Messages By: alasandra2003

I am appalled that Dr. Phil used unschoolers to represent all homeschoolers. There are MANY different ways of homeschooling, unschooling is one way, but it is the most misunderstood and I don't personally know any homeschoolers who are unschoolers.

I homeschool. My students (children) have textbooks, they have assignments that they are graded on and we are pretty structured.

To say homeschooled children are at a disadvantage only shows your ignorance. My 17 year old scored a 28 on the ACT when he was 15 and started college at 16. He is in his 2nd year of college and has made the Dean's List as well as working after school. He is majoring in computer science.

My  youngest son is doing equally well in our homeschool and will be taking the ACT this summer. 

The bottom line is parents have the best interest of their kids and heart and it is their responsiblity to make the educational choice that is right for their child not anyone else's'

One I know a lot of kids who graduate from public school and they are unable to read or do simple math.  So maybe you should make sure ALL public school students know what they should before they graduate.

Two who gets to decide what evidence it "good enough" and why should my child have to take a mandatory test just to satisfy some bureaucrat. Teaching to the test is one of the things wrong with the public schools today. BTW my eldest scored at 28 on the ACT at 15 and started college at 16, so I think I did a decent job homeschooling without government interference.  He is in his second year of college Computer Science major and loves it. He also works after school. He has no problems relating to his college classmates or his co-workers.

Most homeschoolers intend for their children to go to college. Therefore they teach their children what is required for admission by the college they wish to attend, they don't need some idiot in the Department of Education telling them what to teach or how to teach it. If the Department of Education was doing such a brilliant job their wouldn't be any problems with public schools.  Also keep in mind that private and homeschools are competition for public schools. Public schools lose federal and state funding for every child that is homeschooled or sent to a private school. Letting them "police" homeschoolers is unfair as they have a vested interest in getting rid of homeschools.

One most homeschoolers intend for their children to go to college we believe in education, that is why we invest OUR TIME & OUR MONEY  educating our children. We make sure they meet all the requirements and get all the credits they need in order to be admitted to the college of their choice.

Astronomy - There are astronomy textbooks, there are awesome astronomy websites, and we can always purchase a telescope and look at the stars. Thanks to the fact we homeschool we were able to stay up one night and watch a meteor shower.

World Religions - libraries are full of books on every topic. We have studied Christianity, Islam, and Judaism in depth, and other world religions to a certain extent.  

Ancient Culture - again libraries are full of books and we belong to an archaeological society and thanks to the fact we homeschool were able to go on some digs.

BTW none of the topics you mentioned are covered in today's public schools. Astronomy may get a brief mention in science textbooks but it is very brief. My son was astounded by how little his public school friends know. 

One the majority of parents love their children and have their best interest at heart. Two do you actually know any homeschoolers?

One of the reasons we homeschooled our children was because the local  public schools decided to turn into socialist/communist institutions and require parents to dress their children like clones (mandatory school uniforms) in order to send their children  to a public school.

The majority of homeschoolers are involved in a variety of activities. We did cub scouts and boys scouts and are currently doing recreational soccer with our youngest.

Our 17 year old is in his second year of college. He started college at 16 and is majoring in computer science. He also works after school.  The second reason we choose to homeschool was he was more then able to do the school work for his grade and the public schools refused to promote him because the longer they can keep a warm body in the seat and collect federal and state funds the better as far as they are concerned who cares if the kids is learning anything.

Bullying has gotten a lot worse then when I was in public school. Eons ago. Even good neighborhoods have kids bringing knives and guns to school. There have been tons of articles in my local paper about kids getting in fights at school and other kids taking pictures with their cell phones and posting the fight to MySpace and other websites. The teachers are scared to break the kids up for fear of getting hurt. And excuse me but you aren't likely to be bullied and harrassed at work, there are LAWS against it and employers do a much better job of preventing bullying and harassment then public schools do as they don't want to get stuck with lawsuits. And not everyone can afford to buy a house in a high end neighborhood.

Why do you assume that you need teaching credentials to "teach"?  Why do you assume that homeschooling parents aren't providing their students (children) with a top notch education. The public schools measure a teachers success by student performance so consider this.

I do not have teaching credentials, I have an associates degree in Marketing. I  homeschooled my eldest son until he was 15, at 15 he took the ACT and scored a 28 which made him eligible for early admission to college. He started college at 16. He is 17 now and in his second year of college he also works after school by anyones definition he is a success. He is majoring in computer science.

