How Does It Work?

Parents who haven't immersed themselves in the "movement" of home education often find it difficult to understand how this whole "homeschooling" thing works - especially when you call it unschooling, hackschooling, and so on. Here's a little primer for you from my perspective.

Read in order or look for the following sub-headers to answer your questions.

• What is home/hack/unschooling?
• Why did you choose hackschooling?
• Is it legal? How is it set up?
• How do you know your child is learning?
• How does your child learn social skills?
• Will your child get into college?
• How does your child measure up to peers?
• Are you qualified to teach?
• Are you forcing this on your child?
• What are the benefits?

If you have additional questions, I would be more than happy to address them here. And as I build the blog I will fill in some of these answers with sources and resources and further reading.

What is home/hack/unschooling?

Home education was the norm before our nation was a giant industrial powerhouse. Many presidents and inventors and great businessmen in our history were home-educated, even after compulsory education was established. Home education takes place anywhere (travel!), at any time (or at all times), and is more family-centered and learner-centered than the one-size-fits-all system that is clearly failing our children today. Children are not all the same; they develop physically, emotionally, and mentally at different times and speeds, and to force them into a system based on averages is, in my opinion, unfair. 

I don't want to get into the negatives, but just understand that home education varies from family to family and is intended to respect and meet the needs of the individual child in the context of home and community. Unschooling is typically without any curriculum or specific learning objectives. Many homeschooling parents use curriculum either from a state certified school or program or a private program. Hackschooling is a mindset about learning differently than what the school system would dictate. These descriptions are oversimplified but give you the basic idea.

Why did you choose hackschooling?

My husband and I are deeply invested in the world of technology, from video games to web programming to education technology. "Hack" has some negative connotations of doing something illicit or destructive, but in its simplest definition it means "to deconstruct and rebuild anew." It also means "to manage successfully." 

As for why we chose to homeschool our son, it was a family decision. We all agree that my son is not getting what he needs from school. His natural rhythms and active, inquisitive learning style are not well suited to 8am start times, sitting quietly in a seat for hours at a time, accepting whatever information he's told, and changing tasks every 15-20 minutes. He is also ahead of grade level in math and reading (and barely grade level for writing), but no matter how smart or challenged he is, in school he would be forced to learn the same curriculum, at the same pace, and to the same level of depth as required by the district. This isn't fair to him, and honestly it's difficult enough for teachers to manage 24-37 kids in a classroom without having to give my son special attention for his gifts.

Is it legal? How is it set up?

In California, there are many legitimate ways to opt out of "compulsory education." The one I am choosing is to register a private school with the state. I make it sound simple, and in many ways it's simpler than you'd expect, but it also has some crazy sides. In any case, my private school or PSI is filed under "Roosevelt Innovation Academy" this year but next October I will be changing it to "Volition Academy." (Learning by volition.) So yes, this is entirely legal. I keep records and do all the things the state requires of me. If the truant police knock on my door, I have my evidence and an army of lawyers to call on.

How do you know your child is learning?

If this question is about standardized testing... just know that some homeschoolers do it, if required by their state-sponsored curriculum, and some don't. I don't plan to. I think it's unnecessary.

How do you know your toddler is learning? How do you know your preschooler is learning? You observe them, you see the results of their "work" and you take note of their skills. You know where you want them to be by the time they start kindergarten, and you watch and provide them with things you think will interest them to learn those skills. You read to them and listen to their questions and you talk with them about what you're doing. 

Children want to become "legitimate participants" in your family, and later in society. Everything you do to raise them is working toward this goal, and you see the results in their behavior, speech, and activities. You watch your child write his name for the first time, or you watch him read Harry Potter by himself and then ask him questions about it. You spend time building up what they know and then building more onto that knowledge.

Believe me, if you don't know your child is learning, you probably need to work on the relationship with the child more than the child's skills.

How does your child learn social skills?

This is a common question from parents who believe their child socializes all day in class, when in fact they are supposed to sit quietly and not disturb others except at recess. Also, many parents are disturbed by the sudden changes in personality of their child during kindergarten, where they are socialized by the other 23 five-year-olds in the class with one, maybe two adults to supervise. Peers interaction is important, but peers are not the best at socializing other children.

