Homeschooling Headache

Termlimits.org ^ | 9/19/03 | Jacob

[pabianice]

Big problem. They're doing too well.

Cassandra Stevenson of Connecticut has just started college. She's 15. Her sister, Samantha, is 19 — and has a master's degree in astrophysics.

"Homeschooling is more like college than a public or a private school is," says Cassandra. "You learn what you want to learn and what you need to learn. The curriculum is fitted to you."

That's exceptional. But your average homeschooler still does pretty well. A National Home Education Research Institute study found that the typical homeschooler's academic achievement easily tops that of the typical public-school student. The Institute estimates that as many as 2.2 million children now benefit from homeschooling.

See the problem? Robert Rader does. He's the executive director of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education. Call it Status Quo United for short. Rader agrees that "parents have the right to educate their children at home." On the other hand, he worries that "children don't always get the rigorous structure and up-to-date educational techniques, which are applied in public schools."

Uh, hello. It's that so-called "rigorous structure" that parents and kids are escaping from! Mr. Rader doesn't seem to realize that he and other educators might learn from the homeschoolers — if effective education is really their goal.

If you want process, call Mr. Rader. He'll process your kids for you. If you want results — well, a great many families have figured out how to get those . . . at home. Mine too.

This is Common Sense. I'm Paul Jacob.

[VRW Conspirator]

Egad! Hoeschool = Homeschool (blush)

[applemac_g4]

"My hubby says that the vast majority of students in the country are Public Schooled."

---

Your husband is correct.

[dawn53]

Check with your local community college to see if they have a program. The college in our area that offers this was a 2 year college, but is now a 4 year state college. When we lived in North Carolina they had a similar program.

All we had to do was register with the dual credit office. They registered him and waived the registration fee, then they sent him to take the College Placement Test.

In order to take classes they must qualify to be in College Algebra (we used Saxon Alg. II and he qualified with no problem), qualify to take Composition I (this also didn't seem to be a problem, he qualified for Honors Comp, I used Abeka grammar in our homeschooling), and qualify in Reading Comprehension at a college level.

So now he's free to take whichever classes he chooses, up to 15 hours per semester.

We're working on the General Ed requirements, because at this point he doesn't have an inkling as to what he would want to major in.

But the way I look at it, we can get all his Gen. Ed requirements out of the way, for free!!!!

[Marie]

I love you.

I love you. I love you. I love you. Thank you so MUCH for that link! This is exactly what I've been looking for.

[Marie]

Love your tag! LOL!

[netmilsmom]

But your tagline is soooooo true! I need to make a pot!

[netmilsmom]

You go Girl!

[mtbopfuyn]

Not arguing most homeschoolers are getting an excellent education, but I do have a problem with such young kids going to college. College is a whole 'nuther world and they should be able to experience it as a young adult, not as a child/minor.

[netmilsmom]

Don't worry, I am slowly losing my "M" & "R" keys. I have to preview all the time!

[DeFault User]

The community college can also be a good source for foreign language instruction. My wife teaches such classes and has some homeschoolers as well as usual college age students, even retirees. The courses are also available on the Internet although not for homeschoolers.

[netmilsmom]

That was part of my hubby's statement. Our local Community College will allow 10th graders to attend. Our Charter School ends in 9th grade. He says they will not be mature enough to go to college.

[RightOnline]

Strictly in terms of raw numbers of students, your husband is probably correct (too many parents are too "busy" or otherwise too lazy to homeschool; it's too convenient to dump the kids off onto the public schools during the day). If you look at trends........which educational channel / method is growing fastest........you win. Homeschooling, hands down, is the fastest growing educational trend in America.

[SpookBrat]

Very interesting. I liked this one because we're always criticized for being "uneducated" therefore, how can we teach our own children?

[dawn53]

So far, I'm observing that college is a much less "dangerous" place than high school.

Take for instance my 15 year old.

He has classes every day at the local college. He gets dropped off, he gets picked up.

While I'm sitting in the car waiting for him, I've observed that college kids, on this particular campus at least, come and go individually. I never see kids in "groups" or even "pairs" for that matter.

Everyone seems to be there to go to classes, not to socialize.

Compare that to the local high school peer dependence, and peer situations, plus the length of time that is spent during the day at class (high school probably 30 hours a week, college 15 hours a week) and this college seems a much better atmosphere for an education.

As far as subjects, I don't think College Algebra, Oceanography, Composition, or Spanish are too controversial. And if they do introduce controversial subjects in certain classes (and I've warned my son that this will probably happen), he can come home and discuss them. His comp teacher assigned three pieces of reading during the first week. One was by Andrew Sullivan and discussed gays in American society, but my husband and I made it a point to read the article as well, and discussed it with our son. (not that the gay lifestyle hasn't been discussed before because some of our neighbors are gay.) Unlike high school, he won't be getting sex ed from an instructor with bias.

His friends are other kids his age that come over to our house to play pool, or neighborhood kids that play football in the park across the street.

Truth be told, I don't want my child to have the normal "college experience". I've had too many friends send their kids off to college, and the normal "college experience" involves drinking themselves into a stupor and having unprotected sex.

I want him to go to college for an education, not for an experience.

[ladylib]

These poor public school officials. They worry so much. It breaks my heart.

[SpookBrat]

Looks like both our pets were at the same party.

[netmilsmom]

Thank you Dawn!

Please read her post, Dad.

[Chad Fairbanks]

ROTFL... Well, at least they were playing nice LOL

[SpookBrat]

School was a waste of time for me as well. All I wanted to do was read books, collect rocks and hang out with my grandma. I hated school stealing time away from the things I wanted to do.

[Chad Fairbanks]

I can relate - school was really boring for me. I wasn't getting anything out of it that I didn't already know. Every year, the first several months were a review of the previous year's material for those who 'forgot' over the summer.

I spent most of 9th and 10th grade having 'in-school suspension', which meant I sat in the library all day. The upside was, I could sit there and read anything I wanted. I must have read every book in the place ;0)