The big question now is …
will the Edwards children continue to homeschool … and should they have called it homeschooling in the first place?
The big news this afternoon is that John Edwards is suspending his presidential campaign. Now, I know I should be wondering just what suspending means, but instead, what I am wondering is how soon his children will be back in public school instead of being homeschooled.
Of course, I use the term homeschooling very loosely in this case. It was big news last fall when The Huffington Post interviewed Elizabeth Edwards about their homeschooling experience. My friend Tammy over at Just Enough, and Nothing More wrote about it in her Elizabeth Edwards Is Kinda Sorta Homeschooling, But It’s Working. Tammy did not want to start a debate about whether the Edwards family was really homeschooling, but it would have been an interesting debate.
As I read over the Huffington post interview, I kept thinking, “This doesn’t sound like any homeschool situation I’ve ever heard described before!” No public school I know of would allow a homeschooled child to slide in and out of the public school activities (lunch, field trips) of their “assigned” classrooms, as Elizabeth Edwards states in the interview. And very few homeschooling families have the means to employ a certified teacher to tutor their children. Do you consider that to be homeschooling or home tutoring?
In any case, I will be curious to see whether the Edwards children continue homeschooling for the remainder of this year, now that their parents are no longer on the campaign trial. What do you think they will do?
January 30th, 2008 at 4:56 pm
I never considered it homeschooling, not since I first read of their plans. It’s more like some sort of old-time British set-up, with the tutor and all.
February 1st, 2008 at 12:14 am
I read the interview too and I’d say there is no way they’ll continue, since Mrs. Edwards couldn’t even bring herself to call it homeschooling and seemed very cautious to support it.
February 1st, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Well, we’ll probably never know. Since I doubt it’ll make the news when her kids go back to their regular school schedule.
The kind of education they followed reminded me of a friend in high school who was an actress (I’m surprise there weren’t more in my school considering we were only 5 miles away from Hollywood). She would be in school for a week or two, then out for a week or two, back and forth. She had an assigned classroom, and a tutor who went around with her on set. Back then though, since “homeschooling” wasn’t a fad or public curiosity just yet, they just called it being “tutored”.
February 1st, 2008 at 4:50 pm
TammyT,
That’s what I thought when I read it. The short time I was in ps there was an actor that lived in the area. He’d be in school when he was home and tutored when away filming.
It’d be less confusing to everyone if they just said that was what they were doing to keep the family together.