Posted on 06/27/2006 9:24:45 AM PDT by JSedreporter
The Patels chose the homeschool route for their son Samir because of his exceptional abilities. His mother Jyoti said at the age of five or six he started trying to spell words and has always been driven to learn.
“I’m not as qualified as a teacher who has done it, but elementary is basic reading, math and all that stuff,” she said. “The advantage I’ve seen is that in the elementary grades, I have been able to push him to his capabilities. At the elementary level the most you might be able to do is go one grade ahead, because putting him several grades ahead might be detrimental to his psychology.”
Fellow Texan and seventh-grader, 11-year-old Anjay Ajodha who tied for 22nd in the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee, is also an accelerated child. However, Ajodha has spent most of his educational career in public school.
“We had him in a private situation until he was in the third grade,” his mother, Meera Ajodha said. “At third grade we brought him into public school and he was doing well. He’s also advanced a few years which took care of some of the issues we had, being bored, for example, in the classroom.”
While the Adjodhas are satisfied with Anjay’s current situation, they may look into other educational venues as he gets older and his current schooling no longer challenges him. The Patels, however, are starting to run into limitations with Samir’s homeschooling.
“I’m at a crossroads,” Jyoti said. “Right now he’s in middle school and I’m really seriously thinking what I need to do for high school. So I’m exploring certain possibilities, but I still want him to stay challenged to his ability level.”
With Samir already taking a number of high-school-level courses, early college is one of the probable avenues for his education. Jyoti also cites a problem with the facilities she has at her home and her personal capabilities to teach Samir further.
Pamela Thomas also recognizes her limitations as a homeschool teacher as her daughter Tia ages.
“I actually met with the school principal and told him when she was five, what she could do and what she was capable of doing. He basically encouraged me to homeschool her,” Pamela said. “When she gets into high school, when there is more advanced learning, I think she’ll be better suited in a regular school.”
14th place National Spelling Bee finisher and winner of the 2006 National Geography Bee, Bonny Jain is public-schooled. Jain’s mother, Beena Jain said her son has always wanted to learn and so she began schooling him before he started public school.
“I felt he needed the interaction with other kids,” she said. “He was put in the accelerated program. Though he was in fifth grade, he could do seventh, eighth grade math. They keep him occupied and challenged.”
The Ajodhas agreed about their son’s need for interaction with other students. While Anjay interacted with the children at his private school, his family felt he needed more.
“We also put him into public school because of the socialization he needed.” Meera said. “In the private setting, it was very protective and it was good for him, but it wasn’t quite the real world.”
With lingering questions about the statistical comparison between the Scripps field and the NHES survey, Egan notes homeschools main downfall. The lack of interaction which spurred Anjay and Bonny’s families to put them in public school is missing from homeschool.
Egan said he realizes there are groups and things of that nature to provide that interaction for the children being homeschooled, but it cannot compare to the experience provided in a public-school setting.
“There has to be recognition at some point, the child is going to leave the nest and they need to have interaction with others,” Egan said. “Education is not just about imparting knowledge to students. It’s about preparing them to use that knowledge in the real world.”
Trevor Hayes is an intern with Accuracy in Media, Accuracy in Academia’s parent organization.
In 1978 or so my wife and I came to know a young woman named Patty. She
was a devoutly religious young mother who'd become more devout when her
husband and father of her two small sons aged 2 and 6 informed her that he
was leaving. In dire economic straits, I offered to let her stay in our
former home in Chamblee -- which was not rented at the time – rent-free until she got back on her feet. She had been clandestinely home schooling the 6 year
old for about 2 years using very well done Christian course materials from
an organization in Texas the name of which escapes me. The lad had recently been tested and had placed at least a year ABOVE his chronological age. As required by the government school authorities at the time, she dutifully apprised the authorities of his scores.
For reasons which would become clear in a moment, Patty had been harassed by the DeKalb County school authorities for about 6 months and, by the time she moved into the Chamblee house, had been -- unbeknownst to us -- ORDERED to put the 6 year old into the nearest government elementary school or suffer the consequences. Because she wanted the boys to be educated Christians, there was no way she was going to do that and she told them so.
