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You're arguing circularly; not all students that are home schooled are taught by their parents. Most, in fact, are taught by hired tutors with certification. As for the pregnancy thing, compare your observation with how many teenage pregnancies happen in the standard school district. I'm sure that you'd agree that a bad decision such as that is not wholly related to the educational setting.

And no, I (THANKFULLY) have no kids and wouldn't teach them piano (it would be a respect issue).

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I also don't agree with the teaching at the pace of the slowest child. Why should other kids be penalised because of a slow learner.

I agree completely with you; I was frustrated in almost every class that I had to take in high school because the teacher had to accomodate everyone. Disagree with it as we may, it's unfortunately the practice. I wasn't saying at all that I think that it's a good idea to do so.

That's one of the big cruxes of problems with standardized education, IMO. Learning potential isn't a "one size fits all" deal. However, based on my experiences I can tell you that independant study is something that gifted children appreciate and take advantage of. Some children would benefit tremendously from home schooling, and I can think of more than several that I know personally who are the most diligent workers and comitted individuals that I know because they learned self-reliance and independance at a time crucial in their learning development.

On the other hand, some children will only see the gobbles of free time and use it inefficiently and thus miss out on the benefits. Like I said, one can't typecast when it comes to education.

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No, I don't have the answers, but I can point out what's not working.

If you only can point out faults, then it tells me that your perspective is limited (and I don't mean that personally or negatively in the slightest). It also undermines your position and makes you look like an angry Mom at a PTA meeting. It kind of goes back to arguing circularly (finding evidence only support your own viewpoint and ignoring everything else).

I guess those "Theory of Argument" classes stuck a little bit more than I would have liked.

Brendan you're probably right on that one. My problem is I'm too much the engineer and like things to be straight forward and logical (the cup ain't half full or half empty, it's a case of some overzealous person over designing it to be twice the size it needs to be). I do better with electronics and garage mechanics!

Hadn't really considered tutoring as home schooling as I've never run across it except for the wealthy. I would happily consider this option as the best of all but believe it is beyond my reach in terms of cost (anyone please advise otherwise?).

One aspect of home schooling not covered is travel. I have some friends heading to Japan for 3 months - they will home school for that period. Also known of people sailing around the world and home schooling their kids along the way.

I have yet to see a home schooled kid missing teeth though.

For my wife and I, the answer to educating our kids has been sort of a blend. It seems so many things are these days.

The local public school system is pretty good, although I sure would like to know what they do with all the money they get. The buildings are falling apart and the new ones they build would be overpriced at 1/3 of what they pay for them.

Buildings do not a school make however, and the district does a pretty good job on the basics. Neither SWMBO nor I had/have the inclination to take on this task ourselves, so off to school they go. We check up on them regularly, and whan a concept taught as gospel comes up, and that concept has more shades of gray than that which was taught, we intervene. We want out kids to THINK, not just to learn. After that is done, we also remind them that they key to getting through school is getting through school, and to answer test questions as taught, even though you know better. No use trying to "teach the pig to sing".

The subjects that the school does not cover I handle myself. In the entrepreneur category for example, I gave each of my kids $250 to start a business two years ago. My son took the $ and the Internet and has a thriving car stereo concern going now. This has branched out in to making speaker cabinets, which makes a glorious mess in my garage. A small price to pay to nurture the entrepreneureal spirit, but if he cuts his finger off, I am closing down the shop.

My daughter invested hers, using Internet sites like Motley Fool for guidance. She did a whole lot of research, and her investments (on a percentage basis) look better than mine.

I know only one family of home schoolers, and my hat is off to them for the amount of time and energy they put forth to do this. I suspect that the success or failure of home schooled kids has mostly to do with how good the parents are as teachers, and what sort of agenda prompted them to home school in the first place. In the case of the family we know, I fear that these kids will be absolutely overwhelmed when they are released in to the world and find out not everyone has the same beliefs as those taught as cast-in-stone by their parents.

even though i sometimes teach at the graduate school level, i'm not sure i'd have the confidence to teach my kids at home. there are things i know a lot about, but there is much i know very little about and would undoubtedly do them a great injustice if i tried to be their sole teacher in those subjects.

how do parents get the hubris to think they can do this better than a professional?

and where is shantinik? didn't he write a book about home schooling?

