Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Home schooled children outpacing public school students
Examiner ^ | September 11, 2013 | Martha

Posted on 09/11/2013 4:20:22 PM PDT by usalady

Home schooled children outpacing public school students

Do you know there are 10 and 12- year-old students already attending college classes in America? It is happening every day as parents flee the public schools and instead educate their children at home.

(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...


TOPICS: Education; Government; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: commoncore; homeschool; school; students
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-74 next last
To: Windflier

Thank you!

Along with marrying my wife, the two smartest things I have ever done.

When she went to college, her guidance counselor was delighted, said he really liked home schooled students.

She has told us a number of times, especially while in college, that she was very grateful we home schooled her.


41 posted on 09/11/2013 5:12:34 PM PDT by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60s.....you weren't really there)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: arthurus
Calculus is a tool of thinking most effective when young minds are learning stuff. Calculus and a foreign language or two, preferably a very different foreign Language like Mandarin or Korean. All of these things give a young mind different pathways, different approaches to perception and aid in thinking about, and problem solving in, all subjects.

I'd go w/ Japanese and [Irish] Gaelic if I were to put forward a syllabus-schedule.
(English => SVO; Japanese => SOV, Gaelic => VSO)

As I said calculus by age 12; formal logic would likely fit nicely here though that might be a bit heavy in the math-stuffs.

Programming would probably start about a year after Logic; ideally I'd use Ada: it provides an excellent packaging system (thus teaching encapsulation and data-hiding w/o having to dig into OOP) as well as an excellent generic system. (Also interesting/useful are the language-level parallelism via the task construct and the separation of specification and body.)

In fact, I'd have them using Ada to build their own LISP interpreter, which would in-turn be used in their own Algorithms class; then we'd rewrite/repurpose it to be a FORTH interpreter and go down into assembly. (FORTH's words are [a] a list of words, or [b] an executable segment of code; so this would be a natural progression down into the machine proper.)

Anyway, that's what I'd shoot for if I were in charge of an educational institution.

42 posted on 09/11/2013 5:15:41 PM PDT by OneWingedShark (Q: Why am I here? A: To do Justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with my God.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: gorush

A third grade boy threatened to rape a girl in his class on Monday. No big deal.


43 posted on 09/11/2013 5:16:03 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie (Why haven't we heard from the 30 Benghazi survivors?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: usalady

Thank you to everyone who have shared their experiences in response to the article. As you can see, I am very enthusiastic about the benefits of home schooling.


44 posted on 09/11/2013 5:16:25 PM PDT by usalady
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All

When you can’t homeschool, what do you do?

When your spouse says ‘no’, are you going to divorce your spouse? Or are you going to work full time, then school your child/children also?

When your child is in a private school which is forced to abide by Common Core, what are you going to do when your spouse says ‘no’?

Which conservative value are you going to choose? Marriage or homeschooling? You can’t have both when you’re working full time and your spouse won’t cooperate.


45 posted on 09/11/2013 5:23:03 PM PDT by AlmaKing
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: ChildOfThe60s
When she went to college, her guidance counselor was delighted, said he really liked home schooled students.

Not sure if any of ours are college-bound, but my fifteen year old daughter is expressing interest.

We've also run our own business for the last sixteen years. Now that the kids are getting old enough to work in it, it looks fairly certain that they're going to step in and take it over one day.

Perhaps a couple of them will take a few years off to pursue higher education before coming back to take the reins. They've got maybe ten years to get 'er dun.

46 posted on 09/11/2013 5:28:18 PM PDT by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: St_Thomas_Aquinas

I am not agreeing that all kids at 12 should be learning calculus, but there is more to learning than being able to use the content... learning calculus or geometry, Latin, music, logic all teach you to think a certain way... almost like learning a new language... it is valuable... unfortunately, so much of modern education is utilitarian...


47 posted on 09/11/2013 5:29:16 PM PDT by latina4dubya (when i have money i buy books... if i have anything left, i buy 6-inch heels and a bottle of wine...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Geoffrey
Socialization:
A major difference is that homeschooled kids have adults as role models and learn to be adults. Public school kids mostly have older kids as role models and grow up to be older children. Look around you and you know it is true.

In poor countries there is no "adolescence" and no "let the children be children." Kids are pulling their own wieight in the family well before they are 10 years old. They are learning to be adults from age 0.

48 posted on 09/11/2013 5:36:34 PM PDT by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson ONLINE http://steshaw.org/econohttp://www.fee.org/library/det)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: LibsRJerks
She could not SIGN HER NAME because they don’t teach cursive handwriting anymore

Thank you for posting this. I am dismayed by the number of people on this site who think that not teaching children how to write in cursive is just fine --- we don't need cursive anymore.

I personally find it really sad to think of an entire nation of so-called adults who cannot write, but can only print -- as if they never got past the second grade.

Wise up. The reason kids are no longer being taught cursive is because the teacher's union doesn't want to make their teachers do that. The teachers think it is too hard to teach. So, they come up with a lame excuse about why they can't do their jobs. My late brother was a teacher/guidance counselor for his entire career. When I was speaking to him about my eldest daughter, who had just entered the second grade in a Catholic elementary school, I told him that they were beginning to teach cursive writing. He told me that Mrs. Rhodes (my daughter's teacher) was going to be "disappointed". At the end of the school year, I had my cursive writing daughter send a note to my brother. He never responded, as it was clear that a 2nd grader could learn cursive.

