If I’ve learned anything from watching boxing or UFC, it is that the bigger guy doesn’t always win. Sometimes the game is won by speed, not strength. True, the bigger guy has much more power, but all that power is useless if you cannot hit your opponent. Bigger is not always better.
This is true of corporations as well. For example, I know a guy who owns a business. He has a pretty up-to-date Mac, running the newest version of Mac OS X. Most big corporations have just recently moved to 5-year-old software on 7-year-old machines, and only because Microsoft is leaving Windows XP behind. The reason is simple: it costs a lot less money to upgrade one computer than it does to upgrade 10,000. Bigger is not always better.
This is also true of churches. I know a pastor whose church has maybe 40-ish congregants. However, the intimacy and connectedness between those congregants as a whole is greater than that found in megachurches. Bigger is not always better.
Most people can see that. However, many people do not even think for a moment to apply the same logic to education. Homeschools can’t do what public schools can do, so they are inferior. But this simply isn’t true. The gains that public schools enjoy come at great costs (some of which we will defer to a later post). Today I just want to talk about the actual experience itself (One aspect of this I want to flesh out, and is important enough to warrant classification as a Reason).
Before I get started, I have to make an important disclaimer. Trust me, I won’t do this often, but in this third Reason, it must be admitted that their are gains that the public school has that homeschools are very unlikely to have. Most families don’t have 10 different instruments in their homes, or their own personal laboratory. That said, much of the key laboratory equipment can be purchased somewhat inexpensively (especially if you shop thrifty). There isn’t much outside of some special utensils, a microscope, and its equipment. A telescope would be nice as well (something public schools don’t have, because class is never at night, something we’ll get to later).
Perhaps the best way to illustrate the difference between the public school experience and the homeschool experience is to talk about the different ways that they go about field trips. The zoo is a great example, so we’ll use that.
Steps to a Public School Zoo trip:
1. The idea comes before school management. Whether it is one teacher’s idea, or the plan of a whole department, the first step is for the higher ups at the school (and district, if necessary) to decide that they want to pursue a possible zoo trip. Of course, this must be done well in advance of the trip.
2. Set a date and contact the zoo. Since a large amount of students will be present, it is important to check with the zoo to make sure five different public schools aren’t planning the same trip on the same day.
3. Send the forms. With a date set, it is now time to send release forms to students to bring to their parents in order to sign. Once these forms have been collected (and any payment necessary procured), it is safe to proceed.
3.5. Since children often lose forms, and parents sometimes delay, schools have to deal with late forms. One can expect that the day before the trip the school will know everyone who is coming.
4. Finally, we reach the day of the trip. The school will have readied a bus, and, after getting all the children from home to the school, they are sent on to another bus to go to the zoo.
5. Having reached the zoo, the children are organized to go into the zoo.
6. During the zoo trip, great care is taken to ensure that children are not lost. As such, a specific, pre-approved pathway through the zoo is typically followed, giving each child little to no control over what is seen and when.
7. When the trip comes to a close, the kids get back on the bus and wait to call roll, because the teachers can’t keep track of all of these kids all the time, and it would be terrible to lose a child.
8. The bus comes back to school, and kids are either picked up by parents who have driven to school, or are shuttled back home via buses.
Steps to a Homeschool Zoo trip:
1. Parents and children decide to go to the zoo. This could be done well in advance of the trip, or even the night before.
2. At this point, the next step is to decide the date according to what works best for the family. Since a large-quantity trip is not in view, the zoo does not need to be notified.
3. Before coming to the zoo, homeschool teaching is coordinated to relate to the zoo trip. For example, if students are learning about Africa, then special worksheets and other material is prepared.
4. The day of the trip, the family gathers in their vehicle and drives to the zoo.
5. Once arriving at the zoo, the family enjoys the zoo and the students learn about African animals and whatever the family decides to view.
6. After enjoying the zoo, the family returns home.
Both school trips go to the same place. They could even go on the same day. But the experiences are very different. The public school experience separates kids from parents, and leaves the children to a pre-approved walkway. Every child’s experience is relatively uniform. This isn’t to say that it is not fun, or educational. But it is standard, everyone relegated to a single-file line in order to maintain efficiency. The homeschool trip stresses freedom, children having the capability to exert some influence over when to go see the turtles. I would argue that from the child’s point of view, the homeschool experience is more enjoyable and educational. From the parent’s point of view, the homeschool experience is definitely more enjoyable.
While the large-scale format of the public school does provide some minor benefits, on the whole the smaller, more intimate, more fluid nature of the homeschool provides a better experience.
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