SCHOLA: Pass

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Pass

My annual homeschooling report and plans for next year were graded. On a matrix. How standardized. How inconsistent with independent learning. How far from homeschooling.

Thinking outside the box cannot be evaluated within a framework of boxes.

And in reply to the puzzled comment by our evaluator: I will never again assume that you would understand the relevancy of a photo of Elle holding an object and clearly captioned “[Elle] displaying model of the Pharos at Alexandria” submitted to you as a sample of her ancient history studies, and will be sure to make the connections more obvious for you next time. Or, maybe you could have Elle explain it to you, except that real learning is all about making those connections on your own.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: i realize this must be incredibly frustrating for you - but thanks for the laugh - i needed it this morning!; February 26, 2008 at 12:43 PM
Portable Graffiti said...: I am so glad we are past homeschooling evaluations, done forevermore.

Where did the time go?; March 5, 2008 at 8:07 PM

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SCHOLA 101

schol' a: 1) An intermission of work, leisure for learning, learned conversation, debate, disputation, lecture, dissertation. 2) A meeting place for teachers and pupils, place for instruction, place of learning, school. 3) The disciples of a teacher, body of followers, school, sect. 4) An acronym for my tortuous blog title "Secular Classical Homeschoolers' Odyssean Learning Adventure." 5) How my Boston cousins pronounce "scholar." 6) Someone who studies at 10 o'clock for a dilla or a dolla.

These are the blatherings of an introverted, autodidactic, champion of The Enlightenment raising three daughters. At one time or another we have homeschooled, public-schooled, Catholic-schooled, cyber-schooled, unschooled, and even threatened boarding school. We have been inspired variously by The Well-Trained Mind, A Thomas Jefferson Education, and Climbing Parnassus, tempered by the writings and wisdom of Charlotte Mason, John Holt, Benjamin Franklin and Michel de Montaigne.

I try not to get wrapped up in labels, but we are secular and we are classical-ish.

We travel. A lot. Sometimes to the other side of the state and sometimes to the other side of the planet. Join us on our journey as we search for our home, navigate the waters of self-education, lounge with the lotus-eaters, and bash a Cyclops or two.