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You're painting with a very broad brush. Some public schools undoubtedly suck. Some homeschooling parents suck at the job they do.
All I'm saying is that in my personal experience, the public school I send my daughter to is wonderful. It's often compared to a private school because of all the parent participation. I would be doing my daughter a disservice if I took her out to homeschool her.
Parents make all the difference. If they're involved in the school and support its educational mission, it will thrive. If they don't, it won't. The same is true of homeschooling. If parents are dedicated and work hard at it, I imagine it's successful.
It's when people say things like "the libs are all for dumbing down America" that pro homeschoolers lose their credibility.
Look at where we rank in the world. i have posted in this thread look for it. UNICEF we are 18 out of 24 countries another has us 18 our of 36. Of course individual schools may be great but overal we are fasiling our kids. Why is that so controversial. This has absolutely nothing to do with home schooling. As I said I have no idea how they do onj standadized tests. But unless we wake up to how poor we are performing we will be in big trouble it may be too late.
Look at where we rank in the world. i have posted in this thread look for it. UNICEF we are 18 out of 24 countries another has us 18 our of 36. Of course individual schools may be great but overal we are fasiling our kids. Why is that so controversial. This has absolutely nothing to do with home schooling. As I said I have no idea how they do onj standadized tests. But unless we wake up to how poor we are performing we will be in big trouble it may be too late.
Well, forgive me then, since this thread is about homeschooling.
Yes, I agree that our schools need improving. Personally I think it's the parents who need improving, rather than the schools. But I still think that sweeping statements about how public schools don't teach kids to think critically and that there's a liberal agenda to turn out stupid kids is rank ignorance.
Some would say he should know more at 4, depending on if he's closer to 4 or 5. I recall my kids knowing how to write their name, count higher, plus their address and were working on phone number.
Ok this wasn't meant to be a tit-for-tat but here we go. I didn't realize I needed to list EVERYTHING he can do. Sheesh.
Add to the list:
he is less than 4.5yrs old.
he can write his name.
he knows how to dial his nana's phone #.
he knows his address.
he can identify any wild animal he sees or is shown.
he is very interested in telling time and just 'time' per se.
he can tell me which way to turn while driving to certain stores/parks that we visit repetitively.
Look at where we rank in the world. i have posted in this thread look for it. UNICEF we are 18 out of 24 countries another has us 18 our of 36. Of course individual schools may be great but overal we are fasiling our kids. Why is that so controversial. This has absolutely nothing to do with home schooling. As I said I have no idea how they do onj standadized tests. But unless we wake up to how poor we are performing we will be in big trouble it may be too late.
I know the schools where we live are 'scary'. My neighbor's son just finished VPK and he can't even identify the basic numbers 0-9! Or say the alphabet in order!
Ok this wasn't meant to be a tit-for-tat but here we go. I didn't realize I needed to list EVERYTHING he can do. Sheesh.
Add to the list:
he is less than 4.5yrs old.
he can write his name.
he knows how to dial his nana's phone #.
he knows his address.
he can identify any wild animal he sees or is shown.
he is very interested in telling time and just 'time' per se.
he can tell me which way to turn while driving to certain stores/parks that we visit repetitively.
And I am not going to go on from there.
I woudln't worry too much about justifying yourself. Really, whether a kid is reading at four or still learning to sing the ABC song has no bearing on his future success.
Location: The Chatterdome in La La Land, CaliFUNia
39,031 posts, read 23,020,628 times
Reputation: 36027
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marlow
Well, forgive me then, since this thread is about homeschooling.
Yes, I agree that our schools need improving. Personally I think it's the parents who need improving, rather than the schools. But I still think that sweeping statements about how public schools don't teach kids to think critically and that there's a liberal agenda to turn out stupid kids is rank ignorance.
Although there are some neglectful, irresponsible parents out there who don't give a damn if junior receives an education or not, those parents are in the minority. I really get so sick at how educators and proponents of our public school system constantly blame all of the public school ills on parents. It is especially galling when a parent steps up to the plate and actually homeschools their children, they get nothing but criticism from the public school establishment! Those of you who advocate on behalf of the public school system really need to take a cold hard look at the inefficiencies and waste that goes on and work dilligently to enact reforms that will make the US educational system the envy of the world as we used to be.
