There was a recent “Letter From the Editor” article in the September 2009 issue of Fast Company magazine. The author, Robert Safian, makes the point that the future of the college campus may be changing if we could get progressive thinkers and people willing to break out of the traditional college campus way of thinking. This brings to mind many changes that we have seen in recent history regarding education in general but especially homeschooling.
There are so many methods of homeschooling which is what makes the theory of homeschooling so wonderful. Most home school families do not think that education is one size fits all and they love the opportunity to tailor education methods for their children. This is great for kindergarten through 12th grades but then what happens with college?
We know that there are on-line universities such as University of Phoenix and others that allow students to work on their higher education from any computer with Internet access. Rarely, if ever, do the students have to set foot on a traditional college campus. The article in Fast Company takes this thinking even a step further. The thought it brings to mind is that if we can “piece/part” our home school curriculum together, taking the better part of nine different curriculum programs, then why can’t we do the same with college degrees.
What does it matter if we take English from UCSD, math from University of Phoenix, science from our local college, etc.? It could all be gathered together to form the requirements of a degree according to Safian. David Wiley of Brigham Young University is quoted in the article as posing the question: “Why is it that my kid can’t take robotics at Carnegie Mellon, linear algebra at MIT, law at Stanford?
And why can’t we put 130 of those together and make it a degree?
In regards to grade school curriculum and the homeschooling aspects, some school districts allow children dual enrollment. Public schools are moving past the “us against them” attitude toward home school families and they are recognizing homeschooling as an option for children that deserves some credit. Hopefully in the future of homeschooling we can piece together our children’s education just as we have the ability to now but adding in what we would like to offer our children from public, private or charter schools as well. We are making huge strides and we hope to continue to do so. However, as Safian points out in his article, you need people who are willing to go against traditional and risk trying something new.