The intention of my post was to simply ask if there are other DVCers out there who home-school. Since this post was moved from the DVC board to the Family board, non-DVCers who also home school have chimed in...and it has been GREAT hearing from all of you!!!!
I did NOT mean for this thread to become a debate between home-schoolers and traditional-schoolers, but some of mainey-mouses comments are quite disturbing and mis-guided and I just can not let them slip by without a response.
No, I wouldn't homeschool. First I don't have the qualifications. I have alot of respect for teachers and the skill they've learned. Knowing something just isn't the same as being able to teach it.
What special skills do teachers possess? The skill to keep thirty kids in control, most of whom would rather be in front of a television watching Pokemon or playing Playstation? The skill to identify which kids do not fit the mold of "how one is supposed to learn" and then ship them off to a special classroom? The skill to spend 6 or 7 hours in a classroom then assign 1-2 hours of homework and cover the same amount of material a home-schooler can master in just a couple of hours?
If our teachers skills are so great why is the united states so far down the list of industrialized nations in terms of school performance? Why are illiteracy rates increasing? Why are drop-out rates on the rise? Why is violence in schools such an ordinary event that we are no longer even suprised when we hear about it on television?
The skill to teach a child is in everyone. It simply takes getting excited about a topic and presenting it in an exciting and applicable way. There are hundreds of curriculums out there that help parents do this. And kids respond so much better in a one-on-one environment where learning is kept fun and relevant.
With regard to the actual subjects...you learned them once when you were in school...you can learn them again! How many english teachers can write a great novel? How many chemistry teachers are going to discover the next great chemical theory? How many biology teachers are going to perform surgery? The simple fact is that teachers are regular people who are imparting knowledge that is not really that difficult to master.
Now I will be the first to admit that not everyone is smart enough to home school. But if you have a computer in your house, can connect to the internet, can find the DIS board, and can write a post that sounds even halfway intelligent, then you can probably do it.
At daycare and school, kids get to spend their days together, socialize, develop a sence of belonging. These settings include free play time of one sort or another for kids to really socialize and develop the relelvant bonds and skills
Sounds like children of the corn. Let's just throw them all together into the stew and see what happens. Who cares that Johnny is now addicted to crack and that Bobby Jo is pregnant. Who cares if Wes takes a gun to school and shoots 15 kids.
I think it is time that parents started to CARE about their kids and the values their children posess rather than just sending them off and keeping their fingers crossed that everything will turn out ok.
And what matters anyway is the end result. How can you say that supervised social activities are going to make you less able to function in society? All surveys so far show Home School children have no difficulty fitting into society as they matriculate.
Afterall, another part of education is learning how to deal with all kinds of people, competing with them, surviving with them, putting up with them - while still functionning yourself.
But only if those people are the EXACT same age as you? Of course not. You must learn to interact with a whole range of ages and personalities.
Let me conclude by saying that I really am not trying to convince mainey-mouse to home school. I do NOT think it is for every parent. Nor is it for every child. But to categorically say it is bad. To say that it is always inferior to the education and socialization one gets in a public school is naive and close-minded. We have an educational crises in this country. And unless we can find a way to better educate and prepare our children, violence is going to continue to escalate and our productivity as a nation is going to continue to decline.
Here is to all the rebels........
Wont get on the social issue but will agree that I find less and less people that ask about the social aspect and more and more that want to know how to get started.
