Voyage of discovery

Voyage of discovery


One Hong Kong couple find that local schools are unable to match the standard of home education they provided their children on a round-the-world yacht trip
Elaine Yau (elaine.yau@scmp.com) 
Jul 15, 2012     
SCMP


Freelance writer Cam Cheung Wai-nui and her husband, former police superintendent Robert Highfield, are unconventional parents. When the couple decided after Highfield's retirement in 2005 to realise his childhood dream of sailing around the world, they surprised friends and relatives by taking their two young daughters along.
During the voyage Molly and Nancy, now aged 13 and 11, kept up with their studies through a home-schooling programme. When they returned from the odyssey in 2009, the usual school classrooms awaited them. 


But while others might send their children to elite schools and enrol them in special interest classes to bolster résumés, their parents sent them to an integrated government school with a programme for special needs pupils.


http://www.facebook.com/homeschool1


The idea, Cheung says, was to give the girls some early exposure to people from different backgrounds by having them study alongside hearing-impaired, autistic and hyperactive children.


But after the freedom and flexibilty of home-schooling, Hong Kong's regimented education proved too much for their daughters. So, after Easter this year, just months before Nancy was due to complete her primary education, Cheung took them out of the school and went back to teaching the girls herself.


Cheung has since written a book about her experiences in devising a home-schooling curriculum and the insight she gained from delving into various education issues. 


Titled My Children Learn Differently (Feel Publishing), the Chinese-language title, released last week, is also a biting critique of the local education system.


Two years on the treadmill of Hong Kong classrooms turned her daughters from lively youngsters into a couple of lost, listless girls, Cheung says.


"They no longer had [their own] views on things," she says. "I asked them many questions [about their day] but they just shrugged and present an impassive face."


Cheung blames the school's exhausting study schedule for dampening her children's enthusiasm and curiosity about the world around them.


"When we home-schooled them during our four-year trip, it was very flexible. All homework was during class time, which we set at three hours a day.


They had free time after classes. After living like that for four or five years, they found local school life strange.


"Molly had to spend several hours every day completing her homework, and this caused her a severe lack of sleep. The homework, which required copying and model answers, was very monotonous. They were so tired after school that I had to cut down on visits to grandparents and other activities," Cheung recalls.


Although deeply disenchanted with the local education system, Cheung says she and her husband struggled with the decision to resume home-schooling.


"After four years of home-schooling them at sea, I was eager to hand back the responsibility of teaching them to the school. A sentence uttered by a teacher is more powerful than thousands of words from a mother.


Deadlines also work better in a school setting, as teachers are more authoritative and they get a different kind of respect from children," she says.


"Moreover, I was chairwoman of the parent-teacher association at Wo Che Lutheran School in Sha Tin which Nancy was attending. She was only several months away from graduating when she left. The school showed genuine care about students' learning needs and I felt I was deserting it."


But this was outweighed by the Highfields' concerns about the effect that the straitjacket-learning system in government schools was having on their children, especially Nancy.


Their elder daughter, Molly, had adapted better. She got on well with her classmates in primary school and did well enough to secure a place in Pui Ying College, a sought-after secondary school in Sha Tin.


But Nancy, who loves art and wants to become an artist, didn't enjoy her time back at school at all.


"All the kids would only talk about their favourite anime characters and other silly things," she says.


"I could not find a way to communicate with them without saying something that made them think I was weird. The classes were so boring that you almost fall asleep."


Cheung says their younger daughter enjoyed life on the boat when both parents were around all the time.


"She doesn't like it when I am not at home. The pressure of school made it worse," says Cheung. "She has very strong views on things and her forgetfulness sometimes got her into trouble at school. She found most of her classmates immature, couldn't make many friends and would take a novel to school and read alone in a corner most of the time."


Cheung criticises officials for creating an education system that emphasises homework and academic learning at the expense of students' overall development. It even encroaches on precious family time, which mostly revolves around discussions about revisions and exams.


Instead of helping children to be self-learners who can find out answers by themselves, she says teachers here expect conformity from students who are simply fed chunks of facts.


History textbooks in Hong Kong are mostly filled with dry facts compared with the well-written course material for the US-devised Calvert school curriculum, which she chose for homeschooling at sea. 


The components about Greek mythology and art history are written in such a lively way that I enjoy reading them too," Cheung says. "While local students have to copy their composition with all the teachers' corrections, Calvert gives students a free rein with writing exercises. Parents highlight the mistakes, so their work isn't filled with big crosses."


