Homeschooling Poll

[cre8tiff]

I remember Mrs. Shields being a hardass. I remember Mr. King being goofy and funny. I remember Mrs. Hefffernan being incredibly clever and interesting.

 

If I had one teacher my whole K-6, I would have missed out on the different perspectives of all those different teachers.

 

I think it's pretty arrogant and paranoid to want to be the only influence on your child's education. I'd rather my kid get a variety of different influences to make them a more balanced person.

 

I'm awesome (clearly) but I don't think my kid needs to get ALL of his information and influence directly from me. Even if they have a bad teacher, it'll teach them how to deal with that.

 

 

I can't disagree more.

 

In our case our kids were going to St. Louis City public schools. They were consistantly placed in classes of 30+, with a large protion of the students be BD (behavior problem) kids. The teachers told us the only way to deal with these children were to "get in thier face" and "set them straight". My daughter Maggie was so keyed up she would not talk, or interact. She was wetting her pants daily, from fear of raising her hand to go to the bathroom, due to the harshness of the teachers.

 

We had her in the gem of St. Louis magnet schools, Gateway Elementary. They had a grant to build it so there were computers in every room, a weather station, a wildlife park in the middle of the school that was tended by the Missouri Department of COnservation. My daughter never allowed to touch the computers in the classroom, or set foot in any of the amenities our tax money paid for.

 

We went to teachers meetings, concerned about the wetting and the fact our child was making high Cs. We were told, what are you worried about? She is passing and is not a problem in class?

 

And we joined a homeschool cooperative wher our children received science class from a Monsanto scientist. Math class from a Boeing engineer, as well as my wife's teaching.

 

So take your blanket statemetns and blow em out your ass.

[Yukon Cornelius]

 

 

There is a disparaging lack of equality in the system right now. Too many parents are uninvolved with their children's academics and lives. Our mental health system doesn't adequately solve all problems and it affects our children. Our schools place too much of an emphasis on testing and standards, and it affects our children too.

 

 

 

very well said... the mental health needs are in such a great demand and there are no resources to speak of. i see kids that , with help , can or would become great citizens . but there is no money or help so they will go threw life as a taxpayer burden....

[Yukon Cornelius]

 

 

He is being ordered to prove that his son is being educated or to bring his child back to a school, but he is fighting this all the way.

 

starting to see a lot more of this... which is good and bad....

Edited May 2, 2007 by Yukon Cornelius

[wiegie]

I really only want for my children to get two things out of their education: a love of reading and an understanding of mathematics. If they have that, everything else will follow.

 

I think I can motivate both of these things at home, but I don't think I have the patience or discipline to home-school my kids. I also think going to school provides structure and socialization for kids (and it will force them to be more independent when it comes to solving their own problems).

 

I am concerned about the state of public schools, so I have checked in to the costs of sending our kids to private schools, but the tuition is crazy (something like $6000 a year even for grade school to attend the local Catholic school).

 

When we go to buy a home in about a year, the main determinant of where we buy will be the school district (and we are considering living in some small towns so that the schools are smaller and the teachers and families have more interaction over the course of the children's education).

Edited May 2, 2007 by wiegie

[Azazello1313]

I really only want two things for my children to get two things out of their education

 

 

i get the sense you're really adamant about these two things.

[Grits and Shins]

I have long been a believer that if the parent is actively involved in a child's education then the quality of the public school becomes much less important. The parents not only have to stress the importance of learning to their children they have to actively participate in the learning process ... EVEN IF THEY ARE NOT HOME SCHOOLING.

[wiegie]

i get the sense you're really adamant about these two things.

 

no, it just goes along with my idea that it's not essential that they learn English that good

 

[Yukon Cornelius]

I have long been a believer that if the parent is actively involved in a child's education then the quality of the public school becomes much less important. The parents not only have to stress the importance of learning to their children they have to actively participate in the learning process ... EVEN IF THEY ARE NOT HOME SCHOOLING.

 

BINGO

[Yukon Cornelius]

no, it just goes along with my idea that it's not essential that they learn English that good

 

 

Mandarin

[Egret]

When we go to buy a home in about a year, the main determinant of where we buy will be the school district (and we are considering living in some small towns so that the schools are smaller and the teachers and families have more interaction over the course of the children's education).

 

There are many good school districts in the GR area. I wouldn't send my son to GR Public Schools, but the surrounding school districts can be excellent. PM me with any questions.

 

And if you want to move an hour east, there are some pretty good schools over by me too.

[darin3]

Mandarin

 

You rang?

[wiegie]

Mandarin

Bingo (they will also be learning German and Swiss-German at home--I also have colleagues whose native languages include Portuguese/Japanese, Hindi, and Mandarin--and the one that speaks Mandarin has a son who will be midway between my two sons, so I'm thinking they can learn a little Mandarin during "playdates")

 

Am I the only person who views learning Spanish as sort of a waste?