A lot of the home-schoolers I know ARE teachers by profession. I know I couldn't do it. I'm not even much of a kid person (though I most definitely am a Jonathan and a Quetzal person!).

penny

Good question, Pique. Can a parent even match the job that a professional teacher can do, much less hope to do better?

First of all, what makes a person a professional teacher? A degree? Most of the homeschooling parents I know have one of these, too. Classes in the latest teaching methods? Sometimes more of a hindrance than a help. Experience working with large groups in a classroom situation? Doesn't apply to homeschooling. No one that I know has 32 of their own children.

Perhaps a better question to ask is what makes an outstanding teacher? Ask any parent. Isn't it the person who cares deeply for his or her students and passionately wants to help them learn? A teacher who wants to see their students grow and continue learning beyond the classroom. Someone who knows his or her own limitations and will find resources to fill in the gaps.

In this way, a parent can be a most qualified teacher for his own child. A parent naturally cares for and wants the best for the child. Homeschooling parents know that learning isn't limited to a classroom. Many of life's most important lessons are not learned from a book or a lecture. So much can be learned from travelling, working, meeting people.

No, I cannot teach my children everything all by myself. Like any good teacher, I look for creative ways to give my children a well-rounded education. It may be through team teaching, to take advantage of other parents' areas of expertise. Or hiring someone who can teach a subject better than I can, like a piano teacher. Or learning alongside my "student", taking French together at the college, for example.

There are plenty of professionals out there who are doing a fine job teaching classrooms full of students. That is certainly a job better left to a professional.

However, deciding on how best to educate any one individual student, whether it be public school, private school, or homeschool...that is best determined by the people who know the student best, the parents.

http://news.theolympian.com/stories/20020304/SouthSound/28674.shtml

She still has to clean her room....

Just to make sure I understand this thread correctly:
Does homeschooling really mean that you as parents can decide to teach the kids yourself instead of sending them to a public or private school? Are there no restrictions like that you have to be a teacher for example?

If it is true that you can just decide to teach your children yourself I'm totally and positively amazed.
Such a thing is completely unthinkable in Germany!
And maybe that's why we are so far backwards nowadays when it comes to education.
Anyone heard of the PISA study?

I think I would have liked to be homeschooled very very much as kid. Public school was more like survival training the first six years for me. After that period I had learned to say NO when I meant NO.

[ March 12, 2002: Message edited by: Nici ]

There has been a ton of great information put forth in this thread and I doubt that I can add much to it. My wife and I both have education degrees. I taught for 8 years in the public schools and she still does volunteer work at the schools our children attend. We have chosen not to homeschool because we have chosen to use our time otherwise. We do spend time every day discussing what happened at school (in class and with othe students), going over lessons, expanding on what has been taught, and correcting textbook errors, erroneous philosophical pronouncements of the educational community, and information from peers. I guess, then, that our kids are getting a blend of public and home schooling in general education just as they get a combination of home and church in their spiritual education.

I don't home school. I think it is bad for the kids and places academic development over the entire development of the child. Like so many others have said, the home schooled kids I know may have a leg up academically (though not always), but there is something just a little, and in some cases, a lot off with them. And no, their parents never see it, of course.

With the growth of the home schooling industry (and it has become an industry like everything else), there is more and more "help" out there for the parents, including networks of home schoolers who get together for classes, field trips, etc. (You knew someone would figure out a way to make money off of these people!). The parents get together and plan curricula, activities, etc. Of course, this begins to sound a little like a regular school with an informal school board. <g>

What has always struck me as strange about home schoolers is that when you ask them why, it is usually based on fear of what they perceive is going on in the schools, fear of what their kids are being taught, fear of how their kids develop in a social setting in school. I always worry about people who make major life decisions out of fear and choose to run away. To me, what is feared is to be grappled with and overcome, not turned away from.

Isn't if a far better life lesson for kids to be exposed to something and then taught by parents and others how to handle it properly rather than not be exposed to it and then have it dumped on them later when they have been given no resources to help them handle it?

I had three thoughts as I read this article.

