“If you are happy with the way things are in the schools, and your children are happy and fulfilled, fine. I’m glad you are happy, and that the schools are doing what you want them to for you. But there are lots of people out there who are very unhappy, and it’s to those people that I’m offering this other choice, and saying that they don’t have to just accept what’s imposed on them. It takes a lot of determination, and some hard work, but you can teach your own!” (John Holt)
This site was set up in late 2010 and is still a work-in-progress. So please bear with us. Here, we have two basic objectives: firstly, to provide parents with information and options on educating their children; and secondly, and perhaps more importantly, to create a local, Trinidad and Tobago, network of parents who are interested in educating their children at home or at least outside the traditional schools.
Currently, with the exception of “www.homeschoolmedia.net”, all the forum sites on the Internet which contain advice for local (Trinidad and Tobago) home schooling or alternative forms of education do not allow members to exchange contact information. I think this is unfortunate and rather selfish. I aim to change all that and bring people together for the common objective of nuturing the minds of their children – FOR FREE! There is absolutely no charge and I have nothing to sell you.
As this website now stands, most of the few articles posted deal with problems within the traditional education system, but don’t despair, there will soon be articles about Solutions. Bear in mind however, that the solutions presented here would not be ‘cut and dried’. They will need your ingenuity and effort to apply them to your given situation.
Progress Update (March 30th 2011):
Since our launch in October 2010 we have been contacted by approximately 15 parents who are interested in homeschooling mostly from south and central Trinidad. Of these, only one is actually homeschooling her three children. Mostly, parents are in some crisis mode with their child being bullied or undergoing some other stressful situation at school. In these cases, the parent either changes the school or tries to address the problem in some other way. Please be aware that such solutions are, in the main, only a temporary palliative. Personally, I see the effect of traditional schooling on children the way ultra-violet sunlight works on plastic – you don’t see the damage being done until it’s too late.
We have not yet set up a ‘center’ for homeschooling as most parents, including myself, would like. Much of this has to do with me, my other responsibilities and my poor time management. However, we are looking at doing this soon. I guess, at this stage, the more parents we have involved the easier it might become to achieve a critical mass to get things rolling.