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.)
For three years in a a row, NEA, I gave you my little boy and asked you to teach him math. They would do a test the first week of school and he would finish all the requirements of that grade in that first week and sit there bored for the other 9 months. Now he is home with me, learning high school geometry. And no gangbanger kids are sitting next to him, giving him details from life in the hood. You HAD your chance!
Right, my attitude is poor...go back and read posts #529 by "ican'tbelieveit" where I'm called a "predator" for his/her kids and #530 by "sitetest" backing it up...so long homeschoolers, no more, I'm outta here!
The above was clipped out of the article you referenced. This "teacher" isn't very accomplished at expressing herself in English. I wonder how her skills translate to teaching children.
Dear meandog,
"Right, my attitude is poor...go back and read posts #529 by 'ican'tbelieveit' where I'm called a 'predator' for his/her kids and #530 by 'sitetest' backing it up...so long homeschoolers, no more, I'm outta here!"
Such a huge number of public school teachers ARE predators, and your hatred of children is so clear on this thread, it's a fairly reasonable conclusion.
Oh, by the way, speaking about manners and all, it's considered good manners on Free Republic to ping folks when you mention them by name in your posts.
sitetest
Well, that was different, wasn't it?
Whoaaa!!!
Don't take it personally. I have a BA with double major and MA in Counseling. I am an EX-teacher, emphasis on EX. Yes, there are some individual teachers standing in the trenches getting bloodied; yes, there are a handful of success stories; yes, the students really, really need help, and bless you for helping them.
That said, the beaurocracy that is led by the NEA IS VERY MUCH LIKE THE DEMOCRATS--IN FACT THEY ARE NEARLY ALL Dems. They have no respect for tradition, the country, the students, or you, the classroom teacher. And, sadly,
Thomas Sowell is right--for the most part (READ---FOR THE MOST PART--NOT ALL) teacher IQ'a and test scores are at the bottom of the barrel. Education majors take a lot of education gobbledegook garbage and minimum courses in their discipline. I took a double major and minimum education courses. The majority have a BS in Education--they skip the foreign language and a whole lot of other stuff.
As for the reading, I really do believe the majority of homeschooled students could run circles around public students in the reading department. I have been involved in tutoring adult non-readers and most just fell through the cracks in elemetary school.
Public education is a great idea but has not proven to be ideal for turning out educated, well-rounded citizens. Why? The usual--politics, power, and money. Let me reiterate---THE MONEY AND THE CARE NEVER GETS DOWN TO THE STUDENTS AND THE CLASSROOM TEACHERS. It is all about social engineering.
vaudine
(Dave Arnold, a member of the Illinois Education Association, is head custodian at Brownstown Elementary School in Southern Illinois.)
Emphasis added by me of course.
Dear Recovering_Democrat,
"No serious person believes this crap."
Now wait a minute. Meandog believes this crap.
Oh, wait... SERIOUS. Gotcha.
sitetest
Yeah, that example of a homeschool is repeated all over this country with kids in public schools. It is not representative of homeschooling, as the corrolary is not representative of public schools.
We seem to be informationally challenged here. It would be difficult to reproduce the prodigious ignorance so expensively cultivated in government schools. I'm sure that a very enterprising homeschooler might be able to do it, but, again, it would take a determined, sustained effort. After all, any homeschooler aspiring to the level of pedagogical malpractice found in government schools would have to achieve results like the following (please bear in mind that there are 3 categories of achievement "basic", "proficient", and "advanced". Anything below proficient is below grade level) :
(2005 NAEP Science)4th, 8th, and 12th grade science: 71%, 71%, and 82%, respectively, below proficient or advanced levels
(2005 NAEP Math - 12th grade results not announced yet)4th and 8th grade math: 64% and 70%, respectively, below proficient or advanced
(2001 NAEP) 4th, 8th, and 12th grade history: 82%, 83%, and 89%, respectively, below proficient or advanced levels
(2002 NAEP Reading - full 2005 results not yet released)4th, 8th, and 12th grade reading: 69%, 67%, and 64%, respectively, below proficient or advanced levels.
In evaluating these results, bear in mind that the 12th grade results enjoy the benefit of a 30% to 40% dropout rate by what are typically the least able students. No one knows the actual dropout rates because of rampant lying by the government school administrators. Then, there is also the score inflation resulting from gaming "accomodations" and "exclusions" to factor in - but explaining that is an advanced course.
Now, one can always take the NEA/Gerald Bracey line that the NAEP standards are too high. But in testimony before the NAEP's board of governors it was pointed out that the "advanced" math questions on the proposed 8th-grade NAEP were equivalent to average math questions for 5th graders in Singapore. International results for PISA and TIMSS further indicate that whatever the standards are in government schools for math and science, they aren't very high. In fact, it just could be that schools in Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, etc. are held in higher regard than schools here because they crush our students in international comparisons.