At approximately 2 am one morning, a loud knock on the door announced the
arrival of the aforementioned "consequences."
Dressed only in a nightgown, she was confronted by several burly police officers who thrust an arrest warrant in her face. With the now awakened 6 year old watching and the 2 year old wailing in the other room, she was handcuffed and led out the door to jail. She was tossed into a large cell with a couple of hookers and a junkie who spent much of the rest of that morning vomiting in the corner. The two young boys for whom the educational authorities professed such great concern were just left AT THE HOUSE -- ALONE! Patty was later told that the bureaucrats from Children Services who were SUPPOSED to accompany the cops were late and, in their haste to get this dangerous miscreant behind bars, the cops just missed the fact that the Children Services people were, well, missing. The CS folks showed up an hour later to find two terrified kids, one of whom had just seen his mother hauled off in cuffs.
Patty was ultimately brought to trial under the Georgia Truancy Statutes. Her pro-bono attorney tore the school authorities to shreds and hers has been called THE case that opened the floodgates to home schooling in Georgia. Once they had all the facts, the jury didn’t take long to acquit her. I’m proud to have played a small part in that.
At Patty’s trial, a previously overlooked aspect of the government schools was put into sharp focus for those paying attention: The Director of Instruction for DeKalb County testified that the then current 7 hour school day consisted of an average of approximately 3 hours or less of instruction. At that time, Patty was devoting 4 to 5 hours a day to direct instruction.
He also as much as admitted that the REAL reason they wanted ALL these kids in school was the $3,000.00 per kid per year (I’m sure that number is higher in 2001!) they then got from the state and federal government. Empty seats = lost funds. As in most things, follow the money.
Patty home schooled these two boys through high school.
And how did the boys turn out?
One is now a physician and the other a budding journalist.
But that now seems to be the norm for the growing legions of home schooled kids – which most likely explains why the NEA and the government school folks feel so threatened. For what it’s worth, a home schooled kid won the last National Spelling Bee.
Thomas Jefferson believed an EDUCATED PUBLIC to be the cornerstone of the system he and the other Founders TRIED to leave behind. He would NOT, I feel certain, be a big fan of the current government education system. If he returned today, he’d home school his children just as he did before.
Dick Bachert
6-2001
Spelling words at five and six is not gifted, could even be considered slow by olderstandards at least. My sister and I could read and spell a lot of words before that. I don't consider myself gifted; we were just encouraged early on and loved our books.
I'm very glad I wasn't home-schooled though as I would have missed out on a lot although I can understand why people choose to do it now.
Some of us were just having a conversation about the "socialization" myth.
Quote from this article:
...Egan notes homeschools main downfall. The lack of interaction which spurred Anjay and Bonny’s families to put them in public school is missing from homeschool. Egan said he realizes there are groups and things of that nature to provide that interaction for the children being homeschooled, but it cannot compare to the experience provided in a public-school setting.
Try not to laugh too hard. :-)
Ping!
We were just having a conversation about the "socialization" myth on another thread. And now here's this hit piece about it...
Well, I have tried to duplicate the public school environment as the Paterfamilias - beatings in the bathroom; offering drugs; applying condoms to various fruits and vegetables...
We do what we can.
Perhaps Mater& Magister has some thoughts.
Some excerpts:
Stough maintains that "insofar as self concept is a reflector of socialization, it would appear that few home-schooled children are socially deprived, and that there may be sufficient evidence to indicate that some home-schooled children have a higher self concept than conventionally schooled children."
and
From the findings of these two studies, it would appear that the concerns expressed by teachers, administrators, and legislators about socialization and home schooling might be unfounded. Indeed, Bliss (1989) contends that it is in the formal educational system's setting that children first experience negative socialization, conformity, and peer pressure. According to her, "This is a setting of large groups, segmented by age, with a variation of authority figures...the individual, with his/her developmental needs, becomes overpowered by the expectations and demand of others--equal in age and equally developmentally needy."
When I was doing all of my research before pulling my four children out of school, I talked to my aunt who was retiring after teaching in public schools for over 30 years. My kids were going to complete the current year and then start home schooling the next year. Her response to the "socialization question" was that if I were truly concerned with their socialization I would not let them even finish the two months remaining that year but remove them immediately. 15 years later I still believe it was the best decision I ever made.
