I used to be a bit of a home schooling missionary.
`You may be considering home education for your child –
either to keep up with his growing intellectual needs that are not being met by
his school, or to keep him at the educational level considered normal for his
age if he is lagging behind,' I ventured on a regular basis to the unwary who rang with simple enquiries.
I usually added honestly, `You may be fearful that if you do so, your child will
suffer both socially and educationally.
Take heart from stories of the home schoolers of the past.' And I then launched into a veritable diatribe which must have bored them into the ground if they had simply rung to find the contact person for the nearest chess club.
Blaise
Pascal was educated by his father, who gave up his
government position in order to devote himself to this task. In hindsight he was a bit like me at my worst. He particularly wanted Blaise to learn
because of an innate curiosity rather than be taught by rote. Subjects like Geography and History were
taught via discussion at meal times rather than in any formal manner. He also believed classics to be more
important than mathematics - (and even now I couldn't agree with him more.) Later when young Blaise stumbled upon mathematics he
demanded to know why he had not been taught this exciting subject. He was promised maths lessons once he had
mastered Latin and Greek.
Karl
Witte’s father documented the home education of his son in
great detail. (Well I didn't go quite that far myself but I did once write a book about it.) Herr Witte had unusually strong
views about how it should take place and therefore it began at birth. He felt that such a regime would produce genius
no matter what the child’s potential.
He was a village parson and in order to take on this momentous task he
resigned from his parish (another real enthusiast you see.) Baby talk
was avoided and Karl was encouraged to speak early, and properly. The Wittes decided that they must never
speak harshly to each other in Karl’s presence and that they should always
behave in a manner that they hoped he might emulate. All disputes and discussions about
unpleasant subjects were avoided.
Karl’s diet was closely monitored to ensure that he ate only those foods
that were good for him and avoided foods with too much salt, sugar or
spices. He was taken to concerts and
operas whilst very young as well as local markets and village fairs. (And I can empathize with that!) He had very few toys, being encouraged to
look around him for playthings. His
parents did not like him playing with other children for fear he would learn
bad habits and only capitulated under pressure from friends and family. However, Karl quickly did learn bad
language and began to tell lies so the friendships were quashed, his father
stating that he believed the idea that children needed others of similar age in
order to grow up normally was absolute nonsense. (How often have I heard that from dedicated home schoolers?) The Witte system seemed to work. At nine Karl was sent to Leipzig University
after being given a special dispensation.
He got a PhD at the age of thirteen.
At sixteen he was made a Doctor of Laws and appointed to the teaching
staff as a professor in Berlin. (There you go!)
John
Stuart Mill had an almost identical home
education although the Mills believed in motivating their son with little
rewards which would have horrified the Wittes. James Mill believed that there was little
in the idea of genetic inheritance with regard to intelligence and that given
an intensive regime of education, a genius would emerge. Therefore John was taught Greek when he was
three and once he had mastered it, mathematics in the form of simple arithmetic
was added to his timetable. He was not
fond of arithmetic but nevertheless was able to teach his younger sister this
subject by the time he was eight. At
the same time he was now learning Latin, Algebra and Geometry. At ten he began Astronomy and Physics and at
twelve Philosophy and Logic. He was
largely protected from the company of other boys until the age of thirteen when
he was sent to France
to stay with friends and to be introduced to Swimming and Fencing. He found
this social experience quite shocking
apparently. However, he was able to
recover and went on to use his quite remarkable education to fight for social
issues such as equality of opportunity, free education for all and women’s
rights. This may or may not have been what his doting parents had envisaged.
John
Wesley was mostly home schooled by his mother who got up
before five am each morning in order to do the job properly and continue to run
her household efficiently. Hers was a
large family and the older children had to help teach the younger ones. (She clearly had the right idea.)
Jeremy
Bentham was taught by his father until he was ten years
old. It was an intensive routine and
there was little time to mix with other children, and when he did so the other
children were made to feel like idiots compared with Jeremy, with many jokes
and rude remarks made about their academic abilities. Well that wouldn't have helped him make friends would it?
Goethe was also home schooled and private tutors were employed to teach him
various subjects. Later he said that he
greatly missed the company of other children.
Lord
Tennyson was educated at home for a number of years, though
sent to school at the age of eleven and so was Anthony Trollope. Until he
went to Harrow at fifteen or sixteen, Nehru received all his education at
home, mostly from private tutors.
And in 2014 in New Zealand hundreds and hundreds of parents now home educate their children - and very possibly most of them are as enthusiastic as I was myself.
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