Posted on 08/06/2006 3:22:26 PM PDT by RKBA Democrat
Socialization is no longer an issue for homeschoolers, according to some researchers on the long-running debate over public and independent schooling.
Susan McDowell, author of "But What About Socialization? Answering the Perpetual Home Schooling Question: A Review of the Literature, has researched 24 studies on the socialization of homeschoolers, according to Bristol Herald Courier.
"Its a non-issue today," said McDowell, who earned Ph.D. in educational leadership from Vanderbilt University. "All the research shows children are doing well."
On one occasion, she was challenged by one of her publishers to find evidence that homeschoolers were socially deficient compared to their publically educated counterparts.
However, she claims finding no one in the academic field with such view supported by research.
Other researchers, such as Larry Shyers, who holds Ph.D. in counseling, support McDowells findings. Shyers dissertation, "Comparison of Social Adjustment Between Home and Traditionally Schooled Children," won a national award in excellence in research from the Educational Research Information Clearinghouse in 1992.
His studies found that homeschooled children are not disadvantaged when it comes to socialization. He said that those taught at home were more likely to invite others to play with them, they were not as competitive but more cooperative, and they kept their noise levels lower. Homeschooled children also played with peers of both genders rather than with those of the same gender, he added.
Fourteen-year-old Kayla Freeman from Bristol, Tenn. says she knows more people than she did while in traditional school, and she has discovered better friends in the homeschool community.
Most homeschooled kids I know are outgoing and friendly," Kayla said. "They are the truest friends I have."
Whether it is for religious, social, or educational reason, American parents are, albeit small in number, increasingly withdrawing their children out of public schools and instructing them at home, despite the criticisms laid out by homeschool critics.
The National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES) estimated that 1.1 Million students were homeschooled in the United States in 2003, an increase from 850,000 from the 1999 NHES data.
I had no intention (see my post, #99) of taking potshots at IRONCLAD, but just thought he and others might benefit from some background on the history of American public education.
As for this poster's "conservative" credentials, they are of no interest to me, given how incoherent the defn of both "liberal" and "conservative" have become. This is an interesting forum, with a lot of posters who strike me as sensible, and a few who are nutballs. I hang around to benefit from the former and can usually blow off the latter without getting my underwear in a knot. If not, a few deep breaths invariably smooths them out.
"What about idiot parents? Most of the parents I meet today I wouldn't trust with an ant farm."
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Yes, and nearly all of them are products of the public schools, whose staff (both teachers and administrators) are the bottom feeders of higher education (administrators worse than the teachers). The NEA ploy of blaming public school incompetence on parents may have had some credibility when public schooling was a new institution, but after several generations of (mostly) products of public education "graduating" to become parents, this excuse is totally bogus.
I've only met a couple of parents who home school. I mentioned Piaget (real basic education theory)to them and got only blank stares in return.
No doubt some of these home school parents know what they're doing. But I would wager there is a significant portion who are complete morons.
Yes--that is it exactly! I do not wish to have conversations with kids not old enough to drive about world affairs and especially anything of a personal nature. Yet, time and time again I hear parents bragging that their kids "get along" better with adults than their peers. More than half the time the reason these kids "get along" better is because the adult is too polite and maintains the conversational line much longer than a peer would. A high school student is not my peer, and I don't want their opinion on nuclear war, Iraq or Chavez. Now, if they have pertinant facts to share from information they have read, then a conversation can happen. But more often than not, I hear "I think" or "I feel" or "In my opinion"
A young teen being able to converse with an adult and not with a peer is not a plus in my book. And it's not a lack of not being able to find intellectual equals. I've seen both of my girls discuss poetry, books, and world events with other teenagers, without the need to insert themselves into the adult side of the conversation.
Then there are the parents that shove their kids into your face so as to brag about how smart they are and to get them to perform in some way... "Show Mrs. H how much you learned about...." or "Recite that poem you memorized..." Uhm, yeah....
