Cohousing-L Mailing List: home schooling and cohousing

[David Mandel (dlmandel]

Just after writing and sending off my doubts about the virtues of home
schooling I read  Karen Chrysostom's enthusiastic message in praise of it
in light of her own experience. A couple more comments:

1. She wrote: "I know that my children's "classroom" will be a very rich
mix of folks of all ages and backgrounds."
        Ages, perhaps, since some cohousing communities do have a pretty
good mix; but backgrounds? You didn't say what group you're in, Karen, but
there have been many discussions here about the lack of cultural diversity
in most cohousing. Is yours different?

2. Aside from that, aren't most if not all of the rest of the residents
away at work during your classroom time? Except perhaps another parent or
two (probably women only) doing the home schooling?

3. If your reply to this is that the "classroom" is the sum total of the
cohousing experience, well yes, I agree. But that's just as true for my
kids who go to public school six hours a day and are around the community
about the same amount on weekdays, plus weekends. They also observe our
community process and learn to participate in it, have their own kid
meetings, make proposals, air gripes, etc. But their also learning how to
relate with many other kids of truly different backgrounds by going to
school.

       David Mandel, Sacramento