“Outliers” and Homeschooling

Over the holidays, I read Malcolm Gladwell’s new book, Outliers: The Story of Success.

The book attempts to answer the question, Why do some people succeed far more than others?

A couple of things really jumped out to me seen through the eyes of a homeschooling parent — or, you might say, someone who is always thinking about education, learning, and lifestyle.

One was the 10,000 hour rule — the idea that in order to become excellent at something, you need to devote about 10,000 hours to it:

The other interesting thing about that ten thousand hours, of course, is that ten thousand hours is an enormous amount of time. It’s all but impossible to reach that number all by yourself by the time you’re a young adult. You have to have parents who encourage and support you. You can’t be poor, because if you have to hold down a part-time job on the side to help make ends meet, there won’t be time left in the day to practice enough. In fact, most people can reach that number only if they get into some kind of special program … or if they get some kind of extraordinary opportunity that gives them a chance to put in those hours.

Of course, when I read this, my thought was, Homeschooling is that kind of extraordinary opportunity.

In fact, I think you could replace “poor” with “in school”.

And I’m not just talking about the parents who homeschool so that their child can be a young gymnastics star or a professional actor — I’m thinking about the hours that my sons have to devote to their intense interests.

The hours that my older son spends playing computer games like Civilization and Age of Empires, then reading thick history books and poring over atlases, then writing and drawing notes and diagrams in his journal. The hours that my younger son spends drawing comics and comic books, reading biographies of his favorite cartoonists, and filling notebook after notebook with sketches and story ideas.

And, I would suggest it isn’t just in the area of intense interests — things that may end up being one’s chosen career — that this extraordinary opportunity of time plays a part.

Homeschooled children also have more time — much more time — to devote to things like socializing (4-H, boy scouts, book groups, co-ops), trying new things (musical instruments, sports teams, hobbies), playing outdoors, reading, being with their families and friends, and just doing nothing.

It seems to me that all that extra time living adds up to an advantage. Lots of practice (10,000 hours?) in relationships (understanding other people) and self-knowledge (understanding themselves).

With that advantage, homeschooled young adults could be better equipped to make serious life choices like what college will I go to (if I go to college), what work do I want to pursue, how do I want to live.

Of course, that means they would need to have the freedom to explore these things from the time they are young — the freedom to make some of their own decisions, the opportunity to learn from their own mistakes.

Is that freedom — that extraordinary opportunity — perhaps the best thing homeschooling has to offer?

Comments

[amy]

If someone were to ask why we homeschool, my first answer would be "freedom." Freedom on all levels: for my kids to talk when they want to, go to the bathroom when they need to without asking permission, and eat when they're hungry. Freedom for us to travel as a family at the time of year that makes the most sense for us, and not based on the school calendar. Freedom for me and my children to follow our own sleep rhythms and not have to get up at the crack of dawn to catch a school bus. Freedom to read what we want, play what we want, and pursue our own interests without having to get through the busy work first. And on and on and on.

[Lori]

amy, beautifully said.

i always say that while most people focus on the educational aspect of homeschooling, for us it is really a lifestyle choice. both of us work at home, by choice. the freedom that we have to set our daily and weekly schedule as it suits us and to travel when it suits us .. it is really priceless.

[Sandy]

I would say that this is at least the second best thing homeschooling has to offer, protection being the first. I would love it if we could help people see that this is what life at home really is.

[Lori]

you could almost look at it, sandy, that homeschooling *protects* them from all the wasted hours that public schooling usually entails.

[Barbara]

Definitely. I think it is especially important in this day and age of standardization and globalization to have people who are willing and passionate about raising their children in an alternative and progressive way. It's What keeps diversity alive and serves as a good system of checks and balances with main-stream society. That sounds like a really interesting read.

[michelle]

I love reading everything you write, Lori. Even though my child goes to school, I keep many of your ideas with me each day. They inspire me. I wish my son could go to homeschool at your house. ;)

[sarah]

perfect. you make me fall in love with homeschooling again and again.

[Lori]

i agree, barbara -- homeschoolers are really using those american freedoms we hold so dear. it does make a nice counterpoint to what we're doing in institutionalized education.

michelle, thank you so much! and i would take him in a heartbeat. you’d have to make us all gnome hats, though. ;^)

thank you, sarah! aw. :^)

[nancy]

yes, yes and yes again-that's me agreeeing as I read this post:) i was just feeling really bummed yesterday when I answered someones quesiton about "how many hours we homeschooled a day". I gave some lame answer about reading alot of books and being relaxed and thenfelt like a big loser. then realized later that my child has an instrument to play and he can play it during the day, while at home, and it's school ,and that's okay. freedom and all that time is the good stuff of life at home.

[Dawn]

Perfect for our first offical day of *homeschooling*. What a great day it was! Thanks again Lori!

