catbarf on 23/7/2010 at 01:03
Quote Posted by Enchantermon
(my mom, who has a Master's degree in Elementary Education by the way, was my teacher)
I'd just like to point out that, given the above, your experience is likely not indicative of the norm.
Starrfall on 23/7/2010 at 02:43
Am I the only one who's going to admit that I kinda want a shotgun EXACTLY in case the zombie apocalypse comes?
I mean an axe is just not going to cut it for me, I'm short and my reach probably sucks compared to a zombie.
Queue on 23/7/2010 at 03:07
You could always hurl old LPs of the Carpenters at them.
fett on 23/7/2010 at 03:18
I can't read this whole thing right now, though I suspect it's a wildly arcing pendulum between "Homeschoolers are all Mormons" and "Homeschoolers will change the world!!" so I may not even bother. Both views are miserably ill-informed and smack of Faux News generalizations that cannot be applied to a group as huge as homeschoolers.
So I'll say two things:
1) I started homeschooling my kids for one main reason: Their interests run far and wide outside of the standard curriculum of public education. Period. Consider that it takes roughly 10,000 hours of doing something to excel at it. My 7 year old was getting zero opportunity to dissemble and rebuild computers into working robots in public education, neither were his questions about human physiology and earth science being addressed at all. Homeschooling has given him the time and opportunity to pursue his own interests, tailored to his natural skill set. And anyone who can't teach math, literacy, and basic science to a kid is a fucking idiot (and further does not speak well of the public school system to begin with).
1b) It takes roughly 1-2 hours a day to cover what he did in public school for 7 hours. The rest of their day is spent on specific interests, going to farmer's market, music lessons, library, and many many many many many many many hours playing with other kids of various ages all over the area. So many in fact that I've had to limit focused "socializing" to 3 afternoons a week and weekends because we could fill up all day every day with playgroups and such. That's not counting the kids in the neighborhood they play with that aren't homeschooled.
In short, Vivan is tragically misinformed (I only read your first post), and embarrassingly ignorant of the spectrum of people who homeschool, the wide variety of reasons why they do it, and the statistics of home schoolers who not only graduate college with honors and go on to successful careers. I can't name any Einsteins or Jobs out there, but you are aware that millions of successful people are not Einstein or Jobs, right?
june gloom on 23/7/2010 at 04:01
Quote Posted by Starrfall
Am I the only one who's going to admit that I kinda want a shotgun EXACTLY in case the zombie apocalypse comes?
Only if I'm the only one who's going to admit I have a fear that with things like prion diseases the chances of something resembling a zombie rampage is frighteningly not that far-fetched.
I stopped eating beef products when I realized that.
Rug Burn Junky on 23/7/2010 at 04:10
Quote Posted by Starrfall
Am I the only one who's going to admit that I kinda want a shotgun EXACTLY in case the zombie apocalypse comes?
I mean an axe is just not going to cut it for me, I'm short and my reach probably sucks compared to a zombie.
Inline Image:
http://www.americapeals.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/Gimli_With_Axe.jpgcatbarf on 23/7/2010 at 04:10
Quote Posted by fett
So I'll say two things:
To be fair, what you're talking about is strictly limited to early education. If you can teach AP-level classes to them when they're in their teens, more power to you, but I have a hard time believing that any homeschooling experience is going to rival the college-equivalent classes offered in higher grades of public school.
I guess if with the average kid homeschooling's an option, but the only adult I've ever met who understood magnetic flux was my AP physics teacher. I don't think most parents are up to the task of teaching their kids college-level calculus, relativity, advanced kinematics, soldering circuit boards, 3D modeling, AND the finer points of Paradise Lost (just a few of the things I did last year). I think homeschooling will likely limit kids who are up to such tasks.
fett on 23/7/2010 at 05:01
Quote Posted by catbarf
To be fair, what you're talking about is strictly limited to early education. If you can teach AP-level classes to them when they're in their teens, more power to you, but I have a hard time believing that any homeschooling experience is going to rival the college-equivalent classes offered in higher grades of public school.
I guess if with the average kid homeschooling's an option, but the only adult I've ever met who understood magnetic flux was my AP physics teacher. I don't think most parents are up to the task of teaching their kids college-level calculus, relativity, advanced kinematics, soldering circuit boards, 3D modeling, AND the finer points of Paradise Lost (just a few of the things I did last year). I think homeschooling will likely limit kids who are up to such tasks.
Most homeschooling high schoolers I know who are interested in those subjects are interested enough to find those things out from someone who does understand it. I think you also discount co-op situations which are becoming extremely popular in homeschooling circles. Classes available at our local co-op (in Arkansas, no less) included advanced economics, genetic chemistry, applied software engineering, intermediate and advanced photography, fencing, and Mandarin 101 (just to give you a broad view) - all taught by either high school or college level teachers.
The main flaw in most people's conception of homeschool comes from outdated images of children sitting around tables in bonnets, with mom cooking bread and grading worksheets in the background. It's 2010, and many homeschoolers utilize most of the same technologies and social learning situations available to public school kids, except in smaller groups, with more focused attention to the subject. Many state and community colleges allow homeschoolers to begin certain classes before or without a GED, based on portfolios and paper trails accumulated during high school studies, with a view toward enrolling said student at a later date. There are all kinds of legitimate, credited opportunities to learn just about whatever you want as a homeschooler - but you probably don't know about them unless you move in those circles. Honestly, most of the criticism I read about homeschooling is based on things that were going on in the 70's and 80's when it was a "new" concept, rather than current information. It doesn't help that the media tends to portray homeschoolers as Laura Ingalls Wilder, Mormon types, learning about Creationism and restricted from TV or playing with the ungodly neighbor children. :rolleyes: They are consistently winning larger and larger percentages of scholarships in areas like science, biology, chemistry, and literature, without ever setting foot in a public schoolroom. These homeschoolers used to be the exception, but in the last 10 years they're becoming more and more common, due to both the deteriorating quality of public education, and the increasing availability of resources for homeschooled and self-taught high-schoolers.
Vivian on 23/7/2010 at 09:59
OK, so I was partly wrong and being a dick about it (although it seems my prejudices are also partly correct). The implied total lack of faith in your public education system is quite worrying, though - Fett, you sound like you should be a teacher in the system rather than remove your kids from it, frinstance. Homeschooling in the UK is extremely rare, and I've never met any of its products who weren't basically uneducated. I guess it's just not necessary. What's gone so wrong in the US?
DDL on 23/7/2010 at 10:04
EDIT: Damn you Vivian. :)
Fett: Out of curiosity, how do you deal with resource issues?
Effective science teaching, I would wager, would need access to a lab, or at least lab-like facilities. Sure you can teach someone about various redox reactions or similar, but without the materials, you can't show them..and personally I found the demonstrations to be a critical part of my education.
Ok yes, I also got a mouthful of sodium hydroxide at one point, but that in itself was very very educational.:p
