Comments on: Tell me why Homeschool is a good idea!

By: Brandy

Brandy — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:05:43 +0000

I just had to comment, too. I currently homeschool my 3 youngest children…all are excelling and flourishing beautifully. However, 2 of them attended public school in the past as well. Pooky talks about certified teachers “wanting the best” for our children, and it just made me laugh! More often than not, my children ended up with a teacher who didn’t even teach! They simply passed out some worksheets, giving NO examples on the board or anything, and when my children would raise their hands to ask questions, they were ignored! Then of course, the work was sent home to all of the parents to “teach” it to their children for hours in the evening. It got to the point where I figured, “If I’m the one doing all the teaching anyway, why am I forcing my children to waste valuable time at school?” And no, we don’t live in some horrible city with horrible schools. We live in Boise, Idaho…a very clean, relatively safe city, with schools that are above average (we’ve lived in 4 different school districts during the 11 years that I have had children in school, so I feel I have enough experience to say this).

There definitely ARE teachers who care, and work really hard, but what I’ve found (again, across 3 different states and 4 different school districts), is that the good ones come very few and far between. More often than not, we ended up with teachers who really couldn’t have cared less. SEVERAL teachers made it a habit in fact, to hand out “busy work” (aka: coloring sheets or worksheets that were way too easy for everyone in the class, simply so that the teacher would not have to help anyone complete them), and then actually LEAVE the classroom for more than 30 minutes at a time! And this is in elementary school.

In many, many cities around our country, public school has deteriorated into little more than crowd control.

I am not a certified teacher, HOWEVER, my children are both working at 2 grade levels above their own…we miss no “building blocks” in our subjects the way they are often missed in public school, my children master the material, and learn to apply the information to real life. And the bottom line, is that I’m not raising people who need to function well in a public school classroom…I’m raising people who need to function well in real life! And a public school classroom is nothing like the day-to-day of real life.

I’m happy for Pooky that his son, at least as far as Pooky himself is concerned, has done well. But to insinuate that homeschooled children will fare worse simply because they are homeschooled, especially considering Pooky himself never attempted to homeschool his son, is not only ignorant, but completely incorrect.

By: Beverley Paine

Beverley Paine — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 03:51:00 +0000

Pooky is one of hundreds, thousands of people who are confused about the purpose of schools.

They see school as a place of education, of learning the skills necessary to get a job, but don’t realise that people have been doing this for millenia without the need for schools. How did civillisation get as far as it did if schools are an essential element of education?

They see school as the place where children learn how to live together in harmony with others. Yet since the inception of compulsory mass schooling there has been more conflict in the world than at any other time in history. Neighbourhoods are no longer friendly places where everyone knows everyone else.

We can argue endlessly about the merits of such points or we can acknowledge that home education is a time honoured successful educational practice and that school is its younger sibling. Both can work and work well for students: why not celebrate the existence of both. Pick and choose, give either a go, decide for yourself. We’re lucky we live in a time and a place that allows us the luxury of choice…

cheers
Beverley
http://homeschoolaustralia.com

By: RWilson

RWilson — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:17:35 +0000

When I hear all the “kids should decide” and “what makes them happy” malarkey, I just chuckle inside. If “kids” decided how they would be schooled, it would be “Lord of the Flies” everywhere. (Oh, wait - it sure looks close to that at nearly any public school I’ve visited…)

If we applied this same idiotic logic to all the decisions kids have to make, what are the odds they’d run out into the street and get hit by a bus? The reason parents exist is to make decisions for kids who are not equipped to make intelligent or wise decisions that will have a long-term impact on their future. Parents, who have already lived through the ‘kid’ years, have a better grasp on most decisions than a child ever will. Does that mean every parent will make perfect decisions - of course not! But the _odds_ of good decisions coming from someone who has more experience are better than the _odds_ of a child making good decisions based on their limited experience and knowledge.

Lastly, the ’socialization’ canard drives me crazy as well. My _3_ teenage kids are much better socialized that anyone in their age group that we encounter (at our church no-less). So much so, that they prefer to interact with adults over other kids - because the kids are really immature and disrespectful of others. I surely don’t want my kids learning “social skills” from the those who are least capable. That’s like telling them to learn how to drive a car from the guy who’s had the most tickets/accidents - because he’s the most ‘experienced’ in do the wrong thing.

By: John

John — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 18:32:40 +0000

Excellent points Little Tyke. It’s good to see someone talk about homeschooling in a positive and intellectual way.

By: Queenie

Queenie — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 17:13:40 +0000

I feel like I have this exact same argument, time and time again. The fact is, my kids are now happier, less stressed, and more in control over their own emotions now that we home school. The best part is that they actually LOVE to learn. They are reading things because they want to, not because they have to. We have conversations about anything and everything. They are open to new ways of looking at things AND we have a busy social calendar.
I enjoyed this post a bunch. Thanks for visiting my place.

By: admin

admin — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 10:39:55 +0000

I totally agree with you Ann! It is sometimes so hard to get this point across. Most people just believe that the status quo must be the best way.

Thanks for visiting my new blog - your the second person to comment.

Also i have set up my blog so that you receive a proper so please feel free to comment again in future.

By: Ann

Ann — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 10:33:15 +0000

What “Pooky” doesn’t understand is that children don’t learn proper behavior from other children, which is the basis of socialization. Children learn proper behavior when they interact with people of all ages, especially the loving adults in their life. This is more of a real-world scenario than a classroom full of children the same age.

They learn to communicate on a much higher level when exposed to a variety of people, too. They can’t get that in the Prussian style classrooms that are part of the public school system.

Above all, they learn who they are and their place in this world when they are homeschooled. They can pursue those things they have a gift for and they can learn from real life experiences.