Posted on 03/07/2010 11:04:40 AM PST by AJKauf
There is a popular belief that the best way for children to learn is for them to be sent away to a “brick and mortar” school, where highly trained educators will teach them the subjects they need to succeed in the world.
This belief rejects homeschooling, because dedicated mothers and fathers are simply not as good as government school teachers.
For the sake of argument, let’s say they are right. Let’s say that, as a homeschool dad, I’m not as good.
Still, when I teach my children about our nation’s history, I will be teaching from three different texts. The first is The Great Republic : A History of America by Sir Winston Churchill. The others, America: The Last Best Hope: Volumes I and II, are by Dr. William J. Bennett, former secretary of education under President Ronald Reagan.
Both of these authors know America’s history and have created fantastic texts from which to teach it. While I may not be a history major, or a certified teacher, I can read these books, teach from them, and supplement the text with additional curriculum of my choosing.
If my child were in a public school, what would they be learning from?
One of the more popular texts is The People’s History of the United States by the late Howard Zinn, a radical Marxist.....
(Excerpt) Read more at pajamasmedia.com ...
I submit our book, “A Patriot’s History of the United States,” is superior to Bennett’s in a number of ways. 1) It’s a single volume; 2) no offense, but our research into the topics (as seen in our voluminous endnotes vs. Bennett’s) blows his out of the water; and 3) he’s just “light” all the way across on analysis.
I think one of the keys to homeschooling someone successfully is to make sure they have as many other outlets as possible to interact with and socialize with people their own age whether it be through sports, church, or service organizations. I’ve met some perfectly adjusted and spectacularly educated homeshooled kids over the years and i’ve met some who were very sheltered and odd. Such is life though. Some parents are better than others and some homeschool parents are better than others.
The biggest problem that I saw in 10 years of homeschooling was parent running themselves and their children ragged trying to cram in too many outside activities. There needs to be balance.
I also have observed that the more socially inept parents tend to have the more socially inept children. Those children in “regular school” had just as many, or more social problems.
Perhaps we punch back because we have had to fight to be able to educate our children, because we are forced to fund the tax-eaters in the public schools who are always ready to stab us in the back, and because we are constantly vilified by the powerful and well financed government education establishment and their liberal friends.
What you are doing sounds very good indeed.
At least in our own case, this vigilance was rewarded by the performance of both of our children, one of whom has finished law school (passing the bar exam as well) and the other who is in the final stages of her doctoral studies in meteorology. Our focus on teaching them to be self-motivated learners and to evaluate complex arguments where "experts" come to very different conclusions served them well.
“Statistics show home schoolers test better than public school students.”
Every study shows this, and the most recent and largest study, which was published in a peer reviewed journal, show the gap to be very large. Moreover, homeschooled children from homes where one or both of the parents lack high school diplomas test better on average than the kids in the suburban schools, which, as we all know, are “different”.
I enjoyed your book, A Patriot’s History of the United States.
Thanks. I enjoyed your movies :)
Oh, you’re thinking of that OTHER Jeff Chandler, LOL!
I have never been in a movie, although I have been in a few TV ads.
Wow. And here I had images of you and Jean Simmons . . . .
Me and Jean Simmons . . . hmmmm . . . a generation apart, but she was a babe.
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