Stories from the classroom: Nia.

     I worked for several years in a community of sailing families. Throughout the year, there were weekly sailing lessons for children, for teens, and for adults.  Frequently, I was approached with a conversation like this:

    “We are thinking about taking a year on our sailboat and homeschooling our daughter, Nia.  We have contacted the State government and the expectations are a little confusing.  What are your thoughts?”

     My thoughts always centered on the legal issues first.  Parents need to work closely with state government expectations for homeschooling children.  Each state handles this differently and it is not unusual for there to be some room for confusion.  In recent years, states have begun to work out more detailed expectations.  However, the decision for a family to homeschool a child will always involve hard work. 

     Nia, at the time, was a modestly successful child, but she had lacked a level of confidence in her abilities as a student.  She stressed out over her homework daily and often told herself that she was incapable in situations in which she had proven to be very capable.  Accordingly, Nia often caved in when frustrated and her schoolwork suffered. 

   When Nia’s parents approached me about homeschooling, I was excited to discuss this opportunity.  Homeschooling is not for every parent or even every child, but if done well, the opportunity for learning is incredible.  Whether on a sailboat or in the family’s home, homeschooling is direct, it is personal, and it is project based.  Every day can become an adventure of learning for the homeschool child.   Parents who homeschool need to be willing to take learning out of the textbooks and prescribed courses that drive the school day. With a little bit of work, parents can look closely at their child’s life and make decisions about areas to explore learning that are meaningful and immediate.  

     In my experience, the specific areas to explore are less important in homeschooling than the development of character demanded to be successful. Computers have already demonstrated that they can be programmed to know far more “stuff” than any single human can possibly know.   I gave Nia’s parents our Traits for Success calendar (see my next posting Friday!) and encouraged them to focus on Nia’s confidence through character development. 

     Nia came back from her sailboat schooling a year and a half later.  She had some catch-up work to do in Math and Science which took her all of one week to complete.  However, from that day forward, Nia shone in character.  She had spent the year attentively exploring winds and the ocean.  She had persistently studied the stars and knew things about the solar system that her parents had found compelling.  She had written journals that showed a detailed and organized assessment of her life, her environment, and her character.  She had demonstrated a courage and flexibility in learning through storms at sea, through the doldrums of a windless journey, through the long distance search at sea for a lost dinghy, and through the fears of shipwreck in the shallows.   She had learned to be responsible and confident.  Her year in the hands of her parents was the beginning of her life as a confident, take charge learner.

Do you have thoughts about this?  We welcome you to the conversation.  Please let us know that you care by liking comments, forwarding posts, or joining in our dialogue at johnzurn.com.

Coming Next: Traits for Success

From our first posting: As parents and teachers, we need to reclaim our traditional role as influencers of our children – not by shouting louder than the influencers our children discover online, but by stressing ideas that are more important than fancy shoes and snappy TikTok tunes. We need to emphasize traits that everyone agrees children will honor.  We need to convince our children that the people who are most important to them have a better understanding of what it takes to be successful in life.

John Zurn began his educational career teaching fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children in K through 8th grade independent school settings.   He went on to serve as Head of School for three independent schools over a twenty-eight year period.   John has written a book on a comprehensive school-wide character education program which was published in 2022 and updated in 2024.  He is currently working on a book directed towards teaching Traits for Success to students in grades 4 through 8.

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