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. :-)
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."
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.
This woman in the article is an academic snob. She thinks her child is too smart to be in school with children her age. I hate to tell her this but there are lots of brilliant children out there. Her child was bored because she kept telling her that she should be since she knew this subject already. I hate to say it but a lot of life is boring and not intellectually stimulating. She is giving everyone a good lesson in how to raise a very obnoxious child who will not know how to fit into society. This has nothing to do with home schooling. This mother just wants everyone to know how brilliant her child is. I have known many home schooled children over the year and they all seemed markedly well adjusted.
And from my 12 years of incarceration for having committed the crime of being born, I know this is just the tip of the iceberg.
People often remark about how well-behaved our children are. It's not complicated. They just need a little discipline and a lot of love from mom and dad.
"but it wasn’t quite the real world" -- one of my all time favorite arguments. As if being crammed into a classroom with 30 people your exact age IS the real world. You never ever in your whole life will encounter such a situation again, but THAT is the real world?? //rolling eyes in amazement//.