[willieroe]

I just read this and thought it appropriate for discussion in lieu of the recent thread: Quick! Basic Algebrba Help needed! Having no children of my own, I nevertheless noticed the anti-homeschool stance that the author takes in the last two paragraphs.

[Always Right]

If your child does not understand the concepts, additional teaching should be done by a teacher and not a parent.

Oh puh_leeeeeeeeeeeeeeez. What a load.

[potlatch]

My father helped me when I was in school. When my son started third grade and was having trouble with math, I tried to help him.

It didn't work well, he would argue and get mad at me. We finally hired a college student to tutor him and that worked very well.

[Richard Kimball]

The author is a Doctor, an idiot, and a pantload. The fact that she, A DOCTOR!!!!! is too stupid to help her child with fractions does not mean that stoopid ole fire fighters lack me err two stoopid too hep hour kids wit der homwerk.

Seriously, no one should be stupid enough to accept this "leave the teaching to the professionals" nonsense. If being a parent isn't teaching, raising and protecting your children, what is it?

[nothingnew]

I read that and it made me titrted!

FMCDH

[x1stcav]

What unmitigated crap.

If it wasn't for me, what with a public school education back when they taught a classic curriculae of RRR's, the kids would've never survived New math, Whole Language, and all of the other leftist educational experimantation tried back in the 70's California schools.

This woman is an idiot, pure and simple.

[swany]

From the article: Do not confuse your roles. Just as we parents must refrain from being at-home teachers, we also must refrain from asking teachers to be substitute parents. When each job is fulfilled in the student-educator-parent learning partnership, the job of learning how to learn becomes easier.

They use math as an example, what they really mean is Social Studies and History.

[Essie]

I frequently helped my children get their school work done because most of the time there was little or no teaching in school. What they did have was a never-ending, mind-numbing stack of worksheets. Boring is not an appropriate work. There is no word in this language to express how mind dulling this kind of education is.

Last year my son missed something one of his teacher's said. After class, he asked the teacher to repeat the fact. The teacher's reply, "Don't you listen!"

[irv]

The parent's job is teaching responsibility, not teaching schoolwork.

My father taught me long division out of a 100 year old textbook. My grades were poor because I wasn't doing it the way the teacher taught it (New Math - I just couldn't understand it). But I was one of the only people in class to consistently get the correct answers.

Bottom line: The HUGE mistake this idiot makes is that a parent's job is to do WHATEVER THE KID NEEDS. Whether the teachers like it or not.

[mvpel]

Homefeeding Children: Threat or Menace?
By Lydia McGrew
CNSNews.com Satire
June 12, 2002

---

The recent tragic death from malnutrition of seven-year-old Johnny Marfan of Bensonville draws our attention to the growing trend toward so-called "homefeeding."

While the majority of the local children still receive their nutrition from state cafeterias or approved, registered private cafeterias, a growing minority of parents - hundreds by some estimates - are engaged in homefeeding, a practice in which children receive at least breakfast and dinner in their own homes as provided by their parents.

In accordance with law, the Marfans informed the state health department that they were homefeeding Johnny. But in this state, homefeeding is relatively unregulated, giving carte blanch to parents to feed their children virtually any food under the sun; meat, milk, cookies, butter, pie - anything goes.

Some states require parents to have a certified degree in nutrition or at least be monitored by an accredited nutritionist. But here, parents do not even have to fill out periodic reports detailing what they are feeding their children.

Opponents of homefeeding argue that parents like the Marfans used homefeeding as a cover for abuse and neglect, with terrible results. While this remains in question, we've seen nothing to disprove this.

Calista Nicole-Carson of the state Department of Cafeterias and Caloric Monitoring says, "I realize that there are conscientious parents who genuinely try to feed their children what they need. But they should have no objection to filling out the forms we are introducing, describing each of the meals they give."

That seems a reasonable step in safeguarding our most precious resource - our children. "Pro-active steps are necessary to insure we are protecting all children," says Nicole-Carson. "It is ridiculous not to monitor what all children are fed because of a misguided concern for 'privacy' or 'freedom,' and such lack of regulation allows children to slip fatally through the cracks."

Other critics are concerned about parents' lack of necessary qualifications. "Every year we make new nutritional discoveries," says Dr. Sue d'Panzoff of the University of Omasota. "Parents cannot possibly keep up with each breakthrough in nutritional science and give their children these benefits."

It's preposterous for us to leave such vital functions to amateurs who claim authority based on something as flimsy as parenthood, particularly in the realm of keeping pace with nutritional advances.

"Who knows what changes we may need to make next year to improve children's nutrition," asks d'Panzoff. "At a minimum, homefeeding programs must be carefully monitored in the domicile to make sure all the latest advances are represented."

Still others point out the social skills homefed children are missing. Ms. Nicole-Carson tells us, "During meals at the public cafeterias, these children watch educational videos about crucial subjects like the environment, sex, and the evils of capitalism. The food itself is culturally diversified, and each day the children are taught a different set of table manners from another culture around the world."

Homefeeders rely in large part on outmoded history in defending their decision to place their own children out of the mainstream.

"As recently as 1992, the majority of children in the United States were homefed," says Philip Flicka, of the right-wing Home Food Legal Defense Association. "Even when kids went to school, they were allowed to bring lunches packed by their moms."

