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.)
Sounds to me like you have exemplary child-rearing skills! Carpentry pales beside that any day!
I don't think they're particularly important texts culturally, but they are well-crafted.
Whitman was pretty odd, and quite scandalous in his day, but as C.S. Lewis says, the moderns interpret every expression of affection or honest love between males as "he's gay!" ("What, Boswell and Johnson (a pretty flagrantly heterosexual couple), and all those hard-bitten hairy old toughs of Romans in Tacitus asking for last kisses when the legion was broken up . . . ALL pansies? If you can believe that, you can believe anything.")
Whitman was celebratory of affection between males and the human form, including the males, but I haven't seen any information that he ever acted on it sexually . . . we just have to quit buying into the propaganda.
. . . and, btw, it might or it might not affect the quality of his poetry. THESE days, it seems that a writer's political, social, and sexual leanings positively INFECT his work.
My brother told me raccoons would come through the roof and get in bed with me.
Don't forget Simon Schama and Martin Gilbert for history. Mr. Martin is even a decent fella, although Schama is a moonbat.
Maybe ... I'd really like the kids to have learned carpentry - that would show some child-rearing skills.
I learned all I know about carpentry at my daddy's knee. It's enough to let me do whatever I need to do (horse jumps, dog house, agility obstacles) but I'm what's called a "rough carpenter -- good on rough work, and rough on good work." I can cover most of my mistakes up with putty and paint . . . < g >
Dad is a real genius - he can do furniture and stuff like that. I'll never forget the beautiful REAL walnut birdhouse he "helped" me build for a first grade birdhouse contest. All dovetailed joints - it was a bird duplex, one house at each end, with rings on the top and a pipe socket so you could hang it or mount it on a pole. I sanded all the pieces, held the end of the wood furthest from the saw blade, and rubbed on every one of the 2 coats of stain and 3 of varnish. (Parents were allowed to help . . . that may have changed after they saw that gorgeous thing.)
Sigh. It appears that liability insurers frown on kids hanging around carpentry. Maybe during the summer, I can get Bill some work with the "facilities manager" at our church (I call him that, he calls himself the "handyman"). Not much carpentry, but he'd pick up some plumbing and painting and heavy-duty maintenance skills.
At 16, they can go to whatever Vo-Tech calls itself these days.
Yeah - don't you love siblings sometimes ?
When my kid complained about bullying in school and the teachers thought she should just get over it, I told them that she couldn't get any practice at home like other kids b/c she is an only child. :)
I thought they abolished it mostly, because it might damage the little darlings' self-esteem.
Sheesh. You'd think everybody would want to know how things work. Even if you never did any of your own plumbing, electrical, mechanical, etc., at least you'd be less likely to get cheated.
He's probably the best essayist in English of the 2nd half of the 20th century.
They're still teaching auto mechanics somehow. Community college dual enrollment, or something. "Career training."
There are advantages to that :-).
MWith Whitman there is very little counter-argument though. There aren't a lot of scholars these days who argue that he didn't harbor romantic attractions to other men.
That's my point. It was romantic, not sexual.
To paraphrase Dorothy Parker, the love affair between Walt Whitman and Walt Whitman is one of the great romantic love stories of all time . . .
She's well aware of that :)
He could really put words together, though, in his distinctive way.
He would be horrified at the state Camden NJ is in these days, though.
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