Replies

We need a combination of home school and school. We need to stop blaming teachers and schools, but put the blame on parents who do not know how to prepare kids for school.

We taught our boys phonics back in the 60's before they started to school. Now their children are doing the same. All our grandkids are good students, and just one example illustrates. Wesley, in first grade, could read before kindergarten, and now has been tested and reads with comprehension on the fourth grade level. Teacher said he could probably handle higher grades since the fourth grade was very easy for him.

During the summer months their mother, each day, gives each child 10 vocabulary words and 5 to 10 math problems. The two older boys were having so much fun that the 2 year old wanted to "play too".

I could tell similar stories about the other kids, but the reason for this reply is to advise that we need courses in school on parenting so that new parents can prepare their kids for school, instead of letting the TV raise them.

WE cannot wait until the school years, much less high school.

I agree with you about home school and school in combination. Thats my practice in my home.

My daughter goes to school and then studies at home with me as well. My son will also.

In our state you have to be a credentialed teacher to teach at home, and I have my degrees, but not in teaching. The compromise was to send the kids to school, but to take total control of the education at home and make sure the education is first rate.

She is only 7, and my son is 3, but I use the television as an instructional tool, along with books and the extensive library my wife and I have obtained over the years.

I go to extreme lengths to tell them that passing school is the lowest common denominator, and a lot more is expected of her. Self education is just as important as regular education, and it is stressed in my home.

I also have to spend a lot of time de-programming the social topics they teach in school. I had to take 30 minutes to tell her that Martin Luther King was an important figure in American history, but not the ONLY figure in our history that did something.

The tendency of the schools is to teach curriculum that fits the SOL ( standards of learning) and to disregard all other topics. A lot falls in the cracks.

The curriculum teaches for the test.

I've never understood this complaint. Every test I ever took was "taught for". If the idea is that the test is badly designed, then say so, but no one ever does. There's just this assumption that it's bad to "teach for the test."

And the notion that we need to "blame the parents" misses the mark. Many parents are either unable or unwilling to serve as tutors for their kids. Blaming them is simply a way to deflect the problem. The one decision that nearly all parents would be happy to make is the one regarding which school their children attend. That decision, given to parents by means of a voucher plan, would solve most of the their kids' educational problems.

I think your ideas about combining home school & school is absolutely on the money.

The schools in this country are in bad shape, but even with the best schools you'd have to supplement classroom work with activities at home. I have a four-year-old who attends a really good pre-school. He learns a lot there, but my wife and I still take the time to work with him on numbers, reading, simple addition subtraction, art projects, etc. We'll continue to do so right up through grade school. Just a little time every day going over the basics and trying to make learning fun has a huge cumulative effect.

People are justified in complaining about the education system, but I wonder how many are willing to take matters into their own hands and take an active role in educating their kids. Homeschooling is a great solution if the parents are up to the task, and the school system in question is really horrible/dangerous, but otherwise my philosophy is to let the kids learn what they can in school and then fill in the gaps at home. And yes, the earlier you start the better!