The Sacred Hearth

The homeschooling movement is gaining more adherants all the time and many Pagan families are enthousiastically jumping on the bandwagon. It has not escaped my notice that I am often in a the minority in any gathering of Pagan parents. Sometimes I feel I'm the only Pagan mom in the world who sends her kids to the evil public schools. Every parent must make those decisions that he or she feels are best for his or her own child. But whatever school option you choose for your child's early years, everyone agrees that a college education is usually necessary for success in adult life. So how do you prepare your child for college? Are public or private school educated children more prepared for college life than homeschooled or unschooled kids? Will your homeschooled kid be left in the dust by the public school kids or leave them in their tracks?

The fact is that college is a great leveler. There is really no way to predict your child's success based simply on academic style. Even ACT and SAT scores aren't very good predictors. Some say homeschooled kids do better because they are used to working independantly, but then maybe public schooled kids do better because they aren't used to getting one on one attention. In my experience (I work at a University, I look at the numbers and I made an impressive bid at the title of Career Student.), college success can be best determined by very specific knowledge and skills which are probably actually easier for the homeschooler to impart on their progeny than a public schooler, due to time factors. That is, public schoolers don't necessarily want to hear the extra stuff after they've done their homework for "the Man", but it's really not alot of stuff.

Most important is writing. I cannot believe the number of public school educated kids that come to our University with no clue how to write a paper. Not to mention the number of adults who send us requests for records and evaluations who obviously have no clue how to properly format a business correspondance. Obviously, you can graduate without knowing how to do the latter, but how does one get a job? So, first, make sure your student knows how to properly construct a business correspondance, a research paper and an argumentative paper (one that tries to convince someone of something). They should be familiari with standards for footnoting, endnoting and bibliographies. Basic grammar is also important. The Elements of Style by Strunk and White will help. Also, a subscription to a scientific journal of interest to the student will familiarize him with the sort of formats used in scientific research papers. This will help when the time comes for her to present her own research at the University level.

Next is Math. The fact is, students can get all of their math in college. You could ignore math altogether in your homeschooling and students can go from beginning math on up in college- but it'll cost you. Most Universities do not grant any credit for courses below college level algebra, but they chargeii the same for them and usually apply them to the GPA. In many cases, if a student isn't able to test out of these classes, they become prerequisites for more interesting classes, such as sciences and statistics. This can seriously stall a student's forward momentum. Therefore, it is in your student's and your checking account's best interest to make sure your student has a firm grasp of mathematical concepts up to advanced algebra.

Literature is something that is often overlooked. When I was a child my father used to tell me to read the classics instead of the nonsense youth romance series that was popular at the time. I didn't get it. But I read them anyway, and I enjoyed them. When I had children, I read them to them and the effect is pretty remarkable. We have always breezed through our english, art, cinema and other Humanities classes because we have a solid literary background. Symbolism hidden in these artistic forms is obvious to us because we are familiar with the artist's inspiration. And none of us has ever had the problems with Shakespear that the world at large seems to. So don't hesitate to expose your children to the big fat classics. Some of them may be a hard read at first, but you get used to it and so do the kids. They expand vocabularies, broaden perspectives, stretch imaginations and provide good examples of good grammar and cleverly turned phrases. Alli of these are advantages not just in college, but in life. Lay off the abridged for children versions. Seriously, your kids can handle it. Just starti with little bites- 10 minutes or so a day- and expand from there. There's an added advantage that storytime (family time) remains attractive even to older kids. Some great books, poems and plays for kids and grownups alike were written by Nathaniel Hawthorn, Mark Twain, Stephen Crane, Herman Melville, Lewis Caroll, Robert Louis Stephenson, Jack London, Lorraine Hansberry, Johanna Spyri, Lucy Montgomery, Mary Shelly, Braham Stoker, Homer, Hesiod, Ovid, Sophacles, Aristophanes, Shakespeare. And don't neglect the more modern authors kids love Rick Riordan, Edith Nesbitt, J K Rowling, Philip Pullman, Diane Duane and more.

Finally, your future University valedictorian will benefit from a broad knowledge of American history and geography. You don't need to worry too much about facts, the college will teach them what they want to know. It's not going to benefit your kids too much to already know the date the declaration of independance was signed, unless they're planning to skip that day in their American History class at college. However, it will benefit them immensely to head off to school knowing exactly where all these places mentioned in their classes are. A kid with a detailed map of the US and at least a general map of the world firmly in his brain will do better in all of his classes. It makes it easier to remember facts when you have a location to go with it. This will help in Political Science, History, Global Studies and also in some Humanities classes.

As you can see, it's not hard to get a kid ready for college and it can be done with a Pagan homeschool education as well as with a mundanei one, provided the magical education includes math, writing, literature and geography. These are easy to incorporate into every day lessons and family fun time. Math is probably the biggest challenge for homeschoolers. If this is the case for you, head over to your local University and find a math or education major who would like to spend a few hours a week with your child in exchange for some spending money.