Anyway, here’s some commentary from today’s Sydney Morning Herald that touches on the fact Watson was home-schooled: Family’s perfect conditions for smooth sailing.
For those parents who wish to build resilience in their offspring, attention could be paid to two initiatives undertaken by Jessica’s parents; home schooling and no television.
The home-schooling of Jessica hints at another timeless truth. Success in the life of a child is made more likely by a parent who remains actively engaged in their education.
What is remarkable about these comments is that their author, Dr Tim Hawkes is the principal of the Kings School an independent Anglican school in western Sydney.
Just to be clear, I cannot comprehend the circumstances under which I’d approve of any of my children circumnavigating the world at the age of 16.
If it seemed like an ill-advised idea before she left, the fact Jessica Watson returned home does not make it a wise decision.
But, thankfully, she did make it home, and her achievement is remarkable.
It’s important to understand that home-schooling is a very varied practice, to the point that the only constant some expressions would have in common would be that children do not attend schooling outside the home. From issues of set curriculum and teaching style to the worldview of the practitioners there are huge variations.
On his blog Al Bain quoted the following from the article:
What is suggested by these two parenting initiatives is that success in life is rarely available to the child who is allowed to squander significant time on the trivial, the shallow or the soporific.
The point is well made, effective parents can educate their children in a school and ineffective parents can homeschool. But the benefits of campus based education are largely a societal construct created to justify the existence of campus based education. This largely flows from the perceived need to have somewhere for the children to be through the day so both parents can be engaged in income earning work. Calling an environment in which unsocialised children are exposed to each other ‘socialisation’ is rich in irony.
What is interesting to me in this matter is the continuing growth in acceptance that home schooling is receiving. But if you’re talking to different people who say they’re home schooling, ask them how they conduct that schooling. Usually they’ll be happy to talk at length, and you’ll be amazed at the breadth of variance.
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