I started school around 1970, and we weren't taught to read and write until 1st grade back then.
Another mom on another thread was saying being goal-oriented is more important than being "gifted", and this story illustrates that. Success seems to be more a result of a person's interests and how much that person is willing to work toward a goal.
The fact that their child is now a spelling bee winner and is doing some high school work at age 11 says that age five does not set one's destiny.
I have a child who could read my old college textbooks when he was five. He did many other things that, looking back, I realize now were extraordinary, and he was teaching himself. But only because he was interested in those things. Now at age 10 he's more interested in baseball than anything else. ;-)
I just tell people that I'm not raising my kids to be socialists.
Homeschool your kids. Join the NRA. Cancel MSM subscriptions. Wear a religious symbol. Annoy leftists.
BALDERDASH!!! Poppycock!! Pure bunk!!
NO kid "needs" to know who Tupac, Eminem and Snoop Dogg are, but that's what they'll learn being "socialized" in the Public school. No kid "needs" to have a vocabulary of foul language, but that's what they'll learn being "socialized" in the Public school. No kid "needs" to know every dirty joke that comes down the grapevine, but that's what they'll learn being "socialized" in the Public school. There are umpteen foul playground conversation topics -- as we who were public school educated can well attest -- that no child "needs" to understand, but they'll learn them being "socialized" at the Public school.
The aspects of "socialization" afforded (threatened?) by the Public school rank near the TOP of the list of reasons to NOT to educate children in the Public school. In the home and in smaller, private venues, children interact far more with adults at a more personal level, and become more socially comfortable with adults; there is not the formation of an "us/them" dichotomy between children and adults. Yes, they understand there is a difference, but in interpersonal relationships the children are more bold, more forthcoming, more free in their conversations, and they include adults along with their peers as members of their social circles. THAT is a child who is well-socialized, and that IS NOT what children learn being "socialized" in the Public schools.
This dough-headed assumption that children "need" the social interaction of a large group of their peers in order to be well-adjusted did not plague our forebears. The greatest men in our history books did not have playgrounds filled with peers with whom to become "socialized". This letter was written by John Q. Adams --- AT AGE 10!
Dear Sir,
I love to receive letters very well, much better than I love to write them. I make but a poor figure at composition; my head is much too fickle. My thoughts are running after birds' eggs, play, and trifles, till I get vexed with myself. I have but just entered the third volume of Smollett, though I had designed to have got half through it by this time. I have determined this week to be more diligent, as Mr. Thaxter will be absent at court and I cannot pursue my other studies. I have set myself a stint, and determine to read the third volume half out. If I can but keep my resolution I will write again at the end of the week, and give a better account of myself. I wish, sir, you would give me some instructions with regard to my time, and advise me how to proportion my studies and my play, in writing, and I will keep them by me and endeavor to follow them. I am, dear sir, with a present determination of growing better,
Yours,
John Quincy Adams
P.S. Sir, if you will be so good as to favor me with a blank book, I will transcribe the most remarkable occurrences I meet with in my reading, which will serve to fix them upon my mind.
John Adams, as a boy of ten, implores his father for advice on being a more disciplined student. (!!!) Can you name ONE child of the Public schools, of whom you are aware, even in a local High School, who exhibits such an awareness of the importance of their education? And what can be said of his choice of readin material? Hume and Smollet's "History of England" is a six-volume set that begins with the invasion of Julius Ceasar and carries through to the revolution of 1688. And here is our young Master Adams berating himself at having only gotten to volume three. Well, for shame! Why, I know MANY children these days just clamoring for a copy of their own; some have read the whole set TWICE already. NOT!!
The gulf in literacy and knowledge between our present-day children and their chronological peers of two centuries ago could NOT be more profound, no amount of public education will narrow it even one hair's breadth, and sending a child into that environment is not only a shabby excuse for education it is, very nearly, damnation.
Amen Brother!
Hey, come on now - the author's right. The social interaction we give our homeschooled kids definately "cannot compare to the experience provided in a public-school setting." Thank God! :)
Snort. Hit piece indeed.
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