Topic : 11/24 Great School Debate

I'm in Canada and I unschool my kids. As for the Alberta poster, she may not be aware that her province is home to some of the biggest and most active groups of homeschoolers in Canada. Alberta is a hotbed of homeschooling activity.

I also had one more comment...... As some people may not know, those of us that homeschool and use a curriculum, we also have available to us all the teachers editions to the books and workbooks our children use. If there is something they need to be taught that I may not remember, we have all the resources we need to teach ourselves and to teach them as well. It is a very rewarding experience to learn something I had forgotten along with teaching it to my child as well. How can that be bad? We have every opportunity as teachers as you have, just not the degree. Really, I just can not wrap my mind around your logic of holding my kids hostage and that they are being cheated.

i think i agree with the lady who has the message up first. alexandia.  I could see how it could help kids for homeschooling up to the 2-3 grade.  Especially if the child is gifted or a slowa learner.  But beyoud that i think the child need to be in a public or private school.  I am wondering about teh kids when they reach the rebellious age middle school through high school. How much learning do they get if the parents are the teachers and the child thinks that they are full of hot air.  If they are put with their peers who feel the same way that they do. 

 

Usually i am not wanting to keep the tv on your program but this one got my interest.  The parents are talking about the violence in schools and if their children feel that it would not be safe for them to be there, what about the time when they want to find out about banks and how to shop or anywhere there my be guns.. like you just can't keep the child home for ever and make them think that socialize with the community  is not safe.then they are going to have mental problems.  No condfidence or a way to protect themselves if ever they should come across these terrible things.

 

As far as the woman who was very emtional and live in colorado i can understand where she is coming from.  She needs to go through some kind healing as far as violence in the schools.  If she doens't then she is putting her fears onto her children.  That is not healthy for the kids.  Parents don't understand that everything they do and say and not say have some kind of impact on the kids either for the good or for the negative side of life.

 

I also think that school needs to have some changes.  K-9th.  after that it seems that kids lose interest.  For the last 3 years they could get training for a job such as job shadowing and then meet once a week in a classroom to find out how things are going on and just have a chance to share with other classmates. IF they need some instructions in how to balance a check book then they would have different groups for trouble shooting.Perhaps there are kids who are interested out side the school area kind of like a vocational school.  I think there would be less children who are having babies so early in life.  There are so many ways that you can break up the school for them.  I am talking about if a child just can't "get into" the core subjects that maybe it is time to leave the school for maybe a semester or a year then go back and give it another try. Well there you have it my thoughts on schools vs. homeschooling and unschooling.

I am a mother of three children. I have two that have already graduated from public schools.

I have a daughter that is 15 and I have chosen to have her learn at home and here is my story.

 

My daughter is very smart and friendly. This is a long story that I will not share but I am so thankful that we decided to learn at home. I am a single mother and on a tight budget. My daughter is learning MORE than she ever did in school. SHe is taking all of the required subjects. plus more and she chose great electives. We are using a good daily structure and I do NOT teach my child. I make sure that she is on top of her classes and she is taught with CD roms that I purchased with Switched on Schoolhouse. I am very happy with it. She has real teachers with this system and test and she has assigned projects! I also make sure that she is involved in groups for socialization. She is also amazed at how much more work she can do now at home. No travel, no changing classes, and no more peer pressure.  It is my job to make sure that she is taking all the subjects needed to attend college. It is my job to make sure she completes her daily classes, makes good grades, and completes her testing.

In her school she was exposed to oral sex, sex, alcohol and drugs. It broke my heart and I WILL NOT allow this to happen to my child at such a young age. I do not want her exposed to this or the peer pressure. It is there and it is real. You better think twice if you have blinders on and think it is not in your child's school. This topic has been on many talk shows and programs this year.

It makes me sick that the children can get away with such behavior. Was my child safe at public school? NO

While it is true that when she gets older she may be exposed to this type of thing,  but she will be older and wiser and able to make her own choices to do the right thing. She is not old enough now.

 

I was bullied when I was in school and hated it. I loved the classes it was the children and things I was exposed to. But it was never this bad.

 

So that is why my daughter is very happy now and learning at home.  My daughter is ahead of schedule and will graduate early and start college earlier than her friends in traditional school. So I am very excited about this!

So...school is to ensure you can take orders from a boss? Not that I disagree with you. Google John Taylor Gatto and you'll find a man (former teacher turned homeschool advocate) who makes a great case for that being th prime purpose of school.

I was surprised at the negative reactions about homeschooling. I have homeschooled my Godson for 3 years and then I homeschooled my best friends son and he graduated last year. Then I also have homeschooled her daughter and this is our 2nd year of homeschooling. She is now in the 9th grade. We make sure we do volunteer days so she can interact with other people. But this way she has one on one. We do the 6 hours a day. And we use regular books and I give her test that come with the books. I then take a report every 6 weeks to the Board Of Education. So I go far beyond most homeschoolers. And what is required of the person who teaches the person as well. Homeschooling here in Ohio is very popular.

I agree with you.