The NEA/Bracey line continues by pointing to the much "better" results shown on state accountability tests. These tests, however, are designed under the supervision of the state ed industry and are dumbed down to get results that will keep parents from finding out that junior is slowly but surely being prepared to be among the hewers of wood and drawers of water of the 21st century. To illustrate, in one state that is said to have produced an education "miracle" the hardest questions on the exit level accountability test require students to know, for example, what a "control group" is, identify Stalin as an ally during WWII, and recognize the use of "hisself" in a sentence as a mistake. Again, these are examples of the hardest questions measured by "miss" rates. The question on what a control group is was missed by 81% of the expensively institutionalized 17 year-olds. Because there were 4 possible answers to each question, monkeys pushing buttons could have done better.
If you look at the data state by state, you find that relatively "non-diverse" states such as Iowa, Indiana, south Dakota, and North Dakota have NAEP scores only slightly less appalling than the national scores.
For your delectation, I have copied below something put together by a group of education activists in Iowa who discovered that parents are being taken for ride by our highly trained, unpaid, under-appreciated, and overworked government school employees. (for more see www.iowalive.net)
WHY, HOW TEACHERS AND SCHOOLS CHEAT AND GET CAUGHT
What you are about to read is likely the most comprehensive discussion and presentation of a chart and table related to public school cheating ever assembled. Iowalive net workers were among the first to recognize and report poor public school performance and cheating--and were attacked and discredited by some for doing so. Iowalive persevered and now national media are daily complaining and reporting evidence of school cheating. Enter 'school cheating' into Google and you will find: Results 1 - 10 of about 12,900,000 for school cheating. That is nearly 13 million references, more than double what it was a year ago.
The New York Times best selling book, "Freakonomics" by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner sheds considerable light on school cheating--that follows and supports what Iowalive has been reporting for quite some time. A professor at the University of Chicago, Mr. Levitt uses statistics to examine school cheating. He was instrumental in ferreting out the teachers caught cheating in Chicago. Iowalive uses similar, and even more sophisticated methods to catch cheaters.
Why do teachers cheat? Because it pays and they think they can get away with it! Why is this? Because it helps them APPEAR to 'meet' NCLB requirements, to get Teacher of the Year and other awards, to get bonuses, because few people suspect it or look for it, it is rarely detected and is seldom if ever punished. But times are changing fast. Cheating teachers were found and punished in both Chicago and Dallas school districts--as have some in Iowa. Iowalive has investigated, listed and ranked the cheating level of schools in Iowa on website: http://www.iowalive.net/ranking8.htm for all to see. Iowalive previously ranked cheating schools in the Cedar Rapids school district--the district Iowalive found to be the worst cheating district in Iowa.
How do teachers cheat? In many ways, some of which are: Writing test answers on the board, correcting answers on tests, telling the answers, allowing improper use of computers, teaching to the test or the test itself, telling students how to guess and fill in the answer sheets, filling in the blanks in the answer sheet, and by allowing extra time to take the test.
How do cheaters get caught? They are most easily caught by using statistics and algorithms to examine test results. With these methods, irregularities and patterns are easily detected and analyzed to the extent the person doing the cheating can be easily identified. Freakonomics describes in detail how teacher corrected test answers were easily found--and shows the actual answers in tables comparing a cheating teacher with a non-cheating teacher. The book also describes how to catch teachers who cheat in other ways. Iowalive knows how to do it. All the data needed to catch teacher and school cheaters is available from the schools and the Iowa Testing Program--who fight to prevent its release.
How does cheating hurt honest teachers? In many ways, some of which are: students in an honest class following a cheating teacher appear to be losing ground in the honest teacher's class, cheaters get undeserved pay raises and recognition--which makes an honest teacher's performance look worse, cheaters can exert more influence on education matters than can honest teachers, and since there is no protection, encouragement or reward for whistle blowers, an honest teacher can be attacked and discredited for reporting a teacher or administrator for cheating.
How do school administrators cheat? In many ways, some of which are: discarding answer sheets of low scoring students, deleting low scores, inflating test scores, giving teachers copies of tests in advance, simply reporting falsely inflated scores.
How does the Iowa Department of Education Cheat? It cheats by selecting a fraudulent Proficiency standard (40th National Percentile Rank--NPR) that claims students are Proficient when they are actually scoring one or more grades below enrolled grade level. The following chart illustrates the false/fraudulent claims.
How did schools get caught cheating? Nation wide National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test score data, as shown in the following table, caught the states using low Proficiency standards to claim students were performing at grade level when they were not. Iowa was among the worst of the states using fraudulent Proficiency standards--as shown by its 19th state cheating rank.
As many of you recall, Register editors accused Texas of cheating profusely--got into a snit and wrote the ill advised 5-26-2003 editorial telling Iowa school officials to CHEAT by keeping two sets of books and doing anything legal to make Iowa schools look better than they are.
Only Iowalive protested the editorial and has continuously asked Register editors to retract it. NOT THE GOVERNOR, ONE SUPERINTENDENT--SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER, STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEMBER, IOWA ASSOCIATION OF SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER, STATE BOARD OF EDUCATIONAL EXAMINERS BOARD MEMBER, ISEA MEMBER, TEACHER, SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR, BOARD OF REGENTS MEMBER OR DOE OFFICIAL PROTESTED THE AWFUL EDITORIAL. NOT ONE!!
