Parents who find it difficult to homeschool their children while working to provide for the family should try to broaden their perspective on education, said Leigh Bortins, a prominent member of the homeschooling community.
Bortins, the founder of North Carolina-based education company Classical Conversations, said that the CCP virus pandemic is prompting parents to ask questions they’ve never asked before about their children’s education. She told The Epoch Times’ Jan Jekielek that many parents are turning to homeschooling not only because of widespread school closures, but also because they’ve become more aware of what their children are being taught.
A long-term advocate of family-based, parent-led classical Christian education, Bortins said she does not endorse what she describes as “lone-schooling,” in which a homeschooler is plopped in front of a computer to complete assigned work alone. She suggested that instead of just recreating a compulsory education at home, parents should treat their children as individuals and figure out the best educational form for them.
“A lot of people right now are trying to figure out how to bring school home, and we are trying to say to them, ‘Great start there.’ You have to do what you know, and you know what school is like,” Bortins said. “But as you go forward, start assessing your children differently.”
When asked about working parents who lack time and resources for homeschooling, Bortins said they usually have more resources than they realize, but that it takes a change in perspective to see that.
“It’s just because we thought so narrowly about education, we haven’t really looked abroad,” she said. “Look around the world—there are so many resources that people can use that don’t cost much at all. But it’s not what they think of as school, and so it really requires a paradigm shift in how you think about education.”
Bortins moves on to encourage homeschooling parents to join forces and support each other, no matter what their economic situation might be.
“If you’re interested in changing your children’s educational form, find a friend who agrees with you that lives nearby,” she said. “You’re going to come up with such better ideas as to what works for your family than I could possibly give you.”
According to Bortins, families enrolling in her Classical Conversations program regularly come together to add new knowledge, skills, and experiences to the homeschooling community.
“We’re saying, ‘Hmm, I don’t know how to do this, but I bet I can find out somebody who does,’” she said. “I’ve begun to learn that my best friends, who are also working with their children, maybe are better at math than I am, or better at Latin, or have read a book I haven’t read, or can help me lead a discussion, or can take my kids to glassblowing class.”
“There’s so many things we can do as parents who love our children if we would unite with each other, and I imagine in the early days of education, that was probably done a lot.” Bortins said. “Right now, if parents went into the school system and tried to reorganize things, that would not be really welcome.”
