Posted on 03/02/2006 11:45:53 AM PST by LouAvul
Elizabeth and Teddy Dean are learning about the Italian scientist Galileo, so they troop into the kitchen, where their mother Lisa starts by reviewing some facts about the Renaissance.
Elizabeth, 11, and Teddy, 8, have never gone to school.
Their teachers are primarily their parents, which puts them into what is believed to be the fastest-growing sector of the U.S. education system -- the homeschool movement.
For their science lesson, Teddy and Elizabeth are joined by three other homeschooled children and their mother, who live down the street in their suburb midway between Baltimore and Washington, D.C.
Before the lesson starts, all five kids change into Renaissance costumes -- long dresses and bonnets for the girls, tunics and swords for the boys.
"We definitely have a lot more fun than kids who go to school," Elizabeth said.
.................
But there is no disagreement about the explosive growth of the movement -- 29 percent from 1999 to 2003 according to the NCES study, or 7 to 15 percent a year according to HSLDA.
This growth has spawned an estimated $750 million a year market supplying parents with teaching aids and lesson plans to fit every religious and political philosophy. Homeschooled children regularly show up in the finals of national spelling competitions, generating publicity for the movement.
Parents cite many reasons for deciding to opt out of formal education and teach their children at home. In the NCES study, 31 percent said they were concerned about drugs, safety or negative peer pressure in schools; 30 percent wanted to provide religious or moral instruction while 16 percent said they were dissatisfied with academic standards in their local schools.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Wouldn't work - a group of homeschooling parents would simply join ranks and incorporate as a private school.
But that's what you expect. So you want the government to subsidize something you cannot or will not pay for yourself.
And that leads to the question, where does that additional $7000+ come from?
Business taxes, federal government, people with higher incomes than you.
If I send my kids to private schools or home school, or my kids are out of school, why is it my responsibility to pay for other kids to go to school?
If I don't have any kids why is it my responsibility to pay for other kids to go to school? Because you draw an indirect benefit from a good school system. Your neighborhood is more desirable and your property value increases.
If you'd have read this thread, you'd have seen, I spent $3000 per year, out of my own money, plus taxes to send my kid to private school.
That is your choice and you are free to make it. But if your state is like mine, your state constitution says that the state will establish and maintain primary and secondary schools. It doesn't say that it will subsidize private schools.
I spent less than half the average for school.
I've no doubt that if you investigated you would find it costs your private school more than what you pay in tuition to keep the school running. Your kids are subsidized by the church, donations, fund raisers, what have you.
The question is, where is the waste going? Aren't you concerned where our tax dollars are being spent?
I can't speak for your school system, but my daughter has spent 9 years in the local school system (Blue Valley in Kansas) and has received an excellent education. She's had outstanding teachers, good facilities, an excellent course of study, and we couldn't be happier. As for waste, it would cost us considerably more to send her to the local private high school than we are paying in taxes.
I was thinking about that case the other day. The press played up the homeschool angle so much, yet only one of the kids was even old enough for school. Plus, it all happened in the summer when school wouldn't have been in session. Homeschooling had nothing to do with it, but that never stopped the press from crying "homeschooling." Their mother was a psychotic killer, and she should be pleading for death.
You misread my comments.
I'm glad - good news.
I think homeschooling is good but sadly it contributes to increased financial strength for public schools. Schools still get the tax dollars but don't spend money on the missing student.
At some point, this will reach a tipping point though. I think it is close.
I thought of that too. The bill was HR 6 and the polititions found out the hard way that homeschoolers were a force to be reckoned with. The fallout was fun to watch.
I suspect that because the homeschool movement was grassroots and nationwide, it didn't really show up on the NEA radar until it was too late for them to do anything about it. By the time the NEA realisd what was going onand tried to stop it, it was too strong. That may be what is going to keep the same attempt from happening again.
Funny thing is, a great many of the homeschoolers I know are much more educated than the teachers in public schools. So much for credentials.
Gee, a shocking revelation considering that the alternative to this is public education which in these days, totes a tunnel vision towards education worth scrutiny via concern by all.
Could another reason for the growth be not wanting a teacher to seduce your kid? Or the school subject your kids to gay rights propaganda? If I didn't have to work I'd love to home school mine.
Your not big on free speech, are ya?
It's a good thing.
They'll fight back all right. But mainly through the mostly unconstitutional leviathan federal government. We need to hold fast, and put this beast back in it's cage. I couldn't think of a better first step than to withdraw all children from the miserable socialist failure of the "public education" system.
Yes Izzy and they will try to tighten regulations to help the children and make it harder to homeschool. I think homeschooling will change the face of education forever and it is a long overdue change. We need to focus more on the learning than maintaining the educational hegemony for teachers unions and liberal professors. I think it is horrible that we have a society where there is no inexpensive way for a poor child to self educate themselves and get credit in the form of degrees for their knowledge.
No one talks about that but like medicine they talk spending more money, student loans, and hanging a nice ball and chain of debt around the already disadvantaged. Why when anyone can pick up a book and study, one doesn't need a teacher to learn if they know how to read and comprehend and are willing to put the work into it. Also the world is full of teachers and is a teacher. I learned more from the people around me and my own explorations than I ever got out of school and some of the lessons I learned in public school I could've done without.
I think this is where homeschooling will be a boom with a generation of children that grow up knowing that learning isn't something you just do at a special time, in a special place, with a special union teacher. Teachers are valuable but the real teachers of value don't just teach children facts but teach them how to comprehend and learn on their own.
Ping
yes--and when i talk with "naysayers" about our decision to homeschool, i actually call it "alternative education." the left is so into "alternative lifestyles," they have a hard time arguing "alternative schooling."
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We should talk about homeschooling as the NORMAL and healthy way to raise a child. We should challenge those using government schools and make them explain why they would choose something so inferior for their children. We should express pity that they must resort to institutionalization.
It's time to put the government schoolers on the defensive. Make them do the explaining.
Thanks for the ping!
I will have to read this entire thread tomorrow...after I get my kids schooling started, of course. ;o)
But of course..... ;*)
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