PBS DISCOVERS HOMESCHOOLING

Religion and Ethics ^ | January 12, 2007 | Lucky Severson

[achilles2000]

BOB ABERNETHY, anchor: By some estimates, the number of children in this country being taught at home is well over a million and may be approaching two million, and in some states there is very little or no government oversight of what the kids are learning, which is just the way most home school parents want it. We have a Lucky Severson story today on the home school debate...[be sure to watch the streaming video of the program that is now being broadcast over PBS's TV stations this weekend]

[scottteng]

Don't know where you are in Florida we are still in building mania here in Pasco north of Tampa portables everywhere and new schools going up every year. Yes they are crowded but that is not really the problem it is the lowest common denominator. Teachers are forced to gear the class to the slowest student so the majority of the students are just plain old fashioned bored out of their socks. As far as the social stuff both of mine stay real involved in scouts that is a much nicer social environment than the schools.

[achilles2000]

Thanks!

[supremedoctrine]

I'm really glad someone besides me is noticing this trend, which greatly surprised me last summer when we visited some new-ish friends in Cincy, Ohio. Hardly the kind you'd associate with the stereotypical homeschoolers, yet at the same time not really Liberals, but certainly not lower case or capital C Conservative, either, and not really observant/Religious. Just free-thinking individuals who knew what to expect from big City Public School Education/Socialization---and were NOT going to subject their kids to it.
They had two young grade-school age boys, who were the most charming and open children their age I have EVER met.
We spent a good part of the visit discussing this trend, which seems utterly surprising to me but not to our hosts.

[stainlessbanner]

Part of the problem with overcrowding is the explosive growth in FLA. County budgets are 5-10 years behind the real estate development curve by my estimation. Neighborhoods are built, but the infrastructure (schools, hospitals, police dept, roads) is lacking in most FLA counties.

FCAT and the public school system have their own major problems. Lack of planning/budgeting just compound the issue.

[scottteng]

The problem is more one of official shortsitedness combined with the typical government's voracious appetite for funds. I'll cite one concrete example we have a resource recovery plant built 15 years ago by floating a bond issue. This plant gererates electricity by burning trash. At the time it was designed to have four burners however only three were installed to save money. The thinking was that the fourth burner could be added later. Fast forward 15 years the plant is now over capacity. Due to changes in environmental and other regs the cost of refitting the plant with its intended fourth burner exceeds the cost of building a brand new stand alone plant. Remember we are still paying on the current plant which is now overcapacity.

schools are built on the same theories but many a brand new school is overcapacity in its first year open rather than being 15 years downline. These things are all supposed to be planned for the counties gobble up many thousands of impact fee dollars on every new house unfortunately most are wasted in political patronage rather than for the intended purpose.

[KeepUSfree]

No, the reality is that liberalism IS a religion. So, liberal homeschoolers do it for the same reason as "religious" homeschoolers do - they don't want their kids to learn "bad" things.

For the religious right - that means all the destructive social habits and the liberal education schools provide.

For the libs, they don't want their kids exposed to the destructive social habits and the small bits of "reasonableness" that some schools still have in their curriculums.

I am a "Stop" for many local Homeschool groups as I am a "Nature Boy" and I, somehow, have been tapped by my local school system for my expertise in "all things outside". So , I now lecture and give tours of my house, gardens, butterfly & moth rearing facilities, cacti & Hosta hybridization programs and all the other "crap" I do - for homeschoolers several times a year.

BIG diversity in the types of kids and political leanings of the parents in these programs.