Posted on 04/05/2008 3:09:38 PM PDT by kiriath_jearim
Madison Browning, 8, spent a recent school day coloring, playing on swings at a park and whirling to Japanese string music at a cozy dance studio. Caedyn Curto, 13, studied biblical scripture at his family's kitchen table before tackling decimals, completing a biology test and revising a journalism essay.
The Browning and Curto families, both of whom live in the South Bay, have embraced very different styles of education. But they now find themselves on the same side of a battle to continue teaching their children at home in the face of an appellate court ruling that home schooling in California must be conducted by credentialed instructors.
The February court decision is not being enforced pending appeals. The 2nd District Court of Appeal agreed last week to rehear the case in June, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pledged to support new legislation allowing home schooling if the decision is not reversed. Meanwhile, the ruling has forged a rare alliance of religious and secular home schoolers.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
And for the record I do feel like homeschooling is a more positive thing after reading this thread.
People have discussions about things to learn.
And yeah I dont know that much about homeschooling and how people who were homeschooled fare in college on the whole. I will admit to a certain degree of ignorance about it.
Heh i already admitted it was probably a bit silly to make the statement ‘i would never homeschool’ in a pro-homeschooling thread.
However, I feel reasonably free to speak my mind. In this case it sparked a lively discussion in which i actually learned some things instead of ignoring it and not opening my mind to other ideas.
“There is nothing condescending about refusing to state that all home school stories are pure success.”
Strawman argument. That wasn't what I asserted, and that wasn't what you were countering with your obnoxious statement.
It IS condescending to say that there might not be ANY homeschooling successes.
To say that there MAY be SOME homeschooling successes is also to say that it's also possible that there MAY NOT be ANY homeschooling successes.
If you think that's true, then you're very ignorant. You need to get out more. If you really don't know better, then it appears that your “highschool” [sic] education was rather narrow, and that you were rather educationally sheltered. You need more and better socialization. If that's the case, it's too bad you didn't have the broader experience of homeschooling.
“You are right: i don’t know that much about its success rates.”
Then do a little research on the subject before you continue to stuff your very large foot down your throat.
“So you can prefer public schools without dismissing homeschooling as a total and complete failure.”
Especially since, to dismiss homeschooling as a “total and complete failure” would be to lie egregiously.
“I am not questioning that homeschool works for some people.”
I'm glad to see you change your tune, then.
sitetest
Your point was that public schools have to take everybody, and that is what drags public school test scores down.
Private schools do not have to take everybody, but home schoolers score better than private schoolers, too. So, your point is defeated.
I think you are reading wayyyy too much into the statement “there may be some successes with homeschooling”.
It was initially written after i read a post someone made detailing the success of homeschooling in her family. The post impressed me but I had no way of knowing if those results are all that common in homeschool situations.
If you want to interpret the word ‘may’ in such a way that suggests i think there are no home schooling successes then have fun with that.
i chose that word as a reflection of the fact I don’t know enough about it to make truly confident statements on the matter.
Nope. Always allied in the desire to homeschool.
Surely private school parents care more about their children’s education on the whole than public school parents? Surely more of these parents would get involved in making sure tests were studied for.
Therefore the scores being higher than public makes sense.If they are lower it might be because not all private school parents take such initiative.
My point was that there could be underlying factors behind why home schoolers score the highest on the tests. In other words, maybe the scores being higher does not have all that much to do with the lectures being better than those found in the average highschool.
In my own opinion, I think the scores are higher because a parent who would homeschool would be more likely than either public or private to make sure their kids were studying their lessons.
In that you've already admitted your abject ignorance regarding the subject, I'm inclined to think that your insults were mostly unintended consequences of your profound ignorance.
“I think you are reading wayyyy too much into the statement ‘there may be some successes with homeschooling’.”
Words have meaning. Don't blame others if you use them poorly.
Let's look at the construction of what you said:
“there may be some successes with homeschooling”
I could also say:
“There may be life on some other planets in the galaxy.”
If I say this, I'm allowing that two things are possible:
1. There is life on at least some other planets in the galaxy;
2. There is no life on other planets in the galaxy.
Thus, when you say:
“there may be some successes with homeschooling”
you're allowing that two things are possible:
1. There are some successes with homeschooling;
2. There are no successes with homeschooling.
“If you want to interpret the word ‘may’ in such a way that suggests i think there are no home schooling successes then have fun with that.”
It's not a matter of “interpretation,” but rather plain meaning. See above.
If you now wish to retract your statement, you're welcome to it. If you want to say that you said one thing, but meant another, have at it. But you said what you said. That's no one's fault but yours.
“i chose that word as a reflection of the fact I don’t know enough about it to make truly confident statements on the matter.”
