Back In Black

Well, it's been a while...it has been quite a little while...I will now have to rebuild my readership, rethink my privacy, and overall, recondition myself and this blog.

I believe I will do more musing, less reporting. I will, of course, enjoy a readership, but I will not so worry about what they may think of my mind as I share it.

That said, and out of sheer laziness (well, it IS still summer, you know) I will share a recent column I wrote on distance learning. To wit:

August is the month many of us will return to school. The cusp of autumn, this time of year brings back so very many memories. When I visit elementary schools, the smell of freshly waxed floors, of aprons and tempra paint, the cafeteria—it all comes back to me. I would get new school clothes: two pair of Tough Skin Jeans and a couple shirts, maybe even shoes. I would get fantastic school supplies. (I still marvel when I visit that aisle this time of year).

Those early years I attended the school of hard knocks, learning my place on the school bus, finding my niche on the playground. I got into (and lost) my first fight in kindergarten, while waiting for Thad Coffindaffer’s mom to pick us up at the carpool drop. (I had called Wade Dodson a Potty-pot-pot, so he pounded out retribution with my head and the pavement.)

As I grew up, I was likely the only kid greatly relieved summer was over, for I could get off the tractor, stretch my legs, and wear clean clothes. It was fall, and high time to go chum around with friends. When it was time for college, I can vividly remember my parents dropping me off—the car careening wildly away, tires screeching, as my last bag fell from the luggage rack.

My kid starts school this year, but he won’t need school clothes, and he won’t be waiting for the bus. He won’t have to rush around in the morning, and he’ll never be bored by Charlie Brown’s teacher droning on and on. He won’t be mainstreamed or blended or held back or labeled. My kid’s going to go to school, virtually.

Home schooling was an intimidating prospect for us, but it was something we were exploring four years ago. When our boy was 13 months, he was singing the chorus of the funk classic, Brick House. At 18 months, he had a vocabulary of over 200 words. We felt we should do all we could for him, but we found much of the home school curricular content to be of a particularly religious bent, too pricey, or too disorganized.

Rather than running helter-skelter to round up stray content components, we began seeking out a packaged program, and we feel confident we have settled on the very best, K-12. From their website: “K12 Inc., an education company based in McLean, VA, is a leading provider of high quality curricula and learning programs. K12 has created a nationally acclaimed learning program which includes thousands of lessons in traditional subjects, academic assessments, and planning and progress tools delivered through the innovative and powerful K12 Online School. The learning program also incorporates many traditional learning materials including books, workbooks, classical stories, K12 PhonicsWorks tile system, math and science supplies, maps, art books and tools, instruments, music CDs, and much more. The K12 curriculum and learning program was developed by a team of education experts using extensive research to identify the best learning methods and materials. More than 20,000 students nationwide are currently using the K12 learning program in a variety of learning environments, including traditional public school classrooms, virtual (online) public schools, and homeschools.”

All of his instructional manipulatives, books, multi-media dropped at our door if not our in-box. He, like every child in the system, will be issued a brand new laptop computer every few years. We were relieved, amazed, and ready to sign up, but we feared our budget could not handle it. What we were very, very surprised to learn was that some school districts have adopted virtual school programming such as this, and that the cost is no more than traditional fees paid at a local school district. We are enrolled through Lawrence Virtual Schools, and when our boy graduates, he will have a bone fide diploma from Lawrence High School.

I am fully aware of other perspectives on home schooling and distance learning. I have taught online for nearly ten years, and I’ve heard it all. In my environment, college, there is question of academic honesty. Who’s to say an online students’ boyfriend didn’t do her math problems for her? There are delivery issues, from slow modems to boring content. There are questions of reaching every student’s learning styles and needs. Over the last ten years, I’ve seen the content improve, the delivery “shells” like ANGEL, WebCT, Blackboard, eCollege, and others come/go and improve. Multi-media content from streaming videos to podcast lectures are becoming more and more accessible to address variations in learning styles. Interaction is amped up by instant messaging, chat rooms, whiteboards, and desktop sharing. Still, sometimes even the best student with the greatest intentions can feel adrift, even in this sea of technological connection. They can feel their relation with their teacher is being strained through the string connecting a two-tin-can telephone.

This is where I find live, human, face-to-face interaction vitally important to the virtual school. In the case of my children, they will have 20% of their content online, but the bulk of it in-hand and shared with parents in the early years. At my college, we are now offering Blended Learning courses, which seem to offer the best of everything. Students will only have to burn gasoline and commuting time ½ as often, doing much of their reading and learning online; they will come to class in live-time for personal interaction, reinforcement, questioning and review.

A major argument against home schooling is one of socialization; it goes something like this: “Aren’t you worried your child won’t get exposed to the way the world is?” That, in turn, is a very good reason to home school, to filter media overwhelm, to combat cultural confusion, and to offer a sounding board for varied other exposures that can be discussed before being coerced by peer pressure. The opposition argues that home schooled kids will not be workforce ready, but very little I have seen in the work force resembles any of the iconic heroism of the playground or physical education class. It is true that sports build character, and our regional home school association offers a complete array of activities, athletics, and field trips that ensure ample interaction with peers and parents.

In this era when so much is available to us to capitalize on, from completing a degree in our pajamas, online, to virtually home schooling the next Abraham Lincoln, I am happy to be where I am at right now, before my keyboard.