MNHK: What This Curriculum Is Not
Nov. 18th, 2016 08:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jenny_islanderPeople start homeschooling for various reasons, sometimes with very high ideals. If you're homeschooling on a tight budget, however, you have to adjust your expectations. MNHK is not designed to:
Make every kid into a top-performing student. Instead, the end goal of this curriculum is to pass the GED test battery. It is nearly impossible to get any further in life in the U.S. without a diploma from a public or private high school or a GED certification. Perhaps it ought to be different--but we have to prepare our children for the world they will actually enter, not the one we wish existed.
Turn out the next generation that will run America. You can't duplicate an elite school environment at home; whether we like it or not, people who rise to political power early in life do so only partly by talent and training, while the rest of it is connections. However, the ability to participate in a democracy as an informed and empowered citizen is definitely something you can teach. And you never know: an 18-year-old voter may become mayor at 40 and senator at 50.
Make your child rich. We all want our children to be comfortably well off, but the truth is that all we can do is lay the groundwork by teaching literacy, reasoning, and good habits and hope that opportunity knocks. Don't try to predict the job market 12 years from now. Do your best to foster the growth of a well-rounded, hard-working student who can jump in any direction.
Produce perfect children who never do anything wrong or hurt your feelings. This is impossible, and anybody who tells you otherwise is selling something.
Keep children sheltered from all harm. You can't do this either--not forever. You can, however, strengthen their ability to reason and their willpower, so that they can resist evil when they encounter it.
Make it so your children will never leave you or disagree with you--the creepy underbelly of the sheltering urge. If you want that, get a dog!
I should also point out that although I am autistic, I am not presenting a curriculum tailored for neurodivergence of any kind. I teach as I wish I had been taught, making adjustments for each student's individual needs, so if you are an autistic teacher or the parent of an autistic child, you may find some useful ideas here. But for more information about how autism or any other kind of neurodivergence affects learning, you should seek the advice of a professional.
I am posting this in my scarce spare time and will revise as needed. Watch this space.
Make every kid into a top-performing student. Instead, the end goal of this curriculum is to pass the GED test battery. It is nearly impossible to get any further in life in the U.S. without a diploma from a public or private high school or a GED certification. Perhaps it ought to be different--but we have to prepare our children for the world they will actually enter, not the one we wish existed.
Turn out the next generation that will run America. You can't duplicate an elite school environment at home; whether we like it or not, people who rise to political power early in life do so only partly by talent and training, while the rest of it is connections. However, the ability to participate in a democracy as an informed and empowered citizen is definitely something you can teach. And you never know: an 18-year-old voter may become mayor at 40 and senator at 50.
Make your child rich. We all want our children to be comfortably well off, but the truth is that all we can do is lay the groundwork by teaching literacy, reasoning, and good habits and hope that opportunity knocks. Don't try to predict the job market 12 years from now. Do your best to foster the growth of a well-rounded, hard-working student who can jump in any direction.
Produce perfect children who never do anything wrong or hurt your feelings. This is impossible, and anybody who tells you otherwise is selling something.
Keep children sheltered from all harm. You can't do this either--not forever. You can, however, strengthen their ability to reason and their willpower, so that they can resist evil when they encounter it.
Make it so your children will never leave you or disagree with you--the creepy underbelly of the sheltering urge. If you want that, get a dog!
I should also point out that although I am autistic, I am not presenting a curriculum tailored for neurodivergence of any kind. I teach as I wish I had been taught, making adjustments for each student's individual needs, so if you are an autistic teacher or the parent of an autistic child, you may find some useful ideas here. But for more information about how autism or any other kind of neurodivergence affects learning, you should seek the advice of a professional.
I am posting this in my scarce spare time and will revise as needed. Watch this space.
