Posted on 07/25/2005 7:26:05 PM PDT by Millicent_Hornswaggle
Schools With Good Teachers Are Best-Suited to Shape Young Minds By Dave Arnold
There's nothing like having the right person with the right experience, skills and tools to accomplish a specific task. Certain jobs are best left to the pros, such as, formal education.
There are few homeowners who can tackle every aspect of home repair. A few of us might know carpentry, plumbing and, let’s say, cementing. Others may know about electrical work, tiling and roofing. But hardly anyone can do it all.
Same goes for cars. Not many people have the skills and knowledge to perform all repairs on the family car. Even if they do, they probably don’t own the proper tools. Heck, some people have their hands full just knowing how to drive.
So, why would some parents assume they know enough about every academic subject to home-school their children? You would think that they might leave this -- the shaping of their children’s minds, careers, and futures -- to trained professionals. That is, to those who have worked steadily at their profession for 10, 20, 30 years! Teachers!
Experienced Pros
There’s nothing like having the right person with the right experience, skills and tools to accomplish a specific task. Whether it is window-washing, bricklaying or designing a space station. Certain jobs are best left to the pros. Formal education is one of those jobs.
Of course there are circumstances that might make it necessary for parents to teach their children at home. For example, if the child is severely handicapped and cannot be transported safely to a school, or is bedridden with a serious disease, or lives in such a remote area that attending a public school is near impossible.
Well-Meaning Amateurs
The number of parents who could easily send their children to public school but opt for home-schooling instead is on the increase. Several organizations have popped up on the Web to serve these wannabe teachers. These organizations are even running ads on prime time television. After viewing one advertisement, I searched a home school Web site. This site contains some statements that REALLY irritate me!
* “It’s not as difficult as it looks.”
The “it” is meant to be “teaching.” Let’s face it, teaching children is difficult even for experienced professionals. Wannabes have no idea.
* “What about socialization? Forget about it!”
Forget about interacting with others? Are they nuts? Socialization is an important component of getting along in life. You cannot teach it. Children should have the opportunity to interact with others their own age. Without allowing their children to mingle, trade ideas and thoughts with others, these parents are creating social misfits.
If this Web site encouraged home-schooled children to join after-school clubs at the local school, or participate in sports or other community activities, then I might feel different. Maine state laws, for example, require local school districts to allow home-schooled students to participate in their athletic programs. For this Web site to declare, “forget about it,” is bad advice.
When I worked for Wal-Mart more than 20 years ago, Sam Walton once told me: “I can teach Wal-Mart associates how to use a computer, calculator, and how to operate like retailers. But I can’t teach them how to be a teammate when they have never been part of any team.”
* “Visit our online bookstore.”
Buying a history, science or math book does not mean an adult can automatically instruct others about the book’s content.
Gullible Parents
Another Web site asks for donations and posts newspaper articles pertaining to problems occurring in public schools.
It’s obvious to me that these organizations are in it for the money. They are involved in the education of children mostly in the hope of profiting at the hands of well-meaning but gullible parents.
This includes parents who home-school their children for reasons that may be linked to religious convictions. One Web site that I visited stated that the best way to combat our nation’s “ungodly” public schools was to remove students from them and teach them at home or at a Christian school.
I’m certainly not opposed to religious schools, or to anyone standing up for what they believe in. I admire anyone who has the strength to stand up against the majority. But in this case, pulling children out of a school is not the best way to fight the laws that govern our education system. No battle has ever been won by retreating!
No Training
Don’t most parents have a tough enough job teaching their children social, disciplinary and behavioral skills? They would be wise to help their children and themselves by leaving the responsibility of teaching math, science, art, writing, history, geography and other subjects to those who are knowledgeable, trained and motivated to do the best job possible.
(Dave Arnold, a member of the Illinois Education Association, is head custodian at Brownstown Elementary School in Southern Illinois.)
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NEA or its affiliates.
Agreed, but we do not have that system available to us at present. Nice to work toward that, but for those who have kids of school age now, they have to choose from the options currently available.
Dave Arnold. . .is head custodian. . .
Bwa-ha-ha-ha! Now we have the NEA using custodians to tell us how to educate our children!
(Dave Arnold, a member of the Illinois Education Association, is head custodian at Brownstown Elementary School in Southern Illinois.)
That's who said anything about being a janitor!!
There's no question about the NEA protecting it's @$$ all the time----I'm just tired of people out there referring to all NEA members in a derogatory way!!
Oh please...
Even I know homeschooling scares the NaziEducationAssociation because of the potential loss of funding.
These "gullible parents" still pay their education taxes in addition to assuming the costs of educating their children.
Saw this last night and didn't dare comment.
The funny thing is this guy's a janitor. Maybe he's not qualified to teach his kids, but I am. If I have kids someday.
