Posted on 05/11/2005 6:09:07 AM PDT by The Great Yazoo
Home schooling: Some of the Pros and cons ...
By Teri Weaver, Stars and Stripes Pacific edition, Friday, May 6, 2005
Stars and Stripes talked to four Seoul-area families who home-school their children. They said they choose this method for a variety of reasons, some religious, some educational. They discussed their teaching methods, schedules, and belief that their children are benefiting from the choice.
None said their children lacked friends outside of their brothers and sisters.
Church, activities with other home-schoolers and inevitable time with the neighbors’ kids make up a healthy supply of friendships, they said.
The parents offered these advantages and drawbacks to home schooling for families who might be considering the option:
Advantages:
Freedom to stress religious beliefs.
Freedom to schedule family trips and be flexible with other scheduling needs.
Learning time and playtime become intertwined. Because the classroom often is the dining room or living room, science projects become something to do on the weekends, not just in labs.
Each child can learn at his or her own pace, without falling behind or waiting for others in the classroom to catch up.
Freedom from peer influences, such as cliques, gossip or “class clown” antics.
Drawbacks:
Adapting to a new schedule and new roles can be hard for both parents and their children.
Home and school are intertwined; finding a sanctuary from either can be hard.
Winters can be long.
Some accreditation programs or state education departments request thorough testing and paperwork.
Choosing a curriculum that works for each child can be trying, in part because there are so many options from which to choose.
2. Change requires, well, "Change."
3. Hiding out from parents is hard.
4. Winter still lasts zero to twelve months, depending upon where you live.
5. The government is still screwed up.
6. One size does not fit all.
I guess that is as comprehensive a list of homeschooling downsides as can be amassed.
The downside is being painted with such a broad brush by the NEA, and such statements as this:
None said their children lacked friends outside of their brothers and sisters.
My kid has plenty of friends, thankyavurrymuch.
Actually, we don't call it "homeschooling", we call it a "custom-education". A lot of time is spent going to music lessons, dance lessons, gym, etc.
The "downside" is well worth it.
Yeah, I don't see the cons either. I recommend it to anyone.
Your bottom line assessment is correct ... it depends on the parents.
In the state of Washington, the home-schoolers - over 25 years ago, worked with the legislature to recommend laws for homeschooling that included yearly assessment testing (or equivalent). This "accountability" checking can be sloughed off, but most parents are very interested in doing the best for their children.
Very few parents would CHOOSE to homeschool so that they could do a poor job. If the parents are lazy, it is easy to let the publik skools do the wurk, so the problem you point to is actually fairly minimal.
We home-schooled 3 children. The oldest homeschooled til 12th grade - then Running Start College. She will get her A.S. this June and was accepted to a college for Nursing. The second was homeschooled through 10th, then did 2 years of college with Running Start. He is finishing his plebe year at the United States Naval Academy. The 3rd enters Running Start for his 11th grade year next September. All in all ... we are not unhappy with the results. It has been work, but it was worth it!
Mike
I feel that while home-schooling is a fine path, I'd rather my children go to a school outside of the home and have to leave the parents for periods of time. Why? I believe it helps to create independence. It's also a completely different environment, you learn how to handle social situations at a school better than at home.
This is my opinion.
ping
Actually, the only drawback I see is that homeschooling parents aren't given tax credits for not using a broken government service.
We are a family of 7, my HERO wife is the most amazing person I know of this side of Heaven. Our 3 oldest are in home school. They have advantages in learning that the government would never be able to do even though the police state of New York confiscates an enormous amount of money to support spending to the tune of 12000 per student.
If I had that much money to home school my kid there would be no limit to the amazing things I could do for them. However, the STATE loses that money in a system broken from the top down.
A concerned mother runs ours activist unions run their system.
Their system wastes an amount of money that to many is obscene, ours runs for less than 500 per child.
Their system says that my child will not get "social" skills" while my system has a set of parents who take them all over to be with friends and home school groups that do not have kids on the bus teaching my children about sex, drugs or malicious behavior (and this is just the bus ride)
They have kids who attack their bus drivers, I have kids who adore their mother and father.
