Dear Editor,

This is an open letter to the prime minister and Mrs Holness.

May I be among the first to welcome you to the wonderful world of homeschooling!

Accepting full responsibility for your children’s education is a huge decision in the best circumstances, and I congratulate you for making it while knowing controversy and politically charged comments would follow. I’m encouraged by the many comments in various media from people who understand that, as parents, we must make our children’s education and happiness a top priority. Parents are, after all, the ones who know them best and love them most, so we are the perfect candidates.

Homeschooling is an inspiring journey for the whole family, a grand experiment to discover the way your individual children best go about the act of learning. For amazing results, you won’t so much be teaching but rather guiding along the path. Homeschooling’s built-in flexibility allows for quick recognition and change when mistakes are made, so cherish them as the learning opportunities for the parents they represent!

We get only one fleeting childhood, and you can make it count for your children. Cherish each heartwarming experience as your children’s eyes light up with their “aha!” moments, and their questions fill your days with curiosity and wonder.

Jamaicans are extremely fortunate to have a homeschooling father as the education minister. You will discover much about how children learn best. You’ll realise the importance of “customised” education, and see how painlessly it’s accomplished with the help of technology. You’ll notice it’s quite different than the school approach. Indeed, one might call it antithetical to the school approach, leading you to realise there’s a fundamental difference between “schooling” and “education”. You’ll know what needs to be done to transform the schooling that is failing some students into real education children and parents know is worth pursuing.

I close with thoughts from one of my books, The First Year of Homeschooling Your Child: Your Complete Guide to Getting Off to the Right Start.

“Before I actually started homeschooling, would any words put forth by others have conveyed the depth and breadth of the experience about to unfold? Ha. How could mere words do that? Words could not have made me understand, because I was not yet capable of ‘thinking outside the box’. I was still confusing ‘schooling’ with “education”, which prevented my thinking on the subject from flying toward a new place, a place where education transcends the schedule, organisation, and methods of others so that its possessor may lay full claim to it.

“The ability to think outside the box develops over time, a result of study, observation, thought, and a valuable collection of abject failures and stunning successes. Only your attention can give you the tools you need; only your time can hone them. If upon completion of your first year of homeschooling you are on your way to thinking outside the box, if your children are uncovering and following interests with the time available to them, if education is emerging as something you all do for yourselves instead of having it done ‘to’ you, congratulations. You are a homeschooling success.”

Linda Dobson

Florida, USA

lindobson@msn.com