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Define "too tough". Shoot, for that matter, define "helmet wearing knee-pad wearers".
That's one I'd be curious to see as well.
As many homeschoolers have, I've been presented with the argument that bullying is "just part of life" and that children will have to learn to "put on their big-girl panties and deal," or that "this is the way the real world functions" (like somehow, homeschoolers live in a happy rainbow unicorniverse).
I am not convinced. I am fairly certain that if an employee came to work one day and on his way to the cubicle, some senior employee looked at him and said, "God, you're fat," his first stop would be to Human Resources or to his boss to file a formal complaint. If he returned from the restroom to find a Coke purposely spilled all over his TRS reports and a group of other office employees pointing and laughing at him, I believe his response would be the same. Finally, if he was walking toward the Xerox room and someone tripped him, he would be in an outstanding position to claim that he was being subject to a hostile work environment and repeated acts of physical and mental harrassment.
Now of course, this is a deliberately absurd example, and I would hope that no actual adult workplace would subject its employees to treatment like that. However, my point is this: Adults do not suffer themselves to be treated in this fashion. If an adult were to complain about treatment like this to his union rep., the union rep. wouldn't say, "Jimmy, you've just got to man up here. These things build character, you know -- we can't just coddle you. Why don't you just ignore them and they'll learn to stop?"
Truly, if one of the objectives of school is to replicate real life -- as homeschoolers are often told -- then grade schoolers and their parents should have just as much right to sue for a hostile work environment and harrassment as their parents do, and for precisely the same reasons. Actually, for even better reasons: if we consider it morally wrong to harrass an adult, why would we think it to be morally acceptable for a child to endure the same (or even worse) harrassment? If we, as adults, would leave a place of employment for treating us poorly -- and we do -- why do we expect homeschoolers who leave schools for treating them poorly to endure what we would not?
I have two kids that just entered 1 st grade. They on the first day got mass amounts of homework. I have worked as a para pro with that age group. I worried that the pressure of work , work will push them down. My son has sensory issues and it seem like the teacher has made no comments positive. The other day he came home sad and said the teacher yelled at him because he didn't know where something was. On his papers it is wrote he didn't color neat enough and needed prompting to get his work done. We just moved to another state but to be honest I'm not impressed. I would like info on homeschooling. The pro's and neg. What does a parent have to do to be able to do this. How much is the cost to get the books and all that. Just anything. I will look it up but sometimes better info comes from those who have done it. I want my kids to love to learn and they do but if they get push to much that love is lost. My son does better when he doesn't have to sit too long.
This is a great topic for the education forum. Let's get back to what the OP is talking about.
Location: Chi-Town soon to be NYC and eventually Ireland
291 posts, read 1,075,161 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles Wallace
That's one I'd be curious to see as well.
As many homeschoolers have, I've been presented with the argument that bullying is "just part of life" and that children will have to learn to "put on their big-girl panties and deal," or that "this is the way the real world functions" (like somehow, homeschoolers live in a happy rainbow unicorniverse).
I am not convinced. I am fairly certain that if an employee came to work one day and on his way to the cubicle, some senior employee looked at him and said, "God, you're fat," his first stop would be to Human Resources or to his boss to file a formal complaint. If he returned from the restroom to find a Coke purposely spilled all over his TRS reports and a group of other office employees pointing and laughing at him, I believe his response would be the same. Finally, if he was walking toward the Xerox room and someone tripped him, he would be in an outstanding position to claim that he was being subject to a hostile work environment and repeated acts of physical and mental harrassment.
Now of course, this is a deliberately absurd example, and I would hope that no actual adult workplace would subject its employees to treatment like that. However, my point is this: Adults do not suffer themselves to be treated in this fashion. If an adult were to complain about treatment like this to his union rep., the union rep. wouldn't say, "Jimmy, you've just got to man up here. These things build character, you know -- we can't just coddle you. Why don't you just ignore them and they'll learn to stop?"
Truly, if one of the objectives of school is to replicate real life -- as homeschoolers are often told -- then grade schoolers and their parents should have just as much right to sue for a hostile work environment and harrassment as their parents do, and for precisely the same reasons. Actually, for even better reasons: if we consider it morally wrong to harrass an adult, why would we think it to be morally acceptable for a child to endure the same (or even worse) harrassment? If we, as adults, would leave a place of employment for treating us poorly -- and we do -- why do we expect homeschoolers who leave schools for treating them poorly to endure what we would not?
Very well said, I tried to rep you, but it said I need to spread the love around....I also find it puzzling that so many parents are so virulently opposed to other parents taking control of their child's educational experience. What does it even have to do with them? These same parents would probably flip out if anyone told them they had no right to the control/direction over their own child's religious training, or hobbies, or clothing choices, or anything else, so where do they get off?
I'm not a parent yet, but I would *love* the option of homeschooling my kids, and will take full advantage if at all possible. I know how my own education suffered as a result of poor teaching in public schools, and I suspect the situation has only worsened in recent years, what with mainstreaming of kids who don't belong in a regular classroom, terrible teacher/student ratios, kids with little to no grasp of the English language sucking up time and energy, kids who have been raised with little to no discipline wreaking havoc in the classroom, poor resources for books and other learning tools, not to mention the (and please, all you excellent teachers reading this, do not take this as a criticism of *you* personally, I do know that you exist) very low entry requirements for teachers......WHY would I not want to take advantage of a superior option for my kids?
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