They have sex ed classes with a pro-homosexual agenda, I have children who will learn about a relationship between a man and a woman lasting a lifetime.
They have expensive school buildings that take my child for the day, and effectively teaching them only 2 hours of that day when you minus out the distractions, discipline problems and transportation issues as well as all the business of going from class to class.
They have one teacher per 15-25 students, we have one teacher to 3.
They arrogantly pontificate about their much vaunted "State Certification" and keep people employed with full benefits who CAN NOT TEACH while I have a mother that could shame them in any subject.
Are we then perfect? NO!
Are we "Better" than they are? Its not arrogant or pompous to say yes.
Are our children better off than their state equivalent peers? By far, just look at their testing. They are in the 85 percentile against the states 50 or less, they are tested harder, tested more often and have parents who know exactly where they stand.
Does my military lifestyle hurt them? No, it provides opportunity. when dad has an assignment to go to Washington DC for a week the WHOLE family goes and instead of READING about the national Mint they GO THERE. Instead of READING about Lincoln, they visit the theater he died in and the museums and the memorial. Instead of HEARING about the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence once in a small insignificant way they go to see them in real life and learn even more. Instead of just hearing about the greatest generation, they walk among their revered burial grounds at Arlington National Cemetery to witness the honor and dignity that their nation holds them in wrapped up with the changing of the guard. Instead of hearing about Gettysburg, they visit it and see the enormity of the loss of life and the memorials scattered around the mils of land dedicated to remembering what happened.
They will never be cut short of the arts or sports, while people in the public school system fight over dollars because their administrators waste it all.
Again, are we perfect? No, am I better than you? No, but again, are my kids better off? YES. Should ALL parents home school? NO. As a matter of fact some should not even attempt it. But do not think for even a small moment that I would submit my children to a state system that would show them less, give them less, equip them less and lower their standards all so union types can feel good about their liberal ideology failures.
The idea that I was asking too much from them in their writing. This applied to paragraphs, sentences in workbooks and any thing which required a written response in sentence form. When they went to a group school, they quickly learned they could write and I wasn't unreasonable in my expectations.
Poor time management. When they had all day, they took all day.
Grades. They had no concept of A,B,C etc. They also didn't understand number grades either.
Organizational skills. They didn't realize that in order to have the math book at school it needed to be put where they would take it to school. Mine were especially bad with homework. They also didn't realize that bringing the homework to school wasn't enough. It actually needed to be turned in.
Mastering these skills is very important in other aspects of life. Having, listed all the drawbacks, I am VERY GLAD that for the majority of their schooling, my children have been home schooled.
So do I. I know a young woman who is home schooling her son because he got in trouble with school authorities and didn't want to take the discipline that the school was about to dish out. I am better qualified to do brain surgery than this woman is qualified to home school a child.
I don't think that this is the norm, however. I believe that most home schooled children turn out well. I also believe that this business of the child not being properly "socialized" is a crock. God bless the parents who are able to influence their children's choice of friends.
As I have discussed on several threads, this is my experience with private Christian school:
My 15 year old daughter brought a required reading book home from history class, a book the entire class was reading. It was called, The State of the Arts: From Bezalel to Mapplethorpe. Knowing who Mapplethorpe was (a pornographer) I picked the book up and started reading. Chapter 1, page 1, there is a discussion about Mapplethorpe's photo of a man urinating into the mouth of another man. On into the book, I read about Annie Sprinkle's performance art of masturbating on stage and inviting the patrons to come up and view her genitalia with a flashlight. There's more but those are the highlights.
My point is, you can't trust anyone to teach your children, you have to keep a close eye on everyone while your kids are in public or private school. I would love to homeschool my kids but my husband disagrees with me. They will be going to public school next year but I will be spending most of my time there keeping an eye on things. Luckily we live in a rural area and the school seems safer than what you would find in a more urban area.
BTTT
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