Posted on 10/15/2004 11:41:53 AM PDT by cinives
Home schooling children provides advantages
What did you learn in high school? I ask this question to people who seem puzzled by our family’s decision to home school our children. Their answers are usually very interesting but not the kind of thing you would put in a campaign commercial touting increased funding for public education.
I never thought of myself as a home schooling kind of person until after nearly eight years of having a variety of teachers and other professionals trying to tell me what was wrong with my son, I figured out they were what was wrong with my son.
In the last of hundreds of meetings where a group of professionals would try telling me why my son, who everyone agreed was an incredibly smart kid, was failing classes, a teacher said the magic words.
“He will do great in college,” she said.
“Then why can’t he succeed in junior high?” I asked her.
The room was quiet.
That was when I decided I could do better.
When you have a child you realize there are a ton of magazine articles, books and other resources to instruct you how to be your child’s first teacher.
Television shows are lined up with experts preaching about how important a parent’s role is in educating their little rug rats.
But the moment your child turns five, you are supposed to hand over the responsibility of educating your offspring to complete strangers.
Most families I know don’t question whether public school is the best place for their children. They just follow the herd through the back-to-school aisle and make plans to leave their children to be raised by a government institution eight hours a day for the next 12 years. It was difficult to get outside the public school box. Public school is what we do in this country. It is what is normal.
Then I started breaking down the average junior high and high school experience and asking what makes it so normal.
Showering in a junior high locker room remains one of the most traumatic experiences of many people’s lives. Why do we take children at the most self-conscious, awkward time of their lives and force them to get naked in front of one another? The only other time in your life you will have to shower with a group of strangers is in prison.
Not exactly what I want to be preparing my children for.
Public schools group kids together by age. Sounds like a good idea until you realize your child is learning communication skills, cultural values and social norms from other 12-year-olds. Great.
If a college student tried to keep track of seven classes, extracurricular activities, a part-time job and maintain relationships with family, we would think they were crazy. But this is exactly what we expect from high school students.
More than a few people asked if we were home schooling for religious reasons. That is the common stereotype: a large, fanatically religious family home schooling their children to protect them from the evils of the world.
Even a flaming liberal like me, who practices open-option religion, can understand why there are a lot of families like that out there. Ten minutes of observing life in any public high school would scare most parents. The students’ wardrobes and topics of conversation in the hallway are a direct contrast to the watered-down history lessons, censored literary classics and politically neutered discussions of current events in the classrooms.
We chose to home school because we believed we could do better than a school system hell bent on making everyone conform into becoming the perfect politically correct members of the populous.
I do have to give the public school teachers some credit. They were right. My 15-year-old son is doing great in college.
He is a K-State freshman carrying nine hours.
Mary Renee is a senior in speech. Please send your comments to opinion@spub.ksu.edu.
There are some really good public schools. The schools in my area are very progressive and multiculturism permeates the whole curriculum. They are very proud of that. At one time, they had One World posters plastered all over the walls.
I doubt any of the teachers could diagram a sentence if their life depended on it. Of course, there are no Christmas carols or praying. Kids didn't do so well on their state math tests. I don't know about reading.
You're lucky.
Yes, we are lucky. My husband and I both went to very good public schools, as well. They aren't all terrible, of course.
We had the problem you discribe with schools in California and some in Pennsylvania and so they went to various academies or Parochial schools.
Thankfully, the schools in our area are very good. In fact, one of my youngest son's teachers was named Teacher of the Year for the entire state just last month. I think that says a lot, considering we are in a very small (8,000 population) town.
I learned that if you weren't beautiful, skinny, and popular, then you were nothing! Fought an eating disorder for 8 years after that!
Lovely Huh?
In days of old, during the Hellenic and Hellenistic ages, it became generally recognized that the only effective way to properly educate children was through privately tutored sessions between a student and his teacher, known as the "Socratic" method. Plato and Aristotle themselves were educated in this manner. The Scholastic tradition, too, reflected this belief; St. Thomas Acquina advocated this approach.
Why, then, is it the case today that the modern equivalent of this experience, which is homeschooling, is vilified as degenerative and dangerous? Because schools today are not interested in the acquisition of knowledge. Their purpose is political indoctrination and inculcation.
This is the "Bureaucratic", not the "Socratic" method.
You're added!
What a great article. Reminds me of our Clare who was dead BORED in school! As a sophomore, last year, she taught herself Japanese and digital video editing along with her other studies. She'll take Chemistry at a Community College in January, followed by Physics. She also wants to take Psychology, though I'm not as thrilled about that. Those folks can get really wierd sometime! ;o)
this may be one,too:
Boy sexually assaulted by six-year-old classmate in school bathroom
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1246006/posts
I owe it to God!
Funny, once I quit obsessing I settled into a weight of aroung 112. During my struggle I fluctuated between 125 and 92. 92...scary! God taught me that there are things way more important, and guess what! As we find out with so many other things, once I accepted that notion, everything else including my weight, just fell into place.
Congrats! I graduated homeschool 9 years ago. You will never regret it.
Same to you - I've even so far gone as to get my dd hooked on freeRepublic, Rush, and Glenn Beck. Gotta start 'em young...
It is my dream to be able to home school my son. He has a lot of problems in public school.
My husband would NEVER go for it. He thinks home schooling is not "normal" and would isolate our son.
Not to mention, I work full time and make a good salary, which he would not be willing to give up.
So, I give him his medicine and send him to school, hoping he can accidentally learn something.
I feel SO helpless!
**OK, I'm done sniveling***
I also live in a small town, about your size with about 35000 in the county total. Even taught at this school for a semester while between jobs. Good school. Well run. I think small towns allow accountability that is not there with large school districts. Here, if you're not doing right, everybody knows, and quick.
BTW, my 4 year old is in a church preschool program 1/2 days, 3 days a week. Will probably continue even though the local system is fairly good. The love shown there is brightens his world. Right now, finances too bad to homeschool but in a few years, definitely an option.
Please add me to your HS ping list! Love to hear anything about HSing, it works great for us!
You got it!
bump
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