My Wild Red-Headed Boy and His Hot Pink Gum Boots
Why we can — and maybe should — walk away from Education as Institution
In a few short weeks, children will head off to school.
When my oldest son was young, I believed that parents with progressive ways of thinking really must send their children to public school, and be active in any way they can; we need to make a difference.
I thought that.
Arrogantly, I see now. I didn’t have anything special to offer the institution of education. And I was making wild assumptions about the system. I was also assuming that it’s best to work from within a system in order to sustain or to evolve in fruitful ways.
But that was before I went through an elementary education program, in an “arts in education” cohort, with many words spoken to the ideals of “progressive.”
By the time I was finished with the program, I was more than ready to homeschool my youngest who, at that time, was completing the last weeks of a miserable year in grade four.
The thing about pink boots
My oldest son was born with a vivid imagination. While the above photo is taken on Halloween, he needed no excuse or reason to wear a costume. He rarely wore “regular”…
