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.)
Again, I wonder if this is an actual statistic. I know that many brilliant, beautifully-educated kids come from home-schooling; but I wonder about the ones we don't hear of.
Does anyone know if SAT's are mandatory for all home-schooled kids?
WOW! Where did you get your education????
I agree that we should only be taxed for things we use. Welfare, for instance: I don't want to pay for it!
Of course the SATs aren't mandatory for all home schooled kids. Why should they be mandatory for any child not seeking a college education? Now, the great majority of homeschooled kids will take the SATs because most of them want to go to college. I did, and ended up the only national merit semifinalist in my school district that year. Funny, the school district had tried to 'forget' to notify us of the SAT testing date. A friend at the high school told us the day before.
I agree that there are numerous (!) problems with the public educational system...but I think we're discussing throwing out the proverbial baby with the bathwater here. Something is required to fill this need for many students. I believe that repairing the political side of the system would be preferential to dumping the "baby."
Do all goverment-schooled children take the SATs? I don't know that answer, I'm not trying to be tricky or anything. Seems to me like it's a college-prep sort of thing so comparing the scores makes sense.
I can't imagine anything that a homeschooling parent would want LESS to be than a 'teacher' by this dolt's definition.
No, not all government schooled students take the SAT/ACT. In my highschool class of 50, maybe 1/2 took it.
What do you mean "get them back?"
What do you think you are, some kind of zookeeper? Talk about arrogance.
in a public school...where else?
When I was in school we always could tell who the custodian was--he was the one who knew what he was doing.
We need an organization: "Americans United for Separation of School and State."
Dear JenB,
"Do all goverment-schooled children take the SATs?"
Not by any stretch of the imagination. In the Washington, DC area, the percentage of public schoolers who take the SAT ranges from jurisdiction to jurisdiction from around 50% to something around 70%.
sitetest
So by self-selecting, you could make the case that the homeschoolers and the public schoolers who take the SATs are similar groups - college-bound teens in the last year or three of their education.
In other words, comparing SAT scores should acceptable as a metric for homeschool achievement.
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