I also think that training in cursive writing is probably helpful for small motor skills.

49 posted on 09/11/2013 5:42:00 PM PDT by LibertarianLiz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: Geoffrey
I kind of pioneered Saxon long ago around here. I was interested by the description of Algebra 1/2 in a Conservative Book Club brochure and ordered it. I was fascinated that one could teach oneself easily from that book without any teacher. I found and ordered the other high school books as they came out. My wife, a public school teacher, and I hustled Saxon to the local parochial schools and even a couple of the public schools adopted it. The teachers raved for a year then other teachers started to complain and the union set its face against Saxon because it denigrated by implication the necessity of a teacher. Now the local parochial and public schools all teach from more "modern" texts and math performance is way down.
50 posted on 09/11/2013 5:43:32 PM PDT by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson ONLINE http://steshaw.org/econohttp://www.fee.org/library/det)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: arthurus

Saxon 5/4 homeschool packet is the greatest math tool ever.


51 posted on 09/11/2013 5:46:29 PM PDT by Chickensoup (...We didn't love freedom enough... Solzhenitsyn.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: usalady

Home schooled children are on average more than one academic year advanced beyond their age-peers in pubic school. I heard one economist lecture at the London School of Economics showing that every year of education regression translates to a reduction of over a trillion dollars of GDP.

On August 21, 2013, the ACT test results showed that only 5% of black high school graduates are ready for college. Putting aside how many black children drop out, it now costs over $2 million to graduate a single college-ready black student who has a high enough ACT score that he can be admitted to college without remedial instruction.

The public (government) school system is horribly broken. The easiest way to fix it is to give parents permission and the means to send their children to any school of their choice, including for-profit private schools.

We no longer have the prosperity or resources to put up with anything this wasteful of money or lives.


52 posted on 09/11/2013 5:46:45 PM PDT by theBuckwheat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: LibsRJerks

My homeschool daughter was running a school in Nicaragua this past year at age twenty. Filled in for the folks who had to go stateside for health issues.


53 posted on 09/11/2013 5:48:43 PM PDT by Chickensoup (...We didn't love freedom enough... Solzhenitsyn.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: AlmaKing

Well, I’d start by encouraging people to think about it before they marry. One of the things that attracted my husband and me to each other when we met on this forum was that we were both homeschool graduates. We spent plenty of time talking about our theory of education before marriage.

Once you’re in and stuck, then yeah you have to make compromises. It’s hard for me to understand why one spouse would desperately want to homeschool and the other refuse, but it happens. Best course of action then is for the homeschool-fan parent to supplement education on evenings and weekends.

Very sad to think about. I am glad my husband loves me sacrificially and makes sure that I can stay home with our child. It’s very important to both of us that we are the dominant influences in her life. She’s four, and a sponge. I shudder to think what other people would teach her.


54 posted on 09/11/2013 5:49:34 PM PDT by JenB
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: St_Thomas_Aquinas
Kids should be learning Calculus by age 12.

Why? How many people would ever use it?

Maybe we'd have more engineers and fewer lawyers, lobbyists, and welfare cheats.

55 posted on 09/11/2013 5:50:27 PM PDT by EricT. (Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. Big brother is watching you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: usalady

OK, I got you all beat. I know a home-schooed kid who at the age of 12 was awarded a full ride to Johns Hopkins Medical School.

Seriously, but this kid is major league genius. My home schooled kids are all normal. One is 23 and living in another state on her own. My 20 year old is going to join her next year. My 17 year old is doing joint high school, community college, robotics and completing his Eagle Scout project this weekend. Finally, my 11 year old is complaining about having to do dishes.


56 posted on 09/11/2013 5:51:29 PM PDT by cyclotic (Hey BSA, NOT IN MY TROOP)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: usalady

Public school curricula is designed to create unimaginative functionaries who possess no critical thinking skills.


57 posted on 09/11/2013 5:52:57 PM PDT by EricT. (Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. Big brother is watching you.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JenB

My homeschool daughter just married into a family of 10 homeschoolers.


58 posted on 09/11/2013 5:53:36 PM PDT by Chickensoup (...We didn't love freedom enough... Solzhenitsyn.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

To: LibsRJerks
My kids are long grown and gone but I promote homeschooling to any young parents I meet who are not louts. I got a young black single mother that I worked with started on it when her kids were 4 and 2. It changed her while educating her kids way beyond their peers in only a couple of years. She is very conservative now but will only discuss politics and society with a few like minded friends. She took herself off of Food Stamps and housing subsidy when she figured out she could do things differently and figured out she did not want her kids living like that. Her speech lost the ghetto pattern and became quite good and her morals improved tremendously- because she learned what morals are. She is not even very smart but she has done wonderfully with her children. She has not married but her now 13 and 11 year olds do not have younger siblings and abortion is unthinkable.

When she started homeschooling she quickly learned that there is a network of homeschoolers who share tasks and support and there are band and sports because the parochial schools are eager to add homeschoolers to their programs to have enough participants for a band or a team.

59 posted on 09/11/2013 5:53:56 PM PDT by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson ONLINE http://steshaw.org/econohttp://www.fee.org/library/det)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: MrEdd

I taught the children connected italics, the Portland University program. They have much better handwriting than I do.


60 posted on 09/11/2013 5:54:45 PM PDT by Chickensoup (...We didn't love freedom enough... Solzhenitsyn.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-74 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson