I have made it no secret through the years that upper-level Math is my area of weakness in education. In high school and college, without additional teacher assistance and tutoring, I would not have managed B’s, and the occasional low A that I did make. It was always a fight to the finish.
Following a recent post, wherein I discussed working a singular problem three times with my daughter Meredith before reaching the correct solution, reader Pat commented with a few questions I wanted to respond to more in depth and also ask homeschooling families to consider and answer for themselves.
Pat’s Question:
“Reading all the comments…a topic for discussion could be whether people think it is beneficial to their students when the teacher is weak in the subject or a detriment, i.e. is having to self-teach an advantage? How frequently do home schooled children enter MathSci fields in college?”
The Benefit of the Struggle
Choosing to homeschool is not a decision one should make lightly. Regardless of the approach taken, homeschooling takes work, and families will encounter a number of struggles along the way–even when parents’ or caregiver’s strengths span a broad scope of subject matter.
Would I take a job teaching upper-level Math to a room of students? No. Does that admission make it foolish for me to think I can walk my kids through the same coursework? No.
Older homeschooling students are primarily self-taught with a parent readily available when questions or difficulties arise. In our curriculum, the kids read a lesson, view a lecture or interact with some related multimedia, and work through example problems–not unlike a public or private school classroom. The only difference is when they do not fully understand the concept, since I’m the teacher they call on, it’s up to me to help them discover the answer.
At that point, if I am not familiar with the concept, I review and self-teach myself the lesson. Admittedly, it’s a toss-up of whether or not I can remember the concept. If I can, I move forward and explain it–working through a few problems with them. If I can’t, the pursuit of knowledge goes through a process.
There are three steps in how we approach learning a new concept. First, we review the lesson again and work a few examples, which may trigger an “Aha!” moment. Next, we access a free online resource (like Khan Academy) to explain it in a way that we may better understand. If those options don’t work out, we call out the big guns–a Math guru friend. A quick scan, emailed or texted provides her the problem, and she can walk us through it on the phone.
Sometimes just having two minds on the same problem is all we need, but we are quick to move to the next step or two if not.
The reward of struggling to grasp new concepts together is the laying down of new neural pathways. Scientists have discovered that information’s first trip across brain cells is the most difficult and requires the greatest effort, but with each problem we solve correctly, our newly created pathways strengthen making the transfer of information easier each time.
With our new understanding, we grow in confidence, which gives us that extra “oomph” we need to tackle the next challenge. We gain the “I can meet this challenge!” attitude necessary to succeed in any avenue of life.
The Detriment of the Struggle
With the vast number of resources available, it is hard to conceive of many scenarios where it is to the detriment of the student that their parents have weak areas. When parents plugin, they will find a treasure trove of educational “helps” at every turn.
However, that assumes parents are plugging in and utilizing available resources. There are seasons where the struggle is too much on top of all other parental responsibilities, which may make a parent unavailable, uninterruptable, not focused, or too tired to fulfill the complete array of educational requirements their children need.
In my opinion, that is when kids fall through the cracks and end up back in public or private school months or even years behind their peers in some or all areas. And that is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, irresponsible, selfish and unfair to those children.
Homeschool Statistics for STEM Fields
While I have not found any specific statistics regarding what percentage of homeschoolers enter into Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) fields in college, The National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI) points to research indicating that regardless of their parents’ level of formal education, homeschooled students have every ability to do so as their public school peers.
“The home-educated typically score 15 to 30 percentile points above public-school students on standardized academic achievement tests. (The public school average is the 50th percentile; scores range from 1 to 99.)” Homeschool students are also “increasingly being actively recruited by colleges.” [Source]
A little over a year ago, my daughter Meredith dreamed of growing up, getting her teacher certification, and hopefully, marrying and being a stay-at-home-mom and homeschooling her kids. We completely supported her in this endeavor. About six months ago she started talking about nursing and has since then decided she does want a family one day, and does want to homeschool her kids, but would also like to be a nurse. Jeff is helping her set up a meet-up dinner with a few nurses at his work, and in the meantime, Meredith already began researching degree plans at our local university. She’s also downloaded apps to learn nursing terms and vocabulary. She even made it clear she wanted her homeschool high school work to fulfill Texas state requirements for AP level public high school coursework. And so, we are completely supporting her in this endeavor.
While I understand that some students may not realize what their areas of interest are without suitable exposure and challenges; for example STEM opportunities, I still believe there are innate areas of interest that feed “who we are” as people–regardless of age. I would no sooner enter into a Math or Science field than my oldest, Emelie, would choose to major in Kinesiology. Wired with unique learning styles and interests, we gravitate toward what piques our interest.
What are your thoughts on the detriment or struggle of teaching in your weak areas? Know any research or personal experience regarding homeschool students pursuing STEM fields?
Heather Sanders is a leading homeschooling journalist who inspires homeschooling families to live, love and learn. Married to Jeff, Heather lives in the East Texas Piney Woods where she currently home schools two of her three kids.