Abstract:

Laura Jones was certain her daughter Julie was bound for a career in engineering or technology. Instead, she's decided to become a teacher. Laura wishes Julie had made a different choice, but since she hasn't..... Julie will soon be matriculating into the Laura Reasoner Jones College of Teacher Preparation, where the standards are high—and there may be a curfew.

Jones, L.R. (2004). Homeschooling a teacher. Teacher Leaders Network diaries. Retrieved from the Teacher Leaders Network 7 Apr 2008. Link: http://www.teacherleaders.org/old_site/diaries04_05/LJ21_04_05.html

Full Text:

Homeschooling a Teacher

The Laura Reasoner Jones College of Teacher Preparation is now open for business. We (the 'royal we') have a bumper sticker on the cute little red car and a very cool pink hooded sweatshirt in a size Small. This is a private college with only one student and its admission criteria are highly selective:

(1) You must be my child, and

(2) You must do what I say.

Julie, my 20-year old daughter, has returned from her "sleepover school" to live at home and attend school at the local college. She 'didn't like' her college of choice, and so now she is back here. She also has chosen her major: Early Childhood Education.

And so what is my problem? She is a great kid, she already has a part-time job in the field, and she is registered for a full load of classes starting in January, keeping her eligible for the all-important health insurance.

Well, there are many problems:

Number one – By forsaking her traditional college path, and hop-scotching from a four-year college to a community college and, as she is planning, back to a four-year college, she is missing out on the teacher prep programs offered by the state universities in Virginia. She will get the necessary courses, but she will not get the field experiences, volunteer experiences, or the course-advising that these programs provide. (She also won't have the mind-numbing loyalty to a football team that currently occupies the vast majority of my family—we have Purdue, Ohio State, Virginia Tech, and Auburn in Bowl games this year.) The bottom line: she may get through school with only nine weeks of student teaching. This is not good.

Number two – Education majors have to major in something substantial–a content area. A good idea, I believe, but the colleges have found ways to blur it a little. So, she has chosen to major in Developmental Psychology. That is only one inch away from the line I drew in the sand with both of my girls: they could absolutely not major in Sociology, the quickest way to a McDonald's career. Well, she is awfully close to that line.

Number three – I am grieving for my lost dreams of an engineer daughter. Not only could I have been an engineer, but she could have been one, too. Yes, I know this one is definitely my problem, not hers, but the other two problems concern both of us.

So, I have opened the LRJ College of Teacher Preparation, and I am running her through my own private curriculum. We are going to have night and weekend 'classes' that will make up for some of what she is missing in the traditional teacher preparation program. I already have a plan. (Anyone who knows me is shaking his or her head in pity for Julie. Whenever Laura starts a project, she starts a project.)

First I think about what I would have liked to have more experience with in my teaching career. I remember that one of the biggest things I lacked was experience with and judgment about behavior management. So, because Julie has taken a part-time job in a Montessori school, I am going to try to have frequent debriefings with her about the kids she works with. I am going to ask her to describe the kids, the issues and the teachers' responses. And then we will talk about these and see if she can try to figure out the reasons behind the actions taken by the teachers. I can ask her to think about what she would have done in the same situation.

I also know that I needed a great deal of help with assessment. Beginning teachers need to know how to make assessments that will not only satisfy the Standards of Learning (or whatever) but will measure what the child has learned. And they need to know this right away. Unfortunately, Julie's part-time job does not lend itself to meeting this need, as it is a private school and works on the principle of children progressing at their own pace. But, I am going to work on this through my contacts in the early childhood field. My own special ed background will become very useful. Maybe we can even develop our own assessments.

Secondly, I think about Julie and what I know about her as her mother and as the admissions director of the LRJ College of Teacher Prep:

Strengths:

• An altogether nice person
• Generally happy
• Slow to anger
• Genuinely likes kids
• Likes music
• Extremely knowledgeable about pop culture, including movies, music, and video games
• Willing to learn and take direction
• Good at math, although doesn't want to admit it
• Can program cell phones and VCRs without batting an eye

Weaknesses:

• Never read anything as a child, making the whole world of children's literature a vast arena of unexplored concepts and experiences
• Not real good with her hands, preferring to have other people cut and glue for her
• Uncomfortable talking to strangers or in front of people
• Not terribly patient
• Gets sick a lot

Oh my, how did this student ever get accepted into my college????

