Posted on 11/27/2006 7:04:44 AM PST by meandog
Schools With Good Teachers Are Best-Suited to Shape Young Minds
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.)
He shouldn't brag too much on his "professional teachers"; the school he works at has only 79% of students at math grade level and 75% of students at English grade level. And as a rural Indiana school, they can't fall back on race issues or urban poverty/neglect for an excuse.
There now, fixed it.
Seems the NEA got their panties in a wad since homeschoolers are outperforming public education students in all areas for the last twenty+ years. Some community colleges see the handwriting on the wall and admit students as young as 15 on a part-time basis. They simultaneously earn their diplomas and earn enough credits to pipeline to University.
That doesn't sit well with the NEA, they hate the colleges and the state legislators who made these "alternative education" options legal and possible--not only for homeschoolers, but the students that public education failed.
"Maybe Custodian means something different than it did when we were in school?"
In all too many ways, the Principal IS a custodian. The students are in what used to be called 'custodial care'. That translates to "We'll keep 'em here for 12 years and draw our salaries regardless of what our students learn or don't learn."
My latest homeschooler is going to the University of Texas - not exactly a bastion of conservatism. I don't have to worry about her being converted by some liberal professor. She's strong and knows what she beleives in, and can articulate it very well.
D= square root of [(30)(30) + (40)(40)] times 2=
square root of [900 + 1600] times 2=
square root of [2500] times 2=
50 times 2=100
:)
It is doing just that! Public and private schools have a lot to offer but a lot of parents are bypassing these advantages in trying to shelter their kids from real world experiences. My contention is, that if parents have schooled their kids correctly in moral values, they won't have to worry so much about the influences of drugs, sex and rock n' roll.
Gifted and talented kids, indeed, do well in homeschooled learning environments BUT not all kids are G&T and parents are perhaps the worst judge of assessing that fact due to inherent bias. Kids that are not G&T do much better in homogeneous groupings: Private or public school classrooms.
And of course a much wider range of choices is available at the college level. The public colleges in our state range from screamingly liberal to rock-ribbed traditional, and just about every shade in between. Then, of course, there are the private schools, and scholarships.
" I sucked at math. I spent a LOT of time looking for a good curriculum that could help me overcome my handicap. I found Saxon. Every night I'd read the next day's lesson and learn it for myself. By year 4, my daughter was frustrated with my slow pace and started learning the lessons on her own. My son followed suit shortly after.
You must ask yourself, why do so many public-school-educated people have difficulty with math? Does it make sense to send our children to the same institution that failed us?"
Saxon is to Math as Phonics is to Reading.
We schools, in their hubris, went for other ways of teaching math that ended up disserving children. But because of our monopoly school system, the educrats have agendas that put children in the back seat. Education theorist with PhDs need the 'new' and 'different' to get govt grants and studies, and so the tried-and-true is tossed for 'new' and 'innovative'. This has happened since the 1950s (remember 'new math' fad in the 1970s?)
Most of these detours have been horrible.
For reading, look to Cali's experiment in 'whole reading' . A parent could figure it out in weeks what the failure was, but it went on for 2 decades, a failure that left millions of kids less literate, some hobbled for life.
For math, the myth that 'rote learning' is bad (actually it is just less interesting for teachers), has led to a failure to engage in re-inforcement-based math learning and its replacement in too many public schools by less effective alternatives. Math is like music, to learn is not difficult mentally, it just take practice in step-by-step increments.
It's not a matter of 'rote', its a matter of exercising the mind with conceptual thinking through math exercises and being rigorous in applying concepts to actual problems, avoiding 'fuzzy thinking'.
Saxon Math is based on that sound pedagogical principle, and has proven itself. Private schools and homeschoolers have flocked to it - because it works... but d oyou know of public schools that are doing the same? Why not?
It may well be that this intelligent but math-hobbled lawyer is a victim of math miseducation, and so leaving his son to he Public Schools because of that is ironic indeed.
What does it take to get a public school teacher fired?
Someone posted a link here a few weeks ago that contained a flow-chart describing all the steps. Damn near impossible to fire a teacher.
Well, I do not see much difference between a 17-year-old high school senior and an 18-year-old college freshman. And, I think you'll have to admit, that high school campuses do not have the amount of alcohol and drugs that college campuses, ripe with fraternities and sororities, have.
On the flip side, I changed schools in 10th grade and was blessed with a WONDERFUL History teacher who had a real passion for it. We rarely used our books. She lectured and made it very interesting. She expected a lot, and most of the students did well in her class. THere was NO goofing off in her class! She was voted favorite teacher by our senior class.
Amazing testimony from the eyewitnesses . . . and John Adams was a masterly advocate.
I can only speak from my state's perspective...A teacher has a three-year probationary period in which he/she can be fired for cause if parents go to the school administration with enough complaints. After three years the teacher is tenured and harder to fire...it takes documented instances of incompetence, abuse, etc.
"And when you're a teacher, prepare to be FReeper flamed...teachers here are treated worse than Democrats!"
"Not by everyone here. We've utlized public, private and homeschooling - all successfully, I might add."
Dittos on this.
Meandog, this is not about disrespecting teachers - many of whom do wonderful work and are underpaid and overworked - as much as opposing a monopolistic, liberal-biased system that is often toxic to kids. Even our wonderful local public schools are purveyors of politically correct liberal clap-trap and are under-performing given what they have. We pay $7,000 or more per year per head for that. About 50% of the money ends up in the teacher's pocket btw; too much ends up in layers of administration, fantastic and over-engineers campus buildings, and sports stadiums (texas, ya know). The problem isnt the teachers, its everything *else* about the educational system.
Meandog, imitation is flattery so consider homeschooling as a reflection of the importance some parents hold to the discpline of teaching!
What BS.
He assumes that any flunky with an education degree has any idea how to teach someone something.
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