Yearn to learn - Homeschool kids with enquiring minds chart their own course

Chicago Tribune ^ | December 16, 2001 | Kim Roth

[Lizavetta]

Sandy Manca of Naperville, mother of book-loving 17-year-old Nora, once did the unthinkable: She discouraged her child from reading. After Manca and her husband decided to home-school Nora, who was 10 at the time, Nora's response was, "Now I'll finally have time to read!" Sandy Manca recalled. "We let her read as much as she wanted until we finally had to make her take breaks to get things done."

[Lizavetta]

All in all, I thought this was a fair article.

"The socialization process is important to a child's maturation. A good setting--in school--interacting with children and adults with varying views is very important to the education of a child," he said.

I think we all know what the educrat is trying to say, don't we? Feel free to add your own translation.

[JD86]

"The socialization process is important to a child's maturation. A good setting--in school--interacting with children and adults with varying views is very important to the education of a child," he said.

I laughed when I read this. Last night I took my granddaughter to a company Christmas party...after everyone else had left she and I stayed and played cards with four other people. That was my 9 yr old and five adults over 40....and she fit right in....:) and won her share of the hands too..!!

[Lizavetta]

Eighty percent of home-schoolers live in two-parent households

Perhaps I'm grasping here, but would you say that the same people who criticize homeschooling as the domain of the privileged (two parent households with stay-at-home mom) would be the first to tell you that any loving group situation is a FAMILY and JUST AS GOOD as a traditional one?

[Down South P.E.]

Would that "good setting" include guns and drug dealers commonly found in our public schools today. I have toddlers and I plan to homeschool them when the time comes. There are lots of kids and programs at our church for socialization activities. Not to mention activities through the home school associations - and just your regular friends and their children.

[Andrew Wiggin]

Not completely accurate, but I agree that it was fair.

[everclear]

"Those damn Christians are going to brainwash thier children. How will they learn about condoms and sodomy?"

[JD86]

Absolutely.......but they wouldn't tell it to ME more than once....:)

[ikka]

Still, the association has concerns, not so much about curriculum as with socialization and potential difficulties making the transition into a conventional classroom or college. "The socialization process is important to a child's maturation. A good setting--in school--interacting with children and adults with varying views is very important to the education of a child," he said.

The old "socialization" argument. Total crap. What I learned in high school concerning socialization took a while to unlearn once I entered the real world.

[Dakotabound]

"The socialization process is important to a child's maturation. A good setting--in school--interacting with children and adults with varying views is very important to the education of a child," he said.

"The socialization process is important to a worker's brainwashing. A good setting -- in school -- teaching them to only listen to state-approved authority figures, to move from subject to subject when the bell rings, that nothing is worth doing that can't be interrupted by a schedule, that being beat up is a rite of passage, that drugs and crime aren't bad enough to force the removal of criminals from the classroom, that there are few consequences for actions, that individual thought isn't allowed in real life, that what you wear on your shirt is subjectively criticized if it offends the state, that self-defense is not necessarily a basic human right, that being straight is only politically correct if you are sleeping around with the right number of people, that interacting with children and adults with varying views -- other than conservative -- is very important to the moulding of a sheeple.

[Dakotabound]

Unschooling

[sweetliberty]

Hi Dix and Dad; thought this article would be encouraging as you look at the pros and cons of alternative schooling.

[homeschool mama]

Sounds like *my* daughter!

[2Jedismom]

Boy if this doesn't deserve a ping, I don't know what does!

[2Jedismom]

Hi Homeschool mama! I just pinged you to this article, but you beat me to it!

[homeschool mama]

Thank you kindly for the additional ping though. This thread deserves it! ;o)

[Spirited]

I'm "with you". My seven home-schooled grandchildren are better "socialized" than any public schooled children of their ages whom I have met recently and certainly moreso than the public school children I taught in years past.

I am proud of and grateful to their parents who are so selflessly seeing to it that these children are brought up in an atmosphere where truth can be the touchstone, devoid of the malinfluence of peer pressure and of liberal ideology.

[bimmer]

thanks ... homeschool bump.

[Carry_Okie]

It's always the same:

Oh you homeschool? How do they get adequate socialization?

