Homeschooling
has gotten a bad rap. Often when
homeschooling is mentioned I’ll hear somebody mention that homeschooling is
just a way for parents to be able to sleep in and be lazy. Many people seem to think that all
homeschooled children are in some way socially handicapped.
This is all
untrue.
Rather,
homeschooling allows children the opportunity to not only learn about the
various subjects at hand, but experience them in a way that the average student
in a classroom is unable to.
It can also
be very environmentally responsible.
First off,
homeschooling removes the need for a daily car trip. Not having to drive a child to school helps
reduce a family’s ecological footprint, since gasoline is not used. Sure, gasoline is still used for ‘field trips’,
but even then the overall impact can be reduced. Many times excursions are coordinated between
families. Using a single vehicle to
transport multiple children helps lower the ecological footprint of the
families involved. Additional side
benefit: Family cars tend to use less
fuel than a school bus.
Another
benefit is that homeschooled students not only have the ability to learn science
through books, but also to experience it in a very personal way. Many homeschooled students take part in
caring for a family garden. They plant it,
care for it, and learn firsthand just how connected we are to the world as a
whole. They decide which seeds get
placed where in the garden, in order to increase yields, take notes, record
results, and come to conclusions about the end results, learning why one crop
succeeded when another crop failed. This
is the scientific method at its finest.
Not to
mention that by doing this the students have just ensured a reduction of food
miles. Bonus!
Oh,
wait! Physical education, which is
sorely lacking in public schools, can be accounted for here, as well. After all, gardening uses a large amount of
energy. Health education? Nutrition is covered in this, so there’s no
lack there. Chemistry? They can read up on various herbicides and pesticides
while deciding whether or not they’re safe, using mathematics to come to their
conclusion.
Hey! Reading comprehension was just covered there.
As you can
see, homeschooled kids aren’t lacking in any way. They’re merely taught using different methods
than are found in a classroom… methods that have much less of an impact on our
environment.
Are you
interested in homeschooling your own children?
If so, here’s a link to the Homeschool Diner’s Guide to Homeschooling Science. It links to various additional resources,
such as the EPA , the NIEHS, and a few universities. It's definitely worth looking into.
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