Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Home-schooling -- A Rant...

I read this article:
What are we teaching?

Anyway, I got frustrated with some replies (samples below) that some people who just wrote off home-schooling....

Schools are not what they used to be, as I remember them (and, as I'm sure you remember them), but neither are parents. And, it is true that as schools get smaller, they tend to get better. However, as they get "way" small, as in a home school environment, they do not necessarily get better. Trust me, all parents aren't teachers - some can barely be trusted as parents, ...

Posted by: Larry Morris | Aug 10, 2006 6:44:07 AM


and

Sandi - that's the nice thing about these blogs (and, indeed, this country), not only is everyone entitled to their own opinion, but simply having an opinion doesn’t make one right, ... (no matter how well researched it seems to be)

Posted by: Larry Morris | Aug 22, 2006 11:03:23 AM



Here's what I replied:

Larry et al,

Your quote: "Trust me, all parents aren't teachers - some can barely be trusted as parents, ..."

Some thoughts on that and your general attitude in the two posts that you've made to this article as I write this:

1) The barely trustable parents you mention isn't the set of parents that would bother asking the questions posed by the article!
2) Parents who can't be trusted generally wouldn't choose to homeschool as they most likely don't care much about their kids.
3) Many public school teachers are ill qualified as well and the teachers unions continue to fight all efforts to make the teachers accountable for their results. For example: Here in Texas they've fought having to show that they can pass the same test high school seniors have to pass to graduate.
4) Who decides which parents are worthy? You? Some government sponsored group like Child Protective Services? The legislature?
5) The statitics about H.S. dropouts are questionable at the low rates they say, but the schools and government reports have been shown to have been falsefied. The states and schools typically report 10% or less dropout rates and with No Child Left Behind it's been going lower as funding is tied to it. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0303/p01s02-legn.html and http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0621/p03s02-ussc.html (Note: No one has even a 90% graduation rate)
6) Homeschooling parents have a much higher vested interest in the success of their children than anyone! No teacher, no government offical, no neighbor etc. has a higher vested interest!
7) Homeschoolers take on the responsibility for there kids success and still pay school taxes, etc.
8) Homeschoolers in most states still have to submit records for schooldistrict officals to monitor childrens progress
9) Homeschoolers in most states are required to show a education representative the curriculum
10) Saying that the parents aren't what they used to be is a fallacy. Parents are no worse than those 60's-70's parents whose kids where partaking of free-love and drugs.
11) Would you rather the government take care of all kids? Should the government be in full control of all off-spring and control each person?
12) Parents who homeschool now are doing nothing more than our forefathers and the founders of our country. They knew it was there responsibility to educate their kids. Not only that, the public education system wasn't set up to take away power or responsibility from parents, but to provide a better set of possibilites to all kids, to maximise the education oppertunities and to provide at least a minimal set of education to all kids.
13) Public school attendance wasn't mandatory in Texas till 1916 and even then private schools were allowed. Homeschoolers are private schools. It was much the same in other states as well. http://www.carwrecks.com/homeschool.html It wasn't until the 80's in Texas that the state education agency decided they knew better than the courts and parents who had choosen to home-school. Thankfully, the courts have sided not only with history but with the facts concerning home-schooling results.

Finally, as to having opinions and being "right". So far you don't give any facts to support your statements, just opinions. You mention not all parents are good, well neither are all kids nor are all people period. Should we as a society set up some group of people who say who is worthy? Or is that the Federal and State Education agency? Or maybe we just decide which people aren't worthy, smart enough, finacially prepared, well enough educated, etc., to have kids! Is it going to be Ivy League people who decide that, or maybe someone from the UN since they already propose crap like that? Larry et al., don't even take the time to educate themselves, may not even have kids and yet they feel like they can talk about something with which they know nothing. Just go on "feeling". To that point, "feelings" are not facts, and they lead to the old "If it feels good do it" attitude. And yet he feels compelled to tell those of us who've had our kids in public schools, and now educate them at home anything. He only shows ignorance to the facts, but also no interest in finding out the true, just the laxidazical attitude to write it off with edge-cases of "bad parents" and ill educated opinion. Truely ignorant of the facts of what home-schooling is.

Again from Larry: "having an opinion doesn’t make one right". Being ignorant to the facts doesn't make you right either, it just shows your ignorance to the facts. It's nice that you like that this country allows different opinions, but it also was built on self-sufficancy and responsibility. Be responsible yourself and educate yourself on the facts of home-schooling before criticizing others.

Regards,

Sam Griffith Jr

1 comment:

austinoriginal said...

damn right.