He didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it. ~Clarence Budington Kelland
This quote neatly sums up my view on education. We certainly can sit and be instructed, but watching others pursue life, especially those with a passion is a lesson that is embedded in our hearts. Who better to learn life’s lessons from than our dear old Dads. Although many view traditional homeschool familes as being overseen by Mom’s, many Dad’s are staying home with their family. Here are some past HEM Articles by or about Dads and other resources for you to enjoy.
HEM Articles
Interview with David Albert by Kim O’Hara
David – My perspective on schools is not that they’re failing, but that they work. They work precisely the way they are intended. The schools teach our children to become financially and emotionally dependent upon our current economy for both their work and for their self-esteem. The schools teach them to be emotionally and educationally dependent. And they are taught that they are to gain their self-image through material goods and services. They even rate schools according to how much “stuff” they’ve got in them, rather than the quality of the interchange that’s going on between teacher and child. The schools work precisely the way they’re intended, and the result is precisely what is intended. Our corporate society gains workers who are docile enough to do what they’re told, and it gains in social control.
Homeschooling and the Type A Dad – Brad Beckerman
We have been unschooling for some time–if you can believe that from someone who has a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old. Certain elements of unschooling, as I interpret them, I have very much taken to heart, especially when it comes to the process of constructing a nourishing, stimulating environment. You see, even in the unschooling world there is room for a control freak. My children’s world is the one I make for them, and that is where they learn.
I am not really that uptight. But I do have my moments, and the pendulum keeps swinging. Type A guy. Type B guy. And back again. Recently I decided, without justification, that I had been too complacent and had failed to supply the social stimulus I felt my kids wanted. Spiraling into a stress-induced, walking, talking coma, I concluded I had utterly failed them and called a couple of local schools to bail me out. The moment passed. Finally calm, I still had my doubts. And then a few days later, I was visiting with a homeschooling friend, who said, in an unmistakable tone that combined encouragement and support with a healthy dose of reality, “Gee, Brad, it never really occurred to me to manage my children’s social lives.”
Homeschooling Fathers – Gary Wyatt
Children need more of their fathers and fathers need more of their children. Men have an extraordinary potential to realize in the lives of their kids, a potential that goes beyond narrowly defined gender roles that limit a father’s station in the family to that of “provider and disciplinarian.”As I consider my own life, and the lives of the homeschooling fathers that I know, many of us feel a yearning to be more involved with our children. Unfortunately, circumstance and our own socialization often positions us on the fringe of both family life and the homeschool experience. We bring home the paychecks, take out the trash, fix things that break, and leave homeschooling to our wives.
And What Does Your Husband Do? – Isabel Shaw
Perhaps the most exciting aspect of our “dad at home” adventure has been watching the whole family grow and learn together. For me, jumping into a writing career at almost fifty years old still seems a bit unreal. I think it’s healthy for my girls to see me struggling (successfully!) as I learn to use the computer with all of its bells and whistles. And Ray has rediscovered his guitar. Making music was always his first love, but the idea of a career in music was put on hold many years ago. Now that dream is alive again, and a list of homeschooled students requesting guitar lessons from Ray continues to grow.
When Dad Homeschools: from Breadwinning to Baking – Jim Dunn
As the primary homeschooling parent for my nine-year-old daughter, I am not your regular dad. Even among homeschoolers nationally, I am one of only .5% of primary caregivers who are fathers. Fathers as full-time care givers are pretty scarce, but far fewer are full-time homeschooling dads. This is not surprising, if we consider the father’s place in our culture. Dad has a fairly ambiguous position in the family, on the one hand the breadwinner, the one whose income is counted on, the one with the most earning power. But on the other hand, this role outside the family removes him from much of the family’s daily growth processes. His integrity in the family depends upon his absence.
Fear of Failure - Perry Venson
I recently saw this quote: “Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.” This from Albert Einstein, the epitome of a genius.
Now if that is not a battle cry for homeschooling I don’t know what is! Yet tonight, that cry has been reduced to a whimper, and I am in doubt about the future of my children. In reflecting, looking at what I am feeling, I see my fears are revolving around worries about what kind of work my children will get after homeschooling, of whether or not they may be at risk as adults in a world that looks increasingly scary.
Other Resources
- Why Homeschool
- Homeschool Dad Podcast
- What Dads Can Do In Homeschooling By Marsha Ransom
- Linkedin: Homeschool Dads
- Homeschool Dad
Tags: Dads, homeschool fathers