The LRJCTP Curriculum

We will begin the lessons as the New Year begins. I have carefully planned out the curriculum of the LRJ College of Teacher Preparation:

There is going to be a reading list.

First, Julie will have to read the picture books I use with my kids each week and figure out why I chose them—content, pictures, concepts taught, etc.

Then, she is going to have to move book by book through my shelves in the basement and sample some of the best children's literature published in the last 75 years. She needs to read A Wrinkle in Time, the Betsy-Tacy books, Jon Sciescka, Bunnicula, Captain Underpants, (yeah, yeah, yeah, I know), Philip Pullman, and all of the other great books I have. No book reports or papers will be required, but discussion is a definite possibility.

Then she will have to start a handout collection from my files—handouts on classroom management, child development, activities appropriate for different ages and so on. She will be ready if it kills me.

There are going to be required projects.

This is great! I will have my own little unsalaried employee at home to cut out shapes, make craft projects, and cut out articulation words! I can get my work done in half the time. And it will "improve her fine motor skills." And maybe I can make her come up with ideas for me to use, all in the name of teacher prep, of course.

There will be required field experiences.

Yes, I know she is in school and has a real job, but I think that she really needs to get more experience with older children, so I will require her to come and help with my GEMS club each week in the spring. After all, this club was started so that she would go into a math, science or technology career, so she owes me big time. I do public speaking on the premise that parents can help their daughters change their attitudes about math, science and technology and can choose these fields as careers, so she is hurting my credibility.

There will be mentors.

Julie will hate this, but if she sticks with this job, I am going to talk to the director of the Montessori school and ask her to assign an experienced teacher to mentor Julie in a more formal way than they do now. If this doesn't work out, maybe I can ask some of my education professor friends to help her. Or, maybe I can find a listserv for teachers-in-training. At any rate, I will find her other people to talk with and ask questions of, as I am way too emotionally involved in this.

There will be vitamins and hand-sanitizer.

She has only been working a week and a half, and she already has a raging cold. I am going to require her to beta-test a combination of vitamins that, if they work, will be marketed by her older sister, the medical sales maven, to teachers and other germ-encrusted professionals. (Just kidding). But, it is really nice to have a medical saleswoman in the family who can ship a case of hand-sanitizer directly to the house.

There will be a curfew.

Oh, wait a minute, I forgot. I am just the president/chancellor of this school. (I haven't decided which title I like better.) But according to Julie, that does not give me the power to regulate her hours or require her to be in at a reasonable hour. Hmmmm. This time at home is going to go by very slowly.

In my heart, I wish she had chosen a different career. Education is a tough field to succeed in, and you have to be able to find your personal rewards from within yourself, not from material or societal recognition. Unfortunately, Julie does not have good role models in this area. Her sister Christiana struggled in school, but has just shot to the top of the charts in her chosen field, making incredible amounts of money at the ripe old age of 25 (yes, more than twice what I do with my 30 years of teaching experience), and achieving a fabulous sales job with one of the best Fortune 500 companies in the whole world. Christie made it look easy, even though it was very difficult and she earned it through hard work and diligence.

And I have made this whole teaching thing look too easy. I have always made myself available to help Julie all through her school years, doing my work after she was in bed or in the early hours of the morning. I gave the impression that all I did was teach (i.e., go on home visits and play) from 8 to 3:30 and could leave these home visits at any time to pick her up at school if she was sick. To her untrained eye, I get up every morning and put in a few hours in a job that is just plain fun, and takes no real thought or effort. And, I have a long Christmas vacation and an even longer summer vacation. And of course, there are those teacher workdays....(entry 14)

Instead of attending every basketball and soccer game, I should have slaved over IEPs and stayed late in the office writing up testing reports. I made teaching look like something she would want to do. How does the song go? "Mommas. don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys." Well, I guess I don't have much choice in the matter, so the least I can do is do my best to make sure she is a good one. Teacher that is, not a cowboy.

So, my college is open for business. Let's hope that I either make it so awful that she changes fields, or she comes out really well-prepared. Only four years to wait....

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