Or consider Christopher Paolini who was homeschooled all his life, graduated at 15 wrote Eragon which is a best seller and has been made into a movie that will be released in December

I don't assume that you don't care because you send your child to public school; you sound like a very caring parent. But please don't assume that homeschooled kids are handicapped or crippled for life because their parents choose an educational choice that was different then the one you made for your kids.

What about all the public school students that fall through the cracks? It's amazing to me that people can get all upset about parents choosing to homeschool their children at their own expense, but could care less about all the students who are failing in public schools at taxpayers expense.

Fredi I read another post by you that mentioned national standards. Even the public schools do not have national standards. States are in charge of public schools, so if you move from Alabama and your kid attended public school, and made straight A's in 7th grade you may find that they are 1 or 2 years behind say New York, and have to be held back in order to catch up. Even though your child was making all A's in their previous school and even though they did all the work required.

What do you want to regulate against/for? and what gives you the right to decide what is best for my child?

Government has no business intruding on families.

Where do you suggest it stop? Should government officials be required to monitor pg women 24/7, should they come home from the hospital with the new born baby? Since you are one of those people that believe in a nanny state do you think parents should just hand their kids over to the government to raise?

If your ONLY concern is that parents not be able to properly educate their children consider this homeschooler do well on college entrance exams and are actively recruited by colleges. Homeschoolers must be doing something right. So get over yourself and leave us alone.

I wasn't suggesting you leave the board. I was suggesting that YOU don't have any right to tell me how to raise my child.

From your post I assume you aren't from the US, where are you from? Perhaps the public schools are better there. I also understand that people outside the US don't really have much exposure to homeschooling from a Friends & Flags project we did, where we exchanged information with teachers and students from other countries.

Who do you want homeschoolers to be accountable to? Having them be accountable to the State Department of Education is STUPID, as the State Department of Education views homeschoolers & private schoolers as competition taking away their federal and state funding (public schools get money for every warm body in a seat).

Here teachers are judged by their students success in passing test. So consider this. I don't have teaching credentials, I homeschooled both my children, me eldest took the ACT at 15, scored a 28 and got early admission to college. At 17 he is in his second year of college majoring in computer science and working after school. He made the Dean's list. He also has a scholarship.  You don't need teaching credentials to teach your children.

If you are not from the US, you may not realize that if he was in public school he would be in the 12th grade and would not graduate until May. So he wouldn't even be in college until the start of the next school year if he had been in the public school system.

Also you probably don't know this. Anyone with a High School Diploma can be a substitute teacher in the public schools in Mississippi (not sure about the other states). I have done some substitute teaching myself in the public schools.

Why should my family have to satisfy YOU?

Also when you call for more regulations and testing of homeschoolers who is going to PAY FOR IT?????

Most taxpayers are unwilling to pay for anything to do with homeschooling? that's fine, but if you are unwilling to pay for testing and paperwork then you should NOT be demanding it. Also why should homeschoolers be required to do the same testing as public schools and adhere to regulations when private schools are not?

This demonstrates the basic ignorance most people have toward homeschoolers. One night at soccer practice one Mother approached a group of us sitting around talking and she was ranting about homeschoolers, they were behind their peers academically (my eldest son started college at 16), they were unsocialized and wouldn't be able to fit in with other kids yadda, yadda.

I calmly announced that I homeschooled. She replied " Well your kids are different of course they are smart and well socialized and fit in but you AREN'T A TYPICAL HOMESCHOOLER" . I then told her there were 3 other homeschooled kids on the team, and challenged her to pick them out. She couldn't do it.  And when I told her who they were she was shocked as they were very popular amongst their team mates. When her son came to get his water bottle she asked him if he knew (she named the kids) were homeschooled. He said "Yeah, Mom I think it's COOL".

You know I have never known a homeschooling parent to criticize other parents for choosing public or private school. I wonder why public school parents so often find in necessary to criticize parents who make educational choices different from theirs.

Well the public schools do NOT give you educated people that can think for themselves, for the most part they give you mindless drones who have managed to memorize facts.

How does ignorance infringe on your rights? You do not have the right to decide how other people should live their lives.  And just because you dislike someones beliefs doesn't make them WRONG.

Why do you think it is OK to infringe on homeschoolers rights? We have a much RIGHT to our beliefs/lifestyle as you do.

Why don't you try a little TOLERANCE and stop trying to infringe on the rights of homeschoolers.