Well, you know I'm convinced not all parents are cut out for homeschooling. But this guy goes way too far to the other extreme.
bookmarking for later
Yeah, and I'd never say all parents are cut out for it (99% have the talents teach their kids, and thanks to circumstances a smaller percentage could teach their kids) but this guy is plumb stupid.
I'll put ten random homeschool parents against ten random teachers any day. I mean, just the numbers - three or five kids over 20ish years versus 35 kids per year - are in our favor.
So, why would some parents assume they know enough about every academic subject to home-school their children?
Even if what he says is true, most homeschooling parents network with other such parents and usually seek out certain parents who may specialize in a particular subject to teach all the kids in that network.
My wife and I have a six-month old son. We're totally focused and planning on homeschooling him and all other future children. We consider ourselves pretty well educated. She has good general knowledge of most subjects and particular aptitude in art and English, while I specialize in Latin, Gregorian Chant, and Higher Mathematics. We know nothing about manual labor skills, but I'm sure we'll network with people who do and our children will be able to learn how much ever they want about any given subject. (instead of wasting half a year each year reviewing stuff that is already learned and being bored).
Point is, most parents who have done well in high school and college are more than fit to teach their own kids, and kids who are homeschooled develop a better sense of self determination so they can specialize in areas which interest them.
Homeschooling is more relevant to the real world than public school anyway. People work in fields which at least somewhat interest them, and no job is composed of people of one age group. The peer mentality and pressure does more damage to children's socialization than good.
As far as "social skills". I have a son who has been called a nerd. On the other hand, my daughter can go anywhere and make a new friend within half an hour. They have played with some of the neighborhood kids who have bullied them and have no respect for my family or our property. Someone said those children probably do not know how to act, and maybe my children and I could teach them what was acceptable behavior -- or I could forbid my children from playing with them. After a year of drama from these -- uh-- children, I finally decided that we've had enough "social skills" and "diversity", so for the time being my children are playing with children from church and children who homeschool.
As far as "social skills". I have a son who has been called a nerd. On the other hand, my daughter can go anywhere and make a new friend within half an hour. They have played with some of the neighborhood kids who have bullied them and have no respect for my family or our property. Someone said those children probably do not know how to act, and maybe my children and I could teach them what was acceptable behavior -- or I could forbid my children from playing with them. After a year of drama from these -- uh-- children, I finally decided that we've had enough "social skills" and "diversity", so for the time being my children are playing with children from church and children who homeschool.
That may be true, but, speaking as a college junior who was homeschooled all twelve grades, this is an area in which you will need to be careful. While on the whole much of the socialization in homeschooling is good, there are two concerns.
First and foremost, (from what I have seen--it may by different now than it was then) it is dangerous when homeschoolers limit their social experience to only the homeschooling community. While it may not produce "misfits" as many people claim, many homeshoolers who grew up that way do have difficulty fitting into college (and I go to a Christian college).
Second, looking back, the thing I regret most from my homeschooling experience is that I never had the opporunity to play a sport seriously. Unfortunately, homeschoolers often have a reputation for being unathletic, and athleticism and teamwork have long been considered important parts of a balanced education. I would highly recommend putting in the effort necessary for your kids to play sports; it's often not as easy for homeschoolers, but it's worth the extra effort. This would then also cover the first issue I mentioned.
Finally, I have almost nothing negative to say about the academic education I received. My parents have a similar range of areas of expertise to what you describe, and it served my family well. There will be subjects in which any family is weak, but the goal of a good education is largely to teach people the ability to learn (something at which homeschooling excels), and with that ability (and a solid base of English and reasoning skills), a homeschool graduate will be well-prepared for college.
I wish you the best of luck with your kids, and I hope this is a really beneficial experience.
As far as sports... there is always the YMCA or local town programs. My son just finished three weeks of getting up at 6 am every morning to play softball with a church group. They practiced for a week. Then played against other church teams and each other (it was divided into two teams).
Priceless!
Remember, an amateur does it for love.
A professional just does it for money. ;-)
That's a good way to go. There are usually opportunities; they're often just not as convenient (and sometimes considerably more expensive) than playing for a school team. Still, looking back, they woukld have been worth it.
You know... I was homeschooled all along, I'm in grad school now, and I didn't mind not fitting in as an undergrad. I didn't like the casual-sex beer-party atmosphere that so many of my "peers" seemed to enjoy... instead I hung with the other geeks, who were nerd social outcasts in high school themselves. Our fun looked a little different but it was fun.
I also got to play softball as a kid through the community teams - many sports are at the community level until high school - but I had no athletic ability either.
I'd rather risk my future kids being geeky non-athletes than undereducated drugaddled pregnant at fifteen (admittedly a worst case scenarion, but...)
"This site contains some statements that REALLY irritate me!"
OK, this editorial just went from a reasoned but uninformed argument to a whining session. Somebody tell this guy to grow up.
Who taught this guy how to write? Those highly-qualified public school teachers at the NEA?
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