I recall reading a whole series of articles in the LA Times exposing the challenges of firing incompetent teachers and teachers who faced sexual abuse charges. Unfortunately, the articles have been archived and require a fee to download, otherwise I'd link them. Nevertheless, it is a known fact that firing a tenured teacher is a costly, dauntly endeavor that can span several years. While the decisions are being made, teachers who have been pulled from the classrooms often get paid their salaries for doing nothing. This process definitely needs to be streamlined and no one's job should be considered his/her property as it is common in union think.
Location: The Chatterdome in La La Land, CaliFUNia
39,031 posts, read 23,020,628 times
Reputation: 36027
Quote:
Originally Posted by beanandpumpkin
I woudln't worry too much about justifying yourself. Really, whether a kid is reading at four or still learning to sing the ABC song has no bearing on his future success.
Exactly ... Many of the underachievers within our public school system are often high IQ children who aren't receiving the intellectual stimulation in the public school systems. This is what happened to me and I graduated from high school with a low 2.75 GPA. Once I got into a more challenging educational environment in college, my GPA shot straight up as I received the mental stimulation and challenge that I lacked in the public schools.
Well, forgive me then, since this thread is about homeschooling.
Yes, I agree that our schools need improving. Personally I think it's the parents who need improving, rather than the schools. But I still think that sweeping statements about how public schools don't teach kids to think critically and that there's a liberal agenda to turn out stupid kids is rank ignorance.
Well the reason I went in this direction was in response to another poster and people like yourself simply can't see the problem. I don't think it is intentional I think it is because you have good public schools. There is a link in this thread provided by someone attempting to say we were in the middle 18/36 rather than the UNICEF study that pegs us at 18/26. The link was titled.....the US is slipping. So in fact things are getting worse. It is a very serious situation. By the time it is crystal clear to everyone it will be too late.
Although there are some neglectful, irresponsible parents out there who don't give a damn if junior receives an education or not, those parents are in the minority. I really get so sick at how educators and proponents of our public school system constantly blame all of the public school ills on parents. It is especially galling when a parent steps up to the plate and actually homeschools their children, they get nothing but criticism from the public school establishment! Those of you who advocate on behalf of the public school system really need to take a cold hard look at the inefficiencies and waste that goes on and work dilligently to enact reforms that will make the US educational system the envy of the world as we used to be.
I recall reading a whole series of articles in the LA Times exposing the challenges of firing incompetent teachers and teachers who faced sexual abuse charges. Unfortunately, the articles have been archived and require a fee to download, otherwise I'd link them. Nevertheless, it is a known fact that firing a tenured teacher is a costly, dauntly endeavor that can span several years. While the decisions are being made, teachers who have been pulled from the classrooms often get paid their salaries for doing nothing. This process definitely needs to be streamlined and no one's job should be considered his/her property as it is common in union think.
My daughter goes to a GT magnet school in our district. The children come from all over the district, which is relatively poor and middle class with pockets of rich professionals. IMO, few of the kids at the school are gifted OR talented, but what they do have in common is unrelenting support from their parents. There are plenty of rich kids at the school and many of them are the children of high-achieving professionals. They've read the parenting and early childhood development books and their kids enter kindergarten having been read to and played with by caring adults.
Our PTA has 100% participation every year. There are committees and subcommittees of subcommittees. If there's a school or classroom program, you've got moms, dads and grandparents there.
But you can go two miles in any direction to one of the neighborhood schools and it's a completely different atmosphere. A friend whose daughter went to kinder of one of these schools spoke at a PTA meeting encouraging membership and someone asked her if she was the principal. The neighborhood schools can't staff the executive positions in the PTA's. Parents don't respond to requests for participation.
It's certainly not JUST parents' responsibility, but I believe they're the biggest factor. If parents, as taxpayers and concerned citizens, support their kids and the schools as well as demand accountability, they'll get it, eventually.
This is the reality of education for many in America.
700 NYC teachers are paid to do nothing - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090622/ap_on_re_us/us_rubber_rooms - broken link)
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Nevertheless, it is a known fact that firing a tenured teacher is a costly, dauntly endeavor that can span several years. While the decisions are being made, teachers who have been pulled from the classrooms often get paid their salaries for doing nothing. This process definitely needs to be streamlined and no one's job should be considered his/her property as it is common in union think.