1. The writer obviously wants to link this young girl's accomplishments to home schooling. She is obviously highly gifted -- what 20 month old demands to play the violin?! -- but her accomplishments are not because of home schooling; she is naturally highly gifted. However, this is typical of so many people (like Dr. Laura on the right or Jesse Jackson on the left) who take an extreme and link it to their own cause as if it is the norm.

2. How sad her parents have done this to her and have not even had the good sense to get her into a school environment where she can develop as a total person. It would be interesting to see how she is doing at age 30 or, better yet, 40 to see if she is a well rounded, well developed adult or if she is just some highly cerebral, highly goal oriented human being.

3. Why in the world would her parents have allowed press coverage of her, as if she is some freak in an academic circus?

As to your three thoughts:

1. You don't know my daughter.

2. You don't know my daughter.

3. Press release came from Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth. Interview was daughter's choice. I'm sure your local newspaper never runs articles about kids in school, not even in the sports section,

You could have phrased your thoughts as questions and entered into intelligent dialogue.

I think it is your public school education showing through.

[ March 12, 2002: Message edited by: shantinik ]

Brendan, how do you not believe a word of that? I went to a public school in Newark, New Jersey. Some of my friends from high school are dead (and i only graduated 2 years ago)from being killed in jail or by competing drug dealers, because the area was extremely rough. There was lots of corruption in the school system, lots of money being fielded into areas that had nothing to do with the school.( such as board member's wallets). My dad is chief of police, so i knew a lot of the stuff that was going on. why does it suprise you that there are such problems?

Because you made it sound like a mob movie...

And no, problems such as these don't surprise me at all.

Yup! And a second one coming out in late fall: "Homeschooling and the Voyage of Self-Discovery: A Journey of Original Seeking" (Common Courage Press, 2002).

You can read a recent column of mine in Home Education Magazine at:
http://www.home-ed-magazine.com/HEM/192/magatto.html

(But I don't visit this part of the site very often.)

[ March 12, 2002: Message edited by: shantinik ]

Nici - I can't speak for all school districts but here in San Diego Unified, the school publishes documents for home schooling. They outline what is to be achieved (taught) at each grade level. Believe you are also given a teacher/counselor (don't know what that person is called) that you have to contact on a regular basis to discuss progress. Home schooling is not just a case of taking the kids out of school and teaching them anything you want (though I'm sure there are ways around this).

What do you do with kids in Germany who are unable to regularly attend school (actors, pop stars, kids not able to attend due to long term illness or anxietys)?

Actually, I phrased them as my own reactions to the article. Intelligent conversation often flows when people express reactions, unless someone takes those reactions as a personal attack. Then there are others who consider intelligent conversation as only occuring when THEY are asked questions about which they can pontificate.

You could have responded to my comments with information and entered into an intelligent dialogue.

Re: my public school education: In the 19 years of my education from kindergarten through a Master's degree, I spent of total of 2 1/2 years in public schools -- one year in kindergarten and 1 1/2 years in college (undergraduate).

I have also read the article you wrote for the Home Ed magazine and linked to this page. In the future, you may wish to tone down your caustic, sarcastic comments. It will lead to more thoughtful and intelligent dialogue.

George wrote:



I think what you are sensing is innocence. Home schoolers are more sheltered than private school kids, who are more sheltered than public school kids. Now, you may think this is an entirely bad thing to do. But I disagree! There is plenty of time to "grow up." Yes, our children will eventually deal with drugs, sexuality, pregnancy, evil, etc. (that is, unless we hide them in a closet all their life), but why do they have to deal with these things in elementary school!

It is a parent's right to decide when to expose the challenges of life to our children. Indeed, one child may learn of these situations earlier or later than a sibling because the parents deemed the time for this revelation to be correct. Why take this decision out of the hands of parents and shove it down the children's throats whether they are prepared to deal with it or not?!

I say, enjoy the innocence of homeschoolers. Yes, there may be some adjustment as they enter the real world. But good parenting will accommodate that. In the meantime, enjoy the sweetness! It really is refreshing.


penny
not a home-schooler

Maybe shantinik's daugher would like to post and give us the perspective child being currently homeschooled? (either complementing or being in opposition to what nancy has already graciously offered us)