Like I said, your public school kept you educationally sheltered.
sitetest
goldarng! you are articulate!
I am glad to see I am not the only one getting exasperated at the dminished intelligent discourse and growing trend of D.U.h-like comments here on FR.
good work
Thanks. ;-)
May I congratulate you on “goldarng,” Mr. K? It can take its place with “dzingbat” - which starts with Zeta - in the list of useful terms with apparently extraneous letters.
sitetest makes up for homeschoolers like me. Shoot, where’d the kids go now? There’s nobody here but me and catz!
once again you are reading way too much into the sentence.
For all I know you are all a bunch of crackpots with tinfoil who think the government is hovering above your house in a spaceship.
So, once again, the word ‘may’ was a reflection of me taking what was posted here with a grain of salt. I do not know that poster with the stellar home schooling stories for all i know she was making it up!
In other words “the poster’s story might be true it might not be”.
This is the internet and I take what people say on it with a grain of salt.
Of course there are underlying factors. It doesn’t happen by osmosis. On average, home schoolers learn how to discipline themselves to study and learn. On average, they learn how to learn.
Many colleges and universities seek out home schoolers because, on average, they come to college prepared to study and learn. (That’s what three or four recruiters told me as we were interviewing for my home schooled daughter to attend their schools.)
You don’t have children, so all this doesn’t really affect you right now. The way you write about this, I would guess you are young. That also colors your opinion about your more recent experiences in public school.
Weasel words. Go back to DU.
“In other words ‘the poster’s story might be true it might not be’.”
That isn't what you actually said.
Rather, you made a general statement about homeschooling:
“There may be some success stories with homeschooling...”
If you now wish to retract this condescending insult, because it was spoken in utter ignorance, no one is stopping you. But your continued defense doesn't reflect well on your alleged “good highschool [sic]” education.
“For all I know you are all a bunch of crackpots with tinfoil who think the government is hovering above your house in a spaceship.”
Based on your unwillingness to acknowledge what your own words actually mean, I'd say that it's more likely that the crackpot is the one who said:
“There may be some success stories with homeschooling...”
sitetest
Oh that’s right if someone doesn’t agree with me the only logical conclusion is that the person is a liberal. The very fact you think i even own an account on DU is amusing.
I made that statement while I was thinking about what a particular poster had said regarding her/his homeschooled family and the tremendous success they had.
You have taken one small sentence fragment out of context and beaten it into the ground.
It was not meant to be an insult; but even if you interpret it as such please keep in mind I have taken far worse with alot less crying than you in this thead.
“Oh that’s right if someone doesn’t agree with me the only logical conclusion is that the person is a liberal.”
My experience is that folks who engage in weasel words are often liberals. Many posters here have had similar experiences.
If you want to be thought of as a conservative, then man-up to your errors.
“I made that statement while I was thinking about what a particular poster had said regarding her/his homeschooled family and the tremendous success they had.”
We're not mind-readers, modest proposal. We can only read what you actually post. Your statement was generally about homeschoolers.
“You have taken one small sentence fragment out of context and beaten it into the ground.”
It was in context. More than once, you posted things that effectively expressed doubt that homeschooling might be successful. And your sentence fragment, along with most of the dreck that you've posted on this thread, deserved to be beaten into the ground.
Do your homework, modest proposal. Don't wander into conversations above your head so blithely ignorant. "Homeschool" is a keyword on Free Republic. Read through a few threads, first, to learn about homeschooling, and second, to see the sort of insults regularly thrown at homeschoolers, including in this thread.
Think, too, about what it means to be a conservative, especially the idea of limited government. Then, with that in mind, review some of the comments by some of the allegedly "conservative" posters on these threads, and how congruent - or incongruent - they are to the concept of limited government.
“It was not meant to be an insult; but even if you interpret it as such please keep in mind I have taken far worse with alot less crying than you in this thead.”
LOL. The only crying here is from you, running away from your own words, unwilling to take responsibility for your own posts.
Which does sorta remind me of the crowd over at DU.
sitetest
heh I don’t really care if you think i am a conservative or not. I regard you as a pissant who thinks what they think regarding someone’s political affiliations actually matters. Which is as funny as you claiming i am from DU.
I am free to doubt whether homeschool is superior to traditional school. Get over it!
And I find it amusing you found that one little sentence fragment was such a horrible insult while you have constantly spouted off a string of REAL insults at me.
What are you homeschooling’s answer to donald duck?
“I am free to doubt whether homeschool is superior to traditional school. Get over it!”
You certainly are free to put blinders on and deny the existence of all the successful homeschoolers, of all the research that shows the superiority of homeschooling. You are certainly free to embrace falsehood and deny reality.
But it's significant evidence as to whether or not you're actually a conservative. And it doesn't tell in your favor.
sitetest
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