You got that right...
Posted on 08/03/2004 12:32:39 PM PDT by ZGuy
Almost 1.1 million students were home-schooled last year, their numbers pushed higher by parents frustrated over school conditions and wanting to include morality and religion with the English and math.
The estimated figure of students taught at home has grown 29 percent since 1999, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, part of the Education Department.
In surveys, parents offered two main reasons for choosing home schooling: 31 percent cited concerns about the environment of regular schools, and 30 percent wanted the flexibility to teach religious or moral lessons. Third, at 16 percent, was dissatisfaction with academic instruction at other schools.
"There's potential for massive growth," said Ian Slatter, spokesman for the National Center for Home Education, which promotes home schooling and tracks laws that govern it.
"Home schooling is just getting started," he said. "We've gotten through the barriers of questioning the academic ability of home schools, now that we have a sizable number of graduates who are not socially isolated or awkward — they are good, high-quality citizens. We're getting that mainstream recognition and challenging the way education has been done."
In perspective, the 1.1 million home-schooled students accounts for a small part — 2.2 percent — of the school-age population in the United States, young people aged five through 17.
Slatter said the new figures accurately reflect the growth of home schooling but underestimate the number of children involved; his group says it is 2 million.
In the government's view, home schooling means students who spend at least part of their education at home and no more than 25 hours a week in public or private schools. Overall, more than four out of five home-schooled students spend no time at traditional schools.
A separate federal report showed a rising number of teenagers are skipping school for fear of getting hurt, even though reported school violence is down.
That sense of anxiety — fueled by terrorism warnings, high-profile school shootings and a desire to keep children out of harm's way — probably has helped home schooling grow, said Ted Feinberg, assistant executive director of the National Association of School Psychologists.
Home schooling presents several questions that must be considered, he said. Among them: Do parents with no formal training as teachers know how to handle a variety of subjects or to tailor instruction for children of different ages? Do students get the same materials they would have at schools, from books to science labs? Are families with two working parents prepared to go to a single income so that one parent can teach at home?
Also, Feinberg said, parents must consider whether their children will emerge from home schooling with limited exposure to other children and various cultures. More federal research is needed to help resolve such questions about home schooling, he said.
"At some point, children are going to have to interact with the rest of the world," he said. "If they haven't had the opportunity to build their emotional muscles so they have that capacity to interact, how effective are they going to be outside their cloistered environment?"
oh yes,
Ted Feinberg's "questions" (especially the last one) show that he is just a shill for government education.
HS ping!
No, the feds need to mind their own business. May home-schooling continue to gruw until public education is forced to either change or close its doors.
It's more a combination of also wanting to eliminate the immorality that is being taught in public schools.
That's 1.1 million students whose parents will not be voting for the school millage. Get a clue, NEA!
(Maybe this is why the Democrats want children to vote).
IMO this is one of the Left's biggest lies against homeschooling. Homeschooling teaches children to be independent, self-reliant, and responsible for his/her behavior. The Left keeps bringing up this lie to insinuate that homeschooled kids aren't "socially aware" or some other multicultural nonsense. Bottom line: They can't get their slimy hands on homeschooled kids and indoctrinate them with their leftist ideology.
That's right. At some point Tonto Junior will have to learn that there are jackasses in the world.
I don't see any need to rush that. The goal is that he'll have enough self-esteem and presence that he'll be able to handle it.
Right now, my "cloistered" son is taking Tae Kwan Do, tennis, golf, piano. He's a Scout. He and his mom/teacher are off on a "field trip" 3000 miles away to learn about different parts of our nation "up close and personal."
Contrast with my sister's kid, who goes to public school, endures torment, comes home, watches "Price is Right," eats supper, goes to bed. Repeat five days a week.
Public school = public church of humanism, liberalism and evolution.
You got that right...
If I could afford to stay home, I would home school my children. Since I can't, my eldest is in public school because they have better special-ed programs (he is autistic), the middle is in Catholic school, and the youngest will follow her sister's footsteps.
I loved the fact that the article reported that there are now "a sizable number of graduates who are not socially isolated or awkward." only to have the assistant director of psychologists immediately ask, "Oh yeah, but what about their social development?" HA!
What a putz! Does he think we don't go to Wal-Mart?
The other day a lady asked me if our homeschooled children get to play with other kids and make friends. I immediately told her - NO - we live in a cave and tie our chldren up at night.
She quickly realized how stupid her question sounded. And to her credit, she understood that children can actually make friendships and play under the watchful eyes of parents and not just public educators.
My wife doesn't work so she can homeschool our son. It has been good for the boy, he will start 3rd grade in September. She started home schooling him when he started first grade.
