And this is why we chose to home educate

There is a video going around social media about a guy suing the school system. If you haven’t seen it yet, you can do so here.

I particularly liked the way it raised some valid points of our own and reminded me why we chose to home educate.

We chose to home educate because not every child is the same (not even when they are all siblings raised by the same parents), not every child has the same likes and dislikes, not every child has the same talents, not every child is academic. It’s not about how good their maths is, how quickly they learnt to read or what grades they reach.

It isn’t making them feel that being unconfident in one subject will leave them failing for the rest of their lives. It’s about giving them the opportunity to find their own voice, their own style, and their own strengths with the freedom not to worry about the rest that, let’s face it, as an adult they very likely won’t need and won’t think twice about. Unfortunately, in a quest to fit square pegs into round holes, their strengths and passions are at best overlooked and, at worst, quashed.

A child that isn’t keen on maths won’t be a mathematician but they might be a great chef. A child that doesn’t love science may be a voracious reader. A child who hates cross country runs in the rain may prefer engineering.

We didn’t remove our children from the school system because we think WE can teach them better. We removed them to enable them to learn better, to suit their own strengths, their own capabilities and their own interests.

Our children’s education is simply about them.