Comments on: How Do You Homeschool? An Interview with Tara Wagner

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 05:21:50 +0000

Whenever I read these stories about homeschooling, they leave me with the same impression: how good is the teacher? Schooling is often only as affective as the teacher, and homeschooling is no different. One 14-year-old homeschooled child I know very well has the reading level of a second-grader and the penmanship of one as well. He speaks of life in terms of grandeur but is hand-held the entire way. His paper reports that I have read are incoherent to say the least. He has very few friends his own age and is so socially awkward that he is annoying to be around, even for adults. But, he too has RV’ed around the country, and his parents love to dote him around as a shining star of homeschooling.

I’m not saying this story of Jeb is embellished. I’m just saying that if you are considering homeschooling your child, do NOT expect that you are Tara or that your child will be Jeb who appears to be excelling in this format. Homeschooling is a difficult job that can have fantastic rewards that are increasingly lost in the public school system. In my opinion, unless you are confident in your abilities as an educator, it is better to leave the education of your children to the professionals and focus instead on fixing the “indoctrination” issues inherent to that education in the minds of your children rather than take on the education yourself. Many of Steve’s points are valid, and while many of Tara’s counterpoints are also valid, I do not believe they apply to anyone outside of Tara and Jeb. The great mistake is parents who are clearly not as visionary nor as intelligent as Tara attempting to educate their children who are clearly not as confident nor as intelligent as Jeb. Just because Tara and Justin have found a system in which their son excels doesn’t mean it is going to happen in every homeschooling situation. I know of one which is, so far, an abysmal failure.

By: Drew

Drew — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:59:21 +0000

Anyone who is arguing against her teaching method should look no further than her children. If they are reading better than their peers it is hard arguing against seeing what the public schools are producing in this country. We spend more money per capita and total than any industrialised nation, yet get less bang for our buck. While I am not for unschooling in its full essence, I have personally witnessed several children unschooled and they are ahead of their peers educationally and socially (well mannered and eloquent). Enough said.

By: Linda

Linda — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 09:31:38 +0000

This is a good post, I stumbled across your post while looking for downloads. Thanks for sharing, I’ll be sure to come back.
http://www.air-max-shox.com

By: Dawn

Dawn — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:23:26 +0000

Great interview. I agree that Zeb is a lucky boy. Chapeau!

By: adriana moniz

adriana moniz — Tue, 11 May 2010 15:50:30 +0000

I have always considered homeschooling..thanks for the interview i found it really educational!

By: Michael Davis

Michael Davis — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:55:36 +0000

We’re not going to stop. We think the lively conversation is the best part.

Best,
Michael

By: soultravelers3

soultravelers3 — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 16:44:19 +0000

I hope you don’t stop the interviews because of the controversy. It’s actually great to hear all the different points of view and ways of educating our children.

We are a family that has been traveling the world on an open ended world tour since 2006 and we use quite a variety of ways to educate, but I’d say we are mostly eclectic unschoolers.

We find it an amazing way to learn!

By: gregory barton

gregory barton — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 12:31:25 +0000

I look back on much of my schooling as “the wasted years”. While I learnt a few essential skills, most of it was inefficient and essentially child-minding. I feel angry about that. I want my son to have a better experience of childhood.

By: gregory barton

gregory barton — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 12:23:42 +0000

A very well argued and cogent debate. Never mind who is right or wrong, I am encouraged in my choice not to send my 12 day-old to school (in the not too distant future :p)

By: Jane

Jane — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 05:21:14 +0000

We who have made the decision to home/unschool, know first-hand how challenging it can be and as examples for families new to homeschooling, wouldn’t it be better to simply be respectful of other families and the manner in which they do so? I think homeschooling and unschooling have more similarities than we might realize – there’s alot of hairsplitting over “words”here – ie “granola”, “average Saturday” – who really cares what anyone who is affiliated with “institutionalization” thinks anyway? – (Unless you are unlucky enough to live somewhere where laws prohibit homeschooling) – otherwise, live and let live. Less hostility and more unification – we deal with enough negativity from people who are anti-home/un-school, don’t we? There’s plenty of manifested division without our community contributing to it.