Re: Agile education and pragmatic schooling

On Jun 26, 2004, at 6:56 PM, Greg Jorgensen wrote:

> Are there a lot of programmers who homeschool their kids?
>
> I think of homeschooling as an agile approach to education. I didn't 
> care for school and
> dropped out of college to work f/t as a programmer. I don't know if 
> there's any other
> professional career where you find as many self-educated people as 
> programming.
>
> I don't know if that's because computer nerds are
> more likely to homeschool their kids, or if it's because in Portland a 
> lot of the good-paying
> jobs are high-tech (which enables one parent to not have to hold a 
> job).
>
> Most of the homeschooling parents we know practice what is known as 
> unschooling,

I haven't really taken the time to try to apply agile thinking to 
homeschooling, but I think the income potential allowing single worker 
families is a big part. Add to that the fact that agile thinkers don't 
blindly accept tradition, but instead look to improve on it also plays 
a factor. My wife, a non-programmer, was the first to suggest 
homeschooling. We're both traditionally educated to the Master's level, 
but we both had large periods in public schools in which we were 
unchallenged, so we want something better for our daughter. On top of 
that, we find ourselves more in disagreement as time goes on with the 
social and moral values taught at public schools. My daughter's only 4, 
so we're just starting this journey, but unschooling looks like the 
style we'll choose, possibly augmented with the occasional unit study.

It's good to meet some other homeschoolers. I'd be curious to hear what 
age you introduce your children to computers. We've mostly been holding 
off thus far, but I'd expect by the age of 6 to have some educational 
games to let her play by herself at times.

-Greg Vaughn





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