Posted on 07/01/2008 10:40:58 AM PDT by wintertime
We must be willing to redefine education. What education looks like now is an artificial construct. It was not created by people who knew or understood children or teens. It was created by bureaucrats and special interests who wanted to control children and teens.
I talked with a young lady the other day – 14-years-old – who loves horses and aims to own stables and teach riding, among other things. She’s been working with horses since she was five. She’s good enough now that she “breaks” new ones and retrains ones facing changes in the use they’re being put to. She knows her stuff.
(snip)
Then there’s her other life – public school. She failed her end-of-year math exam by three points, so she’s going to summer school. She’ll have to pass the test to move on to the next grade. I’ve talked with her. She’s smart and highly competent – just not especially interested in algebra. She’s more accomplished than many adults (even ones who did pass algebra). But she has four more years of school to go, during which time she’ll have to pass endless tests and divert her efforts from what she knows she’ll devote her life to.
(snip) I get many calls a month from parents of teens who simply haven’t managed to fit into the school mold. They’re smart kids, often kids with serious interests they’re prevented from pursuing because so many adults in their lives are running them through the testing/counseling/therapy wringer.
(snip)
In order to redefine education, we will have to engage in some self-liberation, for most of us have a very hard time letting go (I mean really letting go) of the idea that the state knows some secret about education that we don’t and that if we defy their model we just might be sorry.
(snip)
Homeschool kids are often eligible, and if not, their parents can pay for it like mine did for me.
So far as I know, they are not.
Congratulations on your new certifications!
Attend a homeschool conference, talk with some of the kids.
If it’s a two day conference, avoid media and going out on the night between conference sessions.
Then, after the conference is over, go to your typical mall.
‘nuff said.
I did this, and it’s a severe culture shock between the two settings.
Teen pregnancy, for one. The only one I know of involved a couple kids I knew who had a very hastily thrown together wedding ceremony. I expect they’re doing well now.
Drug use. I only knew one homeschool girl who got involved in that.
Rebellion/talking back to parents. Didn’t see a lot of that in the homeschool community. I always say my own teenage rebellion was so subtle, my parents didn’t even know it happened.
Home schooling is best, but it is unable to meet the challenge of scale needed in “public” education. For this, private schools are the best. However, in the future, they will have to take elements from home schooling, and advances in technology, to create an “education for the future”.
Technology will have to replace “group” education with individualized instruction, but in a group situation. The way to envision this is clear:
1) Each student will have a personal thumb drive that is their own curriculum, selected from any number of curricula available at the national level. When they plug it into the school network, maybe verified by a thumbprint scan on the thumb drive, the student will be “exactly where they left off”, when they last unplugged.
2) Curricula will be fully multimedia, interactive, and will teach multiple subjects simultaneously. For example, the student’s parents, above selecting a block of general education created by a particular education corporation, also want a block with the history of France.
While viewing the history block, the student is also being taught, reviewed and tested on English grammar, the French language, the geography of Europe, and seeing any number of images and people relevant to what he is doing.
With his keyboard, he are typing answers to questions, re-spelling new words they have seen on the screen, and directing the flow of the block into information digressions he are interested in. Say they see a picture of Louis XIV, with a brief description. They can follow it up with a mouse click and learn more about Louis XIV, before continuing back into the history block. They also have a microphone so they can practice pronunciations in both English and French.
The back and forth with the computer includes review of subject matter, and importantly, is paced based on how the student is learning. Slumps and spurts in learning are common, and the computer can adjust accordingly.
The education block can even produce suggested ideas that the human teacher can use later to go into higher levels of learning with the student.
Importantly, early on in the student’s education, they will be taught well known memorization and learning “tricks”, so they can learn to both store and correlate knowledge better than in the typical broken linear manner most of us use. This will spare their intellectual resources for higher levels of learning.
Because doing things this way saves enormous amounts of student time, curricula will have to expand to more subjects and more advanced learning in study subjects.
Curricula will be created by any number of sources, and reviewed for quality like books. Optimally, parents will have broad choices to select their childrens education.
And once the thumb drive is taken out, the student can move to any similar school without losing a day of learning, instead of the months of review and adjustment needed today.
Again, teachers will still be needed, as they will monitor and certify student performance, troubleshoot problems, maintain discipline, and teach higher levels of learning.
The cardinal sin is to waste a student’s time. Something done far too much today. And while not all students will prosper this way, the great bulk of them will.
Hope no one minds if I jump in here.
Here's the google search for truant and police.
In our state, the policy differs at each college. But I do know homeschoolers currently enrolled as dual credit students in community college courses. Homeschool students have to foot the bill themselves, though. But don’t be surprised if you have homeschoolers in your courses.
P.S. (Our family is not planning to go that route yet. Right now, we’re looking into CLEP for our son when he turns 13.)
People going into a college atmosphere are usually required to have already received a high school diploma. If she chooses to not get the diploma, it should effectively forfeit her ability to attend a college or community education classes.
