The BLUF (bottom line, up front):
- Homeschool educators must seek out continuing education
- Homeschool educators can not afford to ‘practice’- we only get one shot
- Know where you are, and then seek to get better
Amateurs and Professionals
What do Engineers, Doctors, and Teachers have in common? After they graduate, on top of practicing their profession, they are required to engage in continuous education, as well as continuous reviews of their work with constructive feedback. Do we, as homeschool educators, pursue continuing education of ourselves? Continually striving to improve our own homeschool skillset. Are we an ‘amateur’ homeschool educator, or a ‘professional’? In my own professional life, a very wise mentor asked me to tell him the difference between an amateur and a professional. I didn’t really know at that time. His answer was succinct and I have carried that philosophy with me throughout my life since that day “An amateur improves until they get it right. A professional i until they can NOT get it wrong.”
Can we take the risk of being an ‘amateur’ homeschool educator?
So as we take this turn into homeschooling our large family, it occurs to me that we only get one shot at this. We don’t have 45 kids per class, 6 classes per day to engage in ‘practice’. I think that is what makes the thought of homeschooling so daunting, terrifying really. We take the one thing that is most precious to us (that is why we homeschool!) and strike out to mold them into a competent, productive, intelligent (a precursor to wisdom?) adult. But we get one shot. We don’t have an entire professional ‘guild’ to guide us, show us the way, and correct us when we stray from the path. So we MUST seek out instruction. Not instruction for our children, though Lord knows that takes up an enormous amount of our research time and brainpower, but instruction for US, the homeschool educator. It is without a doubt that we have the most invested interest in our children’s development. We certainly know our own children’s moods, foibles, habits, and all the various eccentricities that make our children unique! But can we say, without hesitation, that we know ‘best’ how to educate these little critters? Look in a mirror and ask that. Remember, you only get one shot. No practice.
Know Thyself – and then get better!
From my professional life, and please feel free to read about the path that led to now in our family’s About page, I have been given a unique education in ‘how’ to design and deliver a quality training and education program. But never has the outcome of an education program been so important, or as so final, as the education you give your children. As I turn my attention to my most valuable legacy and begin to develop and deliver ‘The Plan’ that will bring them into adulthood, I would like to start a conversation. Here, on this site, about what it takes to be a ‘homeschool educator’. ‘Know thyself, it is said: I don’t have all the answers, I don’t even know all the questions (yet!), but I know where some of the resources are, I know that a true professional never stops seeking, never stops learning, never stops reaching out to peers who can provide that feedback. It is my intent that this site will provide a small spark, help us find a ‘string to follow’, on our journey to actually become the best homeschool educators are children deserve. Quite literally, our future depends on a successful outcome!