There are two kinds of social skills that children should be learning. The first is the general rules and expectations of society: wait your turn, be quiet in libraries, don't talk during movies, don't bother other people around you, be polite, and so on. (Some people might add "sit still" and other "skills" required in school that may or may not be important as adults.) A child can still learn these important skills with the family.

The second kind of social skills that children are supposed to learn is how to interact with other people in society. If a child's only real interactions are with other age-based peers, then he is only going to learn age-based behaviors. However, homeschooled children interact with people from all walks of life and of all ages, speaking directly with adults and asking questions not as subordinates but as a kind of peer. Also, yes it could be lonely, but plenty of playdates, group activities like scouting, park time, and homeschool group activities like field trips ensure children learn to develop relationships with their peers.

Will your child get into college?

Homeschoolers typically don't record grades for their learners. Many older homeschoolers take college courses which provide grades and college credit before they would be graduating from high school. Many parents are adept at keeping portfolios of achievements and translating activities into "coursework" that meets criteria for colleges to accept. Many students do very well on SAT and ACT tests and many are admitted into colleges including Ivy League universities without test scores. Now that homeschooling has become more common, colleges recognize the special nature of these life-long learners and the value of their achievements as showing both depth and breadth of knowledge their schooled peers may not have had exposure to. So yes, if my son wants to go to college, I am not the least bit worried about it. 

How does your child measure up to peers?

If measuring your child against peers is important, then you'd likely be a curriculum-based homeschooler. To many, especially unschoolers, it is not important because children learn differently at different times, so there is no fair way to measure learners against one another. A child might be behind in reading one year then accelerate past peers the following year. And as a family you might decide that learning some subjects is less important to your child's future, whereas other subjects not taught in schools might be of great interest.

Are you qualified to teach?

Conveniently, I happen to be earning my Masters of Science in Education this August, 2014. I do not have a teaching credential, and my specialty is in the application of technology in learning, but my program includes a lot of psychology, learning theory, and other skills most teachers also learn. I have some very minor teaching experience, but I am fully confident that I do not need to have teaching experience to help my child. 

Why? Because he is going to teach himself. I will facilitate, keep him on track, help him choose resources for learning, and work with him to accomplish his goals. But he will be doing the work, not me. Can I help him understand dividing fractions? Sure. Do I know everything there is to know about native California peoples? No - I haven't touched that subject since the third grade myself - but we will learn it together.

Are you forcing this on your child?

At first my son was reluctant to leave school. He was desperate to overcome his social challenges in school and make friends. Then he started to realize that those friends are fickle; he would rather have playdates and socialize with them out of school. 

One day he was sick, so we stayed home. I left him to his own devices, and he spent the time programming in Scratch and building amazing machines in Minecraft, as well as attempting to recreate some of those redstone machines in Lego. He installed an app on my phone that lets him control his Lego Mindstorm robot remotely, and he helped me measure out some ingredients for brownies. It was fun for both of us (I had lots of space/time to myself, as well as some time with him), and I think after that "unschool day" experience he warmed up to the idea. 

I have never pushed it on him, for which I'm grateful, because even though I wanted it, I would not have taken him out of school if he wanted to be there (unless things were dire).

What are the benefits?

The greatest benefit to homeschooling, for me, is having a sense of ownership over his learning. Sending him to school is convenient, but I have no say in what he learns or how he learns it. I have come to resent homework and book reports and the struggles to get him to do them, when I know he already knows the material, or when there are better ways -- for his particular learning style -- to practice and encode that knowledge. I get to set the goals, and I am accountable for achieving them. I am not relying on a teacher to spend energy on my child when there are so many other children out there who need it badly.

There are so many other great benefits, I can't name them all here. We get to spend this time, while he is still innocent and interested in family, together. We will use our time to go places and do things -- France! the Gene Autry Museum! -- that kids don't get to do in school. We will be able to take our time on some things and breeze through others at our own pace. We will get to choose what we want to learn (with help, of course) and how we want to learn it. I am very excited!

Got more questions? I'm happy to answer!