Posted on 11/27/2006 11:31:32 AM PST by kiriath_jearim
CHICAGO, Nov. 23 — On weekdays, during what are normal school hours for most students, the Billings children do what they want. One recent afternoon, time passed loudly, and without order or lessons, in their home in a North Side neighborhood here.
Hayden Billings, 4, put a box over his head and had fun marching into things. His sister Gaby, 9, told stories about medieval warrior women, while Sydney, 6, drank hot chocolate and played with Dylan, the baby of the family.
In a traditional school setting, such free time would probably be called recess. But for Juli Walter, the children’s mother, it is “child-led learning,” something she considers the best in home schooling.
“I learned early on that when I do things I’m interested in,” Ms. Walter said, “I learn so much more.”
As the number of children who are home-schooled grows — an estimated 1.1 million nationwide — some parents like Ms. Walter are opting for what is perhaps the most extreme application of the movement’s ideas. They are “unschooling” their children, a philosophy that is broadly defined by its rejection of the basic foundations of conventional education, including not only the schoolhouse but also classes, curriculums and textbooks.
In some ways it is as ancient a pedagogy as time itself, and in its modern American incarnation, is among the oldest home-schooling methods. But it is also the most elusive, a cause of growing concern among some education officials and social scientists.
“It is not clear to me how they will transition to a structured world and meet the most basic requirements for reading, writing and math,” said Luis Huerta, a professor of public policy and education at Teachers College of Columbia University, whose national research includes a focus on home schooling.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
NYT pandering to the indoctrinators at the NEA.
"There kids no how to read, write, and do arithmetic just fine. . . . Both my kids no how to ride a bike."
You KNOW, THERE is a crew of folks on FR who make it THEIR mission to make fun of spelling.
I, of all people should never make fun of spelling/grammar, but. . .
"There kids no how to read, write, and do arithmetic just fine."
THERE KIDS NO HOW TO READ...??
HOW ABOUT "THIER KIDS KNOW HOW TO READ"
I HOPE YOU WEREN'T HOME SCHOOLED, THAT WOULD NOT BE A GOOD AURGUMENT FOR IT.
"All I can say is that I am closing in on 70 years on this earth, and I haven't a clue what integral calculus or valence shell electron pair repulsion theorty is."
VSEPR is easy to grasp (in general):
http://www.chem.purdue.edu/gchelp/vsepr/whatis2.html
Who bulldozed Walden's Pond?
Worse, it's not just the point of "school", it's the point of GOVERNMENT to force people to be productive citizens. Thus, if some parents aren't using a "schooling philosophy" that is expected to acheive the goal of "productive citizen", the people are expected to VOTE to force those parents to do something different to ensure their children become "productive" citizens.
I think it was meant to be funny but hey....there are a lot of very smart freepers who get those two mixed up sometimes. The thing to do is to keep a good sense of humor. People don't know what to post to people that can agree and laugh at themselves.
I homeschooled and my goal was to raise a productive citizen. I guess it all depends on the meaning of productive.
THERE KIDS NO HOW TO READ...?? HOW ABOUT "THIER KIDS KNOW HOW TO READ" I HOPE YOU WEREN'T HOME SCHOOLED, THAT WOULD NOT BE A GOOD AURGUMENT FOR IT.
Pot--meet Kettle
LOL...see my previous response about my publik education.
Seriously though, it's called typing very fast and responding to hundreds of emails and/or posts a week and not taking time to proofread.
Math and science were my top subjects in school. I never did like English that much. However I read plenty more today with my family than I ever did in school.
When I take my time I actually write fairly well. Along with work I also working toward an MBA and an MA in Spiritual Formation. You can see how important proofreading is before handing in my papers. I naturally make those kinds of mistakes when I'm typing as fast as I can think.
I'll do better next time, especially on a home schooling thread. LOL ;)
:')
"there are a lot of very smart freepers who get those two mixed up sometimes. The thing to do is to keep a good sense of humor. People don't know what to post to people that can agree and laugh at themselves."
