educational plans and waffles.

i have, obviously, at the top of my blog got a set of mission statements. a loose grasp of what i thought we might try and do a present to SB over the next 2 years. i thought long and hard about what we had in the way of resources, and how to make it attractive. Well, obviously I won’t be thinking that hard again, because with the Badman review I am becoming officially autonomous. Its not something that sits well with a natural listmaker like me, but there is no way I am going to provide my lovely woolly plan, and then be expected to deliver on it!

we are not an educational factory. If you think of school as a lovely shiny factory for cheap as chips identical tableware, then we are the small potters in the fringes. our pieces are individual and may not share the perfection and identical nature of the factory, but we love them for the individuality, the blemishes and the effort it has been to make the whole. I can’t see the pot my children will be at the end, and since i think we are child led, rather than autonomous, i think that my shaping will effect the end pot. but i expect it to be largely determined by the material used. my girls. i am not sure that the bean counters and measurers will appreciated my yet to be determined pot compared to the shiny regimented ones they hope to see. AH well.

We don’t educate autonomously because we have things we like to do regularly – the key one being maths! we don’t sit down at a desk everyday until this and other liked options are done, and many days they aren;t done at all, but… And music practice. why learn an instrument and not be encouraged to practice it. it isn;t forced every day, but i do point out the more regularly you practice the quicker you get better.

i see lots of home educators educating with lots of different twists and styles, from the what appears outwardly to be laissez-faire autonomy, to what appears to be an excellent classical education. ANd I am jealous of all those styles, they all seem to work well for that child/that family. And yes, there is a difference if you SAT the children now, but i am not at all convinced that it matters. All i am convinced about is that we should encourage a love of enquiry, a need to find out, and facilitate interests. I cannot see how you can assess a process until it gets to the end. i have no idea what poorly trained LA assessors are going to make of it. the evidence is that it is variable! i don’t think autonomy is the only way, i think it takes a lot of input and bravery to work, but I DO think that it is effective, or certainly has been for the children i have met.

I like the idea of having a basic story arc for the girls to fill in. to provide the tabula rasa base that they can decorate as they like. i am very, very grumpy that this is all threatened. bah humbug!! i do think I will keep a monthly private summary if i can so that we have a page to print out of what has been done, as ‘evidence’ grr!!