Keeping the Schoolish Away
Why I Tell Students: “Ask Your Parents” (Even on Final Exams)
Sometimes Homeschool Connections students email me during exam time to ask whether they are allowed to use their books and notes on a final exam. I will generally reply, “I don’t have a preference whether you use books or notes. Ask your parents.” This response often confuses them. It is, after all, my class and my exam. Shouldn’t I have a rule about what study materials are allowed during exams?
The primary reason I defer to parents’ discretion on this question is that I am a homeschooling instructor employed by a homeschooling curriculum provider whose primary mission is to support homeschooling families. Since everything I do at Homeschool Connections occurs within a homeschooling framework, I try to respect this by honoring the family’s agency in these matters.
Being “Schoolish”
It is very common in modern homeschooling to outsource some aspects of our children’s education to others—co-ops for certain classes, online programs for others, extracurricular activities through local organizations or academies. Most homeschooling families today use a blended model of home education, in which parents draw on multiple individuals and programs (in-person and virtual) to educate their children. While this confers numerous benefits by providing a wide range of resources, it also makes it easier for homeschooling families to relinquish control over their children’s education to third parties. This is what I call being “schoolish” about home education.
Being schoolish happens when we rely on these third parties to the degree that we no longer have any meaningful control over our kids’ education. We might belong to a homeschooling co-op, but in practice, the co-op functions as a school. We, as parents, may use curriculum providers and programs to the point that we become disconnected from what our children are doing. In the public schooling model, families abdicate their educational oversight to the state-run schools; when we become “schoolish,” we abandon our direction to private co-ops and programs.
Parents Know What is Equitable
Returning to my example about books and notes during exams, I have always found this a “schoolish” sort of question.
When I teach, I work with homeschooled students who come from a variety of backgrounds and are all over the map in terms of their education. For example, in a general high school history class, I will have some teens beginning 9th grade and some about to graduate. (I occasionally even get 19-year-olds who had to do an extra year for various reasons.) I have students who are history aficionados and students who struggle to remember a single date. There are kids who are fabulous note-takers and those who never know what to write down. Students with ADHD, dyslexia, autism, and a host of learning disabilities. There are students whose energy levels are in the dumps due to an eating disorder, or who are grieving over a parent with a terminal diagnosis, or who are staying with relatives because their house got flooded.
I have encountered all these scenarios and more in my career with Homeschool Connections, which has always led me to believe that I am the least qualified person to decide whether a student should be allowed to use his notes on an exam. A child’s parent is far better suited to make that judgment. A parent—who possesses intimate knowledge of their child’s strengths, limitations, and progress—has a much more comprehensive view of what is equitable than I, a virtual tutor who only knows the child as a name on the screen.
From my perspective as an instructor, allowing parents to make these kinds of calls preserves the centrality of the family in academic decision-making. This is also reflected in other respects throughout my classes: assignment due dates can be adjusted upon parental request, exceptions can be made for homework assignments, and flexibility in attendance is permitted. Even grades assigned by HSC instructors are “recommended”; parents are encouraged to adjust them as they see fit based on their own knowledge of their child’s effort and progress. One could even point to the à la carte nature of HSC’s course offerings: Homeschool Connections does not mandate a single, uniform “program” that all students must complete; parents choose whatever courses suit their child’s needs and interests.
Conclusion
These small nods to parents, woven into the Homeschool Connections system, serve as perpetual reminders that we are all homeschoolers and that the families we serve should always retain agency over the parameters of their children’s education, even when third parties, such as HSC, are occasionally brought in to assist. This keeps things in proper perspective and helps us all from becoming “schoolish.”
What are your thoughts on this topic? Join other homeschooling parents and me in the Homeschool Connections Facebook Group or in the HSC Community to continue the conversation.
