Monday, March 06, 2006

Latest thoughts. . .

On Saturday night I caught the tail end of a TV lecture on the history and legal aspects of home schooling. I found several points to be very interesting:

  1. Public school teachers are more likely to home school or enroll their children in prvate school than the US population as a whole. That says something.
  2. The idea that even if public schools turned out every kid that attended into a well rounded, highly intelligent and independent thinkker, that fact would still not usurp a parents right to educate their children as they see fit, and as the truth is far from that ideal, that there is even less of a reason to submit to the government education system.
  3. There were some more but I can't recall them.
Sandy and I are not anti-public school. Far from it. In fact, we think that public schools should be given more funding and improved as much as possible. It is not a bad system, as some Home Schooling promoters would have parents believe. The fact is that the system does not take into account the highly different needs of students, and as a result, children are taught to the lowest common demoninator. There is no real way to provide, at an institutional level, the best instruction for each child. The vast majority of teachers that I have met are nuturing people who do their best to cope in a system that demands accountability in the way of grades and tests. It's not that the teachers are bad. People who say that are just wrong. It's the system itself that is the problem.

One more thing before I sign off for the night. I was not home schooled. I went to public school. So did Sandy. We don't know what home schooling does for the health and well being of a child. All we know is what public schooling can do for the health and well being of a child. We are sure of the negatives of public schooling, and have been warned many times about the risk of home schooling. "Don't you think that they will grow up to be anti-social?" The fact of the matter is that no one has ever suggested that we would fail to provide an eduquate education for the children, but they are all concerned about social activity. I am sure they mean the social activities that come from playing at recess, talking in the halls, and riding the bus. I am sure that if Sandy and I decide to home school, we can arrange for the children to ride a bus a few days a week, maybe up to the Zoo or the Children's Museum, and will take them to play at the city parks with the other anti-social home schooled children. We were also asked about what we would do for gym class. My answer was that we'd probably enroll them in a class at the YMCA, get them on a bowling league in the winter, and let them golf in the Spring, Summer, and Fall. Of course, there is always the opportunity to join sports at a high school.

Oh, one more thing. Possible sports for the kids:

Annika - Football quarterback (She can throw a spiral and knows how to place her hands on the laces properly.)
Owen - Rugby or maybe Shot Put. Possibly boxing.
Alex - Unknown. I can't tell yet.


I would be interested to see any comments from people who have been both home schooled and attended public school to see what they think, but I don't think many people read this blog.

1 comment:

Ed said...

I know lots of people that have been home schooled and I think for the most part, it is well worth the effort if you or your wife can afford the time to do the teaching. Home schooled children seem to be exceptionally bright compared to their peers in public school. But I think it has some drawbacks. The social aspect that you talked about is definitely one of them but something I wouldn't worry about. Most home schooled children I know seem a little social inept in certain situations and naive when it comes to the outside world. But, it seems like they quickly pick up these skills when they go off on their own. And of course, there are some horror stories of home schooling but most that I can think of are the fault of the parent and not the child. A close friend of my family who homeschooled their childen, sexually molested his daughter for over eight years. She didn't know it was wrong until she attended a public high school for her junior and senior year to get some classes that the parents couldn't teach.

My first child is arriving in June and this will be an issue for me in a half decade. Right now, I think I would like to be able to homeschool my child through junior high and then allow them to go to a public highschool for those classes that I couldn't teach and for the social aspects as well.