The home-school room (w/ links to video and pix)

[Burris]

I'm fascinated - genuinely fascinated - by fundie home tours. June Fuentes recently gathered a list of links to "home-school room tours" and it was like catnip for me. (proverbs14verse1.blogspot.com/2011/08/homeschool-room-virtual-tour-and-link.html)

Some of those parents put an absolutely incredible amount of work into developing home libraries and media centers to better facilitate learning in their children.

Fuentes highlights the video of another baby-voiced homeschooler for our edification. (You guys will love it. It's snarktacular.) Under that, there is a collection of links submitted by readers. Most of these lead to home-school tours.

Some examples:

The home library at Artful Homemaking is impressive without being ostentatious: www.artfulhomemaking.com/2011/08/our-ho ... yroom.html

Proud Mom of Five Kids has a humble, well-organized, and cheery homeschool set-up here: proudmomof5kids.blogspot.com/2011/08/tour-our-school-room-link-up.html

After looking through the links Fuentes collected, I decided to do a Google search.

Some of the rooms I really enjoyed. Others I found utterly obnoxious.

Sure, 'it's their money and they can spend it how they want,' but the Bible says if you have two shirts and another guy has none, then you should give him one of your shirts (Luke 3:11).

Some public libraries are hard-pressed, and yet some parents think nothing of spending all this money on just a few kids and their private enjoyments.

If the following rooms belong to Christian home-schoolers, then they're doin' it wrong.

Here's one June Fuentes herself profiled in an August 31 post:

From Half-Dozen Mama. Really?

Here's what a woman at 'The Bright Side' did to educate her three-year-old child:

To her credit, she eventually downsized, blaming the original excess on an abundance of enthusiasm.

...oh, and...

BONUS LINK TO BATSHIT INSANITY: godmadehomegrown.com/biblical-homeschooling/why-not-public-school-the-real-reason

[JosiePye]

Did i get that straight. That last photo was a room for educating a single three-year-old? Oh my...

[alphaeta08]

Wow, for people who hate public school, their "homeschool rooms" look a whole lot like... public schools. :roll:

[defrauding]

I don't really see what the problem is, to be honest. Sure, some of the setups are over the top, but I'm glad the parents care about teaching their children and aren't content with tossing a stack of workbooks at them.

Besides, they can donate all the books and supplies afterward -- unless they're of the "Far Above Rubies" variety, in which case they should go straight into the wood chipper.

[alphaeta08]

Oh yeah, I agree that there's nothing wrong with going all out for your kid's education (barring ridiculousness, but even in that case, it's their money, so whatever). I just think it's funny that these specific people object so strongly to everything having to do with public school and they basically set up a public school classroom for one. I guess I thought fundie homeschool rooms would be covered in scripture quotes or Jesus murals or something and not so pedestrian.

[FloraDoraDolly]

The Duggars should do something like this instead of plugging in the older kids and "educating" the little ones at the dining room table while the preschoolers run amok.

[maybeizfundie]

Wow. That last one looks like a preschool room. Only it would be a bit cavernous with just one kid in there.

Someday we will have enough money to buy a house with enough room to have a dedicated schoolroom. Right now we have a shelf and the (much mocked) Dining Room Table. :D

This is making me with the cyber school would hurry up with our curriculum. I cannot wait to set up the school room, er, shelf, and get started with the year.

[Patsy]

I like the way the Lockwoods have individual stations around the walls of the dining room, so chairs can be turned around into the little cubby/desks. I guess it's more suited to quiet, individual, self-directed study, so it doesn't serve for all styles of learning, but it looks so neat!

[CelticGoddess]

That bottom picture looks a lot like my sons classroom at his school. He's in a contained classroom, and they have it set up for autistic children. Quite frankly, I thinks it way overkill for a 3 yo

[MamaJunebug]

My friend Burris, this time I am on the other side of the .... homeschool room .... from you.

We don't know what the extravagant [sic] homeschooling family does for the needy, so to call their elegant h.s. room un-Christian is completely inappropriate, JMHO.

As to criticisms that homeschoolers duplicated public school environments, well, so have Catholic and Lutheran and independent Christian and possibly Muslim schools (I've never been inside a Muslim school). Some folks say there's nothing about institutional schools that is worth copying, but I've never believed that and apparently neither have these h.s.parents.

