I was interviewed last week by a fairly disgruntled-sounding reporter for the Ithaca Times about homeschooling, (click post title for link to article) and more specifically, the Northern Light Learning Center. I guess I received the honor of being interviewed because mine is one of the only names and numbers on the website - I'm not out there lobbying to be the poster-family of homeschooling. At any rate, maybe one of the reasons the reporter is disgruntled is because she is in a career she is so completely unsuited for. I don't think I've ever read a worse sentence than the one in which I'm introduced! And I quote:
Among the largest members of organized groups of home-based educators are families who participate in the Northern Lights Learning Center. About 70 families are enrolled in the group, formed about 18 months ago, which rents space at the former Henry St. John's School Building at Court and Geneva Streets in downtown Ithaca to offer workshops and classes, as well as using the gymnasium at designated times for team sports and other activities. "If you were in a schooling environment, you'd see us as an extracurricular group," says Robin Tuttle, a member of the cooperative who currently teaches a writing class for teens. Tuttle homeschools her three children, sons ages 10-14"
I was out to dinner last night with my buds, Della and Monica, also homeschooling moms, and we were all a little put out by the end of the article which makes it sound like homeschooling is the province of only traditional middle class families with one parent at home and one parent working a traditional job. We know many families that look quite different: both parents working from home, both parents working out of the home but with staggered times so they can both spend time with the kids, single parent families, parents that look for flexible, creative income-making situations so they are not tied down to a traditional job or lifestyle. Some of the jobs held by homeschooling parents in our circle are artists, carpenters, writers, musicians, alternative health practitioners, potters, organic farmers, home-birth midwives, house cleaners, day care providers, house painters. It has been real eye opening for me to realize that the path to success is not necessarily paved with college degrees and the traditional professions.
Picture Caption: Tapping a maple tree at Sugarbush Project; a collaboration between the Cayuga Nature Center and the Northern Light Learning Center.
7 comments:
Allow me to beat John to the punch by observing that that list of professions covers the entire population of Ithaca. Thank you and good night.
I think the Ithaca Times reporters tend to be between other jobs and have not had many opportunities to hone their craft.
Under a pseudonym above Ihave posted a non sequitor to dave's comment ,but any way notice that the traditional occupation that provides funds for this household is not named as it is a bit of an embarrassment in this crowd.
Aram is in the blue coat... I might become a regueler babysitter for him.
My dear SAG, the point of the last paragraph of my post was to point out that those in traditional professions and living situations are not the only ones cut out to homeschool. No embarrassment on my part - unless I try to visualize what you do all day. Yuck! If it makes you feel better, our homeschooling group is also comprised of doctors, social workers, teachers, psychologists, professors, computer programmers, mathematicians, etc etc.
Thank God you left lawyers out of that group. And thanks for the repeated reminders of what SAG does all day. I must stop blog-surfing at lunchtime.
Do palm readers and crystal sellers eschew home schooling? That is more my view of Ithaca's population.
Plus I find the impulse to quickly distance oneself from "traditional" modes of childrearing disquieting. It is more than a little odd that public schools now more and more repel those who adhere to the social model most likely to produce productive supporters of the Republic. And apparently, anarchists.
JJV
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