I hate that word, I hear it everywhere I go with my kids as if the questioner even knows what it means. I never hear any other word or phrase, it's eerie. I don't hear, Do they get along with other kids? or How do you prepare them for the real world? (which is a laugher, especially considering the pubelick skewel product), it's always "socialization." What an obviously successful piece of educrat propaganda that is!

Translation: Socialization makes good socialists.

Here is what I do in response, I have the nine-year old explain how Dickens modeled his own life history in segments of his books, or factor a quadratic in her head, or I have the seven-year-old multiply a few algebraic binomials, name three cities on the Danube that start with the letter "B," or I'll have a technical discussion with them about whatever is handy, usually on a high-school level...

Heheheh

You should see that glare of unbridled hate.

[wasp69]

Hey, 2Jedismom, my better half finally quit being a lurker and joined FR last night! Can you add her to your ping list? Thanks.

[2Jedismom]

I love it when someone wants to join my ping list! I sure will add your better half. What's her nick?

[TxBec]

Hey add me to your list :) I'm a homeschooling mom too

[2Jedismom]

You got it! I pretty well stick to just homeschooling related pings. . .sometimes I might ping you to a social endeavor (like writing the troops). Something I think homeschoolers (being civic-minded people) might be interested in.

[TxBec]

thanks!!!!

[Temple Drake]

thanks for the ping!

[wasp69]

mrswasp69

[2Jedismom]

You're welcome, Temple Drake!

Wasp69, I added the Mrs. to my list!

[Artist]

Thanks for the ping, 2Jedismom. Is there any way I can view the whole group that you've pinged? I can only see Lizavetta, and I'd like to ping some other HS folks but I'm afraid that they're already on your list....I don't want to be redundant!

[Slyfox]

Letting children follow their interests can be expensive, given the costs of books, computers, project materials, tutors and camps...Sandy Manca estimates her family spends more than $2,000 each year on Nora's education.

I have three boys and I pay the equilalent of sending just one of them to a fancy-dancy private school, a grand totoal of $8,000 a year on curriculum, tutors and all their activities. It sure beats the heck out of paying $24,000 for the three of them.

[Wm Bach]

I think public school can polish dull pebbles and bright pebbles alike to the same degree of shine. But that same tumbler also has the effect of robbing gems of their brilliance.

A good home schooling can render even the most common stone into a treasure, but a bad home schooling will ruin a child just as surely as will the average public schooling.

I think your chances of your children reaching their maximum potential is greatly increased via home, or private schooling, in that order. Home schooled children learn to socialize with all age groups, thus are less likely to be caught up in "group think", peer pressure, etc.

If a child spends all of his or her time socializing with children their own age, then they have little reason to learn how to communicate on an adult level. If you must communicate with adults, you must likewise achieve a certain amount of maturity. (But only if the adults likewise communicate on an adult level. Baby talk is counterproductive.)

So to paraphrase Michael Palin in answer to your question: "I like it a lot. That's why I like it."

[Wm Bach]

No child is educated "enough" until they have mastered calculus, reading, writing, logic, at least one romance language, another non-romance language, some latin regardless, chemistry, physics, music, figure drawing and perspective or drafting, a martial art, mechanics, a team sport, a gentleman's (or lady's) sport, economics, some culinary art, philosophy, and history.

By that time, they can master anything else by their own devices.

[mrswasp69]

Thanks for adding me. We had to put our kids back into public school this year because of some unforseen family responsibilities, and it has been trouble from the first day. Our 3rd grader was told he had to read on a 2nd or 3rd grade level, until the grade level testing came back and he was reading and comprehending on a 6th grade level. His brother is on the wrestling team at the middle school and they simply cannot comprehend how last year's grades were computed. I am very tempted to bring them back to homeschool just to avoid the problems we have had.

[FourPeas]

Letting children follow their interests can be expensive, given the costs of books, computers, project materials, tutors and camps, and that doesn't include lost wages for the parents who coordinate it all rather than draw pay in a job.

It can be expensive, but certainly does not have to be. Libraries, community cultural events, the Internet, thrift stores, etc are all great resources for homeschooling.

The itea that one of the costs of homeschooling is lost wages is bogus. Certainly some parents who homeschool might choose to be employed, but most I know would most likely stay-at-home. Let's face it, if the children are enough of a priority to homeschool, they're probably enough for one parent to stay home.

FP

[Osage Orange]

HS'ing BUMP..!!