We are dedicated evangelical Christians. However, we didn't do this because we were trying to get away from the public school system, per se. It just so happens I am not a high income maker, and we live in a poor part of town. The grade school in our area in situated right smack in the middle of Gang Land. We did not consider it safe to send him there.
So, when he was K-4 & K-5 age we sent him to a less expensive private Christian school. Mainly, as I said, for safety reasons. However, by the time he reached 1rst grade, it became apparent that he was having trouble keeping up with the private school pace (they move much faster than there public conterparts). They wanted to hold him back, when what he needed was personal attention (mildly attention deficit). So, we couldn't keep him in private school and the public schools were too dangerous (in our opinion). So, the only option left was home schooling.
The first year was difficult - finding the right curriculum, etc. However, for the 2nd grade we found a good place that sold a complete curriculum for a year (secular not religious) that came up to Florida standards. So, we used this, with all its helps, and he is doing well.
We opted for secular curriculum because we want his religious training to come from us and our church, not someone else's spin. Plus, by staying with secular, we felt we would be less apt to be scrutinized.
Homeschooling was the greatest experience of my life. I did it for my son, but I Loved every minute of it. So did he. We did it for 4 years.
But when the schools start missing the money - watch out for the NEA funded "studies" and NEA/Senate funded "Councils". There's only one thing that happens when something comes between politicians and their cash cows - legislation.
Agreed. We homeschool my eight year old boy/girl twins, and they have more "outside interaction" than any kid in our neighborhood. We belong to a large homeschool co-op...my kids have tons of friends who are polite, well-educated, and who have involved and caring parents.
My mother was concerned about the "socialization" thing until she saw my daughter in a full production of the Wizard of Oz put on completely by homeschoolers and their parents. She was blown away that so much "community" could be possible within homeschooling.
Additionally, my son has thrived academically. He was "diagnosed" (by his math teacher that got fired at the end of that year) as having ADD...the problem was he was just bored, and couldn't handle blocking out the noise of 30 other bored kids for 6 hours. He was so tired by the end of the day, there was no way he could concentrate. She didn't like how he didn't pay attention, even though he was totally nailing all the material in the class. His reading is well above grade level, as is my daughter's.
Finally, they know more about history, geography, science, and even politics than most of the neighborhood high schoolers (and our high school is one of the top in the county!).
They used to call this stuff "socialization", until so many home schooling parents told them "But we're not raising socialists!"
*BUMP* from a hard-working dad supporting a harder working Mom who homeschools three great kids - none of whom are socialists!!!!
Also, Feinberg said, parents must consider whether their children will emerge from home schooling with limited exposure to other children and various cultures. More federal research is needed to help resolve such questions about home schooling, he said.
"At some point, children are going to have to interact with the rest of the world," he said. "If they haven't had the opportunity to build their emotional muscles so they have that capacity to interact, how effective are they going to be outside their cloistered environment?"
Ah, time to end the article and bring on The Authority, The Educrat, to repeat the same old tired arguments. Methinks they know they're losing control.
My wife has a large yellow diamond-shaped magnet on her van. It looks like a traffic warning sign, but it says:
"Warning! Unsocialized Homeschoolers On Board!"
The most important step needed to increase the number of children educated outside of public and traditional private schools is the development of home schools in which one parent is paid to teach the children of one or more other families along with his/her own. Some states make this illegal, allowing relatively restriction-free homeschooling only for one's own children. Such laws need to be attacked and destroyed.
Many families would love to have their children schooled in a small home environment, by someone who shares their cultural, political, and religious views. But many families cannot reasonably afford to give up the second income to do it themselves and/or the parents don't feel they're well-suited to the task. As far as I can tell, there's very little homeschooling going on in the format described above.
What a moronic thing to say. I wonder if Feinberg thinks that homeschooled children never leave their houses, never go outside and play, never hang out at the mall, never go to parties, never attend sporting events, never go on dates, never go to the beach, etc. Feinberg seems to think that homeschooled children are kept chained to their beds all day and are never allowed to socialize with anybody outside of their immediate family.
My niece and nephew were both home-schooled. M 19-year-old nephew is now a senior in college and my 17-year-old niece is going into her sophomore year in college... so nice, no tattoos, nice clean-cut kids....
I have the greatest respect for teachers like your wife, who really do their best, in the face of insurmountable difficulties.
My old college roommate is a high school teacher. He says the single most reliable indicator of academic success is parental involvement. It's more important than race, sex, economic factors.
Long ago, he gave up being surprised at the number of parents who truly feel that education was the "teacher's job" and take a 100% hands-off approach. Once they get them to the bus stop, their job is done.
A study last year shows the homeschool kids are acing the SAT's... higher across the board than public school children.
