Thursday, November 09, 2006

Home Schooling Scientist Art Robinson

The philosophy of allowing teaching children to the point where they can teach themselves is, I believe, the keystone of any home school program. Art Robinson seems to have found what works for his family, but I find a lot about it that is contradictory. Two such things:

  • The children are taught to rely on themselves as their primary teacher, and Art advocates not helping.
  • The kids are not allowed to eat sweets or watch any TV.
If you tell a kid they have to sit and study for 5 hours with no help, and can't eat or do what they want. . .what are they really learning? That seems WAY more damaging to me than public school. It's like you are breaking them down. Maybe I am wrong though. I never had to go through that.

More or Art's rules for home schooling here.

Like I said, I think that kids should be taught HOW to learn, and from that they can focus on learning what they need to know, but I think that if you are trusting children to educate themselves, you can trust them with a piece of candy and the remote control.


An interesting article about Art Robinson and his family.