It took nerve, resolve and hard work for the Highfields to push ahead with home-schooling in Hong Kong, not least because parents are required by law to send their children to school.


"A proposal for home-schooling is scary in Hong Kong, where it's illegal to keep children away from school.


We wrote to the Education Bureau setting out our plan and spelling out our justifications for doing so," Cheung says.


As might be expected, the Highfields' scheme met with a cool reception. The Education Bureau replied saying that students were required by law to attend a recognised school, Cheung recalls, and officials made inquiries at their daughters' school and asked the principal to have a word with them.


But the couple persisted in their quest. They met Education Bureau officials in their Kowloon Tong headquarters and presented detailed plans.


Their thorough groundwork evidently won over the officials: "In the end, they acknowledged that some children benefited from alternative education although they stressed that the policy is for youngsters to be educated in schools. They eventually approved [our application] and they will conduct a home visit to see our progress later."


Cheung reckons her biggest challenge is working out how to instil self-discipline in her daughters and how to make learning interesting for them.


"Home-schooling is a big learning process for me. I have been reading books on how to teach critical thinking, classroom management and child psychology. We are still working on the best methods to teach them."


Highfield takes an active role in the girls' education: besides drawing up the lesson schedule, he is responsible for teaching history and geography.


"Most kids hate history. They have to memorise a lot of meaningless facts.


I am taking them this year through the history of the human race from its beginning up to the civilisations and peoples in the world today. When doing this, we also cover the geography of mankind's spread and where they ended up and why. They are learning about the principles of palaeoanthropology and DNA studies which will give them a good foundation for more detailed study later.


"Once they understand the general picture of the whole of human history, we will go into more detail in chosen areas that interest them."


Chinese language is his wife's sole purview, but he also supports her in maths, science and English lessons.


"[The girls] usually won't mess around. If they get bored, we do something different," Highfield says.


"Most of the time, Cam is the disciplinarian and I am the cajoler to get them to toe the line. I usually inject humour, which helps if things are not going well."


Cheung also goes out of her way to develop interesting educational material for her daughters. Sam Hui Koon-kit's Canto-pop classics, for instance, can offer insight into Hong Kong's social and cultural changes.


"I try to use current affairs and things relating to daily life when teaching Chinese. They love the political satire in Civic Party legislator Tanya Chan Suk-chong 's recent stand-up show," she says.


The girls may return to conventional classes when they advance to higher levels, but, for now, their parents haven't set a timeline for the home-schooling.


"It all depends on how they are doing," Cheung says.


To make up for the loss of their seafaring lifestyle when they returned to Hong Kong, she enrolled her daughters in dinghy sailing classes, and Molly has taken to the sport with gusto.


"Sailing practice continues under the sun or rain. By exposing them to the elements and getting them to use skills and speed to beat others, the sport can train their perseverance and all-round development," she says.


"My husband tried teaching them sailing while we were in Vanuatu, but they didn't pick it up until they came back to Hong Kong. Molly really loves boat racing and wants to be a professional sailor after she grows up."


With Highfield and Cheung closely involved in their children's education, learning is a collaborative activity that often involves everyone in the family.


"We devote six hours every day to learning. There's no homework. We do outings and physical education together. We play badminton and go swimming. I sometimes do crafts, cooking and knitting with them for home-economics lessons. Learning is far more efficient when the subject matter is interesting and they are not in a big class with pupils of varying ability," says Cheung.



"Molly has just finished writing her second novel and is working with her dad on a book on poems.
When they finish, Nancy will provide the illustrations and I will do the Chinese translation."

Overcoming the Obstacles to Homeschooling

Overcoming the Obstacles to Homeschooling
3/20/2012


  Growing up, my mom would have frequent conversations with women about homeschooling. I often heard comments such as: “Homeschooling sounds like a good idea but I could never learn to teach.” or “I just don’t know if I am smart enough to teach high school.” This always struck me as weird because my mom never gave me that impression even though she had only gotten a general Associates Degree and had no prior teaching experience. Yet in talking to her I realized that she had felt the same way starting out. “I can’t be a wife, a mother, and a schoolteacher” she would say to people. But one year she decided to give it a try because she “couldn’t very well mess up first grade” and since then she has been a very successful homeschooler of four. This is a very common feeling for ladies to have when considering whether or not to homeschool. It can seem like a very daunting task but I want to reassure you that it is not as difficult as it may seem at first glance! Here are a few simple things to think about that may help you when you feel that, though you would like to, you do not have the ability to be a successful homeschool mom.


http://easss.com/edu/home


  Number 1: Style makes all the difference. It can be scary when you start thinking about all of the things you need to teach your children and it’s easy to get lost in that instead of stepping back and looking at the big picture. Just because the public school system teaches using a certain curriculum or a certain number of subjects does not mean that is what you have to do. The goal is to have children who know where to find answers, rather than having to actually know all the answers. Instilling a love of learning is more important than learning facts. There may be some things you don’t know but if you can sit with your child and say, “I’m not sure. Let’s figure this out together,” then you are both learning and teaching them to learn as well.


