Natural Schooling
by Beth Klarreich Corwin

School. It is a word that conjures up many images. For me it is a total sensory experience. Starting with the sense of smell. In elementary school I very clearly remember the smell of the eraser and the chalk dust and the miniature bathrooms. Junior high school smell memories include the gymnasium after a basketball game and after my cheerleading squad had practice and high school aromas are those delicious freshly baked chocolate chip cookies every Wednesday and the smell of all the cigarettes the gang and I used to smoke in the courtyard (it was permitted!) between classes or when we cut them. But it’s not only the smells that my body remembers it’s that for so many years it was a place I went . From the time I was five years old through the time I was eighteen I was in the public system and then off to college for some “higher education” from the age of eighteen through twenty-one.

Why does any of it matter to me now? I am a parent of two boys ages five and seven and realize that my husband and I actually have many choices about our childrens’ future. We, as parents, take our job very seriously and after thoroughly researching our options about their education have decided to home school them. We are all thriving from it, it seems to suit us as a unit and we have found a nice natural rhythm .

This doesn’t mean however that I am without doubts. This self doubting period always visits me at the beginning of September. Well talk about memories, isn’t it interesting when how the rest of the world is completely involved in the preparation for school, the surrendering of summers freedom to the restriction of a school regimen I too get plugged in. Mass consciousness holds a lot of power, even for mostly confident people like myself.

So this year I decided to examine this self doubting bout head on. Do I feel as though my kids are missing something? Am I under qualified as their teacher? In the middle of my questioning I realized something BIG. I am a person who adores rituals. Every kind . From my morning half hour lotus position meditation to the nightly removal of my disposable eye contact lenses. There is a sacredness to it all. That is what I associate school with. In all those years what did I like or habitually crave. All those rituals. From picking out my school clothes the night before to the alarm clock ringing, changing classes when the bell rang, raising my hand , gossiping and passing notes, and my all time favorite selecting fresh shiny new notebooks and sharpening brand new pencils.

A smile stared to form and the uncomfortable doubts began to fade as my realization sprang forth. This I could deal with. I know children, well , I guess most people feel the comfort in rituals. We do have several well established ones in our household but no “back to school” or better yet “NOT back to school “ rituals. It ‘ s never too late.

So while most Americans were busy getting their children off to bed early and preparing them for THE BIG DAY........Our family was celebrating our continuing freedom with a huge bonfire on the beach with a nearly full moon. It was really awesome. We talked, we listened to the ocean and felt its September warmth on our naked feet. Spencer, our oldest son disparately wanted Dad to tell a story but instead Buddy , our five year old decided he was going to be the evenings entertainment and wove a nonsensical tale about a crocodile who used a paper bag as a parachute and received a headache when it didn’t operate properly. He got us all involved and at one point we were all dancing. An evening I will always remember , a ritual to be repeated yearly.

So I decided to continue this ritual thing and today , being the first day of not back to school ,the boys and I walked a mile on the beach ending up at our local miniature golf course. There were (not surprisingly) no lines and we played a leisurely game and had a great time. On the way back home we climbed up into the lifeguard stand and had a snack. While we were enjoying the spectacular view and delicious ocean air I began to talk to the boys about word association. They nodded as if they understood and then I said “When I say the word school what comes to mind?” Buddy smiled and said”Play. Like learning stuff while you’re playing.” Then Spencer said very seriously,”Natural schooling like the kind we do.” Off all the terms people use to describe home schooling ( learning at home, unschooling, home based education) this phrase was new to me and clearly invented by him. So now when these self doubts resurface again perhaps I will know I can diffuse them by creating my own sacred rituals.