Whether Mr. Flicka is right or not, it seems that homefeeding is here to stay, consequences be damned. But we cannot be too vigilant. Homefeeders of good will should, as Ms. Nicole-Carson says, be entirely open to having their homes and programs monitored by qualified nutritionists for the good of our children.

Any small amount of time and privacy this costs parents will be more than repaid in lives saved. If the Marfans had been properly monitored, Johnny would still be alive.

There is nothing more valuable than the life and safety of a child, and for that reason, strictures on homefeeding must be tightened in this state.

---

[liberty or death]

What a bunch of crap! Being the parent of 5 I have shown every one of them how to do their math. The teachers were good at handing stuff out but lousy at teaching. Mine are all homeschooled now. Public school as a whole is a cultural moat/sewer waiting to swallow your children.

[waterstraat]

bump for later

[ladylib]

It's up to the teacher to teach. There is an unfortunate thing going on in some schools today where teachers feel they can order parents to teach their children things that should be taught in school. Lord only knows what the teacher is doing.

One magazine writer said that she received an e-mail from her child's teacher telling her that all parents are now responsible for teaching their children the multiplication tables. Excuse me! What is this teacher being paid for?

Also, teachers are so busy preparing their students for their high-stakes tests that they often send home work that wasn't even explained to the student, expecting the parent to sit down and teach the child.

You might as well pull your child out and homeschool him yourself and save the kid the boredom of sitting in school learning how to take a test.

[kidd]

If your child does not understand the concepts, additional teaching should be done by a teacher and not a parent.

Not where I live. My teenager was (incorrectly) placed in a lower level of math - and was bored to tears. I asked the teachers about moving him up a level. I was told that I would have to homeschool him over the summer to get him caught up. I did this, with the public school teacher's approval, and he excelled. He was so thrilled with his progress, that my otherwise unmotivated teenager, insisted that he do the same thing to move up to honors algebra. We did the summer homeschooling over the last summer (again with the teacher's approval) and is again excelling in honors pre-calculus.

Its a mistake to let the teachers do all the teaching. Some public school teachers are reasonable people who put the student's best interest first and recognize the value that a parent can add.

[Liberal Classic]

I think she means Doing a child's homework may not be the answer. Certianly this lady doesn't mean parents shouldn't teach children.

If your child does not understand the concepts, additional teaching should be done by a teacher and not a parent.

Oh wait. She does. I almost disbelieve the hubris in this article.

[tang-soo]

I had already phrased my response when I started reading the followup posts. To my dismay, I find the word "Crap" has been used extensively. Oh well, too bad! What a load of Crap!

I homeschool my son who is a junior this year. However, I let the very expensive private school he attends augment my teaching (grin).

Seriously, nothing can replace the long discussions we have about such things as his Europena History class (sometimes two hours or more). No teacher can spend that kind of one-on-one time. PLus, as a side benefit, it keeps me informed. There are plenty of times when I have him explain things that I am not up to speed on - so he turns the table and instructs me. When he can do this to my satisfaction, then he's ready for his test/quiz. Sadly (on my part) this latter senerio is becoming more the norm (grin).

I was a good student and I am very happy to see that he is turning out to be a better one than myself.

And this buffon would rather me let he and his fellow idiots be responsible for what my son learns. Hah!

[TaxMe]

OK, I will play devil's advocate and defend this poor smo.

I think the point the "Dr." is trying to make is that the child needs to learn to take responsibility for following up with his teacher when he has not fully understood the lesson. A parent will not always be there for the child (think college and the need to go to a professor to discuss certain lessons to gain a better understanding). A parent should help the child learn to take responsibility for his own education, including the courage to asks his teacher additional questions and otherwise not be intimidated. A parent could deprive his child of such skills if the parent merely taught the child the lesson rather than teaching the child to have the courage to go back to his teacher to discuss same.

[asformeandformyhouse]

The parent's job is teaching responsibility, not teaching schoolwork.

I help my children with their schoolwork all the time. Their teacher (my wife) doesn't mind a bit. :)

[debaryfl]

>>Unfortunately, this can lead parents to cross the line of parenting into teaching.

This is part of the danger of deferred responsibilty. An integral part of parenting IS teaching.

Of course, "educators" would have us believe that they and they alone can perform the miracle of molding an impressionable mind into ...

[PigRigger]

Timely article. I'm in the midst of having to teach my daughter <4th grader> simple algebra to solve word problems. She was clueless on how to apply reason to solve problems.

When the teacher saw that she was using a formula with applied variables instead of the "Guess & Check" method she became irrate. She asked my daughter not to follow my instructions. She actually recommended "Guess & Check" - instead of applying formulas to identify the answer.

Needless to say I will be butting heads with the teacher within the next day or two. God only knows how are kids learn.

[agrace]

Oh of course, parents don't teach their kids ANYTHING. Kids learn how to walk, talk, hug, kiss, roll a ball, build with blocks, share, use eating utensils, suck from a straw, drink from a cup, identify colors, body parts, the alphabet, use the toilet, brush their teeth, comb their hair, tie their shoes, button their clothes, ride a bike, sing, latch a seatbelt, swing, do puzzles, wash their hands, learn appropriate behavior, right from wrong, what is expected of them at home, how to make a bed, take a shower, cross the street, avoid danger, call 911, deal with strangers, clean their rooms, treat others with respect all by themselves before they ever start school.

This article is not only an insult to homeschooling parents, but an insult to ALL parents. And I think this homeschool mom is going to email somebody.