Why we can all learn from Posh’s homeschooling style
You wouldn’t necessarily put Victoria Beckham down as a homeschooling type but like the rest of us lockdown parents, it’s time to see if you were really listening in class all those years ago. Not only have we lost our freedom and have the threat of plague hanging over our heads, there’s a ton of homework to do too and it’s up to us to pass the test ‘for the sake of the children’. We don’t want to fall behind now, do we?
Could this all just be a Dallas-style nightmare? Is Bobby Ewing about to step out from the shower any minute? Like a modern day Pam Ewing, Posh Spice offered her 28.2 million Instagram followers some cinnamon comfort this week with a public service announcement from child psychologist Emily W. King PhD: ‘Working, parenting and teaching are three different jobs that cannot be done at the same time. It’s not hard because you are doing it wrong. It’s hard because it’s too much. Do the best you can.’
Thanks, Posh – but maybe it’s just hard because the digital age has stolen our brains, with calculators totting up our mathematical queries in seconds and Google our go-to info source.
Remember borrowing one and giving it back again when doing subtractions? I had forgotten until I had to jog my memory while playing teacher homeschooling the bandits. We even have an abacus my mother posted over before this crisis turned into house arrest. We should call it oldskooling.
In many ways, I’m happy for the lads. Joseph, at three, was just too young to start school, even if it’s the obligatory age in France. With the day beginning at 8.30am and lasting until 4.30pm, our separation hurt us both. Our reunion feels natural. It’s also quite possible that I am learning the most from this spell at homeschooling, finding satisfaction in ticking off our considerable to-do list. Our verb for today is vivre, to live. Present tense, je vis, I live. If this crisis is teaching us anything, it’s asking us to reflect on how we live. Or indeed to meditate on our deaths as London Real host Brian Rose challenged his 181,000 followers this week on Instagram. ‘Ask yourself: If I died today, am I happy with the way I lived my life? It’s a great way to gutcheck, to see if you’re living in alignment.’ This is especially true as we prepare for life post-lockdown. The French government has put May 4 of this year down as a possible return to school, depending on how the virus is managed. The end is in sight. That’s one more month of homeschooling and just a month of regular school and then summer holidays. WE CAN DO THIS!
Now we can all have a valid opinion on homeschooling, for better or for worse. As Posh’s Insta post advises: ‘When you have to pick, because at some point you will, choose connection. Pick playing a game over arguing about an academic assignment.’
Top marks, VB. Some of the most important life lessons, you’ll never learn in school.
‘Pick playing a game over arguing about an assignment’