the proper socialization. We will make it work because there’s no way we’re putting him in public school. The “shares” approach really helps reduce the cost.
I think that a major potential variable in Britain and America is discipline. Chaotic classrooms and being afraid of your peers are important factors in how much a child learns. On a slightly different tack, what do you think of Katharine Birbalsingh and her free school, Michaela, in London. Her three pillars of education are 1. knowledge based curriculum (rather than skills based), 2. Dicipline 3. Kindness. It seems to work, but I don't know how it measures against the ideas above. Presumably if a class is calm, because the overall discipline and atmosphere of the school is good, then the teacher has more chance to provide at least some individual feedback.
Great to talk about something other than THE COVID, but I understand it is our time to beat them down with the facts and prevent it from happening again to us. Root out the tyrants.
In regards to the subject of teaching, The time and ability of my wife and I to teach our kids is about an hour a day. At 6 years old that is already showing positive effect on them. So many little tricks I teach them how to do math and read. Thanks for the supporting evidence that we are on the right track.
Another non-genetic yet seemingly "heritable" variable that determines academic success is culture, but a slightly different culture than is outlaid in the article. It's the peer groups kids are surrounded by growing up. I've found that upwardly mobile, intellectual adults come from upwardly mobile, intellectual peer groups as children and teens. If your peer group thinks studying, doing extracurriculars, being a high achiever, and a success in life is "cool", so will you.
This has been demonstrated in the research of Judith Rich Harris, in which she showed that peer groups were actually far better at instilling values than parents were.
It is gratifying to see that tutoring works best. I did a lot of thinking about homeschooling before our son was born. I thought about how people managed before we had "school" and knew that those from means were tutored and those of less means were taught at home in a variety of ways and yet it seems like people were a lot more intelligent then and we've only gone downhill since. Then I discovered John Taylor Gatto. 🙃
My husband and I chose to homeschool our son for a variety of reasons but foremost was to avoid having him be exposed to whatever the propaganda du jour is and also to minimize the influence of peers. On both of these counts we probably needn't have worried as from the time he could walk and speak he was his own man. LOL! He is not impressed with authority and is capable of making up his own mind.
However, it was still a good choice as he has a high IQ (like his Dad) and combining that with the above description of him would have made him "difficult" in a classroom. Speaking for myself (although my husband would agree), the amount of time we've spent with him has been invaluable. I went into this thinking we'd use some form of "school work" like I had known but that was not to be. The rote process that is used in classrooms would have been the beginning of the end for him. I also discovered how his thinking works especially when it comes to math. It has also been a source of wonderment in watching how he grows and who he is becoming.
Great essay. Have you ever read John Taylor Gatto? I homeschooled all my kids, with a lot of help from a friend. Now my daughter is homeschooling hers. It is a constant struggle to break out of the school mindset, and I don't even believe in it. I stressed that I was somehow leaving my kids behind, failing to bring them up to standards, etc.
Do you think there are innate ability differences between people? I think one of the most important things to figure out when educating a child is what they are actually capable of. If they are not capable of mastering a topic at this time, don't bother pushing it, and don't stress out about it.
For instance, suppose you try to teach a 12 year old algebra, and he isn't learning it. There are 3 possibilities: 1. he has the ability to learn it, but is fighting it. It's a problem of discipline. 2. He isn't ready yet. Back up a bit, and wait a few months or years, he'll get it eventually. 3. He will never do well with this level of math. Don't bother. Discerning which one of those it is will help the educator approach the learning problem.
My take is, you don't need to bother teaching it. If 1 or 2 is true, the child can learn it if he is sufficiently motivated. If he goes off to university and needs it, he can learn it quite easily. This describes me, since I failed algebra in junior high, and never did well with math in high school. I went off to college, and decided, now that I was free from that oppressive school system, I would teach myself algebra. It took one week. I then majored in math and physics and got scholarships and graduated at the top of my class. My early struggles didn't ruin my ability to learn math. I suspect it won't ruin any kids ability to learn math, or anything else for that matter, so long as the child is not psychologically crushed by inappropriate demands to learn something they aren't ready for.
