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 ...
Yep, quality education for you, shows too.
Actually they do well, not that you would care to research the subject.
I see there are some good points to homeschooling
if it works for you then that is great. I’d probably get tired of putting on a ‘teacher’ act with my own children personally. although i dont have kids yet so this is all speculation.
it is true that public schools expose children to unsavory people but looking back i think the benefits of my public education outweigh any disadvantages
When i went to highschool we were segregated into hard working/smart and dumb/lazy classes so that probably colors my opinion in favor of school. hehe. would not have wanted to take classes with some of those jokers
I agree that there are some school districts that are probably just horrible. I would not make anyone go to public school in a bad location. I would plan to move to a good district if i had to.
I also agree that learning is mostly up to the individual; the bulk of it is done individually not in a lecture. However, the lectures can help..especially with questions.
If i had kids who liked math i would want them to be able to have trained calculus teachers. I can speak some spanish but by no means am i as qualified as a teacher who has lived in mexico. if my kids liked literature i’d like them to be able to have an english teacher with a different perspective than me.
basically i think homeschooling through highschool would get tiresome unless you were working with other homeschooling parents and kids in large groups constantly; in which case it would not be ‘home’ schooling in the strictest sense eof the word.
and then when you send them off to uni they could easily turn into partiers :P i’d hate to have a slacker for a kid .
wow this has been rambling
the ruling has forged a rare alliance of religious and secular home schoolers.
That's the way things happened in my state, too. There has been an eternal feud between various groups here. But, when legislation was introduced, everyone stopped and came together to protest it. Once it was beaten down, the feud continued right where it left off. ;-)
i’m sorry what are you trying to say exactly.
Where did you get the idea they're not subjected to competition?
and learning how to get along with people who don’t agree with everything you say is an important lesson to learn.
In your case such a skill might make you less ready to tar and feather anyone who dares to question homeschooling
I always see this idea that parents in a bad school district will move to a better school district for the sake of their children. But, I would like to see someone define a “good school district.”
I can guarantee that there are massive failures in every public school district in this country. I am not saying this to be an attack on parents who have their kids in those schools, but I am saying it out of realism. Be willing to admit there is a problem and address that with your kids ASAP and regularly if you are in those systems.
Indoctrination is happening, whether subtly or blatantly The destruction of traditional morals, the demonization of parents, holiness of the state, and the inability to be an unique individual are overwhelming results of these institutions.
In regards to homeschooling through highschool, these have been my most enjoyable years schooling with my kids. And I have found many weaknesses of my own in regards to knowledge that have sent me scrambling. But I have enjoyed every moment of it.
And, kids can go to a community college and get the experience of the teachers you desire. But reality is, public highschools are not going to provide you with a calculus teacher who is an applied mathematician, or a spanish teacher who has lived in Mexico, etc.
You are right about once kids get out on their own, they do some odd things. But I think if you talk to homeschooled children and their parents, you will see a much higher success rate in overcoming those pitfalls. When you build on a much stronger foundation, for a longer period of time, that stays with the child as they go out and discover the world.
hmm i’d say a good school district is one in which
1. discipline is present; strictly enforced. bullying is rooted out and punished.
2. the teachers know a fair amount with respect to their individual subjects and care about teaching it
3. there are classes segregated by ability and work ethic
4. classes are reasonably small and there is a small community feel
My highschool was decent on all three accounts. true there were some odd liberal professors who tried to fill out head with nonsense but my parents cancelled out the effects of this. and my US government teacher was conservative! i won’t deny that teachers sometimes have a political slant.
I did have a spanish teacher who had spent a good amount of time in mexico and was fluent. and i always felt like most of the teachers were enthusiastic and competent in their subject area.
I got to do things like look through a really powerful telescope in night time astronomy labs, have access to a photography dark-room, etc etc.
and AP classes are a great feature too. I even joined the track team at one point and i’m glad i had that experience.
I guess public school wasn’t all fun and smiles but i had a decent time. Alot of people really really love their highschool days though so not all highschools are so bad.
I have similar good things to say about public universities. I think they are great value for the money.
I grew up in a very small community (only 200 students in my highschool), and my school would qualify on 3 of the 4 in your list, minus the segregation. I think the segregation is a problem though, because in the real world we are not segregated based on ability or anything else (which is what makes homeschooling nice, a mix of grades if you have more than one child).
Anyway, back to my point. I knew in highschool, given the “great” school I went to, that I would never subject my kids to it. That was 20 years ago. My brothers went to the same school, loved their experiences there. Their kids have been a handful to say the least, and my brother lost his only son, at 17, when he was out drinking with buddies and they had a wreck. I would have to say my brothers are fairly good parents, one is a deacon in his church, and they cannot overcome the social pressures that kids in a public school are exposed to.
Having access to a really power telescope? I can go over to the university. I can make a dark room in my house for photography (but my daughter is really into digital photography & computer graphics). And all of our classes are AP classes, period. Homeschooling does not limit you from joining a track team or anything else. The amazing thing about homeschooling is “can’t” isn’t in our vocabulary. We have to be creative, but the challenge becomes part of the learning process.
