Don’t Homeschool! Are You A Trained Teacher?

Today marks our first post in the series: Don’t Homeschool! It will ruin your kids. We will be looking at the first reason not to homeschool: being a trained teacher.

Did I attend Teacher’s College? No
Do I have a teaching degree or diploma? No
So what makes me qualified to teach MY kids?

Here is my simple answer: Its not the degree that matters so much but the skill set. What are the two things that you need to have to be a good teacher? You need to know the material and you need to be able to teach the material.

KNOW THE MATERIAL

I have an honours degree from one of the finest institutions in the Caribbean. (I am a Jamaican living in Canada, remember?)  But we should always remember that while the certificate looks great, it’s the skill set that counts.

How many times have we crammed the night before an exam, passed it, and then weeks later cannot remember anything?  And how many people actually take the time to keep up with what they’ve learned after they have graduated?  It’s possible to have a degree and still not really know the material.

On the other hand, a person who doesn’t have a degree but has the ability to learn, the drive to learn, and the desire to keep learning might actually know the material better than a person who does have a degree.   I’m not saying that having a degree isn’t important, but having a degree doesn’t necessarily mean that you know the material that you need to teach.

So here are some questions you need to ask:

1. Do you know the material?
2. Do you have the capacity to learn the material?
3. Do you have the drive to go that extra mile and learn the material well?

Be Able To Teach the Material

The same thing goes for being able to teach the material. It’s not the certificate that counts so much but the skill set. How many people with a teaching certificate are actually horrible teachers? They can’t teach the material and, even worse, they can sometimes be EXTREMELY boring.

Being able to teach is something that can be learned and there are resources that can help you be a better teacher if you are willing to learn. There are also scripted curricula that tell you exactly what to say when you are teaching. With a little practice, you won’t even need it.

CONCLUSION

You don’t need to have formal training as a teacher to homeschool your kids. But you do need to have the capacity, the desire, and the drive to learn. If you have the desire to learn and to teach well you can be even better than someone with a certificate.

In part 2 of the series, Don’t Homeschool! It Will Ruin Your Kids, I will look an ‘oldy but goody’: your kids won’t be socialized!