Homeschool Fiction

A degree, a simple piece of paper. It’s a declaration to the world that the bearer of said paper officially “Now Knows Enough”. Woo-Hoo! Party Time!

But, do you? Does that little piece of paper really mean you know enough? Enough for what? To be successful? To be happy? To never be dependent on another again?

When I was first interviewing for jobs as I was graduating from college fifteen years ago, I had several potential employers tell me that my having a degree proved that I had the endurance to see something through and that I’d proved that I had the ability to be taught. Most companies were of the opinion that the newly graduated didn’t actually know anything of value, we’d just proved that we were malleable and teachable.

Do you believe that your degree makes you wiser than a person in a third world country that hasn’t been as educated as you? Have you considered that your education may have actually taken knowledge away from you? Here are just a few examples of this happening:

• Food and Eating Habits: In The China Study: The Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health, it is found that indigenous cultures with native diets have better longer and healthier lifespans than those in industrialized and educated countries. There are so many stories of the truth of this, in so many cultures, I wouldn’t be able to list them all here. I will mention the Tohono O’odham diet since I’ve written about it before.
• Farming: Modern farming techniques aren’t always producing the best crops! We’re discovering that chemicals, genetic engineering, and not enough crop rotation is causing significant harm to our soil, plants, and their nutritional content. There are countless stories of “modern” techniques ruining crops in other countries. I like this Cornell University article titled “Traditional Iroquois way of growing works for today’s farmers, providing valuable ecological lessons.”
• Competition: In Child of Wonder: Nurturing Creative and Naturally Curious Children a story is related about a group of children in a small village in Africa. They are encouraged to have a running race, but just held hands and trotted to the finish in a line of one rather than “beat” the others. What a better way of existing! (See my April 29, 2008, blog post for an interview with the author, Ginger Carlson.)
• Education: Many teachers are discovering that their career isn’t always as fulfilling as they anticipated it would be. Once they have children of their own, many discover they no longer want themselves or their children to be in the system. With our failing schools today, this is no surprise. A very large percentage of homeschooling and unschooling parents are actually “retired” teachers! Go to any homeschooling gathering and ask; it’s fascinating. Here is the story of one such mother.
• Green Living and Environmentalism: Need I even mention there about how “modern” techniques have caused so much damage to the world? Thankfully, we’re learning from the mistakes of the past.

The next time you consider pursuing a degree, ask yourself if the goal is to gain more knowledge or if you’re just spending your time and money to buy a piece of paper. And if the goal really is knowledge, is college the best way to get it? Depending on your situation, maybe it is – but then again, maybe it isn’t.

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Related Articles:

• Do you want the piece of paper, or the knowledge?
• “Are you qualified to teach your children?”
• Unschooling Leaves Gaps in Education?
• Let’s GREEN-UP Elementary School Homework
• Unschooling Extended to Adults – Unjobbing? Unmoneying?

By: Lisa