There can be no dispute--the Iowa public education system is corrupt and condones cheating from the Governor down.
The table below shows Mississippi is the worst cheating state and Missouri is the most honest state--and is ranked 45th in cheating because five states do not even test students. Missouri student achievement is low, the same as Iowa at 33% actually reading at or above the 4th grade level, and everyone in Missouri honestly knows it--and is working to improve it. This is not the case in Iowa, where school officials are making excuses and trying to hide it. Should Missouri have minted a school house on its quarter the same as Iowa? Scroll down to find a ranking table showing Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin tied for 22nd in the U. S. in 4th grade NAEP reading.
STATE CHEATING RANKING FOR 04-05 SCHOOL YEAR
(go to www.iowalive.net for the informative table)
I'm on several homeschool message boards, and invariably someone will bring up that subject. Almost EVERY family who had come from the public schools discusses how they DID work to try to change things in their kids' schools by volunteering, being active in Parent Associations, etc, and just ending up beating their heads against a wall in frustation. Some schools were indifferent to their help, some schools were downright hostile, but the result was the same.
So when you helpfully suggest that parents getting involved will make things better, most of those who came from that situation will say, "been there and done that".
I've seen a number of posts here where you refer to homeschoolers in the "upper income bracket" or similar words. First of all, most homeschoolers are not in that income bracket and even if they are, you are showing your jealousy. What's the matter? Can't get a job in that income bracket? Is that why you're teaching?
BTW, I've also noticed that you haven't mastered the art of spaces between your paragraphs....or don't they teach proper formatting in English anymore?
Our older sons attended a private, Catholic all boys high school which was outstanding. They did very well, even though they chafed at the regimentation. When our younger two got to the 6th and 8th grades, we decided we'd had enough of school, because even the Catholic elementary schools were having problems with bullying, and our kids were dead bored. Our daughter homeschooled through high school, but we sent our youngest son to the high school our older ones attended. He stayed for two years, but we had gotten too used to the freedom that homeschooling allowed, so we brought him back home this year. He, and we, are much more relaxed and happy, and that young man is learning all kinds of cool stuff, mostly on his own, but with the US History and Lit, and Algebra II/Trig textbooks he has, as well. We also like him being with us because he's such a fun kid to talk to, with his inventive ideas and his opinions. He gets along well with most everyone he knows, but especially adults, because he can hold an intelligent conversation with them.
Eye-opening post. Thanks!
I just speak from experience. My daughter puts in well more than a 40 hour week. She is a high school math teacher, who takes her profession seriously. You seem very touchy on this subject, as do so many others.
Other downsides to teaching:
-When she taught at an inner city school, she was physically assualted by a female student. She has since moved to another school district.
-She is MADE to pay $900 per year to be in a union, which has an agenda that goes (politically) against everything she stands for.
-Her salary is not that great, believe me. Factory workers make much more.
-Much of her summer is filled with lessons plans for the following year.
-She does not have time during the day to post on internet websites.
-Grading papers fills most of her evenings, so not much internet posting then either.
-She does not work HALF a year. Are you kidding? Summer vacations are getting shorter and shorter.
And these are only a few points. Which I'm sure will go right over your head.
I love this website, but homeschoolers are getting more radical all the time. And like I said before, seem to have PLENTY of free time to post their feelings.
Dear 2nd amendment mama,
"First of all, most homeschoolers are not in that income bracket and even if they are, you are showing your jealousy."
You're so very right.
Actually, because homeschooling families are almost by definition single-income families (and almost never have two high incomes), the median family income for homeschoolers is a little lower than the national median.
Homeschooling families usually homeschool at significant economic sacrifice.
However, the results are really tough to beat!
sitetest
Fortunately, my son NEVER had a teacher with the arrogance/attitude of meandog. If he had, I would have found a way to pull him back out and homeschool again.
As I stated in a previous post, I'm very proud of how my son has turned out. He's very successful - been in management positions since his early 20's, happily married for over 15 years and is a joy to know. He's hardly the "social-misfit" that meandog constantly spouts about! I just wish that his Dad were still alive to see what a wonderful man he's grown up to be.
Why is it we are supposed to feel sympathy for an utterly corrupt system because it has some good employees? Both of my grandmothers, my mother, and innumerable uncles, aunts, and cousins work for or have retired from the government school system. Therefore?
Teachers are not underpaid: http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/_nypost_teacher_pay_myth.htm
While summers may be getting shorter, the number of days worked remains around 185 (including in-service days)
No one is attacking your daughter or teachers per se. The problem is the system: the model is the mistake. Pointing out that there are some conscientious and hard working school employees (and there certainly are) no more justifies the insanity of the system than pointing out that Soviet collective farms had some talented and hard working farmers would justify the Soviet model for agriculture.
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