Posted on 05/20/2020 5:12:54 AM PDT by Kaslin
The government has closed most schools.
So, more parents are teaching kids at home.
That upsets the government school monopoly.
Education "experts" say parents lack the expertise to teach their kids.
Without state schooling, "learning losses... could well be catastrophic," says The New York Times. Home schooling "will set back a generation of children," according to a Washington Post column. Harvard Magazine's "Risks of Homeschooling" article quotes a professor who calls for a "presumptive ban."
The professional education establishment actually tried to ban it 98 years ago. Then, they tried to ban private schools, too! But the Supreme Court stopped them, writing, "a child is not the mere creature of the state."
I wish the state would remember that.
Anyway, the educator's complaints about home schooling "setting back a generation" are bunk.
Eleven of 14 peer-reviewed studies found home schooling has positive effects on achievement.
In my new video, education researcher Corey DeAngelis explains, "Children who are home-schooled get much better academic and social results than kids in government schools."
Even though they are more likely to be poor, "Home-schoolers score 30% higher on SAT tests." They also do better in college, and they are less likely to drink or do drugs.
"Mass home schooling during this pandemic," says DeAngelis, "may actually be a blessing."
Debbie Dabin, a mom in Utah, is one of many parents who started home schooling this spring and now is "definitely considering home schooling" next year.
Dabin bought teaching materials over the internet from a company called "The Good and the Beautiful." Her son likes the lessons better than what he got in school. "It's great," Dabin says. "He likes the activities; he wants to do them."
Before the pandemic, he'd told his mom he hated school.
I hated school, too. Classes were boring. Listening to lectures is a poor way to learn, and unnecessary today.
In addition to home-school teaching programs, there are also free internet games that teach things like math, reading and writing, while customizing the speed of lessons to each learner's needs.
Sites like Education.com teach math by letting kids adjust pizza toppings.
For older kids, YouTube channels like TED-Ed and Khan Academy offer "free educational videos from the world's foremost experts on civics, history, mathematics," adds DeAngelis.
"Not good enough!" say "experts."
Michael Rebell, a professor at Teachers College at Columbia University, worries that if parents home-school, "There's no guarantee that kids are learning democratic values, civic knowledge."
"Were they learning that in their regular schools?" I asked.
"Well... it's in the curriculum," he responded.
So what? The Nation's Report Card, the government's biggest nationwide test, reveals that government-school students don't know much about history or civics.
One question asked fourth graders, "Which country was the leading communist nation during the Cold War?" Only 21% answered the Soviet Union. More said France or Germany. American students did worse than if they had guessed randomly.
Another question: "America fought Hitler and Germany in which war?" More picked the Civil War than World War II.
Nevertheless, said Rebell, home schooling is still worse because "there's no effective regulation to know what's going on."
"You sound like you think -- because there's regulation, that makes something happen," I said.
"I do," he replied. "Where there's no regulation, that's a worse situation."
But "no regulation" is the wrong way to think about it. There is plenty of regulation. It just comes from legislators and families instead of education bureaucrats.
If this pandemic steers more parents away from state schools, that's probably a good thing.
Philosopher John Stuart Mill warned: "State education is a mere contrivance for moulding people to be exactly like one another... which pleases the predominant power in the government (and) establishes a despotism over the mind."
A silver lining to this pandemic is that now more parents are learning about their options outside the government system.
Government Schools and Big Media Companies — at least two of the things which need to be outlawed.
“...learning losses... could well be catastrophic...”
Turn on the enemedia.
You’ll see learning losses.
Thanks to our skoolz & luniversities.
One would have to work hard to produce chilluns with less logical ability and real knowledge of humanity than our media and lib arts profs.
I love Stossel and he is right about much of this.
However, my sweetie is a supervisor of teachers administering Title I programs in the Chicago areas.
And things are shaking out exactly as you might expect:
The poorer kids are getting short changed - their parents are unable help them (and I hear some of these online programs are rather complex); the parents have to go to work, they cannot navigate multiple grade level children (also complex). There are issues in some of these households with a lack of connectivity - sometimes the only internet access is the parents’ smart phone, which they have during the work day only.
However, the kids really taking it on the chin are the special needs kids. They are often so hard to handle & manage. They require specialized teaching to keep them in the loop.
This is, btw, why you are finally hearing the alarms from some about child abuse going unchecked.
The whole damn thing is rotten.
Public schools are a 19th century paradigm that outlived its usefulness in the early 21st century. Things like Kahnacademy.com made them utterly obsolete.
The main function of schools today is employment for overeducated teachers (i.e. skill feedback loop) and “free” daycare for parents that have sold themselves into indentured slavery.
