Homeschoolers Not Laughing About Release of New TV Sitcom

CNSNEWS ^ | 04/30/03 | Robert B. Bluey

[ladylib]

"I wonder where public school teachers lost their joy?"

There is no joy left in the public schools now because of "No Child Left Behind." And I don't think it can be blamed totally on Bush. Public schools have been effing up for years now. Today, there is accountability under No Child Left Behind and the public schools have to prove themselves to the federal government and to taxpayers (parents).

Private schools only have to please parents, which is the way it should be, since parents dole out their own money for tuition (as well as paying taxes for the public schools). Private school teachers probably exhibit joy because they don't have to bother with the same constraints government teachers have to today -- parents and administrators give them more leeway. Private school teachers and administrators know that their livelihood depends on parental approval and consider working with the children of those tuition-paying parents a privilege. This isn't to say that private school administators and teachers have to be willing to put up with a lot of nonsense from parents and students. Private school teachers and administrators and paying parents want the same things for the kids.

[Future Snake Eater]

Yawn....South Park already did this.

So did the Simpsons. Only it had Bart leaving public school to be homeschooled. He turned from a bumbling idiot into a well-read genius in a few weeks.

[nicmarlo]

ty, dansangel; I've certainly had my share of struggles, there must be an unknown as of yet reason.

They "act out" in school because they are bored. If the schools would only allow them to work up to their intelligence, the boredom would end and so would the so-called behavioral problems.

This is true; with all the money they get (over $3,000 per student per school year), one would think that would be more than enough to teach each child according to their level. That's even what they used to do in one-room school houses.

[JenB]

Actually.... it's not funny when you've lived through these attitudes. If I had to hear "But what about socialization" one more time as a kid I'd have flipped.

[HairOfTheDog]

But the more commonplace homeschooling becomes, the more it is going to, and should be included in humor...

I guess my point is, Perhaps there is a funny response to that that everyone will learn from. People ask these questions of ideas that are foreign to them. Homeschoolers have kept such a low profile no one even knows you exist unless they post on Free Republic. If homeschooling becomes part of the common culture knowledge bank through a sitcom that ends up being popular (it is directed by the director of Seinfeld after all) then homeschooling becomes normalized in the process.

[JenB]

But the low profile is part of our grand strategery!

[HairOfTheDog]

Only if the strategery is for folk to think you are the kinda weird people with the bomb shelter down the street!

[JenB]

Nah... we're going to take over the world. But keep it quiet, we are!

[HairOfTheDog]

So you think 2J will hit me for the thing about the mail?

[ladylib]

Let's see. A turban-wearing, phony male Muslim middle-school teacher in California who decides to set the American flag on fire in his classroom and tells the students to shut up about it; a female principal of a California public high school who wants to check out girls' underwear before the prom (no thongs please.) Demoted and now working as a gym teacher for God's sake; a junior high school principal in NYC who lunches late with her secretary, is pissy-eyed drunk, drives her Mercedes into a pole, and decides to drop her pants and urinate right in the middle of the street (arrested for drunk driving (among other things), students perform very poorly on their state tests, but she's making enough money to drive a Mercedes); Also the secretary is arrested for interfering with an arrest; gym teachers and coaches arrested for diddling around with kids, either in school or making dates on the computer (in any town and cities all across the country, just pick up your local newspaper), I could just go on...

[DED]

There's a book called "Emotional Intelligence" that might interest you. The book suggests that kids who are unable to relate to their peer groups tend to be less successful in life than those who can, and that IQ and grades are very poor predictors of future success.

The really tough trick, in my opinion, is to raise good Christian kids who can still relate.

[Old Professer]

Didn't we just have a thread on here several weeks ago where over half of the posters agreed that The Simpsons "Rewarded the value of the 'family'?"

[honeygrl]

" Private school teachers probably exhibit joy because they don't have to bother with the same constraints government teachers have to today "

I went to a private christian school for 2 years in high school.. I never felt any of that joy coming my way. My Spanish teacher once went over a friend's homework and took off 1 point for every "i" he didn't dot. Since he wrote in small cap letters (like a lot of males do) he failed the assignment over it. She also wouldn't accept any work turned in written in pencil. It had to be black ink or you got a zero.