Happy and Blessed New Year!

This month’s “teaching tip” will also deal with the concept of No Opt-Out. Home school parents live under the burden of both the tyranny of the urgent and the nitty-gritty of teaching students. There are household duties, emergencies, and often children that are not yet in school that need your attention. And then, after all this, lesson plans to complete with only so many hours to get it done. Equally, there are living, breathing human beings who, as individuals, have their own personal issues that they bring to class that the homeschooling teacher is forced to deal with daily. These “human beings” are your children, as well as your Students!

The great thing about Students is that they are essentially like sponges that can absorb so much information that it is truly amazing to behold! The bad thing about Students is that they can be resistant to absorption of the information that their parent-teachers want them to absorb which is the “nitty-gritty of teaching students” noted in the first paragraph above.

What’s a teacher to do???

If we go back to our first Teaching Tip in our first issue of The Christian Educator, we considered the necessity of the teacher to realize that he/she is not only ‘the adult in the room,’ but equally the adult Teacher who oversees the classroom – wherever that may be in the house – and thus in charge of the students.

Essentially, the teacher should not make apologies for what is being taught, nor negotiate with the students. Again, the adult Teacher oversees executing the lesson plan. Part of said “lesson plan” will of course mean work the student must do independently.

The teacher gives an assignment to the student; a series of math problems or reading assignments or writing assignments. Whatever the task might be – the teacher is responsible for teaching and assigning work, and the student is to comply and do the assigned work in preparation for the next concept to be learned. Simple.

The concept of No Opt-Out means that the students are held accountable for the work. They cannot “Opt-Out” of the assignment. This, actually, is one of the points that is easier to handle in a home school situation than in a classroom situation. In a classroom situation, assignments given as homework are often just not done. In a home school situation, assignments given as homework are often just not done. In a home school situation, the assignments given to students to do independently are usually done during the school day, and you are immediately aware of whether they are working on the assignment or not. If the student does not complete the assignment, they will not go forward to the next concept. In other words, they cannot skip a concept.

The main concept here is that the unprepared Student is not allowed to “Opt-Out” of the assigned work. Thus, it is imperative that as the teacher of the homeschool Students – you are willing to hold the line and keep those Students working.

Hold the line teachers!