If there was room, that would be my tag line - for the last 15 years.
No, I did not read the article past the first paragraph.
We homeschooled for 13 years. When we started “only weird people did it”. By the end everyone knew of someone who was doing it so it was no big deal.
We class schooled 4 days a week and Friday was field trip day. One of the members of the homeschool group would plan an interesting trip and everyone would go. Did everything from hiking to waterfalls, tagging sharks, even visited various manufacturing business to see how things are made.
Our kids took the age appropriate SAT testing every year. By 11 or 12 they were considered post high school in all their subjects.
Our kids were swimmers and water polo players and went to a private high school starting as sophomores to play sports. Academically they just cruised, they knew how to focus, study and test.
The both went to major universities and travelled abroad on their own. The have excelled in their careers. One is a millionaire, and the other will probably be one soon, not that that is a good measure of who they are. They are nice people, who contribute to their community and have a happy life.
Homeschooling is not for everybody but it worked for us.
I CAN TELL YOU that there a lot of mother’s forced to stay home with their toddlers, who in just 6 weeks have seen the child excel in speech, and other interaction.
I always stayed home with my children until they went to Kindergarten. I did see no sense having to pay for a baby sitter child care for the little money you earn.
You stick your 6 months old in a day care with 15 other little ones. No one talks to them, they just sit in their cribs. The mother picks them up after work, and is probably too exhausted to be patient, then puts them to bed.
This plays out everyday until Kindergarten.
No wonder the kid, esp the boys, are not talking by the time they’re 3 or 4.
We homeschooled our four kids. Never used any online stuff though.
Personally I’m not really a fan of that nor do I support home school co-ops.
That may be good for some. Wasn’t for us. Where we lived when we did most of ours, there was a great network of specialists who would teach supplemental courses as needed.
My daughters love literature. One is studying to become a librarian, the other is a editorial assistant at a Christian publisher. They took some advanced literature courses from a local lady. Years later, they still keep in touch with her.
My son who is now an aerospace engineer got involved with a competitive robotics team.
He’s also an Eagle Scout. My youngest son is a Freedom Rangeman (pinnacle award) with Trail Life USA. The skills they got from that are unparalleled. (I have a great story I share of how he used multiple skills to try to save the life of a drowning victim.)
He was never very interested in the book side of education but he’s unafraid to try to repair just about anything. He’s a short haul trucker.
I can’t wait to see how this shakes out. I think many parents, at least those who care are going to find a way to keep their kids out of the establishment.
It’s a sacrifice and a good deal of work but worth every minute.
The children are the social Marxists’ future. Have been for many decades. Our children have been specifically targeted a century by our pubic schools, news, media, churches and now social media.
We had John Dewey’s early 1900’s Progressive (Marxist) anti-home schooling influence, followed by The Frankfurt School’s mid-1900’s social Marxist plan for children, then Hollywood’s 1950’s communist influences, then NEA’s No God push in our schools.
Then, the 1960’s CPUSA push of college youts for war protests, drug use and wanton fornication, then the 1980’s sitcoms ridiculing parents, then the 1990’s queer push, then the 2000’s self-esteem facade, and now social media feeding their ignorance and arrogance.
I applaud anyone that is able to home school their children, but I would have never been able to home school our children.
Besides if you do that you miss everything until they are able to make their first step. Why would you want to give this joy to a stranger?
Another thing I learned about home-schooling- it DOES NOT require a teaching degree to be a good homeschool teacher. I know folks with advanced degrees and maybe even a teaching license who aren't good homeschool teachers. On the other hand, the best homeschool teacher I ever knew only graduated high school, but she went by a certain curriculum and she was dedicated to it.
Homeschooling isn't for everybody. However, if you send your kid to school, you can still "homeschool" in a way to make the schools accountable.
“However, my sweetie is a supervisor of teachers administering Title I programs in the Chicago areas.”
CPS and the CTU are criminal organizations. They should be prosecuted under the RICO statutes.
L
I hope you taught them grow up get a job then money home. :)
It’s been especially fun to watch the teacher’s unions losing their s__t over home schooling. It tells us all we need to know.
“more parents are teaching kids at home.”
You are NAIVE to the max if you believe that!
Oh, wait, I misread “more” for “most”, but “more” is even worse!
It’s a MEANINGLESS statement. Some, responsible, parents will do so. MOST WILL NOT!
The kids that need it most are not getting taught at home.
OPEN THE SCHOOLS! NOW! Keep them open over the summer to make up lost ground.
Homeschooling is not for everyone.
But, being involved in their education, setting expectation for both of the student and the educators is really important regardless of where they are educated.
Kaslin, I appreciate all you our posts. Thanks.
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