Home Schooling

[Iacobus]

[quote name='photosynthesis' date='Dec 15 2005, 02:11 AM']oh, and Iacobus, Grinnell sounds exactly like my alma mater, Goucher College...  although I'm happy to be leaving the land of liberal BS and PC garbage
[right][snapback]826513[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]

I love Grinnell and while it is liberal I don't think it is putting any ideolgoical line in the way of a full and fair education. The "coolest" prof on campus teachs poli sci and enjoys ripping apart the students who bring in some ideolgoical stance. Everyone thinks that he is a die-hard Republican... except he has a life size poster of Bobby Kennedy in his office and loves the Democratic party. Almost as playing a devils advocate. That is how a lot of my profs behave in their class, it is rather intresting.

[photosynthesis]

I don't know any conservative professors here... except one, she is Catholic, too. and she teaches music. all of the journalism and poli sci professors are liberal

[Matty_boy]

[quote name='Era Might' date='Dec 13 2005, 05:34 PM']I didn't say they were locked in the room.

Rather, I said that the social experience of a real school is something unique. It's something that is separate from home life in a way that social activities are not. Six hours a day, for most of the year, your life is at school. It's a microcosm of the real world, and teaches valuable social skills. The process of going to school, getting through the year with your classmates, with your friends, communicates a certain independence from your home life, and from your parents.

I have no doubt home school kids can be sociable and well-adjusted. Personally, however, I feel a real school is a more effective option to that end.
[right][snapback]824078[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]

Getting struck by lightening is something unique too, but I don't want to experience that.

In my experience, public school kids are more likely to be the drunks in college and the ones into premarital sex etc. I don't think I've ever met a homeschooler like that. (I'm not saying all public schoolers or even most public schoolers. Just that you don't see a whole lot of homeschoolers doing that sort of thing.)

[Era Might]

[quote name='Matty_boy' date='Dec 16 2005, 12:12 PM']Getting struck by lightening is something unique too, but I don't want to experience that. 

In my experience, public school kids are more likely to be the drunks in college and the ones into premarital sex etc.  I don't think I've ever met a homeschooler like that.  (I'm not saying all public schoolers or even most public schoolers.  Just that you don't see a whole lot of homeschoolers doing that sort of thing.)
[right][snapback]828094[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]

That's because homeschooled kids often come from a family of faith (not always, as homeschoolmom pointed out, but often). Public school kids are, more often than not, like the general population: godless.

Like I said, I would prefer a good Catholic school to anything. But if a principled life is not valued at home, it doesn't matter where your child goes to school, even if he is homeschooled. It's the same thing with CCD. The problem is not with CCD itself (well, unless the parish is loopy), the problem is that parents don't reinforce the catechesis at home.

Someone said you get out of homeschool what you put into it. Well, you get out of public (or parochial) school what you put into it as well.

ps: I used to know a pair of homeschooled kids when I lived in Florida. They lived in my apartment complex. They were just as "adventurous" with sex, drugs and alcohol as any public school kid. They weren't Christian homeschoolers. They were also socially awkward. Again, not that all homeschoolers should be stereotyped that way, but they were.

Edited December 16, 2005 by Era Might

[Matty_boy]

[quote name='Iacobus' date='Dec 13 2005, 07:30 PM']I am going to send my kids to an elite private school with tutition costs over 20,000 dollars a year to express my socialist side.

Yeah, sure.

I don't support homeschooling for a number of reasons. One is acadmic. While a parent can easily teach one advanced subject or can teach all the subjects at an early age, it is more likely to be of greater depth if the teacher really cares about the subject and is trained extensively in that subject (:cough: Bio majors SHOULD NOT be teaching chemistry or physics, pet pev :cough:). The advantage of a formal school is that they have to hire these "trained" people for each subject and you are more likely to get someone well versed in that field teaching your child. I would much rather have E.O. Wilson teaching Little Iacoba (who is a Periodic Table and my daughter... long story) then, say, Robert Kaplan. With Dr. Wilson they are more likely to fully explore the subject and also I can rest assued that their tutor fully understands that subject he is teaching.

Social reasons are the secondary reason I don't support home schooling. I have meet a number of people who have turned out rather well from home schooling, I have meet an disprop. number, when compered to formally educated students, that lack a number of social schools. They often lack clarity and brevity in speech and writing and have a decided lack of articulateness. There is often an odd air around them in a number of their behaviors.

While many homeschoolers are moving into community based learn things, they are often still found lacking. They are often not exposed to radically opposing ideas and if the reason they are being homeschooled is to avoid these ideas, then, my friends, lets not kid ourselves and call it an education but rather by its real name, indoctrination.
[right][snapback]824171[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]

My parents sent me to a co-op homeschooling science class through 8th grade then on to community college in high school for science and foreign languages.

As far as social concerns, what is this "odd air" about homeschooling kids. They don't like to go out and drink and have sex at 13 years old like so many public schoolers so they don't have a disordered state of mind? Is that the "odd air" that is being mentioned?

I would think that if anyone is "indoctrinating", it would be the public schools which don't allow God, don't allow anything but evolution, teach global warming, don't hurt anyones feelings EVER(it's okay if they can't read in high school, just don't hurt their feelings), don't say anything that could ever be misconstrued or interpreted as offensive to anyone, if you're gonna have sex, use a condom or birth control but don't tell your parents if you get pregnant just go to PP.

