*Father, Mother, and children do not socialise? This broom-pusher has fallen in a pail of spic and span. Detoxify him
*That sounds like an opening to have the NEA supervise licensing parent to have children. Nobody trained me to be a parent
I found many punctuation errors and inconsistencies in this piece.
I'm sure this gal is a former teacher, with years and years of experience. Clearly SHE can't do it all, either.
This headline is telling, isn't it? One might wonder why shaping kids' minds is more important than educating them. If the goal of schools is to 'shape' young minds, one might ask, "Exactly with WHAT information do you intend to shape them"?
I've taught our kids our view of the world, shaped by our faith, over the last 26 years. As far as 'schooling' is concerned, they've either been in school, or homeschooled, and in both instances the goal has been to teach them about history and geography, have them read good literature, learn mathematics, and learn other useful skills such as the use of computers, etc. We've also taught them to think critically about things, something the schools SAY they want to do, but don't seem to get around to doing, since they're busy 'shaping' those same minds.
You don't need professionals to 'shape' kids' minds, after all, the madrassas in Pakistan and the rest of the Muslim world do that very well, and they don't have professional educators, and I wouldn't say those young men are 'educated'. Kids can be educated anywhere, and with lots of resources. They don't need to be stuck in a classroom all day with teachers droning on in front of the group. Some kids like to learn this way, but most kids just get by, some better than others, and most just learn enough to remember it for a test.
When kids are in elementary school, parents can handle anything their kids need to learn. The only time it gets more difficult is during the high school years, if either parent isn't familiar with a subject. At that time, parents tend to look for co-ops, with a parent who IS knowledgeable in a subject teaching it, or the kids can attend a Community College, which provides the additional benefit of the kids getting college credit for the courses.
No one has ever said that every parent needs to know every subject in order to homeschool their kids. In many cases, for high school students, the parents simply serve as resource advisors, finding opportunities for their kids to learn.
The fact that this goober is talking about homeschooled students becoming social misfits, shows he has never spent much time in the presence of any homeschooling families. There are always field trips with other families and gatherings of teenagers with your kids, not to mention the opportunities for the kids to meet folks of all ages and backgrounds since they're not stuck in a classroom with kids their own age all day. There is no such thing as a lack of socialization for homeschooled kids; the opposite may be more accurate.
I see the dumbas$ janitor used to work at WalMart. If he's not qualified to give a polemic on the evils of home schooling, than who is ?!
That's precisely what home-schooling parents are doing.
OK, in that case: when it comes to teaching my kid, I know best. If my toilet is clogged I'll call you.
Why do teachers need to attend teacher school? Apparently, these days even the school janitor has no trouble elucidating the established education duckspeak.
Public education is obviously a great success - the masses have risen! LOL!
Kids - only you can shut these propaganda camps down - with a boycott.
Oh yeah, because we all know the Elementary Education majors were all at the top of the educational pyramid. /sarc
And he's qualified!!!
ROFLOL!!!
I'd rather have my children schooled by Christian, well-meaning amateurs than brain-washed, liberal loonies who literally spit on our traditions, flag, and country.
Do you know what the stated school mission was for our local elementary
school 6 or 7 years ago--framed and hanging on the wall--"..to prepare students to becme citizens of the world..." I was outraged when I read it.
We should be educating our children in our history, what it means to be an American, and to fit into the global situation from that standpoint. Instead, they are brainwashed into believing these "global" mores are so much better than ours. Just take a look at the countries of the globe. So many Muslim govts; so many completely socialized countries; so many dictatorships---yet, the NEA WOULD HAVE THESE "TRAINED, PROFESSIIONALS" take away our childrens' natural heritage of individualism and freedom.
Off my soapbox for now.
vaudine
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!
"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've smelt this before... near the compost heap... great pro-socialist article...