MRS. BAIN: I think we have been talking a lot about empowering children. I'd like to suggest that we also need to empower parents, because in order to empower children parents need to be empowered. Part of that I think is changing the mindset of the parents of Jamaica because a lot of parents feel that education is something that happens from 8:00 to 2 o'clock and after which you lock off, there is no further interaction with the child about his or her day and that's a myth. I think Mrs. Blake-Hannah brought up the concept of on-schooling which is that everything in life is a learning experience.
MS. JONES: School without walls.
MRS. BAIN: Parents need to understand that, that learning continues even after formal school hours are over and that a parent has every right and should take advantage of opportunities to continue teaching the child, whether you are home schooling or not, and I think that if a parent really does feel deficient that, you know, there is access to other programmes. I am particularly looking forward to the inauguration for want of a better word of the High School Equivalency Programme and that's something I think will empower parents and help them to be able to teach.
MRS. BAIN: I think the benefits of home schooling my child or my children when that time comes, are that I am able to assess where my child is at, what her strengths are, what her abilities are, what her weaknesses are, and I can design a programme that meets her needs and not have to worry about whether she is going to lag behind in her class or be frustrated because she is ahead of the class. Before I go into the weaknesses, the other benefit is I am giving her a wholistic education, you know.
The curriculum I am using right now is the Abeka curriculum which was designed by the Pensacola Christian College in Florida and it teachers the child using an integrated approach, which I think is very beneficial, but combined with that there is an element of on-schooling that I have as well, which is finding out what she is interested in and allowing her the time and the opportunity to focus on the things that she is interested in. So I think that's a benefit that she may not have had if she had gone into the formal educational system. And that's not the fault of the system because the system has its limitations. One of the weaknesses (to home-schooling) I think is that because right now she is the only child that I am home schooling, there is not much opportunity at home for her to be engaged in things like working in teams, and so that's a challenge that I will have to overcome, and there are things that I will do which will assist her in that area.
I do intend to liaise with a school so that, for example, if she is interested in singing on a choir I can provide her with that opportunity. If she wants to swim I can provide her with the opportunity to swim on a team, so that that she is learning how to interact with other children. I suppose another disadvantage or potential disadvantage would be that I may not possess all the facilities that she might need and again there may be need for me to liaise with a school who may have a physics lab that is well equipped to help her with her lessons, but those are not challenges that are not insurmountable and they just require some creativity.
