What utter nonsense. The NEA should be shut down under RICO.
I thought this was a good point. However, I have to consider that "homeschoolers" are consistently getting better scores and better college admissions than those from "the professionals".
I also realized these people cannot be "best suited", because they used a hyphen where it does not belong.
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.
If what our Public Schools are currently producing is the best product capable of those most "knowledgeable, trained and motivated" this Republic is doomed.
And interestingly, we have some friends in Cincinnati, who do NOT fit the profile usually associated with homeschooling parents: they are simply independent-minded people who foresee what an bottomless pit big-city public schools could be to their two sons, who are both under 10. It was surprising for me to see this, since I had no idea, and thought, even as little as a year ago, that homeschoolers fell into these stereotypical patterns of social/religious/political types the NEA would like to believe they do.
In my case, they would be. Between the Grandmothers, there's over 50 years of teaching experience. And between The Grandparents, Mrs. Wbill, and myself, there's at least a 1/2 dozen BS and advanced degrees.
Oddly enough, I *think* that not a one of us would be eligible to teach in our state. The M-i-L has let her certs lapse since her retirement, I'm sure, and no one else in the family ever got them.
The arrogance of this author astounds me. Friend of my wife's is a teacher of a 'Life Skills' class. She's declared bankruptcy once, generally stays one step ahead of the bill collectors, and is currently working on her 3rd divorce. Yet, she's qualified to teach life responsibilities to HS students. Amazing.
Sure, she doesn't have a degree teaching her how to specialize in a subject, but I'll take a naturally gifted scholar over a teacher with a M.Ed. and a four class "concentration" in English that let's him claim to be an "expert in his specialty." High school level classes aren't rocket science, and anyone with a good liberal arts education should have enough background to teach most of them.
Everyone that sends their kids off to publics screwl is defaulting to this excuse. It is pretty obvious that they want to clear their conscience and they probably even have a similar excuse for putting 8 week old infants in daycare. They have a whole liberal humanist world for emotional fellowship to empower them but we see right through it.
Betcha the homeschoolers don't use sentence fragments.
As opposed to the public schools that turn out kids with an average 4th grade reading level?
My kids started school at a 4th grade reading level.
I wonder if this is why home schooled kids regularly run rings around their public screwl counterparts academically.
Teachers should be put into the unemployment line and made to get real jobs. I.e. shovelling horse poop. They sure as hell spout enough Bull poop already.
There. I fixed it.
As I read this two of my three children are sitting in the house doing their schoolwork.
The youngest, a boy-child who was oxygen starved in a very rough birth, was given up on by the specialists in a Maine school. They could not get him to read, write or do any other work, but they did want to drug him. With hard work and LOTS of INDIVIDUAL attention, he has learned to read, write and has developed into a low-end of average student. That is a DAMN sight better than the NEA-trained zombies would have done with him.
Our middle child, the only one of the fairer sex, is a sharp-as-a-tack pupil who requires absolutely NO guidance, and very little assistance. She does her work, her chores, and then goes to her jobs. She is almost 17 years old and is ready to buy her own car and insurance with money earned by her. We are confident that she will do well on the SAT.
Our eldest child is now a young man out on his own. He is a math wiz, who likes to read physics books for fun. He's currently working, supporting himself and trying to figure out what he will go to school for. He is in no hurry, nor should he be. When he goes to school he will be ready, unlike the beer swilling, sorry-assed frat boys and P.C. idiots who populate college campuses today.
My wife, who has done most of the teaching, is a high school graduate. I am a high school dropout with a GED who has had some college since we started the kids in homeschooling. Neither of us has any training in "formal" education, but we have managed to learn as we go. Anyone out there who is thinking about homeschooling should not let these losers discourage you.
In parting I would like to cordially invite the author of this article to gargle the sweat from my nether regions.
Well-meaning amateurs versus deviant professionals?
And the classic - "We're the experts, you can't possibly understand what we're doing."
So much to say about this article, and I'm not a homeschooler.
First, I have a special needs daughter. Last year, she had a huge evaluation by a neuropsychologist. The neuropsychologist told me that homeschool was a great option. My daughter has speech and social problems, so I am very concerned about those areas. The neuropsychologist then asked if we went to church, did any after school activities. She said that there are plenty of socialization activities after school.
Second, I have a degree in engineering. I have more math and science than most elementary education majors, and probably more than most middle school teachers. There's only a few subjects that I would not feel comfortable teaching (foreign langauges, physics).
Third, if the public schools were doing their jobs, then people wouldn't be pulling kids out of them. Lots of public school do not have science, music, art, PE, or history. If you want to have those things, they need to be in private or homeschooled.
Where to begin... Of course I take my car to a trained mechanic. I go to the mechanic, tell him what I want done, and he does it. If schools operated this way, I wouldn't be homeschooling my children. If my mechanic were to consistetly send my car back to me in worse condition than I sent it to him, I'd find a new mechanic too.
Consider the source.
Perhaps that's true. When the NEA becomes more of a professional organization than a political agitator and self-promoting trade guild, I'll take it seriously.