[Sam]

I haven't read the book, but I read about the "10,000 hours" in a newspaper article about where genius comes from.
As I read it, I wondered why no-one mentioned home education. How many opportunities are lost, in schools?
And I totally agree with Amy about freedom - freedom to grow in your own way.
I'll have to look out for this book :-)

[Lori]

nancy, yes, we just have to remember everything that is really included in homeschooling -- if someone asks you that again, i would just say something about how there are no boundaries between learning time and not learning time anymore!

thank you, dawn, i’m glad you enjoyed, and i’m glad you had a first day back! ;^)

sam, i know, i couldn’t believe homeschooling wasn’t mentioned in the book! it seems the natural answer to “there’s not enough time for excellence”. why, yes .. yes, there is!

it is an interesting book .. a lot of ideas and theories are thrown around that aren’t exactly supported by the few anecdotes included .. but it was a really interesting read, and it certainly got me thinking. i love big ideas, so it was a thumbs-up for me. :^)

[Theresa]

Yes, I think freedom is one of the very best things about homeschooling. (That and relationships). But sadly I think a lot of homeschoolers miss out on the very best thing by trying to re-create school at home. I know I did at first. I am a slow study, so it has taken me awhile to truly appreciate and embrace the freedom that homeschooling allows. But now every day seems like such an enormous gift I cannot imagine ever going back to that school mentality.

[Sarah Jackson]

I have to agree - a great read for our first official day too. My kid who has to be DRAGGED out of bed was up at 6:30 this morning, dressed, and ready to go. She was so excited. I think the best part was attendance. "okay, we're here! now what?"

Thanks for all the handholding, friend.

[vita]

This was a great thing to read for someone like myself, who is just starting to homeschool. I needed it! thank you

[Alice]

Our homeschooling hiatus/christmas holiday is at an end and tomorrow it is back to public school. I was already stressing about where all the pieces of the uniform are when I remembered that Wednesday is sports day which means tracksuit and gym shoes and the thought that keeps resounding in my head is "this is not an authentic life".

My 7 year old has chosen to stay at school. She likes it. Who knows, perhaps she'll end up being a teacher one day - the progressive type I hope. Having a child in school means using all those precious free moments wisely - anticipating some of the subjects so that my daughter has the seeds already sown when the teacher presents a new topic and enriching and expanding topics covered at school at home.

I have raised the subject of homework already with my daughters teachers without much success but after hearing from the other parents over the christmas break - all unhappy about the amount of homework our kids had to do (they are only in second grade!) - I think we might be able to make a united effort to decrease the homework load. Not only do they not have time to follow their own interests, they don't have time to be with family and friends, nor go outside and play or explore. I discovered that there was a whole army of parents at home helping their children draw up laborious maths tables and colour in pages and pages of work!

10,000 hours - I'm not even going to sit down with pen and paper to figure that one out! Lucky we are all night owls and my daughter reads away well into the night:)

My new years resolution is to help my daughter spend more time socialising - the thing she really loves about school is her friends. It is so easy to get caught up in the whole school-home-homework-school rythm. This year I am going to concentrate on more time for people and more time for authentic learning and worry less about school.

Alice

[Lori]

theresa, well, i imagine that freedom is something you have to get used to, don’t you think? everyone has to start from the known and work toward the unknown. it seems there are a lot of people who step down slowly from a very structured traditional-school-like model and some of them make several adjustments while they feel for the thing that is right for them. simply making the decision to homeschool probably feels so dangerous so many people that they need to adjust before they try something even more radical. ;^)

sarah, lol re: annika being ready to go at 6:30. okay, i’m going to call that an excellent example of why it’s so much easier to educate a child when they are genuinely interested. :^) and you are very welcome!

vita, thank you! good luck on your adventure!

alice, i hope that you and the other parents can band together and force a more reasonable homework schedule. children really deserve that time to be with their friends and family, to play and just relax! you are so right about that daily rhythm, too -- i’m glad you’ve decided to worry less about school. :^) good luck!

[sarah]

I adore Malcolm Gladwell. I still haven't read "The Tipping Point", but that should be remedied in short order. I just last night watched a talk he did at TED about spaghetti sauce. He's really enjoyable to watch speak.

[Marcie]

Hi Lori, I just finished reading Outliers too. I love to think about the ideas Gladwell brings up in his books. That 10,000 hours thing was really thought provoking and I like how you connected it with homeschooling. Gladwell shared a pretty extreme pro-school example of how to improve education and I was so busy getting upset about his push for 10 hour school days followed by several hours of homework each night, that I didn't think about how homeschooling could provide that same intensity of time, especially with project based learning : ) while still allowing for balance.

Thanks for sharing.

Marcie

[Lori]

sarah, i really liked tipping point, too. i agree with people who say he doesn’t provide enough data to support his conclusions .. but love his stories and the big ideas. i need to walk his TED talk; i haven’t seen it!

marcie, thank you! i thought it was really strange he didn’t even mention homeschooling in the book. something like the fact that homeschoolers now dominate the national spelling bee .. probably because they have much more time to practice. the fact that so many parents of “professional” kids (actors, athletes, musicians) end up homeschooling their kids, no doubt so they can get in those 10,000 hours. interesting.