Not Too Adept at the Monkey Bars Response

I have wondered about the effectiveness of education as I've seen my kids become bored and apathetic in school in subjects that they are very good at. It concerns me greatly, and I wonder how many "smart" kids out there have given up on the game of school because it is just too easy. I came across an article entitled "Not Too Adept at the Monkey Bars" (Bernard Fryshman) in Education Week this morning and it really spoke to why I think more and more people are homeschooling their kids.

Not Too Adept at the Monkey Bars

Like this article says, "We cannot, of course, create a different schooling pattern for each child."  Exactly.  Homeschooling does provide this option.  Of course, it is a time-intensive option that is only available for those parents willing to take the risk and who have some level of teaching competence.  It ends up taking the resource demands off the system and puts it in the hands of individual families.

Part of what I like about homeschooling is its naturalness.  It is comfortable and not an artificial construct that puts students in a pressure cooker of social expectations and competition.  It has the flexibility to change methods and tactics NOW, in an instant.  If something isn't working, we adjust it so it does.

This article doesn't give solutions.  Large numbers of teachers and administrators agree that something needs to change in education, but there is no agreement of what that change should look like and how to get from here to there.  There are no easy answers, but it was nice to have my thoughts articulated succinctly in this article.