Replies to '11/24 Great School Debate'

Quote From: amberlyn1

Constructivist math and other fads pushed by the NCTM  are not proven, research-based curriculum (at least not statistically significant) and yet, teachers all over the country are being forced to teach it - even if they don't like/understand it - because the administrators tell them to.

The three Rs aren't being taught well in our schools when crappy curriculum choices are made in a vacuum, sometimes by people who have financial (not educational) reasons for making said decisions.

Socialization is a joke.  Don't you remember?  "Stop talking in class, you come to school to learn, not to socialize."  Socialization in elementary school involves basically being sheeple - being told when and how often one can use the bathroom (do you have to ask your boss if you can use the bathroom?).   The 15 minutes our elementary students get on the playground every day are somehow superior to the social groups home educated children receive?  My son attended public schools until 6th grade - when his heroin-using teacher left the classroom and refused to let the students use the bathroom, he wet his pants because she would (as we found out later) periodically wander from her classroom and none of the students would know where she was at.   The teasing he endured on the bus and the backpedaling and runaround from school officials was enough to make your head spin.  Yes, I agree - you must be right that this kind of social experience in a group of 30 peers can only be good for him in the future.  Not all of what happens in public school is positive, it is naive to assert or think that.  The same can be said of all home educators, or all truck drivers, or all of any one group of people. There are always exceptions to the rule.

Learning to accept others as they are, regardless of backgrounds?  When they are only exposed to a group of 20-30 children exactly their age, year after year?  Hardly an effective means of socialization.  My home school co-op group hosts teen dances, proms, outings, activities, etc. which include teens from age 13-18.  We have sports teams, music lessons, group choir that performs in nursing homes - where the kids actually interact with the elderly.  Home educated children are NOT missing out on any socialization unless their families have them holed up in a shack in the mountains and never expose them to the real world.  And let's face it, parents like those can be found both in and out of the public school system...

For the record, most home educators I know did extensive research before making the decision.  It is aggravating to hear it keep coming up, over and over again, how no parent should just be able to blindly home educate their children.  That is not a realistic portrayal of the majority of home educators any more than the heroin-using and sexually-abusive teachers are the norm for public schools.

Quote From: amberlyn1

Constructivist math and other fads pushed by the NCTM  are not proven, research-based curriculum (at least not statistically significant) and yet, teachers all over the country are being forced to teach it - even if they don't like/understand it - because the administrators tell them to.

The three Rs aren't being taught well in our schools when crappy curriculum choices are made in a vacuum, sometimes by people who have financial (not educational) reasons for making said decisions.

Socialization is a joke.  Don't you remember?  "Stop talking in class, you come to school to learn, not to socialize."  Socialization in elementary school involves basically being sheeple - being told when and how often one can use the bathroom (do you have to ask your boss if you can use the bathroom?).   The 15 minutes our elementary students get on the playground every day are somehow superior to the social groups home educated children receive?  My son attended public schools until 6th grade - when his heroin-using teacher left the classroom and refused to let the students use the bathroom, he wet his pants because she would (as we found out later) periodically wander from her classroom and none of the students would know where she was at.   The teasing he endured on the bus and the backpedaling and runaround from school officials was enough to make your head spin.  Yes, I agree - you must be right that this kind of social experience in a group of 30 peers can only be good for him in the future.  Not all of what happens in public school is positive, it is naive to assert or think that.  The same can be said of all home educators, or all truck drivers, or all of any one group of people. There are always exceptions to the rule.

Learning to accept others as they are, regardless of backgrounds?  When they are only exposed to a group of 20-30 children exactly their age, year after year?  Hardly an effective means of socialization.  My home school co-op group hosts teen dances, proms, outings, activities, etc. which include teens from age 13-18.  We have sports teams, music lessons, group choir that performs in nursing homes - where the kids actually interact with the elderly.  Home educated children are NOT missing out on any socialization unless their families have them holed up in a shack in the mountains and never expose them to the real world.  And let's face it, parents like those can be found both in and out of the public school system...

For the record, most home educators I know did extensive research before making the decision.  It is aggravating to hear it keep coming up, over and over again, how no parent should just be able to blindly home educate their children.  That is not a realistic portrayal of the majority of home educators any more than the heroin-using and sexually-abusive teachers are the norm for public schools.