FYI, there is a body of evidence in favor of a young earth and there is a growing recognition among astrophysicists that some “intelligent design” was behind the creation of the universe. I’ve seen quotes of people going to great lengths to say something like, “we don’t have to call it “God,” but there’s substantial evidence that something controlled the formation of the universe.”
To paraphrase our discussion on another board – you have a problem with asserting that something is patently false or that there is no evidence for something because you disagree with it and because your preferred scholars disagree.
Also, I believe you’ll find that most of us Christians will teach evolutionary theory – there’s simply no way to escape it. The only difference is what side of the coin we look at. You would teach it as pure fact and I would teach it’s flaws. What’s the fundamental difference between your assumptions/conclusions and mine? Let me answer for you, you don’t like my assumptions and conclusions and believe I should be prevented from them.
You’re arguing, almost explicitly, that we should encourage a rough life for our children so they’re used to it when they’re adults. Does that strike anyone else as sad?
Maybe I’m a hopeless romantic, but I don’t want my children to be as jaded as this quote above would indicate Epimetheus is.
We can live expecting to meet good people, or we can live expected to be abused by everyone we meet. We’re likely to encounter our expectations either way.
Try being nice to peope, Epi, you’ll find most of them return the favor.
Dude, I have the same story with different names and places.
Now that I’m an adult, I’m starting to understand that I was not the only one that went through it.
Life doesn’t have to suck…
And just to stay true to the thread, my history is at least half the reason I wanted to homeschool.
You said earlier that kids need to be calloused to get used to it. I say they need to be not-calloused so they know how to not be so sad/depressed/suicidal.
Again, we could trade my childhood sucks stories for days. In that regards, you have at least one brother/friend here… me.
I doubt you’ll find many people who had idyllic childhoods. Most of the people I know (self included) didn’t. For the vast majority growing up is at the very least incredibly difficult. We can’t shield our kids from everything and we shouldnt try. I don’t think homeschooling is shielding… it is just an educational option available when the other ones don’t work for your family.
Some years ago, I met a distant relitive at a family function. He told me he was home schooling his child. He was one of the evangelicals that what his version of God, the universe and everything taught to his child. He also said (when my wife mentioned that she worked in a book store) that he hadn’t been in a book store in a decade, seemed scary to me. Anyway I couldn’t argue the academic angle, most public schools here in Michigan stink, but I went on with the sicialization angle. Then the man said something a decade before Columbine that still rings in my ears. “Given the society in public schools, why would you want to subject your child to it?” At tht time I decided that you don’t have to be a fire and brimstone nutcase to home school.
The thing I fear more than that my child will be bullied in school, is that Loren would become a bully or worse, a hanger on, doing evil to some poor mark to gain a bit of popularity or pleasure as the case may be. I’ve seen much piling on and ganging up and mob mentalility my life, even recently to want to risk producing someone so contemptible as the many bullies and hangers on as I have dealt with.
I don’t think school teaches kids to be bullies. From the bullies I’ve seen ( and that’s been many … I used to have to run home from school as soon as the bell rang so I could get in the house before they beat the tar out of me and that was just elementary school) they learn this bullying behavior at home. My father was a bully and he taught my brother to be just like him. Somehow I managed to reason that this bullying behavior was wrong and cruel and that I didnt like it done to me so I wasnt going to do it to anyone else. (ditto for most of what my useless parents taught me) Sure there are kids that go along to get along but that is because they haven’t the courage to stand up for themselves. Instill your daughter with self worth and courage and she will never be a bully (and I don’t mean the fake crap self esteem that comes from never beating your kid at checkers and throwing them parties every time they do something they should have just done anyway.)
A “pack mentality” seems like a fairly well proven phenomena.
You can observe it anywhere. Next time someone at work is the butt of a joke, see how many people pile on. Granted, it may be friendly in nature, but the “pack” has to show their agreement with prevailing behavior.
Happens all the time with my group. Sometimes I’m the butt of the jokes, sometimes someone else is.
The problem with a pack of children is that they’re merciless - reducing others to tears and inducing hatred and rage, a la Columbine. I read an article in a major mag. (Time, newsweek, something like that) that compared a lot of the school shootings. They all fit the same pattern in that the shooter was ostracized and bullied at school and the home life usually wasn’t much better.
I don’t disagree with your point in general, though. Kids manage to grow up and lead normal lives all the time. I’d just submit that some children are better off without the type of socialization they’d be subjected to in a school setting.
I don’t deny that people get swept into the mob. I think we need to teach our children to recognize and get away from that kind of behavior though.
My main problem with a lot of the thread has been that one bad school or one set of parents that home schools and teaches their kids some fanatical zealotry do not represent the whole system.
That and you can’t sheild your kids from everything.
People have a lot to deal with growing up and most of it is not pretty. I was terrified to have a child because I knew what the world was like and I wasnt sure I could inflict that on someone I loved. Now I have one and I have to balance my need to care for and protect her with her needs to grow into a strong and capable and thoughtful individual.
Do I want my daughter to suffer like I did? No. Do I want anyone’s child to have to live like I did? No. This though has nothing to do with home schooling to me. I think parents need to thoroughly investigate all their options and keep involved so if there is a problem they can step in and alleviate it. I could home school and chaperone her everywhere and one day we get hit by a bus. Life’s a crap shoot. We do the best we can.
I could have been one of those kids that blew up their school. I was abused at home physically, mentally and sexually. My father taught me from toddlerhood that I was his property and I had to do as he said. He fed me drugs and alcohol if I fought to hard. I had no friends because I was such a strange child. No extra curricular programs for me and I always had odd clothes and never could accept the invitations of the few who tried to be my friend. I tried to be a normal kid inside school but they saw through and bullied and teased me right through highschool. There were guns in my home. My father slept with one. All I wanted was a normal life in a house that felt like home with people who honestly cared about me. I made a choice, a lot of choices and extricated myself from hell all by myself and forged the life I have today. Not every bullied and abused kid blows up a school. That kind of mentality makes it hard for me to tell people my story because I feel like I will immediately be judged unstable and unfit for society.
But back to the point of the thread…
I’m truly on the fence about if I should home school my child. Our school system here is terrible… the physical buildings are close to being condemned and that kind of safety issue cannot be ignored! I do not want to send her to catholic school and it is nearly impossible to find a private school that is not religiously affiliated. We make too much money to be eligible for the moronic school choice plan (that “no child left behind” crap) so I can’t send her to the neighboring districts/towns. Our other choice is to move. That’s not viable for another couple of years so I am trying to weigh options and hoping things will improve before I have to make a choice and give me some better options.
I was hoping to get a variety of opinions here.
Give it a try.
As a loving parent, you no doubt already (or will) teach your child colors, alphabet, etc. long before he or she gets to kindergarten. As a loving parent, you will monitor what your child is being taught and ensure you child is learning it by helping with homework and explaining what the teacher did not. In other words, you will homeschool. The only question is whether you do it in part or in whole.
And I suggest you look at kindergarten as totally expendable school time. it’s primary aim is the ensure all kids know the basics that you child will no doubt already know. If your homeschooling experiment doesn’t work out, you can enroll in first grade the next year. What have you got to lose?
Thanks… That’s about where we are leaning right now. Should she or I not feel it is working then we can try something else. Education is a lifelong process and I have always thought if the only place you learn anything is in school there is a problem. But I don’t think that means lecturing about physics all day You can learn a lot playing in the mud! Or building a snow fort (since snow is something we have a ton more of than mud right now!
You can learn a lot playing in the mud! Or building a snow fort (since snow is something we have a ton more of than mud right now!