There is alot of important information that cannot be covered by a standardized test. The first thing that comes into my mind is the art of writing a proper college research paper with good citations.
In my public school we were taught this because the teachers knew it would be a skill useful for college.
Although I got A’s on my college papers I think I would prefer a good english teacher to teach my kids how to write a good paper in highschool. I would be too biased towards my own children and would probably worry too much about hurting their feelings if the paper was flawed. It is one thing for a teacher to tell you to overhaul your paper and another for your parent to tell you to overhaul it.
This brings the topic of discipline to mind. I think I learned discipline from my public school days. I learned that assignement deadlines were fixed or too bad for you; one should never be late, etc
I have to wonder if home schooling consistently offer similar levels of discipline and objective grading.
Homeschool moms don’t usually have a problem telling their kids to go back and fix their work. My mother used to give me back papers covered in red pen. She also taught other homeschool kids how to write research papers.
Most homeschoolers maintain schedules and deadlines. Some don’t. So? You sink or swim. I had plenty of classes in college with public school graduates with no discipline. On the whole, homeschoolers tend to have more discipline because the child takes more and more responsibility for his own education as time goes on. By high school, my mother was assigning work in three week chunks for me. My responsibility was to have it done by the deadline. She wasn’t going to nag me about whether I was working on it or not, it was just due or there would be consequences.
Homeschooling lets kids work at their own pace. What might take a smart kid twenty minutes could take a stupid kid two hours. Homeschooling means the stupid kid gets plenty of time and the smart kid gets to move on to something else. No smart kids sitting in class throwing paper airplanes because they’re bored, no slow kid getting mocked by his classmates for always taking so long.
I AM going to bed, lol. After I reply to you.
My honors alg 2 teacher taught me and our class how to write a college research paper (back in the early 80’s, catholic school). The topic was math, mine was Descarte or something. But it was the first and only research paper before college. Taught me tons.
Heh, I have kids. (talking about you being biased to your kids). My two teens, anyway, dread asking me for help yet always want my help to edit their papers. And, I don’t just red pen them. I circle stuff, this is wrong, this is grammatically incorrect, say this better, this sentence doesn’t flow, you spelled this or that word wrong.
I agree, it is easier to hear some teacher overhaul your paper, but if you’re my kid, you would get used to it. My oldest will say, “but mom, how would you really grade this, I want to know what you’d give it since you’re a hard grader” So I tell her. Then she gets pissed, stomps off, but comes back eventually. This is why I don’t want to grade my kids. They know I’m tough and they want me to be honest but I’m still their mom. It’s so hard to edit their papers because I’m hard. And all the stomping and slamming doors. It gets annoying. We don’t even need to add all the hormonal crap.
This is why I could NEVER teach grade school. Those kids are too damn cute, I couldn’t grade them. Seriously, how can one give a grade to a little 6 yr old? I’m so much better with middle and high school. Those little ones can wrap me around their fingers. Heh, forget my own kids. There would either be no objectively or the opposite, too much trying to compensate.
I can help my kids but I’m mommy first. That’s the way it should be imo.
Yep. I understand that too. Your last paragraph. I learned discipline at home but also in 13 yrs of catholic school. One was NEVER tardy, it was worse than being absent and I still carry that to this day. Any assignment due, points off if late, no excuses. Taught me well. Life isn’t easy, not everyone is one’s parents willing to love you no matter what. :) Oh and in college, after spending 13 yrs in catholic school, I didn’t know what to do with the 2 free cut days. Freshman year, most of my profs talked about 2 free cut days, no questions asked. I was like, huh? We can just not come to class if we’re not sick? Totally new world for me. Needless to say, I didn’t cut often. Cutting was not an option in Catholic high school and it’s not in my teens public high school.