Posted on 07/25/2005 7:26:05 PM PDT by Millicent_Hornswaggle
I homeschool my fifth grader. She's bright but not, IMO, such a genius. Nevertheless she easily absorbs 8th grade math, college level English and literature, three foreign languages, music lessons on three instruments, and a lot more that she'd never get in public school. Is homeschooling easy? YES. (Incidentally, my eldest was also homeschooled, and finished all high school level courses at 13. She was no genius either, and I am not, IMO, a gifted teacher.)
I believe that with sufficient materials and a schedule you stick to, you can give your child a better education than your public school, be it the best in the nation. And it's cheaper and safer too.
quite the dissection. thank you.
yes, homeschooling is difficult, time consuming, aggravating, and, hopefully, rewarding. so what? proper parenting is difficult too.
Please keep in mind how wacked out half these parents might be as well..There are a lot of great teachers in the school systems.Dont believe everything you hear in the media.Im in NJ and there are Republican/Conservative teachers still working,even here .Can't say much for the newer kids fresh out of our Communist universities though.Still, there are many more "old school"good teachers than you may think.
Dave was taught in public schools. His brain has never recovered.
Anyone notice the complete lack of statistics to back up any of the stated opinions in this editorial?
Do you know why? I'll bet you do...
"The idea that union teachers are "motivated to do the best job possible" is ludicrous."
My wife used to be one of those union teachers. And, while she was, in fact, highly motivated, most of the rest of the teachers she knew were an embarrassment. Her local "union leader" insisted that she and the rest of the "teachers" exit the school at the end of the day at the exact moment they were allowed by their contract. The union also told her and the rest of the teachers not to provide children extra help after school, because their contract didn't specifically provide money for that service.
After her first year she quit. Our two children have never set a foot inside a public school classroom, and they never will.
That illustrates the exact point that I brought up. :^)
Most public school teachers START dedicated and enthusiastic, but after just a short time the union environment sucks the motivation out of them.
The same thing happened to me as a union CNA that happened to your wife as a union teacher. I was told to not do any more work than was explicitly spelled out in my instructions and the overwhelming atmosphere at the facility was of a spiteful contest of wills between the union and management.
The NEA calling parents who home school amateurs is like Carrot Top telling Lenny Bruce to develop "an edge."
"Oh my!! The thread is great but this link takes the cake."
Exactly! But that poor janitor...he must be tying his own noose by now.
Not my point at all, and you know that.
It's simply bogus to imply that two income families aren't looking out for their child's best interest.
The FACT is that some parents don't have the knowledge, skills and abilities to homeschool not to mention the temperment. That has nothing to do with second incomes.
Snarky comments like yours turn people off to homeschooling. If you want to be an advocate for homeschooling, you should talk about the benefits, not berate those who choose a different path.
"Not my point at all, and you know that.
It's simply bogus to imply that two income families aren't looking out for their child's best interest."
I'm not implying anything. I'm making a statement of fact. There are one hell of parents who ignore the ills of public education and the risks to their child which are common in public schools because they place a higher priority on money they save by using public education as opposed to private schooling or sacrificing one of the incomes to homeschool.
Am I saying that all two-income families place a lesser priority on money than on the best interest of their child(ren)? No.
But, I'm convinced that a significant percentage of two-income parents who send their children to public school do so simply because they place a higher priority on the bigger house, the nicer car, and/or the better vacation than they do on the education and safety of their child. I've got a neighbor who lives a block from me, in a $800K home, who pulled their kids out of the local private school, and the mother told me...to my face...that the $350 a month, per child (she has two) she was spending was just too much to spend. They have three cars (two drivers) which are worth about $100K between them. They have a covered pool, and she has a woman come into her home to clean twice a week. She knows that her kids were getting a better education in the private school they'd been in. She admits it. She just doesn't want to spend the money.
I can't tell you how many times I've talked about the options of homeschooling or private school to parents of kids who were having either academic or behavioral trouble in public schools, only to have their first reaction be "Oh, it's so expensive!"
It's common...stop kidding yourself.
Thank you. I will agree that some do.
Beyond that, I'm done with the conversation.
sure!!!!
amazing anyone ever learned to read before the government decided to teach them.
Actually, the amount of people who learned to read increased significantly after schools were formed and reading materials became more widely available.
Oh good grief, they asked the janitor???
That condescending attitude is what inhabits the minds of 99.999% of public school teachers in the United States.
Holy cats, I must be one of those .00000001 percent who thinks differently! (actually I know a lot of teachers who do--any sane teacher knows that if the parents don't spend time with the kid at home, that he/she will not learn or progress as fast as those who have parents who do--preferrably TWO-parent homes) Hey! That makes me a minority. Maybe I can get some kind of special treatment.
Actually, I work WITH the parents of my students. I think they have wonderful things and new ideas to offer.
The influence (or lack of it) of a parent is more responsible for the child than almost anything not to leave out one's own individual choices and efforts, the influence of friends, etc. A teacher can indeed make a difference and be a good positive force in a child's life (I have seen countless examples of that), but we become what WE want to be and look to the examples of our parents first.
Too often today, we seek to blame others without looking inward first.
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