Home schooling in CA

[scaeagles]

For the record, NCLB was written by big time liberal Ted Kennedy. Many people try to pin this on Bush, and this is what happens when trying to reach across the aisle. Anyway.....

Ciritical thinking is great and I agree should be the goal, but I believe that far too often bias comes in and when a student comes to a conclusion through critical thought that the teacher doesn't agree with....well, grades can suffer. Too often critical thought means thinking the way the teacher wants you to or coming to the same conclusion as the teacher. Indoctrination by government agencies is not a good thing.

Facts do, however have their place. There isn't a lot of critical thinking in locating France on a map or finding 8 times 7. Facts are important as well.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

Facts do, however have their place. There isn't a lot of critical thinking in locating France on a map or finding 8 times 7. Facts are important as well.

Knowing what 8x7 is is well and good, but what good does it do if you are comparing, say, prices of different sized packages at the grocery store and can't even figure out that 8x7 is what you're supposed to be solving for? And how is knowing where to point on a globe at France useful if you can't comprehend the local and world impact of France building troops up along their border with Blegium?

Facts do have their place, however they are means to an end, they are not the most important component of education.

[wendybeth]

GD- just so you know: Here in Spokane School district 81, a child has to be at least two years behind to receive any remedial services. Attending public school is no guarantee that the needs will be identified in a timely manner, let alone addressed in the same.

[Strangler Lewis]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

Ciritical thinking is great and I agree should be the goal, but I believe that far too often bias comes in and when a student comes to a conclusion through critical thought that the teacher doesn't agree with....well, grades can suffer. Too often critical thought means thinking the way the teacher wants you to or coming to the same conclusion as the teacher. Indoctrination by government agencies is not a good thing.

Since government agencies are, at least theoretically, our proxies, it depends on what's being indoctrinated. Civics, civility, patriotism are commonly indoctrinated in our schools.

As to the larger point, clearly, students should not be punished for attempting to defend unpopular positions in a persuasive manner. What is the home schooling alternative that you envision? More openminded approaches to analytical writing or simply indoctrination of different ideas?

[LSPoorEeyorick]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

For the record, NCLB was written by big time liberal Ted Kennedy. Many people try to pin this on Bush, and this is what happens when trying to reach across the aisle. Anyway.....

Yes, I know. I knew this when it was passed, and I didn't like it back then, either. Just because someone is liberal doesn't mean they don't look critically at other liberals. Bush, as president, is the bottom line, though - and if a liberal president had passed it, I would have blamed them, too.

I don't have children so I'm a bit hesitant to really weigh in on home schooling, since I'm not actually in the thick of the reality. Or, at least, I'm not interested in absolutes because, not having a child, I can't really fully imagine what it's like.

I know that the public system is simply not right for every child, so I have no problems with people taking matters into their own hands. At the same time, I do think that the well-roundedness is very important - as is learning to cooperate with children other than your relatives, and learning to work with adults other than your parents. If I were to put my children into home-schooling, I imagine I'd want to use a co-op with many other children taught by many other parents, and I suspect I'd want them to learn all of the standard subjects taught in school, as well as the creative ones that have been all but eliminated.

For kids that work OK within the provided system, I've really appreciated what my sister has done with them outside of school - their homework period has served as a sort of home-schooling session, building on what they've learned at school (teaching higher-level and real-life applications.) I think this gives kids the best of both education processes.

[tracilicious]

Originally Posted by LSPoorEeyorick

I know that the public system is simply not right for every child, so I have no problems with people taking matters into their own hands. At the same time, I do think that the well-roundedness is very important - as is learning to cooperate with children other than your relatives, and learning to work with adults other than your parents. If I were to put my children into home-schooling, I imagine I'd want to use a co-op with many other children taught by many other parents, and I suspect I'd want them to learn all of the standard subjects taught in school, as well as the creative ones that have been all but eliminated.

I would go a bit farther and say that while most kids survive the public school system, less than half truly thrive under it. Don't get me wrong, I certainly want my kids to have a well rounded education. My statement earlier was that as far as the state is concerned, the only purpose of education, public or otherwise, is to ensure productive citizens.

My experience with homeschool and socialization is that it's much easier to provide a homeschooled kid with a well rounded social life. There are so many groups that do fun things and the kids have friends of all ages. The older teach the younger social skills much more quickly than one would learn when segregated by age.

As far as learning all the standard subjects taught in schools...I want this to a point. I think there is something to be said for knowing what everybody else knows. But there is so much knowledge in the world that you can't be well rounded in every subject known to man. I'm totally ok if my kid is four years ahead in biology and two years behind in math. At some point extra focus on math might be needed to get into college in this hypothetical example, but my point is that as long as my kids have a diverse educational offering and an eagerness to learn then I'm pretty happy. I think that we sacrifice something in order to churn out people that know exactly the same stuff. There is something to be said for really digging into something you are interested in. Yes, you want to cover the basics of other stuff as well, but not to the exclusiong of speciality.