Why I Chose to Enroll in Classical Conversations, and Why I’d Validate Your Choice Not to By Jamie Buckland

Our homeschooling journey began in the middle of my oldest child’s kindergarten year. We were a young family, easily influenced, and began to truly appreciate the difference that was apparent in the children of many homeschoolers we met. As I learned more about the concept, I was ever aware of my own ignorance, and wondered how a mom who barely attended high school, and never went to college, would be able to take responsibility for her children’s education.

We dove in. I had a “school room” and boxes full of donated curricula to sort through. The first half of our year was spent figuring out what I needed and what I didn’t. This was hugely discouraging and overwhelming for me. I felt inadequate and unmotivated to search out better options. The second half of our year was spent realizing that character was at the heart of Ethan’s education. If we were ever to learn together, he would have to learn self-control and respect. I would too.

During our second year, I attended a conference where I was attracted to an extremely inexpensive color-coded curriculum. This is not a joke. It looked simple, laid out, and fit my tiny budget. Just a few months into that school year, Ethan and I were disengaged and realizing field trips were way more fun than a traditional style curriculum.

Before our third year, I took a test to help me figure out how I could best combine his learning style with my teaching style. This was the year my Emma was beginning Kindergarten, and I needed to figure this out before it swallowed me whole. On this test, I scored lowest in Classical Education, so I wrote it off immediately. I scored highest on Unit Studies, Charlotte Mason, and Unschooling. So, that is the path we chose.

Our fourth and fifth years were spent studying organically. The lessons were indeed led by the interests Ethan and Emma had. This is a beautiful school of thought, and one I still favor highly. However, at the end of our fifth year, I realized that there were some major holes. I realized that I had missed the boat somewhere.
     
Along our unschooling journey, I hadn’t educated the whole heart. Subjects that did not interest the children were neglected in order to avoid strife. Math, Reading, Writing, and English Grammar were inconsistent on the whole. I realized that although we had gained more than I could count in many areas, in five years I had still not found a way to incorporate necessary learning into our daily schooling. That was a problem.
     
With middle and high school approaching, I realized that my then third grader needed more help in the above-mentioned subjects than my eldest ever had. The responsibility of a nursing babe about to approach her first birthday prompted me to attend an info meeting for something I knew I wasn’t cut out for: Classical Conversations. We were no longer such a young family, and were not so easily influenced. However, I respected and appreciated those who seemed to feel this was a valid program, so I felt it would have been foolish to ignore it entirely.
     
My heart is rarely anxious and I do not often lack confidence. This was not the case with Classical Education and I was happy to let others know how inadequate I felt to the task after hearing the information represented to me that night.
       
I took one thing home from that first meeting. Around the ages of 11/12, students begin to need conversation to learn at a deeper level. They need to ask questions. They need to come up with their own answers, which may be different from that of the parent’s. I had been squashing my son’s natural progression in learning by often denying his desire for conversations.

I then attended a three day event meant to educate and equip parents in the classical model. Never was I more aware of my lack of experience in academics than during this time. It wasn’t the speaker, nor the material. It wasn’t even my own academic ignorance that was at fault. The problem was simply my lack of investment in my own role as my children’s teacher. Since the beginning of my schooling journey, every conversation I had had with seasoned moms, every conference I attended, every DVD I watched or blog I read helped equip me as a teacher. However, what I lacked was basic training and application techniques on how to model learning for my student in a consistent way that brought about true growth, not only in them, but also in me.

We joined a Classical Conversations campus which meant driving over 2 hours once a week to receive 6 hours of tutoring for a total of 22 weeks that school year. (We missed 2 of the 24 scheduled campus days.) For approximately $1345, my children and I received 330 hours of tutoring, averaging to about $4.08 per hour for each of us. During that year, we took a huge vacation in the middle of September and missed a week of CC. No alarms were sounded and no scolding was received. My mother-in-law suffered a stroke while we were away, and we returned to suffer alongside her for 3 months of torturous hospital stays as she won her battle with Multiple Sclerosis just before Christmas.
     
In March of that school year, we moved 15 minutes away from our small ranch home in a residential neighborhood to fulfill our dream of having a small farming life in a rural setting. This was, by far, one of the most hectic years of our schooling career, yet I had seen more growth in my children, than any other year. I would like to stress that their growth was not purely academic.

With the encouragement and commitment of five other Beckley families that attended CC with us in Lewisburg that year, I answered the calling to take on the daunting task of directing. After months of prayer, hard work, sacrifice, late nights and early mornings, we had our first CC day in Beckley on August 15th, 2013. In a class of five 12/13 year old students in our Challenge A program, my son was gracious as he expressed his thanks to me for working so hard to bring the program to our friends here locally.                  
       
Two weeks later, the elementary programs began. After cleaning up, packing the car, locking the building and setting the alarm at our facility, my Emma turned to me and offered up her approval, “I’m so glad you brought CC to Beckley, Mom.” This sums up why we do CC. My children are thriving in the program, and I feel equipped to teach them in a way that I did not feel before.
       
The year was coming to an end, and although there had been murmurings of disapproval by a few throughout the introduction of CC to our community, the overall feedback was that of genuine excitement for those of us who had found this program to so beautifully supplement our home schools. An End of the Year Program was held for students to demonstrate all they had learned and be publicly affirmed for their hard work and diligence.
     
You’ve heard a good bit of my personal story so far, which brings us to today. A longtime friend and fellow homeschooling mom, Kristen Adkins felt compelled this past spring to encourage moms who were not involved in CC that they could be successful homeschoolers without being part of a program like this. She did so through her blog and it wasn't always well received. There were a few misunderstandings and things brought to light that we may never fully agree on, but after a couple of face-to-face meetings, I believe Kristen and I are in absolute agreement that there are valid reasons as to why one would not choose to be involved in Classical Conversations. It is our hope that we could help bridge the divide that has inadvertently arisen among our peers.
My goal in sharing is to give everyone an objective view of Classical Conversations. In order to do that, the next post will be an exhaustive list of the cons of CC as seen from the very Support Manager who’s paid to protect the integrity of the program.

**A note to those who have felt excluded or annoyed by the CC campuses I am personally involved with**

As I scroll through my newsfeed on Facebook, I see pictures and read statuses about public school friends celebrating achievements such as spelling bees, academic field days, and sports championships.  I often see posts from fellow homeschooled friends who are sharing their excitement regarding co-ops, field trips, test scores, portfolio reviews, and even curricula that is working wonders for them!  In an attempt to show appreciation for the beauty that CC brings into our own home schools, myself and several others had also taken to social media posting pictures and sharing achievements that were important to us and our families.

In recent weeks we have come to learn that some felt this was done as being boastful, or even as an effort to market the program.  I’d like to simply assure you we expected others to receive it in the spirit with which it was shared, and that was not out of arrogance, exclusivity, or a drive for program growth. We would hope our friends would know that we are simply excited about what is happening in the hearts and minds of our children. We would like to ask for you to join us in celebrating that, and to not feel excluded by it.  

We are aware that because of the many meetings we hold to help others learn more about CC, it can seem like system overload. We do now recognize that people were getting tired of hearing about meetings and open houses, and we are going to proactively work towards streamlining our notifications so as not to flood other homeschoolers with unnecessary posts. We apologize if any of our posts made anyone feel as though we believe this is the only successful way to school. We are quite convinced that it is not.

We pray that as we share excitement and achievements with our friends from this point forward, they will know that it isn’t baiting them into our program, nor is it boasting at our awesomeness, it is celebrating God’s grace by allowing us to experience this educational tool that is yielding beautiful fruit in our homes.