Facilitation – History Pt. 7: Back to the Basics (Part 36)

Categories: Léo’s Insights 2023-2024, Back to the Basics

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Now that we have reviewed the definition and history of facilitation in Alberta, there remains one more thing to discuss.  Do you have the right facilitator to help you through your home education journey?  Here are a few general considerations to keep in mind.

First and foremost, you are the boss.  I know I have said this ad nauseam, but if you miss this point, you will find yourself being directed rather than directing your home education program.  Exercising this authority will help qualify your potential or existing facilitator.

If you are home educating for faith-based reasons, sharing the same worldview perspective is important, but it is not critical.  Still, if this is important to you, you should ask without judgement.

It is always a good thing to know the experience and understanding an advisor has before taking advice from them.  Again, maybe not critical, but good to know.  Even though I believe one should have personally experienced home education as a parent or student through to completion before advising others, I also believe that any teacher can “repent” after realizing why school is not the best place for learning.  Knowing what not to do is just as valuable as having correctly done so in the first place.  Either way is good experience with which to advise others.  Ask your facilitator about their experience with home education.  This will help you to better understand their approach and to determine if their reason for facilitating is money or ministry, which I generally define as desiring to help people avoid error.

Having said that, personalities sometime clash, even when two people are coming from the same perspective and heading in the same direction.  Perhaps the best measure for determining the “fit” of your facilitator is your reaction to their involvement in your life.  If you take the news of their pending visit with trepidation, you likely are not suitably fitted.  If you are neither threatened nor excited, you are probably okay.  If you look forward to your visit and find yourself encouraged each time you meet, you have a gem worth keeping.  You decide.  You’re the boss.  Is your facilitator the right one for you?

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