Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

THE DAY HOMESCHOOLING DIES
Email | 21 Oct 03 | Chis Davis

Posted on 10/21/2003 4:15:33 PM PDT by SLB

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-95 next last
To: TopQuark
Mann was the prototype of today's elitist liberal do-gooder. The temperance movement was an abominable failure culminating in prohibition. And our American society which brought together the best elements of culture from thousands of years of careful cultivation in the civilizations of our forefathers, the envy of the world (read: de Tocqueville), got turned on it's head by these nasty little dead guys who just knew they knew better how to raise our kids. After all, the common man is a noble savage/primate who needs help.

Markets fail to provide public goods, and that is what the governments are supposed to do

"We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." - I dunno, nothing about the providing "public goods" here.

After all I've shown, if you deny that Mann was:

you're either in denial or you are merely gainsaying my statements of fact.
41 posted on 10/21/2003 9:40:06 PM PDT by Theophilus (Save little liberals - Stop Abortion!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: TopQuark
Mann:
"One may say that evil does not exist for subjective man at all, that there exist only different conceptions of good. Nobody ever does anything deliberately in the interests of evil, for the sake of evil. Everybody acts in the interests of good, as he understands it. But everybody understands it in a different way. Consequently men drown, slay, and kill one another in the interests of good. "

Too bad ole Horace never met Mohammed Atta.

42 posted on 10/21/2003 9:46:55 PM PDT by Theophilus (Save little liberals - Stop Abortion!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies]

To: SLB
Around this same time, another movement was taking shape: The Common (Public) School movement. The leaders of the Public School movement were, for the most part, humanists who were concerned about two things they believed endangered America’s future: The continuation of what they called religious superstitious beliefs and the influx of illiterate immigrants seeking jobs and a better life in this country. These leaders believed that realizing their two-fold goal of ridding our society of religion and providing an education for immigrant children mandated compulsory education for every child. Soon, the various states were passing compulsory attendance laws and children began to be public schooled en masse.

In 1774, Pierre Samuel du Pont, at the request of King Stanislaus-Augustus helped organize a national education system both in Poland and in the United States. It was the goal of the Masonic/Illuminati goal to control education and take it out of the hands of sincere Christians.

Public schools are nothing more than mental institutions designed to force secularized "religion" down children's throats. By the time that child graduates from college, they haven't a clue who they are because the school system has already "molded" them into something they are not.

43 posted on 10/21/2003 10:18:52 PM PDT by goldilucky
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: coton_lover
To give children experiences in learning that this author gave his own children, you need money.

Not true...what one needs is Jesus.

44 posted on 10/21/2003 10:22:39 PM PDT by goldilucky
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: annyokie
How is un-schooling different? I mean no offense to any homeschoolers here, but how is watching the history channel at home any different than watching the history channel at school?

It's harder to explain than it is to do, but it does require a relatively large investment of time.

Here's the Readers Digest version:

1. Make sure the child is always involved with some project that he/she is interested in at that point of their life, (something valid, meaningful and mutually agreed to, of course).

2. Do step # 1 thoughtfully and you automatically have their full attention and focus, as opposed to "watching the history channel" at a mandatory time when their attention is far removed, (daydreaming).

3. Do the project/activity with the child.

4. Connect the project/activity to real world, real time instruction. For example, (albeit an extreme one), I once taught a killer geometry class while fishing. Taught my then six year old all about angles while angling. Living the good life and learning at the same time.

5. Enjoy and cherish the time you have together.

I hope this is somewhat understandable.

45 posted on 10/21/2003 11:13:02 PM PDT by BikerTrash
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: shattered
Is your son an only child and if so, did this create problems with loneliness and/or boredom? Curious if home schooling an only can be enjoyed by them as much as by a group of siblings. Thanks for any input.

I think this is a common misconception with homeschooled children. The only "socialization" they miss out on is the "socialization" that would have happened while they were in school (and I don't believe that is positive, in most cases.) Other relationships that a child would normally experience in his life remain intact.

My son is an only child. We live two doors away from my sister. She had 6 children, her oldest was 12 when he was born, her youngest was born 2 years after my son. So his "sibling" relationships have been with his cousins. Now these relationships extend to my older niece and nephew's families who also live very close to us. They have toddlers and babies, so he's also getting experience in babysitting, LOL.

However, apart from the cousins, he's always had interaction with kids from church, the neighborhood, sports activites, and homeschool support groups.

He seems to make friends very easily, and our home is always filled with kids (we bought a pool table last year and that seems to be a major draw, LOL).

There were times when we were traveling and he did not have contact with other children for weeks on end, but we were in different countries and the culture shock and sights to see totally distracted him from that fact.

He has never complained of boredom, or lack of social interaction.

46 posted on 10/22/2003 1:44:16 AM PDT by dawn53
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: shattered
I'd like to make one more observation. I find children that are homeschooled interact very well with other people, no matter what their ages.

I'm not sure what the explanation for this would be (maybe the fact that they aren't isolated with only their own age group for hours on end in school.)

He's the only teenager in the neighborhood willing to play street football with the "little kids" (ages 10-12). Some of the neighborhood moms have asked me if he minds their sons coming over or views them as pests, since they are a couple years younger than he is. And I can honestly say, he doesn't seem to discrimate whether the kid is 10, 12 or his age. He doesn't think it's "uncool" to play video games or pool with kids younger than himself or help in building a fort with my nieces 6 and 3 year old sons.