My wife has had a parent tell her to her face, "Why should I raise my kid, that is why I send them to school." And you are right I fought and resented my parents for being so involved in my growing up, then. I thank God for it now.
They'll never get the genie back in the bottle again, either.
Separation of School and State BUMP!
Don't be deceived by this statement. Even if the 1.1 million figure is correct, it should be noted that home-schooled children -- as a group -- are larger than any school district in the United States.
That's the one drawback I see to there being no more public education. The private schools would need to take up the slack for special ed. Parents need quite a lot of help when it comes to special needs kids. There is a large mega-church in our area who decided to hire on a staff so that parents could get a break from children with disabilities. That was a good idea.
There's the university model. Kids go to school for a couple of days a week, and the rest of the week, they're home.
http://www.pastors.com/article.asp?ArtID=4157
I just used that line about an hour ago with a new co-worker. He's got no idea about home schooling. Just found out today that we HS 4 kids and can't beleive we can do that. This is gonna be fun.
"Do students get the same materials they would have at schools, from books to science labs?"
BWhahahahahah! My niece went to public school from first to fourth grade and never had a textbook! They got xeroxed handouts.
When her parents wised up and put her in parochial school, she got textbooks.
As for the "materials," how many parents have to supply their kids and kids whose parents either can't or won't send supplies with their children?
Oh, please, shut up Dr. Feinberg.
I love it! Did she have it specially made? I would really love one.
I also chuckled that she drives a van. So many homeschoolers drive VANS! And wear denim jumpers!
My state (MO) is a "free state" - you don't have to ask the gov't for permission to homeschool; you don't have to report to them; you don't have to let them evaluate your homeschooling. I think that's just fine. Homeschoolers have to be careful of the lure of tax credits, state subsidies, vouchers, and other "perks," because with them will come registration, evaluation, and regulation.
I can't remember, but I'll check when I get home and freepmail you their website. The name of the website is embroidered in small print on the back of a cap I bought. It says "Homeschool Principal" on the front. It's a cool cap.
There are reasons why not. First off, as you point out, many states don't permit it. In MO you can do it if you incorporate as a private school (but not through homeschooling directly.)
The other reason has to do with homeschooling families themselves. Homeschoolers want 110% control and influence over their children, and are not so willing to turn control over to what's essentially a private school. I can understand this entirely. For instance, were I still homeschooling, I would teach biology or geology from an evolutionary point of view - but many homeschoolers would not like that. Parents can differ widely on dress, TV vs. no TV, religiosity, etc.
Sounds great! My hubby might like one of those caps! LOL
To be fair, my personal experience was with homeschoolers who didn't allow their children to date, didn't let them hang out at the mall, didn't let them drive (usually), didn't let them hang out, didn't let them visit with anyone the parents didn't already know. Personally, this was not our preference - but in my experience, many homeschoolers are pretty "countercultural" when it comes to what are thought of as "normal" teenage experiences.
LOL. So clueless.
Textbooks usually *stink;* one reason we homeschooled was to be free from stupid textbooks.
I'm a software/computer engineer, and I was appalled by the lack of competent math and science teaching in the lower elementary grades in public AND private schools. The teachers would show one or two examples of ONE way to do a problem, demand that all of the kids use ONLY that ONE way, and leave it up to the parents to make sure the kids understand what they're doing.
When my son (in particular) didn't "get" the screwed up method taught in class, I found it terrified him when I started to teach an alternate method - he didn't want to get dinged in class because he used a different (yet correct) method of solving the problem.
When I discussed this with the teacher, I actually had one tell me she didn't want different methods used because it was harder to grade!
Pffffffft! How about just a complete and utter contempt for the New Age/Socialist/Leftist/Uber-Liberal clap-trap the kids are routinely being "taught" under the guise of education? No bomb shelters for us...just tough, Greco-Roman, classical-based instruction in the REAL tenets of education: readin', writin', and 'rithmetic.
Point is, you only have to find one or two families whose viewpoints are pretty similar to your own. And from the number of people I see on FR saying "I really wish I could afford to homeschool", but who have their kids in public or less than optimal private schools, its seems many wannabe homeschoolers are willing to give up virtually all control when finances require it, so I don't think they'd be unable to compromise and live with only 75% control by outsourcing homeschooling.
That makes it pretty difficult for both parents to hold a full time jobs. And most part-time jobs pay peanuts.
They're making great strides in doing just that. Go to Google or Yahoo and do a search on "Chris Cardiff" and "seduction of homeschooling families".
Except, as 2Jedismom noted, for the denim jumpers so many homeschooling moms wear! (I made sure my wife didn't get that memo)
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