[Matty_boy]

[quote name='Era Might' date='Dec 16 2005, 10:26 AM']ps: I used to know a pair of homeschooled kids when I lived in Florida. They lived in my apartment complex. They were just as "adventurous" with sex, drugs and alcohol as any public school kid. They weren't Christian homeschoolers. They were also socially awkward. Again, not that all homeschoolers should be stereotyped that way, but they were.
[right][snapback]828106[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]

I'm not saying it doesn't happen, just that most people whom I've met were homeschooled for the right reasons by faithful parents.

[Theoketos]

Actually Matt Most of the Home Schoolers at our school were drunkereds...I can think of three that got women pregnant outside of marriage...certainly when they were friends with me, my life was extra full of drama.

However, it does seem that other home schoolers are models of virtue.

[homeschoolmom]

I guess you might conclude that homeschoolers fall into that catagory known as "human" with faults, foibles and talents just like the rest in that catagory...

[Theoketos]

[quote name='homeschoolmom' date='Dec 19 2005, 11:16 AM']I guess you might conclude that homeschoolers fall into that catagory known as "human" with faults, foibles and talents just like the rest in that catagory...
[right][snapback]830583[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]

Amen...

[Sojourner]

[quote name='homeschoolmom' date='Dec 19 2005, 01:16 PM']I guess you might conclude that homeschoolers fall into that catagory known as "human" with faults, foibles and talents just like the rest in that catagory...
[right][snapback]830583[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]
What? Homeschoolers are human?

[homeschoolmom]

[Colleen]

[quote name='homeschoolmom' date='Dec 19 2005, 12:16 PM']I guess you might conclude that homeschoolers fall into that catagory known as "human" with faults, foibles and talents just like the rest in that catagory...
[right][snapback]830583[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]
I would tip my hat to you . . . if I had a hat.

[TheoGrad07]

Hmmm ... interesting debate. I've been to all kinds of schools, in several countries ... publich school in Canada and England, Waldorf schools in the US and England, diocesan schools in the US, private schools run by French nuns and European priests in the US, and homeschooled in the US and Belize. I now attend a Catholic university that has a very rigorous curriculum and tough professors (and I've been on the Dean's list every semester and made the National Dean's List every year). Both of my parents have taught, in private and diocesan schools.

I won't make an across the board statement about homeschooling. For some kids, it may be the best thing. With an outside curriculum and help it can work (like Kolbe Academy, which my brother used -- he's now at Notre Dame and doing well ... but he went to as many schools as I did!). I know students at my univeristy who were homeschooled and are doing well. I also know some I'm not very impressed with. I know some (not at my univeristy) who are pretty close to being miserable failures.

The point is, I don't think homeschooling is ideal, though for some kids in some situations it could work. My ideal would be an orthodox Catholic school ... *sigh* ... and nuns with rulers

I'm a believer in tough love, and think kids learn a lot from the "playground jungle." Too often I see homeschool kids being protected by neurotic parents -- and the kids end up without any backbone. Again, this isn't an across the board statement, just some observations. If homeschooling makes a boy grow up into a man (and not just a male), great -- but I haven't seen much proof. Girls, I think, are better suited for homeschooling than boys, for multiple reasons ...

[Matty_boy]

[quote name='Theoketos' date='Dec 19 2005, 11:04 AM']Actually Matt Most of the Home Schoolers at our school were drunkereds...I can think of three that got women pregnant outside of marriage...certainly when they were friends with me, my life was extra full of drama.

However, it does seem that other home schoolers are models of virtue.
[right][snapback]830568[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]

I can name quite a few at BC that were not so. Phil and the Family Stone, Ropers, Boevers...

[qfnol31]

More than half the people I know at my school were homeschooled at some point or another.

[TheoGrad07]

[quote name='qfnol31' date='Dec 20 2005, 02:19 PM']More than half the people I know at my school were homeschooled at some point or another. 
[right][snapback]831953[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]


More than half? Really?

[Socrates]

[quote name='TheoGrad07' date='Dec 19 2005, 01:40 PM']I'm a believer in tough love, and think kids learn a lot from the "playground jungle."  Too often I see homeschool kids being protected by neurotic parents -- and the kids end up without any backbone.  Again, this isn't an across the board statement, just some observations.  If homeschooling makes a boy grow up into a man (and not just a male), great -- but I haven't seen much proof.  Girls, I think, are better suited for homeschooling than boys, for multiple reasons ...
[right][snapback]830736[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]
Are you implying that every guy who was homeschooled is unmanly and "lacking any backbone"?

I think this is a false and somewhat inflamatory comment. (Even if not intended as an "across the board statement.")

I think it is best that homeschooled boys to be involved in sports or similar "manly" activity.
During my homeschooled years I played football and got into fights with other boys, took karate, played on a soccer team, and lifted weights.

Homeschoolers need not be spineless, overprotected sissies.
And I don't think being in a godless sex-and-drugs atmosphere is necessary for "growing into a man." (Much as many seem to think so.)

[qfnol31]

[quote]Are you implying that every guy who was homeschooled is unmanly and "lacking any backbone"?[/quote]

LoL!

Her experience includes people like me.

[Socrates]

[quote name='qfnol31' date='Dec 20 2005, 08:59 PM']LoL!

Her experience includes people like me. 
[right][snapback]832323[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]
TheoGrad's a "she"???

[qfnol31]

Yeppers.