Here's an example of my philosophy.  My ability to give my tools the things they need outside of a mainstream establishment really should NOT be seen as a slap in the face to a teacher.  On the contrary, ideally it should be seen as a compliment to the teacher that they did such a good job teaching me that I'd want to pass on what they taught me to my own kids.

I teach something I am talented at to many people.  I am *thrilled* when my students thank me by saying to their friends, Hey, look what my teacher taught me, and then showing them then and their what I just taught them. 

Isn't that the whole purpose of a teacher?  To teach things to them and give them knowledge that they can use and pass on? 

I consider it a compliment that I've done my job so well that other students are enthusiastic and want to teach others.  I don't go up to them and say, "You know, you're really not qualified.  Who do you think you are to presume to do MY job!!"

In my case, my child's teachers were my biggest advocates and supporters of my decision to free-school my children.  I'm one of the lucky ones who didn't get a lot of backlash from public school.  They were thrilled that I knew my place in my children's lives and was not shirking it.

Not many people want to give up their 2-income lifestyle (and have admitted it to me, personally) and their cars and their wide screen tvs and their fancy dinners in restaurants to have one parent at home with a child.  It takes real choices which many people would be VERY uncomfortable doing.  But I am doing it, and I am admired by my friends who have their kids in public school. "Wow, that is great, I admire what you're doing!" is often the compliment I receive, after they praise the unusually good and mature behaviour my kids exhibit.

I just finished watching the program "Great School Debate" on the Dr. Phil show.  I felt that it was a very fair show where all opinions were allowed to be voiced.  Some people who do not watch Dr. Phil, may have felt that he was being hard on the parents.  However, like with any topic, he asked hard questions and voiced legitimate concerns on Unschooling, Homeschooling, and the Public School Situation.  I also felt that the Unschooling mother was very articulate, held her own in a forum that is out of her everyday experience.  Remember, Dr. Phil does this every day, it's his job.  One teacher who was talking sounded absolutely ridiculous in her  public school or nothing attutude.  I was glad she was given time to speak her opinion, because it showed one of the biggest problems I see facing our country today.  People want to depend on the government instead of themselves.  She said she didn't see how kids who did not attend public school would be ready to make it in the "real world".  The unschooling mom pointed out that her kids are in the real world all the time.  Dr. Phil then pointed out that public school may not be the greatest place for socialization, due to peer pressure on drugs, smoking, violence, etc.    Joann Uzzolina Homeschooling Mom NJ

I am 19 and was home schooled from kindergarten through 12th grade. I loved it and so did my sister. My 4 brothers are right now being home schooled and loving it. I was able to get over a half scholarship to a private university and was also accepted at Texas A & M. I do not have a single home schooled friend who would say that they had a bad experience. All of my friends( yes I did have a social life being home schooled) have gone on to college and have adjusted completely. The University I go to specifically looks for home schooled applicants because they do so well in college.  I have a 3.8 GPA right now. If you look at the statistics of home school verses public school SAT scores you will find that home school students average much higher.   

The 26 year old girl on the show said she missed out on so many things being home schooled like cheerleading and prom. Home school has prom and cheerleading. I went to home school prom my Junior and Senior years of highschool. It was fun, but if I had not gone I do not think it would have ruined my life as it seemed to have ruined the 26 year old girl.

On the question of whether kids who are home schooled are able to be competitive in learning, I would say most definently "yes"! As a home schooled highschooler I took biology, chemistry, speech, writing, Latin, and English as outside classes with other students. My friends and I were very competitive when it came to making the highest grade.  I was able to learn as much in a 2 hour class that a public school child would in a week of classes. Because I was home schooled, I was able to go to college while I was still in highschool and take some basic college classes, and I was one of the top students in the class along with one of my home schooled friends. 

To go along with the great education that I had, I was able to develop my creativity as well. Because I had a lot of free time I was able to do things that I love like paint and read, play piano, play on a home school volley ball team and hang out with friends. 

I have a wonderful relationship with my parents that I do not think most children have.  My mom was a great teacher and she did not have any college education. My dad is great at math so he could always help us in that area. I just want parents to know that home schooling is a wonderful thing, if it is done right ,which is easy to do.  Parents who home school I believe are far from selfish. It is much easier to send kids away and have no responsibility for them all day then to take an active roll in their learning such as home school parents do. 

I am not weird or socially unajusted and neither are any of my home school friends. Because I spent so many years being exactly who I wanted to be, not having the pressure of what hundreds of kids thought of me, I am able to stand up for my beliefs in college and not yield to other peoples pressures. I am able to relate well to older adults as well as people younger than me because home schooling allows students to be friends with all ages not just a single grade like public school.

If anyone was discouraged from home schooling from Dr. Phil's biased show please know that the true reality of home schooling was not presented through his show.

Why didn't Dr. Phil choose to invite homeschoolers who are considered "experts" in the field of homeschooling? Such as attorneys from the Home School Legal Defense Association or parents of grown homeschoolers who have excelled far beyond most of their public schooled peers?  There are some awesome representatives of the homeschool movement who speak at our national conventions, etc.  None of them were invited to have an intelliegent debate on schooling?  Why?