Posted on 11/27/2006 7:04:44 AM PST by meandog
I think of my poor, disadvantaged HSed older two -- Matthew, with his top grades, well on his way to a medical career, Rachael with a BA, already teaching French and Spanish at HS level... poor things....
"Do most homeschool parents have the necessary skills to teach some of the more difficult courses? What about languages, which are often required for entrance to college?"
Not all do, which is why they hire me, I teach advanced math. I know a couple of people who offer both Latin and French clases, as well as kids who take courses at the local community college.
However, most homeschooling parents are college educated themselves, and just teach the language they learned such as Spanish or French.
David Arnold of the NEA !, now there's a guy who would take an objective viewpoint of home schooling !!!
My daughter belongs to a home school cooperative on the Florida space coast with her four and six y/o. There is such a sharing of skills. Lisa lacks a teaching credential but I sense from her 5 on the calculus AP that she might be a half decent math tutor.
My wife and I home schooled our 4 children with the following outcome:
2 graduated from George Mason
1 is a licensed contractor in a major U.S. city doing very well for himself. Drives a better car and has a bigger house than his old man
1 is a film maker
....me thinks we did ok.
Let's see, in the course of their schooling, my kids have had the teacher who said that the dark meat on chicken is dark because "it's closer to the bone". Then there's the ones that spend half the class time talking about their pets and whatnot, and the one who had 11th grade math students sewing fake moles because it's Mole Day. And let's not forget the many that think watching popular movies is an effective use of class time. Professionals my eye.
Somewhat flawed...the stats have been derived by homeschooling advocates who take a sample of homeschooled children against the whole of public school educated ones. A better sample would be to compare homeschooled kids against a subset of public school students who have parental involvement. And, when that comparison is made, the homeschooled kids place well-behind their competition.
cementing?
The author is an idiot!
"consequently, when we teachers get their children back they are unprepared and over challenged"
I guess that's why my nephews and nieces that were home schooled have all scored extremely well on the SAT and have ALL gotten scholarships and gone on to the universities of their choice.
I was originally against home schooling for them, but when I saw the curriculum I was truly impressed.
There are indeed some parents that don't have the time or discipline to do this, but some do, and do it very well.
Then why does every study show that homeschoolers do so much better on standardized tests (on average) than their peers in public school?
Homeschooling parents do not want to teach any children other than their own. They know their child far better than any teacher will ever know them. The homeschooling parent does not have to put up with the time-consuming task of disciplining children that are in the classroom only to cause trouble and call attention to themselves.
Incidentally, I assume this teacher is receiving a paycheck, so he is also in it "for the money."
His kids can watch MIT open courseware for free. MIT offer full course lectures for algebra, cal, trig, physics, bio.
The next thing you know, all those professional head custodians out there will want to sire our children for us too. NO THANKS Dave, I'll do the shaping of my window washers, brick layers and space station builders.
It's not just that they have the right to do so, it's that they see that public schools are dangerous, left-wing dominated institutions that teach things they do not believe and do not want their young skulls-full-of-mush to be taught. I'm sure your cousin will find a solution if he's that concerned about the environment his child is forced to endure.
LOL, well yes.
I was in contact with 3 or 4 of them in our area when we were thinking about continuing my son's homeschooling into the high school years.
I never saw the "hubris" you mention - I never met a parent who was reluctant to have an expert in the more difficult subjects. In fact, you would be amazed at the qualifications of some of the folks in these co-ops. Just one example -- a retired Army Colonel of Engineers with a doctorate in electrical engineering was teaching the kids calculus, along with the principles of navigation and applying math to "real world" problems like moving dirt and building amplifiers . . . and the kids were having a ball!
What he wasn't doing was trying to influence the kids politically or socially . . . which is what many homeschool parents are trying to avoid. It's not just the lack of competence that annoys parents, it's the ideological subtext that's injected into so many classrooms. To paraphrase, "shut up and teach!"
And it may be hubristic of me, but I would put my academic qualifications up against those of any public high school teacher. I'm not qualified to teach math or science at the high school level, but I could teach English, English lit. or history at college level, and if I had a chance to brush up I could teach up to intermediate level German or beginning Latin.
yes--the "wannabe" writer with good intentions who heads up the custodial department... isn't that a crack-up?
And, for those out there who don't understand the meaning of "hubris", the above quote is a fine example.
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