I believe I have heard that there is some mechanism for homeschoolers to become eligible for HOPE scholarships, but I haven't really looked into it.
Can you report how the typical homeschooled kid behaves at a typical mall? And I do not think that the kids that draw attention at a mall could be considered typical. Walk a mall without getting your eyes trapped by the eye-grabbers and take a look at all the kids in a mall. Most of the ones I see are with family and well-behaved. Sure there are the eye-grabbers, the “attention-starved” who beg an audience for face changes and body phrasings. Why give them that food for their fancy?
And ... if we were, perhaps a more matured society, we'd view typical teen pregnancy as a good. That is in late teenage years most girls should be married, and having children.
Maybe, maybe not. I think women should make sure they’re able to support their family before having one. Even someone who wants to be a stay at home mom needs a fall back plan. And sometimes it takes longer to meet the right person. I didn’t meet my husband until I was 23.
Typical teen pregnancy doesn’t involve a married couple so it’s not good.
As a matter of fact the fifth one that comes up shows how truant officers have reduced burglaries in their town.
YOU WILL NOT MAKE STATEMENTS TO THE CONTRARY AGAIN If you do I will report your abuse not just once, but every time I catch you posting it.
Your posts have been documented to be in error at least or you as a liar at worst.
They are libelous to those of us that are public schools teachers and I will request your moderation every time you post them.
These are not threats they are matters of facts.
In our state, the top 10% students at each school are eligible for free community college education. I do know that homeschoolers are not eligible for that program, so homeschoolers here do pay for the dual-credit courses on their own. (The parents and schools are calling the courses dual-credit, but I’m not sure how it works yet.) Also, each community college here has a different policy; some are more homeschooler-friendly than others.
There is not a single of mention of the police using BULLETS
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I said the bullets were in the guns on the hip.
Rational citizens **know** that if they resist the police there is a real risk that the police will use those bullets. This is the essence of government compulsion. It **means** police action will be taken if you fail to comply with the government. It **means** that if you then resist the police those police may use those bullets.
Government Laws mean that the government can and often will use police action if the laws are not obeyed.
Government schools **laws** mean that the government can and will use police action if the citizen fails to comply.
Here in the U.S. citizens can **ransom** their children from the government indoctrination centers. They can do so by paying a **freedom of conscience tax**. This means that not only do they pay private tuition to ransom their children and support their conscience but they also support the government religion of Secular Humanism and the political and cultural agenda of their political opponents in the government schools.
Just another dedicated public school professional going beyond the call of duty at my own expense to provide for the students entrusted to me by parents who care enough to provide the very best for their children.
Certainly would, if any homeschooler cared to complain that you're offended that you imply that parents who care to provide the very best for their children, send them to you.
By the way, I suppose these courses you're going to teach don't come with a pay check? Otherwise you'd be really hypocritical to claim to be going "above and beyond the call of duty" in getting certified.
Although it's not like any other job requires its applicants to stay on top of new developments and retrain on new methods and technologies. Certainly, software engineers like me never have to completely re-learn everything we do. My doctor hasn't learned a new idea since he graduated thirty years ago.
Those of us who manage the Public Education ping list would also like you to stop posting lies about us.
If you want to have your own education ping list, we have no problem with that. However, we decide which threads to ping based on content, not on who posts the thread (note that unless you are Tammy Drennan, you are not the "author" of this one).
Obviously, we only ping to threads of which we are aware, and even though there are 4 of us, we do not monitor FR 24/7. If you'd like an article you post to be considered for a ping to the Public Education ping list, the easiest way to make that happen is to ping one of us and let us know the article exists. Since you haven't done that, I suspect that the purpose of your explanation is pure snarkiness.
The guidelines for inclusion on the public education ping list are as follows:
This list is for intellectual discussion of articles and issues related to public education (including charter schools) from the preschool to university level. Items more appropriately placed on the “Naughty Teacher” list, “Another reason to Homeschool” list, or of a general public-school-bashing nature will not be pinged.
I personally tend not to ping articles from World Nut Daily, because those articles tend to be inaccurately reported.
Again, if you'd like to have your own ping list, the four of us do not mind, but please refrain from posting lies about other FReepers.
I agree. Sadly, I know more than one young mother who has been widowed, or whose husband has become completely disabled, due to an automobile accident or illness. You never know what the future holds.
Where did wintertime mention “bullets”? I remember her referring to a gun. And that is a point made by many conservatives.
For example, you pay your taxes under force at the point of a gun, too. Years ago, I read a book that pointed out government always uses force in the form of a gun. The book said, If you don’t believe me, consider this: Try refusing to pay your taxes. Eventually, your property may be taken away. If you refuse to leave, armed police will be sent to your home to arrest you.
Parents (in many states, though not all) must send their children to school under the threat of force. If they refuse to comply, the police are sent to their home. I think that’s what wintertime is saying. The police don’t have to brandish the weapon directly at the parents and kids, but the threat of force is present.
In post #95 wintertime says she mentioned bullets.
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