Exactly. You don't learn that in school either. :)
I HAVE A VERY GOOD SENSE OF HUMOR, I CAN EVEN LAUGH AT MYSELF BUT WHEN YOU ARE MAKING A POINT YOU SHOULD BE CAREFUL IT DOESN'T LOOK GOOD IF YOU MAKE THOSE KINDS OF MISTAKES. MAYBE IT WAS TYPED THAT WAY FOR HUMOR BUT AFTER READING ANOTHER ONE OF HER OR HIS POSTS I DON'T THINK IT WAS.
AND I NEVER CLAIMED TO BE HOME SCHOOLED EITHER. I AM A PRODUCT OF PUBLIC EDUCATION, THEREFORE I MAKE MISTAKES...LOL
I UNDERSTAND.....I SEE I IRKED SOME OTHER READERS/POSTERS WITH MY COMMENT TO YOU....LOL....
YOUR CAPS LOCK KEY IS STUCK!
One of the reasons home schooled kids do so much better on average than their government schooled peers is that MOST parents go well beyond the 3 hour figure.
In 1978 or so my wife and I came to know a young woman named Patty. She was a devoutly religious young mother who'd become more devout when her husband and father of her two small sons aged 2 and 6 informed her that he was leaving. In dire economic straits, I offered to let her stay in our former home in Chamblee -- which was not rented at the time – rent-free until she got back on her feet. She had been clandestinely home schooling the 6 year old for about 2 years using very well done Christian course materials from an organization in Texas the name of which escapes me. The lad had recently been tested and had placed at least a year ABOVE his chronological age. As required by the government school authorities at the time, she dutifully apprised the authorities of his scores.
For reasons which would become clear in a moment, Patty had been harassed by the DeKalb County school authorities for about 6 months and, by the time she moved into the Chamblee house, had been -- unbeknownst to us -- ORDERED to put the 6 year old into the nearest government elementary school or suffer the consequences. Because she wanted the boys to be educated Christians, there was no way she was going to do that and she told them so.
At approximately 2 am one morning, a loud knock on the door announced the arrival of the aforementioned "consequences." Dressed only in a nightgown, she was confronted by several burly police officers who thrust an arrest warrant in her face. With the now awakened 6 year old watching and the 2 year old wailing in the other room, she was handcuffed and led out the door to jail. She was tossed into a large cell with a couple of hookers and a junkie who spent much of the rest of that morning vomiting in the corner. The two young boys for whom the educational authorities professed such great concern were just left AT THE HOUSE -- ALONE! Patty was later told that the bureaucrats from Children Services who were SUPPOSED to accompany the cops were late and, in their haste to get this dangerous miscreant behind bars, the cops just missed the fact that the Children Services people were, well, missing. The CS folks showed up an hour later to find two terrified kids, one of whom had just seen his mother hauled off in cuffs.
Patty was ultimately brought to trial under the Georgia Truancy Statutes. Her pro-bono attorney tore the school authorities to shreds and hers has been called THE case that opened the floodgates to home schooling in Georgia. Once they had all the facts, the jury didn’t take long to acquit her. I’m proud to have played a small part in that.
At Patty’s trial, a previously overlooked aspect of the government schools was put into sharp focus for those paying attention: The Director of Instruction for DeKalb County testified that the then current 7 hour school day consisted of an average of approximately 3 hours or less of instruction. At that time, Patty was devoting 4 to 5 hours a day to direct instruction.
He also as much as admitted that the REAL reason they wanted ALL these kids in school was the $3,000.00 per kid per year they then got from the state and federal government. Empty seats = lost funds. As in most things, follow the money. Patty home schooled these two boys through high school.
And how did the boys turn out?
One is now a physician and the other a budding journalist.
But that now seems to be the norm for the growing legions of home schooled kids – which most likely explains why the NEA and the government school folks feel so threatened. I believe a home schooled child won the last National Spelling Bee.
Thomas Jefferson believed an EDUCATED PUBLIC to be the cornerstone of the system he and the other Founders TRIED to leave behind. He would NOT, I feel certain, be a big fan of the current government education system. If he returned today, he’d home school his children just as he did before.
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