Posted on 12/29/2007 9:59:03 AM PST by wintertime
Yes, mastering a second language certainly is an asset. But, first, children need to master English. We Americans have a worldwide reputation as a people who cannot even speak and write English properly, let alone a second language. So, all this talk about learning a second language is akin to not seeing the forest for the trees. Let's take a step back and look at the problem again. The picture is much bigger. Let's talk about English first. Then we can talk about a second language.
French isn't useless. Remember, it's spoken by many people outside of France - many Africans, for example. And, once you learn one of the Romance languages, the others are easier to pick up. (My husband was able to speak French fluently at one time, though he may be out of practice now.)
Too many of our (illegal)immigrants, children and parents, are illiterate in their native language. Teach them English through immersion. Diversity of primary languages is a divisive disaster for a country.
“The 3 people with the most power to help kids escape these government kiddie prison sit there and do almost nothing useful. (barf!)”
I don’t think that these three gentlemen have so much influence anymore. There are other commentators out there (e.g. Michael Savage, Neal Boortz). I’d be interested to see what their rating numbers are over time: is the audience overall shrinking or growing? My suspicion is that it’s shrinking.
With regard to home education advocacy, I think that the time is perhaps ripe for doing something rather radical in this day and age: simply taking the time to talk with people one-on-one. With all of this electronic stuff out there, TV, computers, etc., I sense a real hunger for plain old one-on-one, face-to-face human interaction.
Americans (parents very much included) are lonely. If you think about home education from the perspective of socialization, there are some great opportunities there. For the parents as well as the kids. Perhaps home educators are stressing the advantages that accrue to the children too much to the exclusion of the parents.
A question for your (private) contemplation: how much of evangelization is actually the religious enlightenment aspect, and how much of it is people just wanting a friend to talk to?
“Since I’ve spent so many years in the university setting, I suppose that is where I will end up. A nice little private school would be the most wonderful (sigh), but THOSE jobs are snatched up faster than fried chicken by the best teachers. It must be wonderful to be in a school where the parents actually have an incentive to control their kids...”
A suggestion. Have you considered doing some tutoring? There are people out there who do tutoring in the sense of remedial education and special subjects (and make pretty good money doing it).
One market I see and haven’t seen a lot of people looking to address is tutoring in the general sense of what I’d term “microschooling.” One of the challenges that I see for home education is that it tends to be an all-or-nothing proposition. You either send your kids to a government or private school, OR one parent stays at home and essentially home educates full time. I don’t see why it needs to be so cut and dry. I do think that kids (as well as parents) benefit from some variety in teaching skills.
There is also the economic issue. I think that a lot of parents would love to home educate, but can’t quite swing having one parent completely quit the workforce to do so. Again, a modified form of tutoring or “microschooling” could help in those kinds of situations.
Wintertime: your insights would be appreciated.
Yes, I see real possibilities for tutoring but **only** outside of the government school paradigm!
For example:
My niece, a former government school elementary teacher, is at home with a 2 year old now and is tutoring math in her home in Montgomery County, Maryland. She does very well financially. There are some major frustrations for her in doing this tutoring.
One major frustration for her, is that most often her students ( nearly all boys) are really quite bright. The student does understand the material. They do get the correct answers. They have mastered their math facts and do have nearly instant mental recall of these facts. The problem is that the child ( almost always boys) struggle with presenting the material in form that is acceptable to the government school. This form almost always required written presentation ( in words). It is the written portion of government demands in math that nails these kids in class and on the standardized exams.
Her students have little patience for the verbal portion of the math explanation. They rightly reason that have shown all the math steps and the answer is correct, and that should be enough!
What bothers my neice the most is that it is like watching a flower fade before her eyes. She is constant witness to the light and enthusiasm for learning being extingished, permanently, and she knows that only a miracle will re-light it. It is not very satisfying work for her.
There is also the economic issue. I think that a lot of parents would love to home educate, but can’t quite swing having one parent completely quit the workforce to do so. Again, a modified form of tutoring or “microschooling” could help in those kinds of situations.
I would call them "One Room School Houses in the Home".
Yes, I agree with you. There are many parents who lack the confidence, or the skills, or economically both parents must be in the work force. Christian teachers could be wonderful resources for their churches and congregation families. There could also be some combination of church building use and home-setting instruction to help these parents.
A question for your (private) contemplation: how much of evangelization is actually the religious enlightenment aspect, and how much of it is people just wanting a friend to talk to?
Re: message #45: In my experience, yes, the initial interest is often due to loneliness. If the seed takes hold, and starts to sprout, and soon the investigator soon realizes that what he has been feeling is spiritual loneliness due to separation from the Spirit and communication with the Lord.
I thank both of you for this insight. You have definately given me food for thought.
“Yes, I see real possibilities for tutoring but **only** outside of the government school paradigm!”
Of course.
“What bothers my neice the most is that it is like watching a flower fade before her eyes. She is constant witness to the light and enthusiasm for learning being extingished, permanently, and she knows that only a miracle will re-light it. It is not very satisfying work for her.”
That’s a crying shame.
The alternatives that you and I are discussing could help. I think think we’re just arriving at the same place from slightly different roads. I view “microschooling” or “One Room School Houses in the Home” in terms of market reform. I.e. qualified teachers going private in their own enlightened self-interest. Whereas I think you’re coming at it from more of a religious perspective. Both approaches would appear to be complimentary.
Are you aware of any examples where something like this has been put into place? I know of home education co-ops, but those tend to be strictly voluntary; no money or no significant amounts of money change hands. I also know of tutors. But I’ve never seen what is essentially a microschool for hire (be it secular or parochial).
Maybe I don’t get out enough? :-)
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No, I am not.
I do think some who are involved in the Exodus movement ( Baptist who advocate abandoning the schools) are advising ministers regarding on-line curriculum that could be used to run schools.
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