I learned to tie my shoe from my family. I was potty trained before I started elementary school. I knew how to zip up my own coat when I was a youngin, and I knew how to sit down and be quiet. I also knew how to use a fork and knife and eat cleanly before I started elementary school.
But now, parents are asking teachers to teach all of that. Why have parents developed this anti-educational interaction with their kids, like they don’t want to teach anything to their children?
What Home Education Used to Look Like
Think about Little House on the Prairie times. School was not required, so a lot of that education was coming from home. Kids learned how to function and do things from home training. Then the ones who could go to school—the school wouldn’t have to teach them how to sit down and be quiet. Instead, they would extend the education. They would teach them things that parents may not know: reading, writing, mathematics, numbers—some concepts parents may not have understood.
It was an extension of the learning. A deeper extension.
What’s Happening Now
But nowadays, it’s like no learning needs to happen at home. Parents don’t need to do this. People keep saying it’s “iPad children.” And I’m like—yes and no.
Because what I’m seeing in the street: the kids whose parents are like “hey, what number is that?” while they’re shopping for groceries—those kids aren’t throwing tantrums. They’re a little more organized. They’re a little more aware of their surroundings.
But the parents who just hand over the iPad and say “sit in the cart”—those kids will be like “can I get that? can I get that candy?” and they start losing it. It’s because they’re not getting that human interaction with their parents. So they’re not really learning how to function.
Education Is the Conversation You Have With Your Kids
That is education. That conversation you have with your kids—making your kid learn how to listen to you is education. Making sure your kid knows how to sit down—that’s education.
But you can’t demand that a teacher teach your child how to sit down in a chair. Because the teacher has to worry about a whole room of students. Nothing would get done if all the kids don’t know how to sit and they’re all running around. It’s impossible for the teacher to teach your child how to read, how to write, how to do math, a little bit of history, some science, and all that stuff—if they can’t even get the class to settle down.
Learning Happens by Observation
As a child, we had books in the house. Kids books. And as I got older, teenage books. Adult books. People don’t have books in their house anymore. I’m not saying you’re a bad parent if you don’t—but as a child, I’m seeing my dad read the newspaper. I’m seeing my mom read a book. I’m seeing books in the house. So I knew reading was a function of life, just by observing it in my own house.
Then when I go to school and I see books at school and I see books everywhere—it’s just like, okay, I should be reading. Reading is normal.
Learning Happens in Everyday Life
I used to tally up the grocery cart for my dad. I learned to round up. I would say, “this cart should probably cost like 60 something dollars.” All of that was from home.
All of that was home. And then school extended my education further.
So I don’t know why there’s this movement—this need to say “the school should be teaching your children how to function, how to exist in the world.” When once upon a time, school wasn’t even required. If you were living in a real rural poor area, your kid may not have access to school. So what—you just gonna let them sit there and not learn how to talk? Not learn how to walk? No. You teach them. You have no choice.
Chores Are Not Punishment
I don’t understand why parents don’t understand that chores is not a punishment. Chores is so you learn how to function in this house. So that when you go out of this house, you know how to function in the world. Cleaning is not a punishment. It’s a functionality thing. Look at your surroundings. Make sure you know where stuff is so you come home with your jacket after school.
School Can’t Teach Everything
I just don’t understand this movement right now of “school should do everything.” I’m hearing people talk about, “school didn’t teach me how to do my taxes. School didn’t teach me what a mortgage was.”
If you have parents, you should know this stuff. Like, your parents should be telling you what these things are. School literally can’t teach everything. It’s impossible. It’s a mix of what you’re learning at home and what you’re learning at school.
I really hope that there’s a movement to bring education back into the home. I don’t mean homeschooling. I mean bringing educational practices from parents—educational interaction with their children.
