Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Satori]

[ddeubel]

Satori,

I would agree with you if homeschooling were anything near what you imagine it to be . It ain't.

Homeschooling provides all the skills you mentioned. Homeschooling provides much learning outside the family, with adults, in real contexts. Homeschooling, allows for inquiry, discipline, self- control......It is far from the free for all you imagine.

I also would like you to think about the following;

Go to your local public school, walk down the hallways and see what behaviors you would want your child to emulate.

I also think you give teachers and teacher training too much credit. Might have did a world of good for you but for me, it was going through the motions. I have an MA in Education and most of what I learnt was because being in school gave me the free time to learn what I wanted to learn....not what I was taught. Teacher's can very much, teach kids what not to be.


Your point

[Satori]

[hermes.trismegistus]

[Dawn]

I was one of those kids who was homeschooled back before homeschooling was the "in" thing, and yes, my parents were supposedly trying to "protect" me from the "evils of society."

As for socialization? School -- even in a private school setting -- was hell for me. I was a year younger than everybody else, academically beyond everybody else, obviously "different" from everybody else (Stumbling around in heavy, clumsy, orthapedic shoes when everybody else is running to and fro in tennis shoes is *not* fun!), and pretty much cut off from everybody else in a dozen other ways. "Socializiation" meant standing on the edge of the playground watching everybody else have fun or spending recess alone in the library.

Homeschooling reduced the time I spent with other kids, but opened the door to a whole gamut of other relationships. I loved learning, and my father would often drop me off at one of three local universities on his way to work, hand over money for lunch, and tell me what time he'd pick me up that afternoon. While most kids were playing baseball or soccer (things I couldn't do), I was wandering around university libraries, chatting with various students and professors, sitting in on the occasional class, playing around (with invitation and supervision) in university labs, and generally having a blast. I volunteered at nursing home and at a natural foods co-operative, meeting all kinds of interesting people in the process. I gardened with my grandfather and socialized with his cronnies at the local farm and garden center. I participated in various piano competitions and socialized with fellow students from all over N. America. I loved crafts, sewing, baking, etc., and participated in several classes at the local technical college. Was always the only non-adult in the class, but had a blast each and every time. By the time I turned 14, I had completed every academic requirement for high school graduation and was pretty much free to do as I pleased. I learned to play a couple more instruments, got involved in a volunteer outreach at a local housing project (doing Saturday craft/cooking workshops with 6-12 year old girls), and helped out with various family businesses. I also worked as a part-time nanny (24 hours a week) for a family with a four-year-old, a two-year-old, and an infant.

By the time I went away to college, I was so used to diversity that campus life seemed sterile, artificial, and quite frankly, boring. I soon found myself working nearly full-time, volunteering at a homeless shelter a couple of hours away, and helping with children's programs at an area church just to have a bit of diversity.

As for that whole idea of "protecting" their child, well, those notions came crashing down around them when they learned their precious 17-year-old freshman was dating a 22-year-old senior. Still remember the heated discussion during which my mother said, "But he's too old for you!" and I replied, "But you always said age was an artificial social division!"

[hermes.trismegistus]

[Satori]

[Qinella]

If I had kids, there's about a 2% chance I'd be putting them in a public school. That's because I know how atrocious public school education is. The only thing I could consider sending them to would be a Montessori type of program, where learning is active rather than passive. But most likely, I would raise my kids to be like I was as a kid - curious, inquisitive, passionate about learning... I'm smart enough that I can teach basically any subject up to HS, and if I don't know something we can research it together (that's called real learning) or hire a tutor. Big whoop.

The "socialization" aspect? Please. I socialized with absolutely ZERO of the people I met when I was in middle/high scool. All of my friends were people I met at church, on extracurricular activities, or who lived in my neighborhood.

I learned almost no socialization skills in school. The person I am today evolved in college, when I got away from the whole moronic peer pressure schematic.

[ddeubel]

[mithridates]

Depends on the school; some are good enough that I would consider sending my kid there:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_High_School

That was mine. Based on this one:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summerhill_School

I'm for home schooling and I'm quite sure that's what I would do if there were no democratic schools to send my kid to (though I don't plan on having kids).

Here's really bad result of home schooling:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_Blue_%28American_duo%29

But then again, here's a bad result of public schooling:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Harris_and_Dylan_Klebold

[ddeubel]

Yes, good point, depends. Nothing is one way, people, kids, students are all individuals and where one might thrive, another might drown.

But I do think one point not made is the utter in efficiency of mass education (schools, public or private). They do a great job initially , in the younger years, teaching and promoting literacy and basic numeracy, the basic 3Rs of olden days. But beyond that, after grade 3/4 , the kids learn very little and it is mostly damage control, brain/thought control.........

I once read that a kid spends almost 2400 hours learning math until finishing highschool. Education professionals have surmised and verified that one to one, after a child has passed Piaget's concrete operations stage, 10-11 years of age, THE WHOLE mathematic curriculum can be learnt by them in 70 + hours. ..............so basically a kid sits around in math class chewing his cud, planning the next armaggedon or whatever....

This goes the same for most subjects and also ESL. I am sure us teachers are just undermotivated by the mere fact that the kids could probably do a better job of teaching themselves than being in a class of 30+ (im speaking to public school teachers). I see it with my own classes who excell during the 2 hour computer lab they take with me whereas when in a class atmosphere and not self learning through CALL, they are basically on idle....

School is inefficient, time wasting.....my point.

DD

[hermes.trismegistus]

[Nowhere Man]

[Nowhere Man]

Oh, and I left this out.

The following is NYC's 1991 Teacher of the Year's acceptance speech:

http://www.naturalchild.com/guest/john_gatto.html

[mithridates]