Changing Perspectives on Homeschooling | An Interview with Dr. Timberly Baker

As homeschooling grows, so does the conversation about how education is defined. Join Dr. Timberly Baker (Associate Professor of Educational Leadership at Arkansas State University) and Jim Mason, HSLDA President, in a discussion on challenging the traditional view of schooling. Many prospective and novice homeschool families can feel insurmountable pressure to create a structured, 8-to-3 schedule. This doesn't need to be! Parents are their child's first teacher, guiding their learning every day! Learning can (and does!) take place anywhere, and a rigid schedule isn't required. The possibilities of homeschooling are endless, and each student's experience is unique. "I often say that we are our children's first teacher. So you've already done much of this work in terms of teaching them what you think that they need to know. You do it all the time anyway! We have to disrupt our thinking that schooling happens in this sort of 8 to 3 structure only, and that if it's not that, then it's not a school, right? And so, once we get to helping folks disrupt that notion, then it becomes a much broader conversation about the possibility of being able to homeschool"—Dr. Timberly Baker