Some people like to have a very rigid homeschool schedule where the kids get up at 6 am and have an hour for each subject. This can work very well but it may not be your style and it doesn’t mean you have to do it that way. Find what works for you and your family. For my family growing up, my mom wanted to put more emphasis on reading, writing and math. She picked books that incorporated history and some science, had vocabulary and spelling drills, and essentially let all the things she considered to be less necessary become part of the things she thought were necessary. This helped her to be less stressed out about having so much to do, and enabled her to feel more confident in herself. Develop what works and have confidence!


Number 2: You don’t need to be ultra-smart; you just need to have faith in yourself. My husband got a degree in engineering physics and I pretty much had no clue what was involved in that until it was explained to me. I am no rocket scientist to be sure! In growing up and watching my mom teach us I learned that fortunately, I did not need to be a rocket scientist either to learn the things I needed throughout my schooling, or to teach my own children. What is needed, however, is the ability to learn. Letting your children figure things out for themselves helps them with their diligence, critical thinking and self-motivation. Perhaps it may not be your style but it is something good and it takes the burden off you feeling you must do or know all of their work. When they realize that they are responsible for their learning instead of having things handed to them, they will often rise to the challenge! When they do need help, be there for them and don’t worry if you don’t know a subject well. You can learn it together and help build your relationship with your children.


Number 3: The amount of schooling time is not as long as it seems. Often people may think that homeschooling will take up too much time in their day. This can be true, depending on your children’s personalities, learning speed and what type of schooling style you use. However, I have found with myself and so many other homeschoolers that they actually have a lot more free time in a day then those in public school. 


It makes sense if you think about it. With public school you have one teacher for an average of say 30 kids. The teacher has to divide his/her time between that many students. Those who are smarter have to wait for those who are slower, and those who are slower are rushed. Additionally, there are recesses and travel time between classes. When you do school at home you eliminate so much of this. You have fewer students and a teacher who can spend more time on each one, and perhaps the older students even do their own schoolwork. Often growing up, I would get up at 4 am to start school and if I worked well I would be completely done before lunch. And no homework! Of course, 4 am was never appealing and it doesn’t have to be that way but this kind of flexibility is very helpful and can allow you to do things at each child’s pace and to have time for afternoon field trips to the zoo, etc. If you want them to do one math lesson each day, or two lessons and skip a day, you can alter the schedule according to your needs.


Number 4: We can make learning more fun and emphasize what really needs to be there for our kids. If you want to put an emphasis on science, go for it. If you want emphasize reading, go for it. If you want your children to learn things they aren’t learning in public school, you can teach them. If you don’t want your children learning things they learn in public school, don’t teach them. It’s so wonderful to have the flexibility and ability to be in control of what your children are learning and to make school more fun and interesting. Maybe the best way to learn about bugs is to take them into a field, observe, and have them write a report. Maybe the best way to teach home economics is to have them help with dinner. Homeschooling is meant to be a joy and not a burden, giving you opportunities and different choices, and especially allowing you to spend quality time connecting with your children as family.


Number 5: We homeschool even before we send our kids to school. Someone asked my dad once: “Why do you homeschool?” and he replied, “Why did you stop?” I found that to be a very humorous way of illustrating a big truth. We are teaching our children whenever they are with us! They observe everything we do. My husband often comments to me about a couple of mispronunciations I have, and recently when my mom and grandma were here I realized that they both have the same mispronunciations. It made me realize how much I had taken in subconsciously as a child.


To toddlers we teach colors, shapes, behavior, letters, songs, you name it. It comes very naturally and yet as soon as it becomes geometry we get a little nervous. This is understandable. It can feel daunting when you realize the influence you have makes a difference. But this is meant to encourage us to rise to the challenge and believe in ourselves that we can do it, and we can be flexible to get it done how each of us personally needs to do it. As Bob Wiley says in What About Bob: “Baby steps!”


There are many other factors to mention but I hope you find these tips helpful as you consider your possibilities for best educating your children!


By Brittany Wyatt