It’s the individualization that I can do that no school can really do for them.
D
NURTURING NATURAL CURIOSITY Newt Sherwin ’99, Homeschool Teacher
orothy Jean, 8, is reading in her room. Thomas, 6, is playing quietly in his. Jerry,
3, is frolicking happily in the basement. One- year-old Ruth is perched on the hip of the teacher, known to these students as “mom.” It’s quiet time, says Newt Sherwin ’99, before
the lessons begin again. The Sherwin children are being homeschooled and likely will be until col- lege. According to the National Center for Educa- tion Statistics of the U.S. Department of Educa- tion, there were about 1.5 million homeschooled students in 2007, representing 2.9 percent of all students. Around 2 percent of each HMC entering class has been homeschooled. “It’s the individualization that I can do that no school can really do for them,” says Sherwin about the decision she and her husband, Chris Sherwin ’00,
21 Har vey Mudd College SPRING 2011
(physics) made to homeschool, though they both had traditional educations. Sherwin (chemistry) utilizes the classical method of homeschooling, which puts history at the center of lessons. The Sherwin children have covered ancient
Greece, including lessons on levers and simple ma- chines, and are now “in the Middle Ages” where D.J. is enthusiastically combining math and cook- ing to help prepare a feast that will be shared with friends. Thomas is equally thrilled to practice writ- ing and science while learning about knights and castles. For math lessons, Sherwin uses an online curriculum that allows each child to work at his/her own pace; D.J. is working at the sixth grade level and Thomas “is amazing at geometry and spatial reasoning.”
“I think our institutional educational systems educate children away from curiosity,” says Sher- win. “Homeschooling allows parents to follow their children’s curiosity where it leads.”
MARK BATTRELL
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