The 3-year-old's room intially was over-enthusiastic, but look at it from a TV-home-makeover-show perspective: Kiddo might have grown into it, and it was already set up for any future siblings who came along!

Presuming these folks have paid their taxes, they may spend the rest of their money as they please. I hope that they tithe and support the needy but I'm not in a position to insist that they do.

Were I to be asked my opinions/advice by a prospective homeschooler, I'd be one of those pointing to these rooms as idea-starters, while presenting the Duggar family's haphazard, lackadaisical SOTDRT as a definitie "homeschool 'don't'."

Full disclosure: I haven't looked at any of the websites, but the possibility exists that the rest of the rooms in a given home are very modest. Slim possibility, but it's there. I know people who have spent all their money on game/rec rooms and let the "formal" rooms of the house make do with minimal furniture and decor.

They do that because their primary focus is gaming and family time together and the rest doesn't matter. It's possible that these h.s.folks have the same mindset. Ya never know.

Pax.

[Burris]

My friend Burris, this time I am on the other side of the .... homeschool room .... from you.

We don't know what the extravagant [sic] homeschooling family does for the needy, so to call their elegant h.s. room un-Christian is completely inappropriate, JMHO.

As to criticisms that homeschoolers duplicated public school environments, well, so have Catholic and Lutheran and independent Christian and possibly Muslim schools (I've never been inside a Muslim school). Some folks say there's nothing about institutional schools that is worth copying, but I've never believed that and apparently neither have these h.s.parents.

These are all good points - especially the one about my not knowing if the people who created those rooms are charitable. It was an uncharitable assumption on my part, made for two underlying reasons:

My initiation reaction - and I still feel this way about it - was colored by a couple of arguments I've had with fundies over whether libraries should be privatized.

One of these women, Copper's Wife, had an entire post devoted to the superiority of a home library to the public alternative: Home libraries can censor books - e.g., her husband colored over the naughty bits of paintings in art-history books - and only her kids could have access to this massive special collection.

Carmon Friedrich is another one who thinks public libraries should be closed and replaced by private lending institutions that can choose their books for the Dominionist worldview and ensure only the deserving - a lot of the time, I think that's code for "those who can pay" - may have access.

Whenever I see a massive expenditure on books and equipment publicized by fundie homeschooling families, who set up elaborate, class-room sized 'schooling areas' in their homes, my prejudice is such that I suspect they're working to develop a parallel system of education for their own little army - i.e., they're not just individual homeschooling families, working on individualized home classrooms, but rather they're obedient nodes serving "the vision" of a much larger parachurch organization. (That's why their schoolrooms look like PS classrooms: Because, according to some of those same people, the classroom atmosphere promotes conformity, and conformity is precisely what they want.)

Your comparison of that situation to religious schools hadn't occurred to me. You're correct, except that we disagree on one point: I don't see a system of individual fiefs - little family-sized kingdoms headed by fathers - linked together only by their love of common religious supremacists group as being entirely like the separate school systems where all interested parent buy in and all those kids benefit from the shared resources.

Dominionist Randian Supermen do not like sharing resources. (Just ask Steven Anderson.)

I read so many of these same sorts of fundies - yes, sometimes I get overzealous and lump them all together, which isn't right; I actually do appreciate being called out for my bigotry - who hate having to pay taxes to the government (and one homeschooler who admitted proudly that her husband is a tax-evader).

Nonetheless, I can only revise my original statement rather than retracting it: If someone with a schoolroom like that happens to object to taxation and is an isolationist to boot, then funneling money to those extravagant school rooms rather than giving some of it to charity is unChristian.

[MamaJunebug]

Ah, Burris, classy and insightful as always!

I hadn't known about the privatized libraries, a thought that scares the bejabbers out of me. Shall be on the lookout for it.

Your comparison of that situation to religious schools hadn't occurred to me. You're correct, except that we disagree on one point: I don't see a system of individual fiefs - little family-sized kingdoms headed by fathers - linked together only by their love of common religious supremacists group as being entirely like the separate school systems where all interested parent buy in and all those kids benefit from the shared resources.

Your observation of "a system of individual fiefs - little family-sized kingdoms headed by fathers" caught my eye as I recently read on an orthodox Lutheran board, a criticism of America as not a nation of 311 million people, but "311 million inations of one."

I'm veering off-topic and don't mean to, but the idea that the "Me Generation" has had a major effect on the dominionists is intriguing.

