Homeschoolers dominate spelling bees (Some see unfair advantage)

Scripps Howard News Service ^ | March 28, 2002 | JESSICA WEHRMAN

[Caipirabob]

You can't argue with success, and it isn't coming from the NEA Public Indoctrination Camps.

I did a search on this topic using the keywords I listed, but I don't know if I screwed up the date sorts or something with the new formats. Either way I didn't find this article. If it's a dup have the moderator pull it.

[Citizen Tom Paine]

The logical extentsion to the comments made it the article is not to permit anyone to study for the spelling bee. Then all would have an equal chance.

[nightdriver]

"Kimble said that home-schooled kids do have an advantage "in that their time and how it is structured is entirely up to them."

That home schooling is superior should surprise no one. The only reason public schooling ever got started was the idea that it MIGHT be less expensive for a community to pool their resources. It was never intended that public education become the bureaucratic monster it is today.

Home schooling is the norm. Too bad our society has become so structured that we have to be so busy serving our government that we cannot all do it.

[don-o]

Paul Houston, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, said that in some instances, home-schooling parents emphasize memorization more than schools do - another reason home-schoolers have found success in the bee.

Duh. Mr. Houston, memorization is how humans learn. Folks, this is a pretty clear indication that the educational establishment is clueless.

[Chemnitz]

We have two bright home-schooled children staying with us over Easter. What a treat to be with them. They are intelligent, articulate, polite, loving, and interested in everything.

We have a young woman who was home-schooled until college. She was a straight A student in college and got almost a perfect school in the physician assistant's board exam. She is also a wonderful person to be around.

We home-schooled our son for one year. He became fluent in five languages (not in one year, but later, based on initial tutoring). He is now a highly paid computer programmer.

[Jonah Hex]

Actually, most North Carolina colleges ARE good and all NC universities are even BETTER!

(Even UNC, I hate to admit.)

Shot down by his own poor analogy.....the sap. Maybe his parents should have considered home schooling?

[don-o]

We have two bright home-schooled children staying with us over Easter. What a treat to be with them. They are intelligent, articulate, polite, loving, and interested in everything.

That is the norm. I think it has something to do with children being formed from increased contact with the people who love them, their parents. Even the best intentioned professional teachers cannot possibly devote the attention and certainly not the love that children need.

Also, a group of children will descend to the lowest common denominator as far as behavior goes. If they spend most of their time with their peers, this becomes their character.

[angkor]

home-schooling parents emphasize memorization more than schools do

Interesting. I recall doing a heck of a lot of rote memorization when I was in public school in the 60's and 70's. In fact a large part of my education involved learning to read, write, and spell through memorization. How do they do that now?

[Chemnitz]

Yes, I agree. Almost always the parents are devoted to education and their children. Schools cannot deliver the goods. I am not too keen on private and religious schools. They covet the public school system and its theories far too much.

It's a sacrifice to home-school, but it's an investment that will pay off many times over in educational results, character building, love, happy times, normal marriages, wonderful grandchildren. My best investment was in home-schooling. It has made me a happiness-millionaire.

[NautiNurse]

More years ago than I care to share...I attended parochial schools. I dominated every spelling bee from the classroom to city-wide. I attribute this to the exhaustive time my father spent during evenings drilling the spelling words. I suppose some would now consider this a form of home schooling versus productive family time together.

[kitkat]

What isn't mentioned in the article is something a teacher friend of mine told me: More time is spent in the classroom meeting government obligations than teaching. She's a devoted liberal and was disgusted with how little time she was allowed to actually teach. Her solution? More teachers with better pay, and smaller classes. Pathetic!

[Lizavetta]

Separate spelling bees - one for traditionally schooled children, and one for homeschoolers - is coming.

You watch and see.

[RippleFire]

Also no nasty memorizing! Spell holistically! (er wholelistikalley)

[rovenstinez]

From my experience, home schoolers in general do better in every category, not just spelling. When will we wake up the NEA?

[wattsmag2]

The logical extentsion to the comments made it the article is not to permit anyone to study for the spelling bee. Then all would have an equal chance.

That is exactly what the NEA and public schools are doing. Spending less time every year studying those subjects which will help our students achieve success.

[Clintons Are White Trash]

You are right on target - memorization is the key that seems to be lost in public schools. I have a young woman in my organization that is on full scholarship to Washington University that didn't know what 8X7 was. I absolutely hate math but I remember having to memorize times tables until they stuck. I think the "new" math stinks.

[don-o]

My best investment was in home-schooling. It has made me a happiness-millionaire.

Beautiful!

I'm stealing that line.

[TimSkalaBim]

The only reason public schooling ever got started was the idea that it MIGHT be less expensive for a community to pool their resources. It was never intended that public education become the bureaucratic monster it is today.

It's interesting. The left is constantly trying to 'deconstruct' every aspect of American society and culture, but they've never touched (to my knowledge) the myth of the 'little red schoolhouse.' In fact, this century-old model for schooling is used as a reason why public schools must be supported today. You would think that different times would call for different methods of educating students, and home-schooling is a highly effective method. Yet the left prefers the myth, most likely because home-schooling is a model that they can't control.

[ClearCase_guy]

I recall doing a heck of a lot of rote memorization when I was in public school in the 60's and 70's. In fact a large part of my education involved learning to read, write, and spell through memorization. How do they do that now?

I believe the current method of teaching reading, writing and spelling focuses mostly on getting the message across to kids that they are really good at reading, writing and spelling and then explaining how to put a condom on a banana.

[robert0122]

I think we should emphasize what spelling of a word makes the speller feel the most fulfilled, rather than focussing on an arbitrarily selected (by a dead white guy, more than likely) "correct" spelling. Let's have some tolerance and diversity for alternative spellings!