[muck]

Bingo (they will also be learning German and Swiss-German at home--I also have colleagues whose native languages include Portuguese/Japanese, Hindi, and Mandarin--and the one that speaks Mandarin has a son who will be midway between my two sons, so I'm thinking they can learn a little Mandarin during "playdates")

 

I'd love for my kids to learn Chinese, Japanese or Arabic ... Spanish ... Latin or Greek ... and ... English. They don't have to be fluent in all of them, but to know enough to have a general conversation would be a pretty good minimum threshhold (imo).

 

Am I the only person who views learning Spanish as sort of a waste?

 

You don't live far enough south...my inlaws live in TX, and (imo) if you're going to live in TX, AZ, NM, CA, FL or any of a host of other more southern states, you'd be VERY well served to know Spanish.

Edited May 2, 2007 by muck

[muck]

I really only want for my children to get two things out of their education: a love of reading and an understanding of mathematics. If they have that, everything else will follow.

 

For me, I want my kids to have a love of reading (and to be very well read ... loads of classics (maybe even some in the original languages)), understanding of math (and physics), and decision making.

 

I think I can motivate both of these things at home, but I don't think I have the patience or discipline to home-school my kids.

 

I think you'd probably be surprised...

 

I also think going to school provides structure and socialization for kids (and it will force them to be more independent when it comes to solving their own problems).

 

Structure isn't necessarily a good thing, especially in the elementary school years. The drive for structure leads to medicating (or over-medicating) kids that have a very hard time learning while sitting in their seat looking at a chalkboard (i.e., kinectic learners).

 

Socialization can happen in the other six hours of the homeschooling day that aren't required to cover the subject matter that the classroom setting requires. Art programs...music...athletics...volunteering...etc...

 

Regarding problem solving, if you can teach a kid what their learning style is early on, they can learn how to teach themselves so that by the time they get to college, they'll be able to overcome any deficiencies from their professor (like, "I can't understand the guy, his English is so bad."). IMO, a home school kid (with conscientious and forward looking parents) has at least as good of a chance (if not a much better chance) to develop into independent and life-long learners.

[Yukon Cornelius]

my brother lives in Denmark his kids are 6 and 3... they speak danish, English, French, German and yukoniese

[The Holy Roller]

I have had a lot of experience with home schooling parents and their children. Most have done excellent jobs giving their kids a good education. I highly encourage parents to try home schooling. Especially you guys with your Behavior Disorders, Attention Deficit Disorders, etc. Let me have a classroom of "normal" kids one time. Just once.

 

And I think the most important love you can give to kids is the love of reading. If they read and love it they will be able to handle everything else eventially.

 

And I agree with whatever Yuk sezs.

[Coffeeman]

I really only want for my children to get two things out of their education: a love of reading and an understanding of mathematics. If they have that, everything else will follow.

 

I think I can motivate both of these things at home, but I don't think I have the patience or discipline to home-school my kids. I also think going to school provides structure and socialization for kids (and it will force them to be more independent when it comes to solving their own problems).

 

I am concerned about the state of public schools, so I have checked in to the costs of sending our kids to private schools, but the tuition is crazy (something like $6000 a year even for grade school to attend the local Catholic school).

 

When we go to buy a home in about a year, the main determinant of where we buy will be the school district (and we are considering living in some small towns so that the schools are smaller and the teachers and families have more interaction over the course of the children's education).

 

 

This is our thought process as well, although for now we're paying the cost for a private Episcopal school. (Higher than your #s, BTW, dammit.) While I feel a social pull to fight for the betterment of our local public schools, its a long, uphill battle and I'd rather not stunt my kids's potential to fight it 'from the inside'.

 

Our area has one of the highest rates of private school participation in the country, an indictment of the public schools. Almost all of our circle of friends goes private, if they can afford it, and the issues are both academic and safety/philosophy.

 

Instead of 35+ class size we have 22; instead of single parent families who can't participate as much, we have mostly intact families with very involved parents. Instead of worrying about drugs and violence, we can concentrate on the well-rounded growth of our kids; instead of slowly losing art, sports and language programs due to decreasing funds, we get specialty hours of instruction weekly in Spanish, Art, P.E./Sports, Computers and Science, all starting with kindergarten. Instead of having 1-2 poorly behaved kids in a classroom dominate the teachers' time on discipline, our kids are all well-behaved (or they are asked to leave the school,) and therefore getting more time on learning the lesson at hand.

 

Homeschooling in our area does tend to be driven by conservative religious or philosophy issues, not usually economic, but that plays a part sometimes too. Some of the kids do fine socially, and some are definitely over-protective and will get a rude awakening in HS or college.

 

And yes, the growing divide between public v. private does create some socio-economic class differences between the students/families, but I cannot sacrifice my kids' future (or even maybe safety) for the sake of the overall good. Good parents tend to be protective like that....

[darin3]

Am I the only person who views learning Spanish as sort of a waste?

 

See below.

 

I'd love for my kids to learn Chinese, Japanese or Arabic ... Spanish ... Latin or Greek ... and ... English. They don't have to be fluent in all of them, but to know enough to have a general conversation would be a pretty good minimum threshhold (imo).

