Excerpt From:
Islamic
Home Schooling Advisory Network Newsletter
Volume
2 Issue 2
Teaching
The Children To Teach Themselves
(Let
Self Regulation Be The Goal of Every Home Educator)
By
Caroline Maryam Ward
A.S.
Neil started Summerhill in the 1960's. Everything
about the place was geared towards co-operation and the children running their
own environment. Punishments
invented by everyone were given accordingly to everyone including the teachers
or helpers as they were more correctly termed. A long-standing teacher at the
school Mathew Appleton had this to say about it, in the book Great Ideas In
Education:**
"Self-regulation"
is the goal and the result of an environment that trusts human growth and
supports it with a caring community. Summerhill is still governed by all-school
meetings, and individuals are held to rules and policies that they themselves
create for the good of the whole. Such a system allows room for experimentation,
mistakes and second chances. In contrast to the "zero tolerance"
discipline and "high stakes" testing that are coming to dominate
contemporary schooling, here is a way of being with young people that gives them
encouragement, safety, and a sense that their concerns and their lives actually
matter."
We
need to educate the child rather than school them. It does not take much effort to be schooled as it is
something that is done by others to you and usually for someone else's benefit.
Being well schooled is synonymous with having lots of pieces of paper
that are a measure of what you are. If you want your children to be schooled it
is better to find a school you like and let them do it.
However
if you want your child to be educated this is another matter. Education is life
long and can only happen when the person is ready to receive what you have to
offer. An educated person is an all rounder not deficient in any life
discipline. A schooled person is a specialist. They can only do what they have a
paper for. If they want to do
something else they have to go away and do a course for it.
Our
aim is to produce people who can step into a situation and know how to be useful
there. You have the opportunity of shaping the environment your child spends the
major part of their day in. Never
under estimate that power. Schools
don't. They know that if they hang
onto the children for 6 hours a day the majority of them will be shaped into the
mould they have set for them, and they have manipulated that environment to make
sure.
So
firstly analyse the environment: Is it child friendly? Is it accessible? Is it
conductive to self-regulation? Can
the children take out their own choice of activities? Is there a set place to
put it back?
Our
family follows an autonomous style of home education. I looked up autonomous in
a dictionary and it defines it as 'having self-government' and 'functioning
independently'. When we apply this to education it means that any material
covered (or not covered) and any methods used are chosen by the child rather
than imposed by someone else. It often seems to be assumed that structured
education is the opposite of autonomous education but it is not.
The autonomous part is the child leading the field of subject or
interest. You then provide the
structure with materials and lessons they need with that area of focus.
It
seems entirely possible, and quite likely to me, that an autonomously educated
child will, at some point in their lives, choose to follow a structured course
in some subject or other. Maybe they will ask their parent to help them learn to
read using a reading scheme, or work through a maths text book themselves, or
maybe it will not be until they are old enough to take GCSE's and decide to
follow a correspondence course or textbook that they follow a more structured
approach. However, if they have freely chosen to follow the course or textbook -
if they have used 'self-government' in their choice and are 'functioning
independently', I would still call it autonomous education. The main point is
that they are free to choose their method of education and free to change or
abandon it at any point.
Within
our family we have one child who has resisted any kind of formal instruction.
However, other children have asked that we teach them to read and also
chosen to work through a maths or other workbook periodically. Having said that,
even the children who ask for
structure learn most through casual conversation and normal day to day learning.
Our general approach has been to have a wide range of material available and to
go out and about to places of interest such as castles, beaches, mountains,
rivers, etc. Most learning happens
through conversation and observation.
I'd
like to share an incident of hands on learning though general conversation one
breakfast time, which is an extract from Tales of The Tinkers, the story
of a Muslim family who learned at home for 17 years:
Chapter
10: HUSSY AND CHUBBY, PEANUT BUTTER AND KAFFIRS
Hussein
and Chubby were eating breakfast in the kitchen and having one of their long
philosophical debates:
“My
samich just got jam Sainey. You one got penut butter too”,
said Chubby.
“But
you don't like peanut butter Chub”, replied Hussein.
“Peanut
butter is for Kaffirs”, said Chubby.
“No
it's not for Kaffirs because I like it and I am a Muslim. Just because you don't
like it doesn't mean it's something for Kaffirs. Anyway Mummy read the
greedients, and it's Halal. So.” said Hussein.