If 3 is true, then trying to teach a kid algebra wastes his and your time, and only adds to frustration. They are never going to need it, and are never going to go into a field that needs it. Figure out what they are good at, and encourage them in that. Let them be.
Yes indeed. A corporatist model, beating the spirit out of children, making certain both parents have to work so as to destroy the family unit after having separated the family from community, now every person in competition with every other. Separating those who are now the PMC, weaponizing race, gender, misogyny, bigotry, xenophobia to batter the working class and poor deplorables with.
My college professors wanted me to pursue a doctorate and teach. But I could see how race was being weaponized by professors and students while they were getting fleeced by the ever expansionist administration. All that debt too I presumed to be about forcing people to sit quietly at a desk for Corp, Bank or Gov. No thanks.
"Let them eat training," sayeth the Liberal Democrat, about the destruction of farming communities, about the evisceration of our productive capacity and those tens of millions of middle class jobs lost for people without a college degree.
I work among the working class, in maintenance. I find most of them to be more sovereign thinkers than most PMC I know, immune to the moral panics and overt authoritarian impulses of the "highly educated". The latter supporting mandates and lock downs from their zoomer jammies, their hatred of the working poor evident in their blithe and banal indifference to widespread suffering. Projecting onto the unvaxxed their own eugenicist predilections.
So many reasons to homeschool... I did well with the traditional school system, valedictorian at my high school, but I thought it was a stupid system. When I was 11, my neighbors with little ones planned to homeschool and I knew then that that is what I would do. My husband was homeschooled and we homeschool our 8 kids. They do the basics in the mornings and then play, explore their own interests, participate in social groups, work, etc.
We ripped our daughter out of public (charter) school for a variety of reasons - pitiful approach to "gifted" kids education was probably the main reason.
When researching the appropriate pedagogic approach, I came across Bloom's 2-Sigma paper. I was fascinated by the mastery learning approach (which Kahn Academy uses), but ultimately realized that, in his quest to find the best method, he had already defined the gold standard as one-to-one learning (tutoring).
Tutoring therefore became one of the foundations of our approach to homeschooling. For those who argue that tutoring is expensive, I point out that (according to the Census bureau) the average annual cost of education (pre-K to 12th grade) in the US is greater than $13000. This could purchase about 5 hours of tutoring each week on a year-round basis (assuming $50/hr.).
Now, if we could only get teacher's unions out of the way, and let teachers become independent contractors. (Milton Friedman is smiling in the background).
__________________
Lastly, let me pile on to some of the other comments - John Taylor Gatto should be required reading for every parent or guardian of school-age children.
Another great read, thank you. Be prepared to get continuous and generous amount of flak from everyone, including relatives, neighbors, spouse, and complete strangers if you break from the norm. Staying home and at times home-schooling my children was a no brainer to me. This is actual work though it is not recognized as such. Closely overseeing the nurturing and education of young ones is priceless and you can't go back and make it up years later. Habits, trust, and attentiveness are essential and little ones will thrive under good care and direction. Happiness and intellectual success were the result, and I would urge parents to consider the long-term consequences of their decisions regarding their children's upbringing.
Makes me even happier of being a chronic truant through my teens.. not a single regret for any adventures had playing hookie even without knowing there was educational upside!
So spend decades convincing everybody that being a stay-at-home parent is an inferior position. Arrange a wage structure, patterns of consumption and income insecurity that discourage families from depending on a single income so that they are willing to "store" their children in large government schools. Voila! The "mandarins" are limited to 20%, while the rest are left behind with most rebelliousness and curiosity suffocated.
Where would one start in developing an approach for educating one's children? We started home schooling when the Covid madness hit and continued after realizing that the CRT madness is a problem as well. However, I feel like we're still following the form that was set by the government schools with mixed results. I have a sense (and your article confirms - THANKS!) that a better way is possible that more closely matches the interests and capabilities of our kids with an approach to teaching them, but I don't know how to close that gap...