You don't live far enough south...my inlaws live in TX, and (imo) if you're going to live in TX, AZ, NM, CA, FL or any of a host of other more southern states, you'd be VERY well served to know Spanish.

 

Yup. You'd be completely aghast to see most of the jobs listed in the classifieds here in Austin are "bilingual preferred". Some are bilingual REQUIRED, which I think is utter BULLPOOP.

[Coffeeman]

I will also throw in that I'm a bit jealous of homeshoolers who get great discounts for 'field trips' to musuems, amusement parks, etc. One family just got back from a day at Legoland for $17/ each, vs. the $35-40 it costs the rest of us. Dammit!

 

But I'm still not homeschooling - they have to endure enough hours of mommy and daddy telling them what to do. Poor kids....

[Big Country]

If it was not for that she would have not put up with all the crap in Public School. SAhe had some friends who dropped out of Governors School because they could not deal with the crap from Public School.

 

 

Could you elaborate on this "BS" from the public schools?

 

 

For what it is worth, I atteneded a private Catholic school from kindergarten through 6th grade, and then when my family moved, attended public school from 7th through 12th grade, so, I have opinions and experience in both systems, with family involved on the teacher/administrative side of the school system on both sides as well.

[MikesVikes]

My wife works at a Charter School. Most of the student population consists of kids that didn't work out in the public education system. (She's a Special Ed teacher, not unlike some certain green dudes around here.)

A very large percentage of the students are in special ed since they naturally fall through the cracks in public education.

 

I have personally experienced this with one of my kids. The public school keeps telling him to work harder. We think the school is the one that should be working harder to adapt to his needs. Actually we know they should and are required to. But not all teachers understand that.

[CaP'N GRuNGe]

I really only want for my children to get two things out of their education: a love of reading and an understanding of mathematics. If they have that, everything else will follow.

 

I think I can motivate both of these things at home, but I don't think I have the patience or discipline to home-school my kids. I also think going to school provides structure and socialization for kids (and it will force them to be more independent when it comes to solving their own problems).

 

I am concerned about the state of public schools, so I have checked in to the costs of sending our kids to private schools, but the tuition is crazy (something like $6000 a year even for grade school to attend the local Catholic school).

 

When we go to buy a home in about a year, the main determinant of where we buy will be the school district (and we are considering living in some small towns so that the schools are smaller and the teachers and families have more interaction over the course of the children's education).

 

 

This really doesn't sound that bad. I pay $200 a week for daycare alone for my 2 yr old. She gets to be school age, I could receive a nice pay raise for the transition from daycare to a school like this. (Of course there is the the summer months and any time before or after school necessary for a daycare setting I guess.)

[wiegie]

Yup. You'd be completely aghast to see most of the jobs listed in the classifieds here in Austin are "bilingual preferred". Some are bilingual REQUIRED, which I think is utter BULLPOOP.

 

What sort of jobs are they? (I'm guessing that in general they are not all that high-paying--and I would be willing to bet money that a person who is fluent in Chinese will have a better chance to get high-paying jobs in the coming world economy than somebody who knows Spanish.)

Edited May 2, 2007 by wiegie

[yo mama]

The only folks I know who home school are my religious fundamentalist family members. Their reasons for doing so have little to do with education, and more to do with sheltering the kids from people who don't share their brand of faith. The kids are smart, but have all kinds of social disorders. I fear those kids will not do well in the real world... assuming their parents ever let them out into it.

Edited May 2, 2007 by yo mama

[AtomicCEO]

with the increase of violence and drugs in the public school systems I understand the desire to remove your child from that environment.

 

Then where is your kid going to learn how to reload an automatic weapon or smoke from a bong?

 

I can't disagree more.

 

In our case our kids were going to St. Louis City public schools. They were consistantly placed in classes of 30+, with a large protion of the students be BD (behavior problem) kids. The teachers told us the only way to deal with these children were to "get in thier face" and "set them straight". My daughter Maggie was so keyed up she would not talk, or interact. She was wetting her pants daily, from fear of raising her hand to go to the bathroom, due to the harshness of the teachers.

 

We had her in the gem of St. Louis magnet schools, Gateway Elementary. They had a grant to build it so there were computers in every room, a weather station, a wildlife park in the middle of the school that was tended by the Missouri Department of COnservation. My daughter never allowed to touch the computers in the classroom, or set foot in any of the amenities our tax money paid for.

 

We went to teachers meetings, concerned about the wetting and the fact our child was making high Cs. We were told, what are you worried about? She is passing and is not a problem in class?

 

And we joined a homeschool cooperative wher our children received science class from a Monsanto scientist. Math class from a Boeing engineer, as well as my wife's teaching.

 

So take your blanket statemetns and blow em out your ass.

 

St. Louis sounds like a really sh:tty place to live. You should move if you are surrounded by mentally disturbed kids and harsh indifferent adults. Really... your hometown sounds like a nightmare of fictional proportions.