homeschooling in BC

This weekend I attended my first Homeschool Convention & Expo, and it was awesome! I listened to some great speakers, learned a lot about learning, bought a bunch of used books, talked to some experts in the field of homeschooling, learned a lot about myself, met my new hero, David Albert, looked into some karate classes (Liam's new passion), bought a stack of books that will probably take me forever to read, ran into some old friends, met some new people, and thoroughly enjoyed my two days there.

I will be blogging about some things that I learned and discovered, and about some of the speakers I listened to, later this week. Stay tuned!

For today, though, I want to write a bit about homeschooling in BC. Since we are new to homeschooling, and technically won't be starting until the fall (although I am a firm believer that learning happens all the time, and doesn't just start when you open a textbook), I spent a lot of time talking to different people about the nitty-gritty legal stuff. What I found out shocked me a little bit!

In BC, we have what are most likely the best homeschooling laws in all of North America. That I already knew, but it was confirmed to me by a number of people this weekend. Basically, if you want your kids to learn at home, you have two options: enrollment or registration. If you are an enrolled homeschooler, a BC teacher helps you either purchase or create a curriculum that meets the provincial standards, the teacher directs and supervises the learning, your child is regularly assessed, and your child receives regular report cards and a Dogwood diploma. Essentially, if you choose this option, your child will learn exactly what the kids at school are learning, on the same timetable, and be assessed by the same authorities. On the other hand, if you are a registered homeschooler under sections 12 & 13 of the School Act, you are free to provide your child with "an educational program" of your choice, there is no interference or supervision by a teacher and/or the Ministry of Education, your child is not required to take standardized tests, you do not have to meet the provincial learning outcomes, and your children will not receive a Dogwood diploma. Essentially, if you choose this option, your children have the freedom to learn at their own pace, you have the freedom to teach them whatever you want, and you have the option of allowing them to learn about things they are interested in rather than things that the government thinks they should be interested in.

If you have read any of my posts, or have talked to me for even 10 minutes on the topic, you can probably guess which option we will be choosing in the fall. Yep, registration. We are so blessed in BC to have the option of complete educational freedom, and I plan to take full advantage of it. Since I am philosophically opposed to the whole idea of school, it makes no sense for me to even consider enrollment, because it would put us under the thumb of the Ministry of Education. No thanks!

Now, here is the surprising part. At least, it was surprising for me. Among homeschoolers, I am in the minority. It turns out that most people homeschooling in BC are enrolled rather than registered. When I first heard that, I was flabbergasted. It seems absurd that someone would want to teach their kids at home, and yet choose to deal with all the trappings of the school system. When I thought about it, though, I realized that there might be a number of valid reasons. We have been schooled to believe that "experts" know so much more about educating our own kids than we do, so we feel inadequate and ill-equipped to teach them all they need to know. We have been schooled to believe that there are specific things that every kid needs to learn at specific times in their development, and we are worried that we might not be able to teach them everything on our own. We have been schooled to believe that learning happens only in a specialized place at a particular time, so we feel that we need to recreate that atmosphere at home. We have been schooled to believe that learning requires some authority figure pouring facts and knowledge into kids' heads.

I think that if we take a step back and really think about learning, we would realize that none of these things are really necessary. No one loves your kids as much as you do. No one knows your kids like you do. And I think that if we give our kids the chance, they will amaze us with what they are capable of doing with out being "taught" or "assessed."

One thing I know for sure is that I want my own kids to grow and learn in freedom.