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.)
Bump...and I would add:
My favorite thing about homeschooling is learning with my children. I don't have a "science degree" but I CAN read...it's certainly not difficult to open a Biology book, hike in the woods for fungi, collect insects, or look at things under our microscope, etc. Why would one need to be a professional to explore and encourage a passion for the sciences?
LOL! Now that's interesting! I do know that I impressed my friend, who we visited in Japan, when I was able to pronounce all the signs that were written in Romaji, the 'anglicized' version of Japanese. All the train stations had signs in Romaji, and I surprised her when I began pronouncing them.
My daughter had told me the vowel sounds, which were exactly the same five sounds as Spanish, and that all the vowels were pronounced with no blends, so I just read the words as though they were Spanish, and it worked!
If your cousin is clever enough to get through law school, then I think we can assume that he (or his wife) is clever enough to investigate, evaluate, and choose one of the many options available for homeschooling subjects in which the parent is not personally expert.
Frankly, it amazes me that anyone is still asking this question. Even if one has not researched homeschool curriculum for personal use, it's only common sense to assume that others have discovered some mechanism to have their children taught calculus or Russian at home, even if the parents are not skilled in higher math or Slavic languages.
Yes, Japanese pronunciation is quite simple if you've studied Spanish.
Yes, Japanese pronunciation is quite simple if you've studied Spanish.
Sorry about that! My two-year-old scampered by looking like a disaster about to happen (he's wearing his pirate hat!), and I got distracted!
Isn't this an old article? Seems I read an opinion piece by a janitor (yes, that's what he is) here a long time ago.
On another note, how funny is it that the teacher's union has to get a janitor to defend them? LOL!
That a way....to win FRiends.
Right out of the NEA playbook.
Dear blu,
"Isn't this an old article?"
Yes, this has been retread at least once or twice before. The NEA shills have an inexplicable affection for the lies, bigotries, and idiotic remarks of public school janitors. LOL.
"Seems I read an opinion piece by a janitor (yes, that's what he is) here a long time ago."
AHEM!!! He is a CUSTODIAN, not a JANITOR, thank you very much.
ROTFLMAO!!
sitetest
If you are going to post an opinion hit piece by a janitor...and then spray NEA quotes, and basic propaganda..One would tend to expect rebuttal. I know I would.
meandog isn't stupid....he/she knew what they were posting.
But then whine and cry foul about getting "flamed"....is a joke.
Ahh, there's your problem, Vern. You want to convince us public schools are better. But, you don't know enough about homeschooling and homeschoolers to have an even discussion.
Let me educate you a bit. (although I am not a licensed teacher, and do not play one on TV). In my area, there are at least 3 homeschool associations. These are groups of homeschoolers who come together for specific reasons. Music (both voice and orchestra), and a sports team which is recognized by our State's Athletic Division (means they play right along with the middle and high school teams, and are eligible for post-season play - even making it to almost state champs a few years ago). Other groups of homeschoolers share teaching duties. Some parents are weak (or don't trust themselves) in a certain subject, but are very comfortable with another. They trade teaching time with other parents whose skills complement their own.
Charity work, public service, dances (at the local schools), friendships....it's all there. Wait, we don't have cheerleaders and drill teams...but, like, I'm so TOTALLY OK with that! I certainly don't mean to sound harsh or condescending - and if it were later in the day, my composition would be perfect. But, you are at a disadvantage here. You want to convince us not to homeschool, but the only info you have is about public schooling (and it doesn't sound like it was too much fun). We, on the other hand, know about both public and home schooling. We are making informed choices. Just as we are teaching our children to do.
Especially considering meandog likes the personal attacks or posting stupid pictures as a way of 'winning' arguments, it's pretty disingenous. You don't have to agree with me, but at least argue well!
"Dr. Thomas Sowell addresses the issue in his book "Inside American Education." In 1980-81, students majoring in education scored lower on both the verbal and math portions of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) than students majoring in any other subject. Only 7 percent of high-school seniors with SAT scores in the top 20 percent, and 13 percent in the next quintile, chose to major in education. At the other end of the academic spectrum, more than half of those with SAT scores in the lowest 20 percent chose education as a major. Eighty-five percent of high SAT-scoring students who actually become teachers leave after a brief career.
Education majors remain at the bottom of the academic barrel after four years of college. The National Institute of Education conducted a study of student performance on examinations (LSAT, GMAT and GRE) to gain entrance to graduate schools. Of 25 different undergraduate study areas, students whose undergraduate major was education scored at the bottom or at best second from the bottom.
Education majors supply not only teachers, counselors and administrators, but also professors of education and leaders of the education establishment. Sowell says professors of education rank just as low among college and university faculty members as education students do among other students.
Given low-quality students and low-quality professors, it is hardly surprising to discover that "most education courses are not intellectually respectable, because their teachers and the textbooks are not intellectually respectable." Neither is it surprising to find these people falling easy prey to fads and harebrained schemes.
I'm even more surprised by people who think that parents just don't have the people-skills to teach their kids. My husband and I were discussing it the other day (he's a homeschool grad too; we'll be unleashing a second generation of homeschool misfits one of these years) and realized that professional teachers are so focused on the skills you need to handle a classroom full of discipline problems, or to teach 30 kids at once, that they just don't realize that it's really really easy to teach your own kids one-on-one. There's already a love and respect relationship there, already a teacher mode if the parents are any good at all.
Going from "not schooled" to starting kindergarten at home was, for me, so subtle I don't remember it. One day we were working on ABCs, the next I was doing math pages in an organized fashion.
I've smelt this before... near the compost heap... great pro-socialist article...
I agree ... especially when they go on to expect that the same parents who apparently lack the ability to teach their children are going to help the same children with their homework!
Neither SirKit nor I have attended ANY of our high school reunions. We moved away from MS the year after we married, and are just now fixing to return. My reunions were always held during a time that I just couldn't get away because we had little ones in school. I haven't seen those folks in over 35 years, and frankly, haven't missed most of them.
SirKit and I graduted the same year, though from different schools, but he said, with only three exceptions, he didn't like the folks he went to high school with when he was there, so why would he go through the time and expense to make a special trip to go back to see them. ;o)
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