What (this) Dad Thinks
So for the balance of my kiddo's school years, the wife and I have home-schooled my two daughters. Since both my wife and I are certified teachers, with experience teaching elementary through high school, the reason for doing so was simply to provide the kids with a more level and complete education.
However, as they made more and more friends with regular-school children, my yard-apes decided that they wanted to go to public school. We weren't going to keep them from it if they thought it was where they wanted to go...so yesterday, they headed to their new classrooms to begin a more typical stage to their childhood in the 4th and 5th grades.
Honestly, I think the schools will do a fine job of teaching them what they need to know. That's not all that big a deal to me. The problem I have with it is that my wondrously individual daughters will have to be sucked into a world where individuality is not particularly prized - where sameness and "fitting in" is what its all about. I'm frightened that my kids will end up as just another couple of schoolgirls.
My first example of this was provided when they returned from school yesterday afternoon. My children have never been fans of jeans - you'd have to make a deal with them to wear anything but shorts or something fancy. But after a day at school, they were clamoring for a new wardrobe of jeans and t-shirts since everyone else wore jeans and T-shirts. Also, they asked to buy tennis shoes. My kids have never wanted tennis shoes - preferring sandals (flip flops, usually) or even better - NO shoes. But tennis shoes? "It's what everyone's wearing," explained my eldest...who posesses the most wonderful individuality of any 10 year old I know.
Maybe they'll just do what is necessary to fit in, but not lose the magic beings they've come to be. I worry about what I heard a friend once say about not wanting to have to ever go through school again as a girl - how one loses one's own personality in order to fit in...to attract boys...etc. Sure, its a stage...and in college, they can reassert their personality, but it would have been nice for them to never have to lose it in the first place.
Oh well - kids change. We all change. But I'm in mourning for my daughter's rapidly fleeing individuality.
However, as they made more and more friends with regular-school children, my yard-apes decided that they wanted to go to public school. We weren't going to keep them from it if they thought it was where they wanted to go...so yesterday, they headed to their new classrooms to begin a more typical stage to their childhood in the 4th and 5th grades.
Honestly, I think the schools will do a fine job of teaching them what they need to know. That's not all that big a deal to me. The problem I have with it is that my wondrously individual daughters will have to be sucked into a world where individuality is not particularly prized - where sameness and "fitting in" is what its all about. I'm frightened that my kids will end up as just another couple of schoolgirls.
My first example of this was provided when they returned from school yesterday afternoon. My children have never been fans of jeans - you'd have to make a deal with them to wear anything but shorts or something fancy. But after a day at school, they were clamoring for a new wardrobe of jeans and t-shirts since everyone else wore jeans and T-shirts. Also, they asked to buy tennis shoes. My kids have never wanted tennis shoes - preferring sandals (flip flops, usually) or even better - NO shoes. But tennis shoes? "It's what everyone's wearing," explained my eldest...who posesses the most wonderful individuality of any 10 year old I know.
Maybe they'll just do what is necessary to fit in, but not lose the magic beings they've come to be. I worry about what I heard a friend once say about not wanting to have to ever go through school again as a girl - how one loses one's own personality in order to fit in...to attract boys...etc. Sure, its a stage...and in college, they can reassert their personality, but it would have been nice for them to never have to lose it in the first place.
Oh well - kids change. We all change. But I'm in mourning for my daughter's rapidly fleeing individuality.
posted by Erik | 3:46 PM
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