Mostly, thank you for your response!!! I knew you'd take my words in the spirit they were delivered but it's always great to know that feelings aren't hard. :)

[Burris]

Mostly, thank you for your response!!! I knew you'd take my words in the spirit they were delivered but it's always great to know that feelings aren't hard. :)

Thank you. :D

[nuri]

I do have to say, June's classroom/library makes my book geek insides quiver in delight. I'd love to have a similar office/home library setup. I'd also just like to have my massive bookshelves out of my bedroom, though :)

[bananacat]

I'm just shocked that they could find enough fundie-approved books to fill a wall of bookshelves.

I thought the fundie love for homeschooling was that you do it at your dining room table, which is the center of the home. The schooling should just be another aspect of family life. That's why the Duggars built a palace and didn't bother to put in a classroom, although they do that have computer room (maybe they couldn't afford laptops). I don't think the Duggars would approve of sectioning off homschool from the rest of life.

[formergothardite]

These people have way bigger houses than I do. Even if I wanted to do something like that, I wouldn't have the room.

[IReallyAmHopewell]

Home school porn. That's all.

[liltwinstar]

Pics like this don't bother me at all - to me, it indicates that the parents care enough about their kids' education to sink a pile of money into it. Now, I know money isn't everything, but if you're going to homeschool, it's going to cost you (in both time and money) and it had better be a priority. Doesn't mean you have to have a fancy-pants school room, nor that having such a school room means you'll have better results than someone who doesn't. To me, it just indicates that the parents take their kids' education seriously enough to dedicate space in the house to it - the same way some have a craft room or a workshop or whatever.

I *do* have a problem with the concept of privatized libraries and such, and I'm not an isolationist by any means. But if you're going to have 5, 10, 15 kids with you every day for 20+ years, and you're going to be responsible for educating them, you're going to need resources and space for doing so.

[slickcat79]

These people have way bigger houses than I do. Even if I wanted to do something like that, I wouldn't have the room.

That's what strikes me as a little strange. It seems like most QFers (and often other fundies) don't actually have the room for that. LiaS comes to mind; when you have 9 kids sharing a single bedroom, a dedicated library/schoolroom seems really inappropriate. The third picture above also looks like it's set up in a living/dining room area (notice the chandelier), so I would wonder where they have space to eat and congregate as a family. Hopefully there was an addition or something.

I really like the idea of people prioritizing homeschooling if they're choosing to do that. But a library or schoolroom is a luxury, the same as a craft room or workout room would be, if it's included at the expense of adequate sleeping/living space for the rest of the family. That's especially true if it's just the parent deciding that they want to homeschool, even if some kids might prefer or benefit from an alternative education strategy.

[clibbyjo]

Oh la la, impressive! I had a homeschool room once, its now the "music room" and actually gets used everyday.

My kids do school where ever they want. No one sits at the kitchen table,usually they areon the bed with a laptop or use the computer area in the living room of doing something on the computer. If they are reading, they stretch out on the porch swing or their beds(or my bed)

The funny thing is, if those pics are all religious homeschool schoolrooms, is that is ALL the books the kids will get and they have been preread and approved by the mom(or headship). Once you read all those your out of luck.

Each of my kids read hundreds of books a year. I go to the library every week and come home with around 60 books a week. I could not afford to buy all those new, but I will buy the kids any books they want from Goodwill so I probably buy 5 books minimum a week. Yes, I have a home library as well filled with "educational materials" and books(you want a pic? One whole shelf is filled with Mangas ) but those are only used occasionally.(and the books shelves are spread out where ever there is room)

My fundie sister prides herself on her schoolroom library. NONE of her kids read for fun, because all they get are Boxcar Children(boring once you read exciting things) up to pre-read books written 100 years ago from a Christian standpoint. They don't go to the library, they buy only what my sister feels is acceptable,so they never get a choice.

[let-them-eat-cake]

I just think it's funny that these specific people object so strongly to everything having to do with public school and they basically set up a public school classroom for one.

THIS.

And following "classic education" methods is pretty much the same as public school too.

And I was homeschooled for high school and I didn't even have a room just for studies! (Although my parents aren't fundies, thank goodness). In fact, I don't think most non-fundie homeschoolers have special rooms for school work.

[fundiefun]

I love this woman's school room especially the reading loft her and her husband put up for their kids.

jennysjabber.blogspot.com

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