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True, but kindergarten kids are actually interested in everything, so giving them a chance to do some science should be fun.
That stuff can and probably is done in most K curricula. My problem is that the expectation is these kids will stay in this STEM program throughout elementary school.
I sent my child to public school because I wanted her to be taught by subject experts in their fields. She went to a good public school, and for the most part her teachers were subject experts, especially at the secondary level.
Oh this is HILARIOUS! My sister-in-law is an elementary school teacher. She insists that Central America is in fact a continent and that we have 8 continents. She also teaches that Mexico is the country in Central America. She's not quite sure what continent Canada is on. This is a teacher with a MASTER'S degree in education for a highly respected college that focuses on education degrees. Yup. I almost peed my pants laughing when she told me this. And don't ask her the names of the 4 oceans. She doesn't know them. I told her I knew these basic geographical items by third grade. She was teaching second grade and said who cares they will learn it again in fourth grade so it doesn't matter what she teaches them. Yup an expert! She's far from the only crappy teacher out there.
I think that most teachers are good at what they do. There are a few excellent ones and a few horrendous ones. I will say that one of the "subject matter experts" that my student had last year, an English teacher, sent her home with a paper explaining all about "pneumatic devices." I saw that and my eyes nearly bulged out of my head. No, he was not talking about any type of breathing apparatus... he meant "mnemonic devices." There were other blatant errors made throughout the course of the year. I have no idea what this guy majored in or what his degree was in, but I have to assume it was not in English.
(She also had some very good teachers. I'm just using that as an example of someone I would not want teaching my kid high school English.)
One of the fallacies of homeschooling, which I've seen crop up in this thread a couple times, is that you have to be an expert in a subject in order for your child to learn and do well with it. There are a ton of resources available if you're not comfortable in a given area - libraries, internet, outside classes, tutors, etc. Sometimes parents will form a co-op, where each parent teaches something that they either have knowledge in, or have done the research and put a curriculum together for.
I mentioned my son wanted to study ornithology. We received information from Cornell's Lab of Ornithology on request, as well as links to their libraries, we spent time with a very informative bird-watcher in Central Park's Ramble, and we had a mini-class at the Wild Bird Fund, a facility in the city that rehabs birds. We were very fortunate to have our class on the same day as the release of a previously injured red-tailed hawk. What a treat to see her up close! We also found an amazing series of PBS broadcasts on birds that were available for viewing online.
Last edited by swilliamsny; 07-24-2016 at 10:17 PM..
Reason: Typo
What would happen if school started and no one showed up?
Do you think the parents would FINALLY have the school administration's attention??
You bet. Because no kids = no funding and they will be out of a job.
They have zero incentive to follow parents wishes now, becuase they are getting paid without having the boat rocked. Start rocking the boat, and changes will be made. It astounds me that parents don't understand this basic concept.
^^ Yes, I agree, swilliamsny... I think it's the term "homeschooling." People picture all of he kids sitting at home and mom designing all of the lesson plans and curricula. I've always thought it should be called world-schooling or immersive learning, but alas, I have not been able to change the language.
What would happen if school started and no one showed up?
Do you think the parents would FINALLY have the school administration's attention??
You bet. Because no kids = no funding and they will be out of a job.
They have zero incentive to follow parents wishes now, becuase they are getting paid without having the boat rocked. Start rocking the boat, and changes will be made. It astounds me that parents don't understand this basic concept.
I think the problem is that many of the parents who are aware of the issues in bad schools have already pulled their kids. The ones left have parents who can't pull them (because, let's face it, if you have all adults in the house working full time or more and you gave young children and no extra money, you do not have the option of simply deciding not to send your kids to school, where they're getting childcare and, in many cases, meals taken care of for free), who don't know of the issues, whose kids are thriving regardless, or who simply don't care. Enough children fit into those categories that the schools are needed and will never stop being used.
Oh this is HILARIOUS! My sister-in-law is an elementary school teacher. She insists that Central America is in fact a continent and that we have 8 continents. She also teaches that Mexico is the country in Central America. She's not quite sure what continent Canada is on. This is a teacher with a MASTER'S degree in education for a highly respected college that focuses on education degrees. Yup. I almost peed my pants laughing when she told me this. And don't ask her the names of the 4 oceans. She doesn't know them. I told her I knew these basic geographical items by third grade. She was teaching second grade and said who cares they will learn it again in fourth grade so it doesn't matter what she teaches them. Yup an expert! She's far from the only crappy teacher out there.
One of the fallacies of homeschooling, which I've seen crop up in this thread a couple times, is that you have to be an expert in a subject in order for your child to learn and do well with it. There are a ton of resources available if you're not comfortable in a given area - libraries, internet, outside classes, tutors, etc. Sometimes parents will form a co-op, where each parent teaches something that they either have knowledge in, or have done the research and put a curriculum together for.
I mentioned my son wanted to study ornithology. We received information from Cornell's Lab of Ornithology on request, as well as links to their libraries, we spent time with a very informative bird-watcher in Central Park's Ramble, and we had a mini-class at the Wild Bird Fund, a facility in the city that rehabs birds. We were very fortunate to have our class on the same day as the release of a previously injured red-tailed hawk. What a treat to see her up close! We also found an amazing series of PBS broadcasts on birds that were available for viewing online.
I think this is why homeschooling frequently falls short So often at the secondary level. The deficit of subject level expertise cannot be overcome by the library and Internet for most secondary level classes.
Your example is one that I think typifies this problem. Ornithology is a complex and nuanced science. Watching documentaries, reading links, and hanging around with a bird watcher isn't learning ornithology, it's pursuing a hobby.
As an actual research scientist, one of the biggest problems I see in society is people think reading a website gives them an expertise on a subject. This notion that watching some documentaries and going on a field trip is the same thing as actually taking a class by an expert is just not true.
Just last week I was standing in as head teacher for a mini Marine biology course/camp for advanced students. Most were 9 and 10th graders, many were homeschooled. Two of the homeschatology parents tried to get me to sign off on the course for their transcripts as a 5 credit marine biology class. They were pissed when I refused due to the fact the class is only a week long as opposed to half a year. One of those parents earlier in the week had sent a nasty email to the coordinator of the program complaining I was giving misinformation because something I had said (about reproduction of the paper nautilus) couldn't be found on Google, and demanded their money back. When I sent them a scientific paper describing the hectocothlus they never even apologized.
Google, and a week long camp do not replace a class with a subject level expert and this is something I see frequently from the homeschool community.
Last edited by lkb0714; 07-25-2016 at 06:17 AM..
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