Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Christian Teacher thoughts on homeschooling
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Christian Teacher thoughts on homeschooling
Originally posted by Mark Tindall
All the more the reason that each Christian in education should strive to deliver the best education they can within the constraints of their particular system. For example (from another thread) A Christian who is a teacher in a public school is not allowed to evangelise his / her students. Beforee you get upset - THINK! If evangelisation were approved for Christians then it would also have to be approved for Satanists, Buddhists, Moslems, Hindus, Raelians, Wiccans, UFOlogists, etc etc etc. I think is a wise policy for a public utility.
I know exactly what you're saying and I agree with that. I don't want the schools evangelizing my daughter or any other children. But, right now, in the US, it's popular among the public schools to teach about every religion thoroughly with the exception of Christianity. All I've heard students say after being taught this is that Christians are bigots. When I ask why they say this, they reply that that's what their "religious studies" classes have taught them.
Sadly that is true of many education ssystems. Life skills is not a usual subject area.
It is in my education system (my home). My daughter will be prepared to start out in life when she's finished with school.
Need I quote the abuse I have received from homeschoolers when pointing out their flaws???
"Ain't no-one perfick!"
The trick is in criticising the idea or practice and not the person. Unfortunately some people think you are criticising them anmd not their ideas. likewise , I am not criticising you personally, Nori. I am looking at tyhe flaws in homneschooling. All systems have flaws. Home schooling is not immune fro that. It is the action that is taken after recognising the flaws that is important.
I tend not to criticize the person. You should see this by now from examples here and on m.e.h-s.c. The only time I've actually criticized a person (seriously) here is when either they've claimed to be God or have attacked me personally.
There are flaws in homeschooling. The biggest flaw is also the biggest benefit (IMHO, anyway). That you get to spend a lot of time with your children. It can be a flaw if you tend to overdo it and spend time with only your children and they only spend time with you. But, most parents who homeschool make sure that this isn't done.
That is not the case in Austalia.
If I remember correctly, Australia also respects the UN a little more than the US does, too.
I disagree. Where does your child socialise with people of other races?
I disagree Where does your child socialise with peers of both sexes?
In everyday life to both of these questions. I don't keep my daughter holed up in a bubble to make sure she doesn't come in contact with other races or genders. There's the parks, the YMCA (swimming), church, grocery shopping, my mother's house, etc...
I disagree. No professional educational journal has ever stated that.
I didn't say educational journal. I was talking about teachers and other public school personnel. Ask almost any homeschooling parent in the US if they've ever been told this by teachers. Chances are, you'll get a lot of yeses. I've been told this several times.
I think so too. I think that community service, except in the case of getting in trouble with the law, should be totally voluntary. Right now, my daughter and I go to the local convalescent hospital to read to the blind men and women. We only do this once a month because they have so many volunteers.
I disagree. it has the right to ensure, on behalf of the nation it legally represents, that its citizens have attained a reasonable level of education that is equlally avalable to all its citizens. I woukld think any federal government would be amiss if it it did not impose minimum standards for all education which is going to be accredited in some formal educational setting.
However, this issue is not central to that of good educational practice. It does give a bad impression of homeschooling to professional educators who may assume that there must be something going wrong if homeschoolers want to hide what they are doing from the government. An openess to external inspection (for verification purposes) is always a good policy. I don't see any good reason why it should not apply to homeschooling just like it applies to every other education system. It is called "accountability". All people are accountable to someone. Who are homerschoolers accountable to? (Don't answer "the pupil" ... ALL education is accountable to the student!) Who else?
"You gotta serve somebody!" - Bob Dylan
It's not that we want to hide our progress. It's that we've been told so much, in the US, that we're not legitimately educating our children that we're wary of
any intrusion. If I'm ever asked, I have all of my daughter's records, from second grade through seventh grade, on cdrom. But, I'm still very wary of anyone asking me for the records.
If the United States educational system were better, I'm sure that more people would choose public school over homeschooling than now. But, if they improve now after so many years of failing our children, homeschooling parents would still tend not to trust them. The way it stands now, if the public schools were to improve over night, they would have to
show me how they've improved. And, even then, I may still decide to homeschool my daughter.