Right on! What I would have given to have such an education, rather than enduring the pendulation between mind-numbing drivel and humiliating, traumatizing treatment. I coulda been somebody! I coulda been a contender! Lol.
This is excellent info Mathew. I am rather passionate about this topic because I have been homeschooling my kids for a decade. I started when my oldest went from an engaged and curious kid to hating school in Kindergarten. We had always done a lot of exploring and learning in the community since he was little because he seemed to need a lot of stimulation. We spent our days at area MetroParks (utilizing their free and low cost programs) Zoo, Art Museum, Library, etc. When my son was more worried about the clothespins being moved on the classroom behavior chart than anything he was supposed to be learning and was so scared to make any kind of mistake and deal with the humiliation of having his pin moved, I ended up yanking him.
He also had some significant health issues (from post-MMR regression) and homeschooling helped me schedule all all of the therapies he needed to recover his muscle tone, balance and coordination. Because we could take morning appointments, we were able to get PT, OT, Sensory Learning therapy, vision therapy (x2), Brain Bright therapy, HBOT, and even TKD classes and work around his schooling.
My boys are 16 and 13. Today they did some Teaching Textbooks mathematics, used CK12 for science content, used the DuoLingo app for language practice, and each had some novel work from Language Arts (I am working on The Giver with the 13 year old and we read Braiding Sweetgrass and are currently reading Apocalypse Never with my oldest son). They practiced their instruments and then took their bikes to the park to play soccer together.
My daughter is 9. She uses Mammoth Math and some handwriting and phonics books and after those things were out of the way today she spent several hours completing Let’s Make Art projects side by side with her Grandma. We kept her out of the rat race of all day school and it has bought her tons of time not just with us but with her beloved Grandma who plays board games, does arts and crafts and teaches her to bake.
What a gift for my kids. I’m glad I have done it. Few people question me because I have a masters in education and many years under my belt teaching public schools. My kids all have some learning disabilities as well and I felt like I would be throwing them to the wolves if I sent them to public schools.
Anecdotally what you’re saying is true for our family and specifically our 23 month old, that is much further along than children 4-5 months older than him. He’s had one on one care his entire life—with us and his nanny. There’s no other way for us to explain his development.
Going forward we’ll be utilizing nanny shares and learning pods for homeschooling so we also give him the proper socialization. We will make it work because there’s no way we’re putting him in public school. The “shares” approach really helps reduce the cost.
I think that a major potential variable in Britain and America is discipline. Chaotic classrooms and being afraid of your peers are important factors in how much a child learns. On a slightly different tack, what do you think of Katharine Birbalsingh and her free school, Michaela, in London. Her three pillars of education are 1. knowledge based curriculum (rather than skills based), 2. Dicipline 3. Kindness. It seems to work, but I don't know how it measures against the ideas above. Presumably if a class is calm, because the overall discipline and atmosphere of the school is good, then the teacher has more chance to provide at least some individual feedback.
Great to talk about something other than THE COVID, but I understand it is our time to beat them down with the facts and prevent it from happening again to us. Root out the tyrants.
In regards to the subject of teaching, The time and ability of my wife and I to teach our kids is about an hour a day. At 6 years old that is already showing positive effect on them. So many little tricks I teach them how to do math and read. Thanks for the supporting evidence that we are on the right track.
Another non-genetic yet seemingly "heritable" variable that determines academic success is culture, but a slightly different culture than is outlaid in the article. It's the peer groups kids are surrounded by growing up. I've found that upwardly mobile, intellectual adults come from upwardly mobile, intellectual peer groups as children and teens. If your peer group thinks studying, doing extracurriculars, being a high achiever, and a success in life is "cool", so will you.
This has been demonstrated in the research of Judith Rich Harris, in which she showed that peer groups were actually far better at instilling values than parents were.
FYI RTE isn’t showing up in my Substack app. Even though I’m a paid subscriber.
Hopefully just a glitch!