House rejects amendment to home-schooling bill

My daughter was an advanced reader at a young age, yet because they did no history until 4th grade, she had no context for the historical novels she was reading for fun. I bought an American history book and taught her history after school in 2nd grade so she'd have a sense of the timeline of U.S. History and understand what was going on if she read a book set during the Revolution, the Civil War, or the Westward Movement.

I am now homeschooling my younger children and using a wonderful curriculum which starts history and geography in K. Yesterday my 3rd grader was so taken with her lesson on Elizabeth I and Sir Francis Drake that she wrote a little play for her and her younger brother to perform. Love it :). It's a crime that most of America's children aren't exposed to the wonders of history from their earliest years.

"Cultural Literacy" is another biggie to me -- children understanding not only history but being exposed to the finest in literature, movies, music. So many children, even when I was in school in the '70s, are exposed to only a very narrow spectrum of the popular culture. Elementary school readers, for example, are often meaningless dreck these days rather than selections from books and poetry which have stood the test of time.

I'm learning right along with my third grader.

That's so true. I now know so much more about the American Revolution after studying it with my six year-old. The same thing happened when I taught Sunday School, too.

Hey, no problem. What you said bears repeating. Dan Blather should be saying this on the Nightly News.

In my opionion, the educational establishment, to include most private schools, are criminally negligent in the poor education they are pushing onto children, especially concerning history, civics and western culture.

LOL.....surely a bit of hyperbole! I'm ready to be flamed - it really makes no difference - those parents that are involved with their kids......enrich their kids lives and encourage their kids interests will have bright kids that will be successful.

Those parents that rely exclusively on private school, public school, or a homeschool curriculum, essentially passing the buck for their children's intellectual development will not have kids that are generally as bright.

By definition, homeschooled kids have involved parents, so there is a degree of self-selection of the statistical pool, but really.....all homeschool kids are grade-levels ahead of all private and public school kids is a bit of a stretch!

The more educational options, the better.

My kids go to public school AND are homeschooled, so they are three times as bright as those kids who are ONLY homeschooled! (kidding)

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