“Mummy?
Do you wike penut butter”, asked Chubby.
“No.
Not really Chubby. I used to like it when I was little”.
“Oh
that's when you was a Kaffir and moking fags and dwinkin alco-hole “
“Well
yes. But that was a long time ago and I am a Muslim now”, said Mummy.
“See
Sainey she wiked it when she was a Kaffir. You don't know nuffin bout peanut
butter!”
“Mum
when you were a Kaffir and smoking fags and drinking alcohol didn't you know it
was wrong?” asked Hussein earnestly.
“Not
really Hus. You see my family and friends all did it and I thought it was OK
because that's how we learned things. We just watched them and did what they
did. My mum and dad both didn't
like smoking though and they said it was a bad thing, but my friends all wanted
me to do it and be like them. I
think I was afraid of not being like them.
My parents told me not to do things, but they didn't say why or show me
another way instead.' They sent me to school with all the bad people and said I
wasn't supposed to act like them. So I just lied to my Mum and Dad and said I
wasn't to make them happy, because I didn't know what to do”, said Mummy with
a far away look in her eyes.
“I'm
glad you don't send us to school. Cause when the boys outside want to do bad
things I run home and stay inside, but if I was at school I couldn't run
home”, said Hussein
“Mash’Allah.
You are a wonderful boy darling. You have thought of that all by yourself.
But listen Hus. You know the right way to live and you see Baba and I
doing good things and being a Muslim in your home so it's easier for you”,
replied Mummy
“You
was a naughty Mummy. Awa will be
mad at you if you do that gain”, said Chubby in a very warning tone of voice.
“I
know Chubby, but I've got you now, and you know all about how to be a good
Muslim and you will help me won't you?”
“Awight.
When you go to the shop don't wook at the fags just wook at the milk and the
powige OK!!!”
So
the main point is to relax and get off the children's backs about what they
should be doing and at what age. If
they have a stimulating environment and an attentive parent (ready to expand and
encourage on any interest they show) they will eventually learn all they need.
After all, it is only a school that needs to produce results to a timetable. You
must think what exactly it means to state: 'a child of 7 or 8 or 9 needs to be
reading by now'. Why?
They
are not usually allowed to go to a shop alone or on a long journey,
obtain a refund, collect a parcel from the post office.
Even to be left alone in the house alone.
There are very few times if any I can think of when it would be useful
for a child this age to be fluent in reading.
Only if they wanted to read for pleasure.
In that instance there would be no problem anyway because the child would
ask you to help them to master the skill.
Islam
says play until 7, teach from 7-14, and from 14-21 be their friend. After about
7 onwards I start encouraging the children to look at the structures of words,
starting with their names, then other words that have meaning for them. We play
phonic snap and pairs and 'I Spy' on a daily basis and there is always some
literacy activity for that day. We
make shopping lists, Eid lists, toy lists for tidying. They are read to on
demand (within reason), they play computer games of educational value and watch
videos and cartoons. All of these
give the children exposure to the written word.
We have had one child reading at 4, one at 8, one at 7, one at 13.
All of them were allowed to take it in their own time and all are avid
readers of many different mediums now. They
have subscriptions to magazines which they choose to pay for from their own
money. ie Auto Trader, Gunclub, Monthly PC Gamer and PC Format.
The content of these is highly textual and many a time even a non reader
will sit in a corner looking at the pictures trying to piece together the thread
of an advert or feature. We have
amassed a library of over 2000 books on various subjects and there are always
books in each room of the house.
We
found art to be useful in developing handwriting. We always encouraged the
children's art, of course directing them to what is a suitable subject.
We found that they quickly became frustrated with writing because it did
not come out on the paper the way they planned in their mind. (Most of ours are
boys, just the one daughter so bear in mind boys seem to have more aversion to
study than girls.) Our daughter incidentally just picked up writing of her own
accord and wrote for pleasure from a very young age. I never corrected her spelling and let her have a totally
free reign to express her ideas on paper. She
eventually, I noticed, corrected her own spelling and occasionally asks for a
spelling which is just given as it is asked for, with no extra lecture about
spelling rules!
So
if you encourage their art, they quickly master penmanship.
