Comments on: “Home schooling is a well-known and established means of education” http://homeedmag.com/newscomm/news-commentary/home-schooling-is-a-well-known-and-established-means-of-education/ Exploring homeschooling issues, ideas, and more Wed, 09 May 2012 18:57:25 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: betty http://homeedmag.com/newscomm/news-commentary/home-schooling-is-a-well-known-and-established-means-of-education/#comment-1863 betty Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:44:40 +0000 http://www.homeedmag.com/newscomm/?p=3459#comment-1863 I resent very strongly the comments made by the head of the teacher's union. She is a perfect example of the reasons parents do not get more involved in the classroom activities of the chicago public schools. There is an inheritant disrespect for parents' judgement relative to making good decisions for their children. I am a new home schooler for my grandson.(yes, I can read and write and count and I have several degrees and I do work from home) He is a third grader and since homeschooling, he has developed a new and positive attitude for learning and the challanges it brings. This child does not have to come home anymore after school a bundle of nerves. He is not angry and sad because he was called a loser and any attention for him is a waist of time. How dare she make such negative comments about parents! The sad part is that she speaks on behalf of the public school teachers. Heaven help the children. I resent very strongly the comments made by the head of the teacher’s union. She is a perfect example of the reasons parents do not get more involved in the classroom activities of the chicago public schools. There is an inheritant disrespect for parents’ judgement relative to making good decisions for their children. I am a new home schooler for my grandson.(yes, I can read and write and count and I have several degrees and I do work from home) He is a third grader and since homeschooling, he has developed a new and positive attitude for learning and the challanges it brings. This child does not have to come home anymore after school a bundle of nerves. He is not angry and sad because he was called a loser and any attention for him is a waist of time. How dare she make such negative comments about parents! The sad part is that she speaks on behalf of the public school teachers. Heaven help the children.

]]> By: Lisa Patrell http://homeedmag.com/newscomm/news-commentary/home-schooling-is-a-well-known-and-established-means-of-education/#comment-1862 Lisa Patrell Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:10:09 +0000 http://www.homeedmag.com/newscomm/?p=3459#comment-1862 As public schools continue their maturation into industrial institutions primed by budget constraints to value efficiency of the teaching process over the breadth and depth of what students are learning, the arguments that put forth by members of the public schooling system become weaker. Take socialization. My eldest had both institutional school and homeschool experience. In her summation, homeschooling was much more social. The classroom in a school was an experience of being lonely in a crowd, as delivery is done by an adult in a position of authority (i.e. teacher) and accepted passively by the students, that was sometimes punctuated by group projects that were usually dominated by the same peers, as is the playground. This scenario is so pervasive, it is assumed to be normal rather than merely commonplace. My eldest came to life, in a homeschool lead education. Basic academics were one-on-one, with recreation, enrichment, and free-time done with a more varied peer group. Imagine boys and girls actually playing together and referring to one another as friends. Ethnic and other barriers disappeared as well in these small groups of less than twenty. Mild and profound ability differences were managed with parent openness and cooperation, so at the child/student level things moved mostly fluidly. When they didn't we worked to make things better than status quo. Think about some of unpleasant things that have taken place in the play yards and lunch rooms at your public schools. Did they get addressed and did the environment improve? In a classroom, how much socializing is there manipulating some computer software program. Collaboration among homeschooling families is common. Although, the recreational activities were larger groups, enrichment classes were smaller as determined by interest in a particular subject, so that the student-lead book group or logic class or batik workshop or biology sessions were 4 to 8 students, but not necessarily the same 4 to 8. Some classes were parent taught, as many of us did have skills and knowledge in addition to having parenting skills. These classes managed as a co-op. Some classes were taught by professionals who could commit to 6 to 8 week sessions on a particular topic. These classes were fee based that cost between $60 and $120. Beside the monetary value, the most valuable aspect of these classes were their small size. Every student learned the material. Dyanmics managed on the play yard came into the classroom, so that group work was egalitarian. Confidence in the students ability to manage themselves lead to greater freedoms. Parents organized the logistics of book groups, but the students managed the meetings. As the children got older, parents could comfortably let them go about town and country on their bikes, rather than continue as escorts. When I hear that my children seem so mature or socially at ease with adults and peers, it is because homeschooling allowed them to grow-up. Institutional schools cannot reach every child intellectually nor artistically nor physically, due to their large size. They also cannot allow enough freedom to let children mature, which is also due to their large size. Until public schools can become small, they cannot offer what many homeschools, private schools, and charter schools succeed at doing--teaching each student as an individual. How much oversight is there to ensure a student's paper was written by the student and not the parent--likewise with projects. What is the quality of education, when many parents spend thousands on tutoring, As public schools continue their maturation into industrial institutions primed by budget constraints to value efficiency of the teaching process over the breadth and depth of what students are learning, the arguments that put forth by members of the public schooling system become weaker. Take socialization. My eldest had both institutional school and homeschool experience. In her summation, homeschooling was much more social. The classroom in a school was an experience of being lonely in a crowd, as delivery is done by an adult in a position of authority (i.e. teacher) and accepted passively by the students, that was sometimes punctuated by group projects that were usually dominated by the same peers, as is the playground. This scenario is so pervasive, it is assumed to be normal rather than merely commonplace.

My eldest came to life, in a homeschool lead education. Basic academics were one-on-one, with recreation, enrichment, and free-time done with a more varied peer group.

Imagine boys and girls actually playing together and referring to one another as friends. Ethnic and other barriers disappeared as well in these small groups of less than twenty. Mild and profound ability differences were managed with parent openness and cooperation, so at the child/student level things moved mostly fluidly. When they didn’t we worked to make things better than status quo.

Think about some of unpleasant things that have taken place in the play yards and lunch rooms at your public schools. Did they get addressed and did the environment improve? In a classroom, how much socializing is there manipulating some computer software program.

Collaboration among homeschooling families is common. Although, the recreational activities were larger groups, enrichment classes were smaller as determined by interest in a particular subject, so that the student-lead book group or logic class or batik workshop or biology sessions were 4 to 8 students, but not necessarily the same 4 to 8. Some classes were parent taught, as many of us did have skills and knowledge in addition to having parenting skills. These classes managed as a co-op. Some classes were taught by professionals who could commit to 6 to 8 week sessions on a particular topic. These classes were fee based that cost between $60 and $120. Beside the monetary value, the most valuable aspect of these classes were their small size. Every student learned the material. Dyanmics managed on the play yard came into the classroom, so that group work was egalitarian. Confidence in the students ability to manage themselves lead to greater freedoms. Parents organized the logistics of book groups, but the students managed the meetings. As the children got older, parents could comfortably let them go about town and country on their bikes, rather than continue as escorts.

When I hear that my children seem so mature or socially at ease with adults and peers, it is because homeschooling allowed them to grow-up. Institutional schools cannot reach every child intellectually nor artistically nor physically, due to their large size. They also cannot allow enough freedom to let children mature, which is also due to their large size.

Until public schools can become small, they cannot offer what many homeschools, private schools, and charter schools succeed at doing–teaching each student as an individual.

How much oversight is there to ensure a student’s paper was written by the student and not the parent–likewise with projects. What is the quality of education, when many parents spend thousands on tutoring,

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