Let’s look beyond the mask.
Homeschool parents and students must be looking at the problems facing traditional schools with no little wonder. As homeschooling families require minimal changes to their routine, classroom teachers struggle to find a balance between in-person and online learning.
Of course, some changes are inevitable, even for homeschoolers. Soccer games are on hold, parks and hiking trails are closed, even the gym is unavailable.
While those closures are disappointing and unsettling, homeschoolers know how to create, innovate, and how to mentally and emotionally survive.
Even if the weekly group meeting is electronic, homeschoolers confidently connect online with other students and parents who understand the dynamic nature of learning and life.
Homeschoolers get it!
They know that life changes daily, but they continue to grow as individuals and as a community. Every day is an adjustment to change, some subtle changes, some profound. Homeschooling families are not totally controlled by autocratic decision makers or government decrees.
The homeschool learning system is built on strong learning principles, one of which is that you confidently adapt as needed to a changing environment. No waiting for extended committee meetings or infinitely delayed administrative ruling. Your mind is the most important and allows you to make the right decisions in this rapidly changing cultural environment.
In fact, the current pandemic can become an effective teaching tool, integrating something real into our lives with the traditional “school stuff”. This integration, while not in the books, can create lifelong learning while increasing our analytical ability, knowledge base, and creative skills.
It’s not in the books, but who cares!
Actually, it’s in life… and we should all care!
Take a close look at the following list of how the Covid-19 pandemic relates to traditional school courses.
1. History: What are some historical global pandemics?
2. Math: Plotting various graphs of infections, hospitalizations, deaths, etc.
3. English: Write stories or poems about masked people who don’t see smiles.
4. Science: How is a virus different from a bacterium?
5. Politics: Does the continuation of the pandemic favor one political party over another?
6. Literature: Is this a continuation of 1984 Prayed brave new world?
7. Debate: Government Control versus Individual Independence.
8. Physical education: build a training place using household items.
9. Economy: Why are some businesses essential and others not?
10. Art: Depict peaceful protests and violent riots in watercolor.
11. Music: Compose ambient music or words that show the inner emotions of the elderly currently living in nursing homes.
12. Psychology: Dig deeper. What is going on in your mind?
13. Technology: What would this be like if we didn’t have our smart devices?
The suggestions listed above are just boosters for our minds. Each of those sections can have multiple related tasks. Start with a blank piece of paper and make a mental map of where you can go with each of these.
Always look at the big picture.
Face the truth. We are in a pandemic and it is not fun. It’s not fun, but we can learn from it. We must not become victims of media manipulation. It is essential that we keep our mind alert and active. Looking seriously at the relationship between the pandemic and actual learning, we may find relationships of a larger nature than first appears.
Our nation was founded on solid principles based on genuine truths. Our independent minds must continue to focus on those truths. We have to continue that tradition. We cannot allow lawlessness and riots to change the nature of our country.
Fight the fight.
Keep faith.