New Scientist had a major feature on this just last week. Home schooling in the US has increased from 300,000 to 2 million since 1990, and the increase is almost entirely due to fundamentalists. Essentially it is their reaction to losing almost every court case in the evolution vs creationism debate. They’ve even set up their own college to accept the home schooling “graduates”, as they couldn’t get into regular ones for obvious reasons.
On that note, I only recently (3-4 weeks ago) finally learned a little bit about Evolution. That too was a big reason that my parents sent me to private school. I feel cheated.
Right. No religion is taught in public schools, because public schools are for everyone. So, if a parent prefers to have religiously-based education, they have the right to take the child out of public school, and get them a faith-based curriculum, whether that be in a private school, or at home.
Or don’t you think parents have the right to get their child a private education at all?
And that’s exactly the point. Some parents would rather their children learn to see the world from a religious point of view, or at least not spend the majority of their time in an atmosphere that tells them that their faith is irrelevant at best, wrong at worst. So of course it can be a matter of religious freedom.
As to the matter of socialization, all you have to do is read some of the threads or posts from people remembering their school years not-so-fondly. It works for some people, for others it’s several years of sheer hell. I’ve never been able to figure out why we have decided that one-size-fits-all is the best or only way to do education. For most parents the only way to change their children’s school options is to move. And what about the gifted children, or any of the ones who don’t fit the profile, who aren’t at the same place at the same age as the rest? Why should they have to spend their entire childhoods knowing they’re misfits?
Well, I certainly disagree with virtually everything they’re teaching. Especially anything scientific. But PHC is but one pissant college in an entire nation. Sure, they like to stroke each other and act as if they and they alone have the correct answers, but they don’t. And even a moment in the real world will demonstrate that.
The fact that they’re focusing on creating a race of uberpoliticians, though, concerns me a jot. Dare I say, a tittle as well. But ultimately I don’t even worry that much about the fresh-faced idiots leaving PHC and attempting to make their way in the world of politics. They’re still outnumbered, and there exist too many people in politics who have educations from places like Princeton and Rutgers who are smart enough to bray laughter, spittle and tortilla chip components in their faces when they start in with their specious crap.
Why can’t they teach them about their religion in their own time?
Part of the reason for public schooling is to impart a basic education to all. If you can simply take your children out and inculcate your own prejudices in them, there is no hope for eradicating them. You support it for religion, but why stop the line of thought there? I’m sure parents in the KKK want their children raised to hate black people, but if they come across them in school and find they are normal reasonable people that has at least a chance of stopping the rot in that generation.
If you think that schools don’t teach values, you couldn’t be more wrong.
Of course they do, and should. Values != religion.
And my religion says that many of the values the school system teaches are bullshit.
Stick around, honey. This place is increedible for learning about all of the sciences, arts, and culture. Every day I learn something new.
I’m really sorry you had that experience. But don’t let it hold you back. Everything I know-- and I don’t know all that much, admittedly-- I’ve learned through independant reading. The online debates here have really sharpened my thinking/logic skills.
Welcome to the Dope. May it open new worlds to you as it did for me.
Why can’t school time be their own time? Some people want the entire atmosphere to be one of faith. I’m not into it, but if someone is, who am I to tell them it’s not ok?
And for some people, it is a matter of values, as well as religion. We will probably send our kids to the local Catholic high school. Partly because the academics are stronger there than at the public school, but also because there is more discipline there. Not religion, but just plain disclipline…the expectations for good behavior are higher. This is something we believe in for our children, and they won’t get it at the public school.
It is absolutely not the role of the state to decide what prejudices children will be indoctrinated into. In any case, I don’t believe in stopping the line of thought at religion. Of course, raising children to hate black people or anyone else is abhorrent, but the state disallowing it is nothing more than thought policing, and not appropriate for a free society.
Who’s time are you referring to. The government? The school? The parents? The kids?
What basic education are we suppose to impart? I’m thinking that we’re talking about basic courses such as history, science, mathematics, composition, etc. Don’t most states require homeschooled children to take some sort of test annualy to ensure that they’re getting a decent education?
I don’t stop my line of thought there. There are a wide variety of reasons parents might choose to homeschool their children besides religion.
Marc
What values taught in school are bullshit? The issues in your link could be translated into pay attention, focus on what your doing, etc. That’s bullshit?
The few people I know that home school barely graduated from high school. Do they test the parents or do they have to meet any sort of educational requirements? How do some of these parents think they’re qualified to take over their children’s education? I knew a girl who was home schooled and her mother worked and she watched TV all day. Have things changed? Before she could take a course at the community college she needed a couple years of remedial courses.
How do most kids feel about it? I personally would have hated staying home with my mother all day. I don’t think taking your kid to the Y or the museum makes up for the socialization in school. I used to go batty when I was home sick for a couple of days.
My son went to a very expensive private school but only because my ex MIL paid for it. Otherwise I’m sure he would have gone to public school. I encouraged him to be independent and learn how to make decisions. I could be wrong, but it just doesn’t seem healthy. I don’t even think it’s particularly healthy for the parent to be joined at the hip with their kids for the next 12 years.
I’m not criticizing anyone that home schools. If my son had issues in school or if it was a terrible school system I’d probably do the same thing. I consider myself fairly well educated, but I’m not a teacher. I think I’d try to get tutors or professionals to help out. If you feel there are things that schools aren’t teaching, you have the rest of the day to teach that yourself.
In the state I live in there’s no testing required and curriculum doesn’t have to be approved.
Interesting. If home schooling was so great, we should have seen a zoom in test scores by now - that is if home schoolers bother to see how well their kids are doing.
Yeah, I live in California, and some religions think the values are schools teach are bullshit. Those values are tolerance and diversity. Horrors!
And what are these obvious reasons? this list which includes Harvard, Yale, Pepperdine, MIT, Cornell and nearly 1000 others who have accepted homeschooled students would seem to disagree with your opinion.
Here is another good site with info the Home School Legal Defense Association, http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/Issues/C/College.asp
And a quote from the Wall Street Journal
That is from May 10, 1994.
That may be the way you translate them, but I think he’s entirely right about the noxious values taught in school. FWIW, that’s based on a decade as a professional classroom educator.
You are aware, of course that a very large percentage of public high school graduates also need remedial work … in fact, a much higher percentage than homeschooled kids.
As an adult who got into the sparse “gifted” program in public schools, I can answer that–because it’s damn good practice for the rest of their lives.
A point made in the opinion piece I linked to in the OP that I thought was exceptionally interesting was that the government mandates education for all–and then runs the educational institutions. For this reason, there need to be legal alternatives to the government-administrated education system.
To me, this makes perfect sense.
I still wouldn’t homeschool or privately school my own child, unless the public schools where I lived were truly dismal. Then I’d go for private.
I had an outstanding public education - great teachers, great environment with lots of other smart kids, and much better than my parents could have given me. Of course they both had to work, which would have made it tough.
Both my kids had excellent educations also, though it took a bit more work in a California with class hours gutted by lack of money. We looked at private schools when we came here, and only one, across the Bay and fully booked, was any good.
I don’t think you can compare the socialization you get from being with other kids for hours a day and that from a bit of sports - which you can still do even if you are in public school. My daughter got to be friends with kids from all over the world, of all religions and sexual preferences, and she’s a better person than I am for it. I don’t think we could have given her that, though academically there would be no problem.
I’m all for allowing it - just as long as there are minimum standards about what kids should be taught, and they’re tested to make sure they learn the material before being given a diploma. Additional stuff is fine. I still think kids are losing a lot - but clearly some parents want them to lose contact with the wider world.