Well, they aren't all bad. All 3 of my sons attended public school for most of their schooling (I would have home schooled had I known it was an option, but it didn't explode like it has until they were in late high school). But I do feel bad about some of the things they were exposed to as they were growing up.
susie
inmates.
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Inmates.
And,,,if the child or parent refuses to cooperate with their jailers armed police will soon be at their door. ( real bullets in those guns on the hip)
And, as a teacher I met some very poorly adjusted public school kids.
susie
Well, besides the fact that you clearly have a bias, which I will not try to change, I meant not all of the kids they will come into contact with are bad.
You certainly have an opinion, and I suppose you made it by visiting every single school in the nation, so, of course, you're clearly right..... ;)
susie
You and I would get along just fine. If an adult ASKS the child what he thinks about any topic, that is one thing, but just as you said, when the kid starts blathering on about his opinions, it's sooooo annoying. Worse, the kids aren't critical thinkers (not that adults are either though). I have a nephew whom I love very much. He had it tough because of a divorce and some other issues. He went off to college (ended up dropping out though) and came home spewing all this garbage. His mom just sat there like she was a dumb mute (which is probably closer to the truth than not) and I just hammered at him with how ridiculous he was re: capitalism is crap; eating meat is evil; yadda, yadda, yadda. Just for the record, I told him that only little rich suburban kids can have mommy go into the local market and buy frozen veggie burgers, etc. and get on their highhorse about the evils of meat. I also told him if there wasn't so much convenience to the vegetarian life (as there is here in the good ol US) that he'd likely NOT be a vegetarian, not to mention that the teenagers in India wouldn't thumb their nose at anything since they aren't spoiled little brats. I got a little more into it than that, but my nephew got the point, gave me a big smile, and shut right up. We get along great but he knows he can't BS his A.G.
You know, I make typos on here as much as anyone, mainly out of haste, but your post was so poor in that area, it makes me wonder how you can be so full of yourself about knowing what excellent education really entails.
For you to attack any parent that sends his/her child/ren to a traditional school, whether public or private, is outlandish and arrogant and smacks of a true know-it-all, judgmental type (i.e. very scary). Furthermore, there is simply no basis for that argument whatsoever, other than your emotional investment.
You obviously are so biased in favor of homeschooling that you refuse, or are too ignorant, to see that it is not the perfect thing you want it to be, nor is public school necessarily quite the evil you believe it to be.
I fully realize the negatives with public schools, primarily because I have teachers in my family and am, myself, a product of public school -- fortunately, it was an excellent school and I was educated by the old-school teachers. However, you apparently believe that ALL schools are bad. Patently false and ridiculous. I think homeschooling is a wonderful thing and particularly beneficial to certain children. If I had small children I would either homeschool them or send them to a conservative Christian school (one like my church has established), but I am not so black and white on this issue as you so obviously are. I guess I figure that I came out okay and love the Lord with all my heart, mind and strength. God is everywhere you know, not just in homeschooling families.
Oh, and two things: Medical school is NOT trade school, and I was being facetious. Secondly, punctuation is our friend, my dear.
That this one wasn't will be forgive by the rational members of this board.
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That should read: forgiven
I am not so black and white
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I am as "black and white" about institutional schooling as I am about orphanages. I hold that orphanages are NOT the best place to raise a child. I also state that institutional schooling, government schooling especially, is not the best way to raise a child.
Yes, we need orphanages. Yes, we will always need institutional schooling, but no one should argue that either is the best way to raise a child.
Good job. Keep repeating the same mindless crap. No need to think on your part. BTW, shear means to cut or clip. You mean sheer. I'm rational, but when people can't use the correct words, it drives me bananas.
Sure hope you aren't homeschooling anybody - yikes! English is already going down the tubes.
Medical school is NOT trade school,
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Medical school is a trade school.
Keep repeating the same mindless crap.
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Get used to it. Once this idea catches on you will hear it often.
Government schools are to orphanages as homeschooling is to healthy and well functioning families.
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