Here's where my story began. Well, actually, it began way back in kindergarten when I decided I really wanted to become a teacher. But, my training began here at Baylor University.
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| Graduation Day, December 1994, Baylor University...with my roommate and one of my professors |
This photo was taken a few weeks ago in front of the building where I did a large chunk of my education classes 20+ years ago. I love this place. LOVE IT. I really do. It provided me with a wide array of experiences, as well as top-notch training in the School of Education.
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| 20 years after graduation, visiting campus as a homeschooling mom, July 2014 |
I graduated with multiple hours upon hours of prep time, classroom observation time, student teaching in an inner city school, student teaching in a foreign country (England), and finally the sought-after B.S.E. degree. Amazing experiences that I wouldn't trade for anything.
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| Here I am with my British students (student teaching abroad) |
I left Baylor absolutely prepared (and eager) for my first teaching job. Yep, that's my yearbook photo as a first-year teacher. HA...I was just a KID!
Teaching in public school was a great experience. I felt a particular draw toward the at-risk children, and in some small way I was able to help them by being a constant in their lives for one school year. Hours were long, pay at that time was nil, but it was what I wanted to do.
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| Last day of school...posing for a quick photo in front of the lockers...apparently, teacher was decorated in stickers |
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| So many students held a very special place in my heart |
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| I really loved this group of kiddos |
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| Last day of school craziness...every face represents a special story |
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| Seems everyone wants photos on the last day of school...I loved these kids! |
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| Playground duty |
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| The grand finale...handing out report cards on the last day of school |
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| 6th grade hall where I used to teach
But I remember standing in my classroom one day, and the thought hit me out of nowhere: I didn't want this type of educational experience for my own children if and when I had children someday. I'm not sure why that thought hit me at that moment, but I remember it clearly. Yes, part of it had to do with some of my negative experiences in a public school. But, these experiences I was expecting to a certain degree. What I was not expecting was the burnout and boredom I saw every day in my students. This was something that my college education had not prepared me for.
I stood looking at my students, and I realized for the first time that these children, who no doubt began kindergarten with a zeal for learning (because we as humans are born with a natural desire to learn and explore) came to sit in my 6th grade classroom with all zeal gone...lost somewhere in between kindergarten and junior high. Not one student was excitedly asking me what we'd be learning or how does such-and-such happen. Instead, they would ask, "Is this going to be on the test?" or "Will we have homework tonight?" This is when the ideal I had held about teaching began to crack. Something was most definitely wrong with this picture, and as a teacher, I found it to be frustrating.
It was not as though I had been trained in handing out boring textbook assignments and monotonous fill-in-the-blank worksheets. In fact, my college education had covered an array of educational approaches, including a semester-long class in researching and writing an original 200-page thematic unit/unit study (I love you, Dr. Baker...most challenging and best class I had!). Seriously, Baylor rocked education classes, and if anything, I was filled with a very wide range of educational approaches, philosophies and ideas. And to a certain extent, I could put that into practice in a classroom. For example, instead of assigning the typical end-of-chapter review questions about life in the Middle Ages, I moved all the desks out of the center of the classroom and let them work in groups drawing villages from the Middle Ages on huge sheets of butcher paper while we discussed life in that place and time. But these rich moments were drowned in the overall system of having to collect grades in my grade book for 100+ children, and the most efficient way to do that is with worksheets, chapter review questions and tests...QUANTIFIABLE numbers. I knew that the children were not truly learning this information. They were simply retaining boring facts long enough to spit them back out onto a test and receive a grade that I could enter into my grade book. The number grade was a false indicator of true learning, but it was the only option for a public school teacher to prove that each of her 100+ students had "learned." No wonder they were burned out. Learning was not truly taking place, and it was absolutely not fun.
Fast forward a couple of years, and as I held my first newborn in my arms, I knew I had just become a homeschooling momma.
 For the first 5 years of her life, she was such an eager learner and explorer...touching, smelling, observing, asking question upon question. Life was one huge learning experience, and she delighted in it.      I could hardly wait for her to get old enough so that I could fill her little mind with all kinds of wonderful things. Kindergarten would be so exciting! FINALLY I was able to be a teacher again. I set up a little "school room," and off we went. I ordered a pre-packaged curriculum, and we essentially did school at home. Even though I had transferred her education to a home environment, it still was setting her up for burnout and boredom. When we were supposed to open up the pre-planned curriculum and read about seeds on Tuesday, when she hadn't the slightest interest in seeds on Tuesday (and would in fact rather have learned about the Great Horned Owl)...well, let's just say that learning began to be something to check off the list for the day. Read about seeds...check. Learn about the short "e" sound...check. Read about community helpers...check. Practice counting to 10...check. Oh good...school is over for the day, and now we can close these boring books and actually do things we LIKE to do. Keep in mind that I have a background in education. So, this whole kindergarten experience I was having with my daughter, though not super fun, was normal and expected. After all, I truly believed that it was a fact that children had to learn these things (the terms scope and sequence had been nearly drilled into my head!). It was GOOD for her, so we pressed on...and on...and on. Until both child and parent were burned out and bored (not to mention all the tears that had been shed!). Then I stumbled upon Charlotte Mason. 
I vaguely remembered her name from my intro to education class at Baylor, but I never had learned much about her. I began to read about her, and I found in Charlotte Mason much of what I had instinctively been wanting as a teacher and as a homeschool mom. She believed in giving children living thoughts and ideas instead of dry facts. She believed in living books, which make a subject come alive, instead of dry textbooks. Everything I read about Charlotte Mason, I loved. So, about 7 years or so ago, I began to dabble in CM-style homeschooling, beginning first by adding in living books and allowing my children to notebook instead of doing the boring book questions. Every year we added more CM-style...picture study, nature study, etc. And we truly LOVED nearly every aspect of this very rich style of learning.
Last school year, we implemented a full CM-style schedule that reflected how Charlotte Mason herself conducted class in her schools. A couple of months into that, we pulled back. Though we adored the many rich aspects, we did NOT adore the strict schedule. That is when Charlotte Mason had to relax. Over this summer, I have spent countless hours reading and researching Christian unschooling, and I was a bit surprised to see that many of the families who described themselves as Christian unschoolers implement much of Charlotte Mason's aspects (especially living books). It appeared that when Charlotte Mason methods were placed on the artist pallet as one color, and unschooling was placed on the pallet as another color, mother and children could dip a paint brush into the unschooling color and pull it into the Charlotte Mason color and blend it seamlessly into something beautiful. I understand that many in the unschooling camp say you cannot call it unschooling unless you unschool all the way, with zero structure and zero leading from parents. I'm not much for labels in the first place, so, I shy away from using the term unschooling. I prefer to think of our approach as organic learning. For those of you wondering HOW in the world to go about this, in my next blog post, I'll get into the nitty gritty of our organic learning.... |
