Families that choose a different path for schooling often find that family and friends don’t understand. Janna, a homeschooling mom, coined the phrase “off the beaten path’ when trying to explain their choice.

I mean they just don’t really understand why I would choose, why anybody, but why us in particular, would choose to go this far off the beaten path kind of thing.

She carries the metaphor even further:

…that’s why I keep telling my parents… if anything, it has shown, it’s proven to me and Mark, but also to the kids, that there is no one way. And not only is there not only one way, but there’s not only one way for you.

I feel like homeschooling…we’re already on a different path. I feel like…any other different path you take is cool. I mean homeschooling is a different path for a lot of people; they see it as a really odd path, but it works. I think it works. It works for us. I think it works for a lot of people. I think it could work for more people than people think they could.

I pulled my son off the beaten track in fourth grade, onto a new path of homeschooling. At the time I was unsure how our schooling would play out. I thought even if he just read for a year he’d be okay. He reported to me later that it occurred to him, if we can approach school in such a different way, we can probably approach other things in life differently than the traditional way.

There is no one way to learn, more people can probably manage it than think they can, and it may open up new pathways to thinking and acting in many different arenas.

 

 

 

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Published by Jody Cooper

I attended Bryn Athyn College for two years. I attended University of Delaware for two years and graduated with a BS in Economics (1974). I attended Widener University graduating with a Masters in Education and a certification to teach in Pennsylvania (1997). I received an EdD in Curriculum, Instruction, Technology Education from the College of Teaching and Learning at Temple University, May 2015. I homeschooled some of my children for six years.

One thought on “Off the Beaten Path”

  1. Well spoken, Jody. I think that if we teach our children to be flexible and curious they have better tools for life than if we teach them that 2+2 =4. Give them the opportunities to find that out for themselves and it will mean more and have better staying power than if we just ‘drill and kill’. I think (hope 🙂 that even some traditional school are getting away from the drill and kill routine. However, flexibility, curiosity, independent thinking, and opportunities to play and use imagination are still limited. ABC’s and 123″s are not more important than a chance for discovery and learning that there are many ways to approach and solve problems.

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