Not Back to School
A good education does not always come from books, nor does it take place in a building where everyone is learning the same thing at the same time.
Knowledge, which is acquired under compulsion, has no hold on the mind. Therefore, do not use compulsion, but let early education be a sort of amusement; you will then be better able to discover a child’s natural bent. Plato
We homeschooled.
I pulled my kid out after second grade.
He wanted to be an engineer. It was very clear the school system wasn’t going to be able to make that happen. He graduated from a top 10 engineering school and is now an Aerospace engineer working in that field. He was hired in his last semester of school.
Every year after leaving the school building we celebrated “not-back-to-school”.
Not-back-to-school for us was celebrated just after Labor day holiday, or when most of the schooled kids were confined daily in taxpayer paid for buildings.
Most homeschooled kids I encountered were very different than the schooled kids we encountered. There were many times that docents in museums commented on how well behaved groups of homeschooled kids were. If you arrived in the morning, usually 10:30-11:00, to most museums you would encounter the walkie-talkie toting adults herding crowds of unruly school children. A noisy lunch period from noon to 1:00 and magically, they disappeared just before 2PM. How much/what do you think they learned in the hour and half they were actually touring? We on the other hand could enjoy any museum to our hearts were content. Pro tip: as a homeschooler go after 2PM.
Travel was a huge part of our homeschool.
One year our not-back-to-school adventure was a trip to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. The reason for this was our studies that year included a look at Aerospace Engineering, and naturally we chose the state that was “First in Flight” (North Carolina) to tie to our studies.
Our trip included an afternoon flying kites on the very grounds where Orville and Wilbur Wright launched man into the space-age at Kitty Hawk, well really it is Kill Devil Hills, near Jockey's Ridge State Park, but who’s nitpicking on what we remember from our history? Before we left, we studied the plane and the kites that were used at the Wright Brothers Aerospace Museum in Dayton in Ohio, but my student wanted to go to the place where flight began! The presentation at the Wright Brothers Museum at Kitty Hawk was the best however.
We went to The Outer Banks Center for Wildlife Education, located in Corolla between the historic Whalehead Club and the Currituck Beach Lighthouse. They had some awesome daily, free programs. There was a class on crabbing and then kayaking on the Currituck sound that we attended.
We also went to The Cape Hatteras National Seashore. Cape Hatteras National Seashore preserves the portion of the Outer Banks of North Carolina from Bodie Island to Ocracoke Island, stretching over 70 miles. The Outer Banks area was once dubbed the "Graveyard of the Atlantic" for its treacherous currents, shoals, and storms and Cape Hatteras has a wealth of history relating to shipwrecks, lighthouses, and the US Lifesaving Service.
We went in search of the wreck of the Altoona, a fun outing, but kind of a snipe hunt (practical joke or fool's errand). We should have obtained a better map. But at least we were in the right place, there were others there doing the same thing!
Outer Banks folklore is fun to read about and the idea that we were standing on the same beach as Blackbeard the pirate was pretty awesome. Another bit of local lore I discovered on this trip to the Outer Banks was the Wild Horses of Corolla. Locally, they are known as Banker Horses and they really are something to see running out of the dunes.
All of that in our first ten days of “school”.
How much do you imagine those schooled kids confined in taxpayer paid for buildings learned their first week?
Our best Not-back-to-school was a kayak trip to Algonquin Provincial Park in Canada. I won’t list all of the things we did and learned because I hope you’re getting the idea that a good education does not always come from books, nor does it take place in a building where everyone is learning the same thing at the same time.
But I will leave you with two bits of advice, homeschool if you can and don’t make it school at home; and our list of top 10 paddler tips, we had a great time devising from our experiences at Algonquin and along the way!
It is inappropriate sit on the bow of the The Maid of the Mist with your kayak paddles and shout “bring it on” at Niagara falls.
Algonquin Provincial park wolves really do exist and will visit your campsite, so don’t worry about the bears.
Some of the biggest frogs you have ever seen live at Costello Creek south of Lake Opeongo, in Algonquin Provincial park Ontario. Don’t let them hop into your kayak. The water is cold.
No matter what anyone says, vault toilettes were not a good invention.
Always wear sunscreen on the lake, especially if you are in a bright yellow kayak.
It is not a good idea to run towards a heavily armed ranger hunting a wounded wolf yelling “it wasn’t me, it wasn’t me” at night, in Canada.
Half-n-half for coffee does not keep very well in a thermos in the hatch of a touring Kayak.
Bilge sponges are not supposed to be used for bathing.
No matter how hard you paddle you cannot get your kayaks to fly over a half submerged tree.
If the culvert is big enough you can certainly paddle through it. Send the kid in first. Why portage if you don’t have to?
Do you have a not-back-to-school story?