I agree with public universities and community colleges can be a great resource if the students are strong in their foundations so they can withstand the additional attempts at indoctrination. Today, unfortunately, kids coming out of public institutions are already accustomed to this process and continue to fall victim to professors.
hmm i think in the real world we are segregated to a certain degree by ability. I think segregation by effort/ability in school classes is what keeps the ‘nerds’ from being constantly available as fodder for the lazy, ambitionless ‘bullies’ :P that is generalizing and kind of a joke but i am only half joking.
I never wanted to take part in the drinking festivities in highschool. I was a serious student and remained one throughout college. I would be at a loss for what to do if i had kids who did sneak off to go drinking. However, i am certain that i would be able to instill some values and discipline.
No alcohol is allowed on the premises of a school. It takes parental permission to allow a child to hang with the wrong crowd in unsupervised environments once the school day has ended. I suppose this would be harder to accomplish with a 17 year old though. it is unfortunate when people with potential get off on the wrong track.
And not all professors are liberal either. Well..usually political science types are liberals but the solution to that is don’t major in political science. There are some subjects where politics are a non-issue. And most polite professors do not tell anyone how to think they respect other opinions (although i;ve never gone to a really liberal uni). At the very least such professors can teach a student ‘how to talk to a liberal’ :P
I would prefer my child to go to a high school although if i was in the world’s worst school district and had no way of moving i would consider home schooling.
Go sooth yourself.
When you can learn to praise your kids without denigrating mine, we'll have some common ground.
Please add my name to the Students for Concealed Carry on Campus
Thanks Dave for your work on the homeschool ping list.
Where have I denigrated yours?
Homeschool parents who post how superior their kids are to public school kids are insulting my kids.
It's stupid and rude.
That is better. I try not to post that my kids are better. They are pretty run of the mill average kids. I am no less proud of them than any other parent, sometimes that comes through I am sure.
I post about homeschooling in hopes that conservative, Christian parents that continue to put their kids into those institutions will be very vigilant.
I post about homeschooling to help lessen the perception that kids who are homeschooled are isolated from normal activties. This perception is perpetuated by the media and left and must be overcome.
And finally, I post about homeschooling in the hopes that someday, through education and strength in numbers, and maybe a little disgust sprinkled in there, we can take back our institutions of education to be just that. For education, not indoctrination.
I was homeschooled all along and my husband for his last six years or so, so both of us were homeschooled through high school. We learned all the same things that we would have in public schools and got more than adequate socialization.
My mom has a high school diploma, dislikes math, and weaknesses in the science area. Though she speaks French, I took Spanish, which she does not know. Homeschoolers have resources and curriculum to call on to supplement their weak areas. I have a B.S. in computer science with a minor in math, and an MS in computer science.
My husband is an ME. We have siblings who include (between us) a veterinarian, engineers, a history grad student, a journalists, a former Marine fighter pilot, a current Army ROTC student, and of my brothers who still haven’t left, one wants to be a chaplain. My husband’s brother homeschools his kids and I’ll homeschool mine when they come, as I expect all of us on both sides will.
Homeschooled kids don’t stay in their houses all day long. Trust me, we get exposed to “life sucking” too. Boy scouts, church groups, other homeschool groups, academic competitions, chess clubs, 4H, volunteer work, part time jobs, early community college coursework - all those offer ways for homeschoolers to interact with others.
So you’re of course free to not homeschool but don’t think that homeschoolers are depriving their children of things. We’re not, and we’re succeeding at priority one - raising smart, well educated kids without all the nonsense that goes on in government schools.
There may be some success stories with homeschooling (seems like it will be proportional to how much money + time you are able to spend on it) but I get the impression peope who homeschool have labelled all ‘government schools’ as horrible places of little value that exist only to indoctrinate kids to one viewpoint.
I even had someone in this thread suggest I am lacking in education because I went to a public high shcool which i found amusing in its ignorance.
I keep saying i had an excellent education at my public school and that is because it is the truth. I had great teachers overall. I took an anatomy class that was so detailed that college anatomy was basically a slightly more detailed review when it concerend the subjects i learned in highschool anatomy(especially regarding the types of tissues)
My three years of spanish (including everyday dialogue with a fluent teacher) were so helpful that now I am attempting to become fluent in spanish on my own by watching moves/tv shows and doing workbooks in spanish. I will forever have the classroom verb drills for “ser” and “tener” engrained into my memory.
Re: field trips. In the Phoenix area, some districts now have ZERO field trips per year. A docent at our science museum said she almost lost her job due to the decline in school field trips. However, she re-invented her job and now teaches classes to homeschoolers. Her schedule is full all year, PLUS most HS families who take her classes also sign up for annual passes with the museum.
Well, I’ve known some kids who came out of homeschooling ready to take on the world. In one case the parent and partner were Randian Objectivists — not exactly hardcore, but it was central to their teaching. In the other case the parents were socialists, though, interestingly, the children turned out otherwise — libertarian, in fact.
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