I would say start with drawing and encourage art, say just naming the
pictures; that is enough about writing skills to begin with.
So that they see writing has a useful purpose and is not just a long
pointless exercise to be done for someone else to judge you.
When the time is right allow them to have a high level of success by
presenting dot-to-dot letters and words so that the finished item does at least
look like the letter they want. Make
dot-to-dot shopping lists and Eid lists for them to fill in.
Go to the store to purchase them and let them write the price next to
each so you have Maths and English in one.
Once
you have the child on the 'literacy road' they never turn back.
But it is this initial anxiety and pressure that make many children fall
at this hurdle and take a long time to ever want to try again.
Don't
wait until they can read to do other interesting lessons and activities.
Give them the work sheets and you do the reading and even filling in the
answers they tell you. It is all learning. Show them that education is open to
them whatever their skill level.
Try
and be your children's champion. You do not need to show their work to others to
prove home education is right. That is your problem, not theirs.
I always used to say to people who criticised my children's skill levels.
“Well look, I could hold up statistics of how the schools fail millions of
children each year, but it would not convince you as you could always find some
child who was a wonder to Islam and academia and was getting the absolute best
out of both worlds, so we have to say that we have both made the choices we
think are best for our children. It is not about proof but about choice. This is
our choice.” Of course it was always interesting to see these children of
promise a few years later who had started off as angels and were now thoroughly
spoiled by the system.
When
you have your ideas in your head in place you need to get some sort of structure
and rules to your home going. Analyse
when you feel you need time alone with the children; is it better to say 'no
visitors without an appointment' or 'only visitors in the afternoons' or 'only visitors 3
afternoons a week' or 'only certain mornings'? You need to make the visitors
aware of your times, and stick to them.
I
remember we tried to do this once having been very open house before and it was
getting on top of us all. It was quite hard at first because people used to just
ignore it if they wanted to come so we ended up hiding upstairs and being very
quiet. But soon enough the message
went home and the visitors were trained! It
is nice in Islam to bring this to people’s notice about the home being your
place of privacy. You can knock on
a door 3 times to wait for a reply but you can not look through the letter box
for shoes and coats and pushchairs knowing the people are in and being brazen
enough to stay there till they let you in!
You have a right without any excuse to just be in your home and not
answer the door.
If
you have established the children's time you can then plan what to do in it.
We have said about making it a stimulating environment. You will find
that having themes which change now and again is better then having posters and
wall hangings on many different things that just become part of the background
and are left up for years.
Once
a month, evaluate what is on the wall. What has to be brought down?
What needs more attention brought to it, what needs to be presented in a
different style?
Planning
your curriculum needs careful thought and we found that by sticking to just 5
core subjects we covered what the children would need for life.
We had files for English, Maths, Science, Geography and History. Whatever
we came across could usually be filed under those group headings.
Over
the period of a month I would sit down and see where the children were lacking
and what subject they needed more of and which less of.
These ideas were all developed into a syllabus and hopefully Insha'Allah
we could collaborate with IHSAN to make them available as a core curriculum.
Of
course you do your best and what happens then is up to time. Things don't always
go the way you want them to but take heart that there are thousands of other
parents out there all struggling along, probably just the same as you.
I'd
like to share one of these amazing lessons in action with you.
The children were ages1, 4, 6, 8 and 10 and all doing the same science
lesson.
Once
upon a time the five Tinkers were having tea in the front room and Mummy was
serving the tea from a tray. Suddenly there was a spillage.
“Oh
Hussy please. I have told you before to be careful when we are having tea in
here”, said Mummy.. Hussy gave Hamza a look that would have turned fresh milk
to yoghurt. But he did not say anything, it was pointless. He knew Mummy would
not listen while the tea was on the carpet.
Anyway
it was Hamzas fault the tea had spilled. He had grabbed the action man and
caused Hussy to spill the tea, but Mummy had not seen that and it was so unfair.
“Run
and get the cloth then. It won't just jump back into the cup no matter how long
you stare at it”, Said Mummy.
“Oh
really I don't know. I let you have tea in here because of the things all over
the floor in the parlour. Anyway come on let's go and finish the science now”,
said Mummy.
Soon
the five were sharpening pencils and settling down in the parlour to finish
their lesson.
