The Public School Teacher as Homeschool Mom

The recent "guidance" from the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education may have you wondering about a subject that is taboo among public school teachers: homeschooling your own children. It's a tough topic, partly because so many people are ignorant of state laws regarding homeschooling. Besides thinking homeschooling is illegal, many people think it's neglectful. You'll have some assumptions to overcome.

One assumption people will make is that if you teach in a public school, you should be loyal to the system and all that it stands for. Meaning, keep your child in school. Another is that you won't be able to manage homeschooling and holding down your job--one or the other will suffer. Still another is that your child will automatically fall behind. I've heard it many times: the one-time homeschooled child re-enrolls in public school, and teachers whisper about placement testing to find out "which areas have the most gaps." But homeschooling doesn't have to leave gaps. It fills many that the public school cannot.

It is true that many parents who withdraw their children from public school in order to homeschool them are unprepared to do so. They may sign their child up for online classes, or they may try following a more traditional curriculum. Either way, it takes time and dedication to make it work, and some families just aren't up for the task.

But parents should not let the difficulty of the journey keep them from making a positive change in their child's education. God calls some parents to remove their children from public school. If you're one, know that public opinion ultimately does not matter. Homeschooling is legal, affordable, and fulfilling. And there are people and organizations there to help you.

This topic isn't purely academic to me. I was homeschooled K-12 by my mom, inspirational author Susan Page Davis. I know whereof I speak. Now, even though I teach in the public school system, I made the tough choice to homeschool one of my kids. My middle child is enrolled in the public school where I teach, while my husband and I homeschool our firstborn using Google Docs as a planning interface. I create lessons that align with the state standards, linking to relevant Internet content and tapping into Reagan's God-given interest in art and science. It's not perfect, but she's thriving--something she was not doing in public school.

Every homeschool family has a personal reason (or reasons) for choosing home as school. No matter your beliefs, home is the best place to teach values. Now that the White House is reaching in and illegally bullying students and staff of America's public schools, I expect homeschooling to attract a new wave of followers. If you're among them, here are a few parting thoughts.

1. The Left does not like homeschoolers. If you do it, do it well. Document everything. Have your child create a learning portfolio. Know your state's laws.
2. Join a homeschool co-op. Other parents can help supplement your teaching, and you and your kids will make lifelong, like-minded friends.
3. Teach your child the Word of God, and prayerfully trust God to bring that child into the flock.
4. Tap into select activities of the public school system, from music or PE class to extra-curriculars and even testing.
5. Embrace liberty. It comes from God because of His love.

Homeschooling is not for everyone. Do your research before taking the plunge. For starters, Reader's Digest recently posted 13 Things Homeschoolers Wish They Could Tell You. And here, read David French's reasons why it's time to declare independence from public schools.

Learning Through Writing: Choose Your Own Adventure

When I was a kid, I loved to read books from the Choose Your Own Adventure series. On each page was a choice, something like this. "If you decide to risk the mountain lions and explore the cave, turn to page 23. If you decide to look for a stream to replenish your water supply, turn to page 71." If you were killed by mountain lions on page twenty-three, you could always go back and see where the other choice led. In fact, you often died. No problem. Just go back to page one, or wherever you left a bookmark last.

Similarly, video games often include a story with many choices for the player to make. The decisions you make alter the course of the game. When your character dies, you play again.

I like to assign a choose-your-own story to my high school students. It's digital, with hyperlinks to different documents in a Google Drive folder for the pages. The first page sets up the scenario ("You are Sir Lancelot. The castle at Camelot is under attack") and the viewpoint character. Second person present works best for the point of view. At the bottom of the page is the first set of choices. Instead of using "turn to page 5," use "click here" or "click to page 5." Then, link to the new page. Be sure to put the page number at the top of each page, and save each document as the same number. Keep the story to twelve pages or so for beginners, and keep a running list of how each page turns out if you are concerned about the ratio of positive outcomes to negative outcomes.

There are several Web sites students can use to help them write choose-your-own stories, but I like the challenge of creating my own story, format and links. The students are up for the challenge, too.

What should they write about? This assignment works well for fiction or nonfiction. My daughter wrote one in which the reader is a trout. It required her to research the life cycle of a trout and what the trout's natural predators are. I'm researching Antoine Lavoisier, a chemist who was guillotined during the French Revolution. Turning Lavoisier's life into a choose-your-own story has been challenging, since I am working to understand the science part and then to make the concepts easy for my students or other young readers to understand.

To get a better feel for how it all works, see if your library has the classic Choose Your Own Adventure books, or pick up similar versions by R.L. Stein or other authors. Then, create your own story to share with your students. They'll be raring to write!