An Education
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- Category: Blog Friday - Steve
Heading off around the world with three school-age kids for nine months does throw up the question of education. In fact, all too often, the first thing people say when we tell them about our trip is a shocked “but what about their schooling?”
I am tempted to reply that we intend to let them go feral and see what happens.
Every parents’ get-together it seems is filled with talk of secondary schools. Am I hopelessly naive to think that they’re only 8, 5 and 3 so why should I work myself into a fit about secondary schools yet?
On-the-road schooling will be a mix of the ad hoc “look at the size of that beetle” to the structured morning in front of a downloaded syllabus or UK education website. In terms of general knowledge, visiting deserts, jungles, and ocean islands should give them a good healthy head start on a lot of things. Okay, we may get a bit behind on the Tudors and Stuarts, but I can live with that.
Numeracy and literacy will be more of a challenge and will require us to have some clear boundaries, set time, and focus. However, having mum and dad on tap 24 / 7 should, I hope, help.
All too often homework can be a tense standoff at the end of a tiring day. How much more motivating is “if you get it done this morning we can go to the beach this afternoon”?
Certainly for the youngest at least, shouldn’t all this stuff be a fun game anyway?
What worries me more is the social aspect of school – having the edges knocked off and the social skills rubbed in during the rough-and-tumble of being with classmates. Just interacting with 29 other kids is a value in itself. Perhaps fitting back in will be the biggest challenge post-nine-months-wandering.
If I’m ever worrying about the rights and wrongs of taking our children out of school for nine months, I reassure myself with the knowledge that our kids’ teachers are really enthusiastic about our trip. If they think it’s a great idea, surely we can’t go too far wrong?