“Leave
it Hamza, Mum he wants my sharpener”, said Hussy pulling his sharpener away.
“We
don't need to write anything yet. Stop it you two”, said Mummy. But they
continued to exchange digs and pokes all through the lesson.
“OK
now. I wanted to speak about Genus and species. When we write the word Genus we
always do it with a capital letter that tells us the first part of the
classification. Hussy I'll draw a little cat next to your word so you know where
we are. Then the species is with a small letter so if we have the two words.
Panthera catus, which one is the Genus Sarah?” asked Mummy.
“Panthera?”
asked Sarah uncertainly.
“Yes,
that's it. Well done. You see on the worksheet there Panthera is with a big
letter at the beginning”, said Mummy.
“Now
Omer, if we say Homo sapien which is the species?” asked Mummy.
“Um,
sapien?” said Omer.
“Right.
Good, excellent, that is it. Small letter is the species”, said Mummy.
'What
is a Homo sapien anyway?” asked Sarah.
“It's
us. Human beings, that is the kind of animal we are”, said Mummy.
“We
are not animals!” said Omer indignantly.
“Well
OK that is party true in that we have a free will and they don't but for the
purposes of classification everything that roams the earth is grouped into
animals and plants”, said Mummy.
“Now
you two”, said Mummy as she turned to address Hussy and Hamza who had carried
on their disagreement regardless of anything else going on in the room.
“Hamza, what is a humans Genus and species”, asked Mummy.
“Homo
sapien, I know that anyway”, said Hamza with a satisfied smirk.
“Now
Sarah, what kind of animal is a cat?” asked Mummy.
“Panthera
catus”, replied Sarah.
“Yes
that is it, well done”, said Mummy.
‘OK
Hussy, now think hard about what we just did. What kind of animal is Hamza?”
asked Mummy.
Hussy
thought very hard and said with all the conviction of one who had been seriously
wronged.
“A
PIG!”
Your
kids will one day blossom and you will wonder what all the worry was about.
Of
course you need to have your own interests going as well.
Study courses yourself from the Open University or online or through
other correspondence mediums.
You
may think that you will never have time to do all these things but believe me,
if you teach the children how to work on their own initiative through making
their own choices of study and expanding on that, you can set them tasks and let
them get on with it. I have never
in my whole 17 years of teaching the children ever spent more than half an hour
a day on each child. The rest of the time I was maybe in the same room but doing
my things and getting on with my many areas of interest so over time I was able
to: educate 7 children (none of whom ever spent a day in school), study a child
psychology degree with the Open University, study an educational psychology
degree, become a published author, gain recognition as a historical researcher,
have a book turned into a computer game by Microsoft based on the historical
facts of Muslim Heroes of the Crusades (Age of Empire, Age of Kings), write 29
papers on educational practice and application, become an educational consultant
to Muslim Schools, censor the literacy content of the curriculum in Muslim
Schools, be asked to join the DFEE board of literacy advisors, start a
curriculum on the 5 core subjects, complete research into the causes of ASD
(Autistic Spectrum Disorders) and collaborate with natural practitioners to
discover life changing treatments for them.
I
do not know any school going parent who has even a minute for their own
interests even though they are rid of the children for 6 hours a day.
To me they seem to live under the impending doom of the return of the
children at 4 p.m.! For too long now School has had the monopoly on what passes
for education. The government had
the right to raise our children, not by law but by actively concealing the law.
We did not know our right to claim back our children and raise them as a
credit to us and Islam. Well, we
know it now so let’s get out there and produce the people who are going to
make a better world.
Taken
from a talk by Caroline Maryam Ward at the IHSAN 2002 Home Education Fair - 7th
April 2002 at Al- Muntadah Al-Islami School
Writers
and educators who have shaped the way I educated my children and myself. My
heartfelt thanks and deep gratitude to them all: Prophet Muhammad (saws), Maire
Mullarney, John Holt, John Taylor Gatto, Maria Montessori
**Great
Ideas in Education: Box 328; Brandon; VT 05733-0328 (1-800-639-4122) Website: http://www.great-ideas.org
E-mail: info@great-ideas.org
ADVISORY
NETWORK
-IHSAN-
PO Box 30671, London, E1 OTG, ENGLAND
Phone/Fax: 020 8851 1866