The Great Learning Awakening

by Dickerson, Lee

• ISBN13: 9781467999144
• ISBN10: 1467999148
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-12-27
• Publisher: Createspace Independent Pub

Summary

We may use the terms interchangeably, but for schoolchildren, "getting an education" and "going to school" are not the same process. If Americans simply wanted children to go to school, then we would be satisfied with compulsory attendance laws and the nearly 100% attendance reported by the U.S. Department of Education. Instead, we struggle with a K-12 system that too often fails to meet educational and emotional needs, fails to prepare for college or career, and fails to instill ingenuity and independence. A disquieted rumble has been swelling among many of those who have the most personal, vested interest in the educational achievement of our nation's children: their parents. Parents are perhaps the least visibly involved in the process and product of a school system, yet they have the most significant, perpetual influence over a child's decision to incorporate what he learns and how she learns it into who he is and who she will become. When parents recognize and understand the elements and processes of a genuine education for children, they are then poised to be intentional about weighing and selecting resources to best meet the educational needs of their child. Disappointment and debates, movements and movies, provocation and politics in and about education's system and institution continue to foment frustration in a culture ready to:· hear that school choice-including homeschooling-is just one part of a bigger educational directive,· recognize that parents have as much a responsibility for providing an education as children have a right to receive it,· ask what it means and what it may look like for children to get an education and to be educated.This book is a look at practices and presuppositions of public education in the context of one family's decision to abandon the public system and chart an individual course that separates the "school" from the "education." Yes, it is in small part a personal story of transformation from public school to homeschool, not in "how to" directive, but in intelligently reasoned prose. It is also a theory of learning that challenges Bloom's Taxonomy, that critically analyzes Common Core, that takes on homeschooling critics like University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Michael W. Apple, and that proves that strengthening requirements for teacher certification is not an answer to public education's headaches. This book is a perspective and definition of American schooling with compelling argument for replacing education's bureaucratic administration with parents and families. Its chapters consider why homeschooling is a viable school choice along with charter schools and similar forms of education, its content contends that any parent who has ever helped a child with homework has already homeschooled, and its report affirms that parental involvement at any level greatly increases a child's educational success. Those who call themselves homeschool parents have simply taken "parental involvement" to its fullest extent, and our family's learning experience, discovery, and philosophy are a call to all parents-present and future-to renew or affirm their commitment to involving themselves where, when, and however they can in their children's educations because only parents who are intentional about educating their children can lead them to the place where they can be truly educated.TABLE OF CONTENTSChapter 1: Our BeginningChapter 2: Food, Clothing, Shelter, School Chapter 3: Education Chapter 4: A New Standard Chapter 5: Choice and Critics Chapter 6: The Rewards