A Short Letter Home: School's out

Monday, June 18, 2007

School's out

This past Friday, my career as a home school teacher ended--not with a bang, not with a whimper, but with an order to my older daughter to put some figures on her timeline. It's certainly been a learning experience for me. Back in the day, I thought myself a pretty good teacher, having helped train a number of people in using a variety of software and equipment. I discovered that training adults is not the same as educating children. In my previous forays into training, I had simply offered the information I had, guiding the trainees when needed and answering any questions I could. If the person being trained didn't care to learn or use whatever technique I was demonstrating, it was no big deal. Either they had the smarts to find their own way or they could wallow in their ignorance. As long as I fulfilled my part of the bargain, I was satisfied.

Teaching my kids, however, turned out to be a whole 'nother ball game. Much as I would have loved to throw up my hands and walk away when Siu Wan was being cranky about doing math, I didn't dare. Not learning basic arithmetic was not an option. And while I could be serene about a co-worker doing slipshod work, seeing a sloppy lab write up from Ga Dai made me grit my teeth. I cared about their performance and I couldn't calmly accept poor performance.

The problem was, I discovered that a big part of education is management and I'm a lousy manager. I'm a good self-starter and a hard worker and all that, but I'm nigh clueless as to motivating someone else to do a good job. When it came to working with my kids, I had a hard time figuring when to offer words of patient encouragement and when to apply a proverbial kick in the pants. Looking back, I think we all muddled through, but I think that the kids would have done better had my wife had been in the driver seat.

Anyway, this fall they can return to life in Seattle and hopefully Yau Neih can mend whatever damage I inflicted on the kids' education. After two years of handling the homeschooling, I would still recommend it as a superior alternative to public schools, but I also have a greater respect for and understanding of those parents who say that they couldn't handle it.