And on the other extreme, he socializes in his college class just fine and when I ask him if they know how old he is, he says they never ask, they just treat me like one of the class.

Here again, I credit this to the homeschooling experience.

47 posted on 10/22/2003 1:57:50 AM PDT by dawn53
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: SLB
Luddite alert!
48 posted on 10/22/2003 2:33:28 AM PDT by tdadams
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SLB
later read
49 posted on 10/22/2003 2:36:41 AM PDT by JZoback
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Theophilus
I'd like to know how or why you consider E.D. Hirsch a "humanist" or "socialst engineer & ideologue".
50 posted on 10/22/2003 3:18:53 AM PDT by tdadams
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Theophilus
"and leadership in the temperance movement" - a libertarian favorite!!!

OK, with this I see that you're just slinging vitriolic platitudes. Tell me how on earth you surmise that the temperance movement was a libertarian favorite? If you knew even the first thing about libertarianism, you'd see what an utterly foolish and ignorant assertion you've just made.

51 posted on 10/22/2003 3:26:14 AM PDT by tdadams
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: SLB
If Mr. Davis is going to be intellectually honest then he must close his business immediately and stop providing the "pre-packaged" educational supplies Elijah Co. offers.

From what I've read he is quite respectable, but I think he is overreaching to replace the "lockstep" of public education with the "lockstep" of his version of HOME-schooling.

The point is well made that each child learns differently, but he seems to think that they should all be educated in the way his children were.

Perhaps a bit arrogant...

52 posted on 10/22/2003 6:00:01 AM PDT by Damocles (sword of...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Theophilus
Constitution for the United States of America." - I dunno, nothing about the providing "public goods" here.

Constitution is not economics. And, incidentally, at that time, there was no knowlege of distinction between the public and private goods. We did not know that the speed of light is maximal possible either. It's been a while, you know.

Constitution, however much I revere it, is not the place to which one turns to learn phyiscs. Or mathematics. Or economics.

I understand your point of view on Mann. I very much appreciate your detailed exposisition. I am sorry to say, however, that I did not find your arguments convinicing. Thanks again for writing.

53 posted on 10/22/2003 6:03:34 AM PDT by TopQuark
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: tdadams
If you knew even the first thing about libertarianism, you'd see what an utterly foolish and ignorant assertion you've just made.

It's irony man. Do you have trouble detecting sarcasm?

54 posted on 10/22/2003 6:32:48 AM PDT by Theophilus (Save little liberals - Stop Abortion!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 51 | View Replies]

To: BikerTrash
We do these things with our children all the time. For instance, we had an hours long talk about gyroscopes and flight just days ago. (Hubby was a pilot.)
55 posted on 10/22/2003 6:46:40 AM PDT by annyokie (One good thing about being wrong is the joy it brings to others.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: tdadams
I'd like to know how or why you consider E.D. Hirsch a "humanist" or "socialst engineer & ideologue".

Mr. Hirsch's beliefs and agenda warrent further examination. I'll retract his inclusion in the "Hall of Shame" for the time being. Sorry for my rush to judgement Mr. Hirsch.

56 posted on 10/22/2003 6:57:18 AM PDT by Theophilus (Save little liberals - Stop Abortion!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: TopQuark
It's been a while, you know.

Tyranny has been around for a much longer. The Constitution was meant to limit government not to fertilize it. I urge you to reverence the Constitution in a vigorous and thoughtful way and not just sentimentally. Thanks for the conversation. I'm sorry I could not convince you.

57 posted on 10/22/2003 7:06:23 AM PDT by Theophilus (Save little liberals - Stop Abortion!!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: FourPeas
Our first year home was spent "deprogramming" the boys. I constantly heard, "That's not the way Mrs. xxxx does it!" Also popular was the suspicion that I had no idea about ANYTHING. I fixed that! LOL.

We use a couple "canned" courses. Math workbooks that they work through on their own with help from me when they get "stuck". A beginning Latin course that we work through very slowly. They have really started to apply it in everyday language. I pull grammar out of a text to go along with the Latin work. History of Rome. Some basic science, although dad usually comes home with aerodynamic lessons for them.

The rest of the time they read and play. My boys love chess, although the younger is very frustrated with losing.

If I had my 'druthers, we'd be outside all day long doing whatever we wanted. Too many neighbors :-)
58 posted on 10/22/2003 7:54:30 AM PDT by Marie Antoinette (Caaaarefully poke the toothpick through the plastic...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: SLB
The Elijah company has some of the most warm-hearted, right-on, and thought-provoking essays. Their "catalog" is really a how- and why-to guide.

http://www.elijahco.com/help/index2.htm
59 posted on 10/22/2003 9:11:14 AM PDT by mamaduck (I follow a New Age Guru . . . from 2000 years ago.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: annyokie
You wrote:

"I have no quibble with homeschoolers, provided they actually have some mastery of the subject matter. "

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

Mastery? I would throw out the thought....that very, very few public school teachers have a mastery ( in the true sense of the word...)of the subjects they teach.

Well...I guess you would have a "quibble" with my wife and I.......But hey, a quibble there, or a quibble here...never stopped me before. HA!!

FWIW...many of the wisest people I've ever known...weren't "well educated". And conversely some of the most ignorant stumps I've ever seen had Masters degrees hanging on their walls.

FRegards,

60 posted on 10/22/2003 9:19:06 AM PDT by Osage Orange (Socialism....is nothing more than Communism lite.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-95 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson