Kickin' it Old School

The theme of the August beijing kids was Innovative Education. There were features covering online learning, arts in education, and effective use of new technologies in schools. For my column, "Alternate Routes," I wrote about how I intended to be radical and cutting edge in our homeschooling, but---

At the beginning of this “education adventure,” I enthusiastically researched curricula and teaching methods, hoping to provide my kids the most creative, cutting edge instruction I could synthesize. I aspired to make extensive use of online resources like Khan Academy and virtual coursework.

Further, paper would be banished, or at the very least severely limited, in my innovative homeschool of the future, as all work could be completed on digital media of some sort. The idea of freeing our homeschool life from the unbearable weight of paper felt like a victory long before the battle had begun.

Once I was in the thick of it, actually working on educating my older child, I made a few difficult and humbling discoveries.

And what were these humbling discoveries? Well, some of them involved paper. Lots and lots of paper.

If you aren't in a position to pick up a hard copy of the magazine, the rest can be found on the beijing kids website.