Few families are in as good a position as homeschoolers to contribute to their communities. Unfortunately, community service doesn't always rank highly on many homeschoolers' agendas. We're consumed with concern about which curriculum to use, what teaching methods are best or testing; we're fixated on battles -- real or perceived -- with our school boards; we're busy being social directors, helping our kids pick art, music and dance classes, or organizing field trips. These days, homeschoolers can become bit as busy with school trivia as public school families who are rushing to PTSA meetings, ferrying kids to soccer and Little League practice and agonizing over homework.
I'd like to suggest that overlook a vital aspect of home education if we become too self-absorbed. We're overlooking -- and often disregarding -- the very communities in which we're privileged to refine our chosen lifestyles. As homeschooling has become (for better or worse) more mainstream, our interests tend to narrow accordingly. Homeschool is less often a social statement anymore, than simply an ordinary alternative, like private or parochial school., or a charter or magnet school. Granted, that's a great accomplishment and it's nice that we're no longer (or perhaps only rarely) seen as social pariahs. But at the same time, that spirit of enthusiasm, that drive for social justice, that fire of commitment to a higher ideal has been somewhat quelled by acceptance and convenience. And that's not a good thing.
I believe that there's an important educational subject that we need to inject into our homeschool agenda, and that is Social Action. Or at the very least, Social Interest. Try giving your kids a field trip into the real world. Visit a soup kitchen, a homeless shelter or just walk along a city street and discuss what you see. Is there trash on the sidewalk? What about the guy with the bike and the bag full of rags or tin cans? Visit a nursing home -- not during the holidays, but during some obscure day in the middle of the summer --- and talk about the elderly in your own family. I'm not about to suggest there's any cure-all for social ills, or to venture my own opinion about social injustice and neglect and abuse. That's something I do privately with my own family. But it's something you can do with yours, too.
Go ahead and voice your opinions, and try to get your children to form some of their own. What do they see? What do they think? Do they have any suggestions for improving things? Can you, as a family, make changes in your community somehow? There is a lot to the adage, "Think globally, act locally." From experience, the one thing I can say definitively is that volunteering at least one hour a week to some charitable organization in your community is uplifting and fulfilling. It's something most public school children will never have an opportunity to experience on a regular basis or in that gritty, on-hands way that we can. It's a way to integrate mathematics, social studies, history, geography, science and economics in a real and personal way that children -- and adults -- can never forget.
Volunteering doesn't have to be difficult or terribly self-sacrificing to be effective and meaningful. If you have very young children, obviously you have to take into account their health and well being. You may not want to subject them to places where there is a lot of disease or uncleanness, or to traumatic environments among the mentally ill or abused. There are less harrowing and equally effective ways to contribute to society. Although for much older children and teenagers, helping feed the homeless at a soup kitchen or working in an inner city medical clinic might be extremely valuable experiences.
Those with younger children might find volunteering at a nature sanctuary or park fulfilling. When my children were very young, they enjoyed twice a month visits to a local nursing home. After going for some time , the children became quite at ease around wheelchairs and senility and disfigurement; how could I ever have taught that with a book?! And then there are lots of ongoing projects in every community. Locally, an early intervention center has begun planning a "Boundless Playground," that will give 70% accessibility to disabled children and will be open to all children eventually. We're helping with fundraising and have been invited to help when construction begins. We read about it in the paper and simply called up and offered to help. The center was happy to include us, as are most groups when you offer to help.
The volunteer possibilities are endless: literacy programs, Meals-on-Wheels, shelters, wildlife parks, libraries, reading for the blind, neighborhood clean-up programs and more. You can find out what organizations need help in your community by calling the United Way. Or just read the paper. You'll be amazed at how many ways you can find to help, when you simply take the time to look and identify real needs in your community. Then you and you're children will embark on a real education!
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