"It was like watching a train wreck..."
The title of this blog has nothing to do with the actual blog itself. My friend Tammi made that comment in reference to the drama that went down DUE to this blog.
I wrote the following blog on another blogring I'm a part of. The comments got SO HEATED that the blog had to be removed.
But...here is my controversial post. (I highly doubt many of you will find it all THAT controversial.)
***
The idea of homeschooling is nowhere near as controversial as it use to be. When my mom started homeschooling me in 1989, it was a BIG deal and my parents received a lot of negative remarks about it and were met with a lot of skeptism. As more and more research came out and more parents began to educate their children at home, homeschooling gained more respect.
Unfortunately a lot of lawmakers and politicians do not see it this way and in many countries, it is illegal to homeschool. The Home School Legal Defense Association does a LOT of work on behalf of families but as it sits right now, the choice to educate your children at home is still legal in the United States, although aspects of the current healthcare reform bill have the ability to endanger that right. As long as it is legal (and depending on circumstances if it is illegal), my husband and I plan on homeschooling our children.
Everytime I read a post on Xanga about the education system, something that happened to a child while they were at school, teacher-parent clashes...my first thought is "That is one reason why I'm choosing to homeschool my kids!!"
Ultimately, it boils down to one main reasons for our family (then a bunch of other reasons).
Main Reason: I do not feel comfortable with someone else having control over my child for eight-ten hours a day. This is by far our biggest concern. I don't even leave Andrew with a sitter (other than grandparents) for short periods of time. It is my responsibility as a parent to raise my child and that does not belong to someone else.
I should say I do not think teachers are bad people or can't do their job. I have a lot of respect for teachers! My degree is in education and I understand that it is a very challenging profession. But it is not a teacher's job to raise their students, and a lot of times, that's what it turns into.
Other reasons (these aren't listed in any particular order):
-I dislike the idea of "Zero Tolerance" policies. I understand why they were put in place but, it takes the common sense out of the situation the majority of the time. I've read too many stories of children being expelled from school for bringing a tiny little lego gun to school or defending themselves. I will never encourage my child to fight, but I do expect him to learn how to stand up for himself...and sometimes that means fighting back.
-I'm uncomfortable with someone else talking about sex to my child. It's my job and his father's job to educate him in this area. That job does not belong to a school.
-Children learn in different ways and at different speeds. A classroom of 20-21 children with one teacher and maybe one aide is not the best situation for this.
-Outside influences. There will come a point in my child's life where he will make his own decisions about friends, who he hangs around, what he does....etc. But at a young age, I CAN protect him and it's my JOB as a parent to protect him from things he is not ready to handle.
-I don't want to get up at 6am Haha....this is true though. Schools here start at 7:45am. To beat traffic, you need to leave by seven at the latest. Or...I can keep my kids at home and we can enjoy leisurely mornings and not rush around to beat traffic or get somewhere! (That was one of my favorite parts of being homeschooled when I was younger.)
-I look forward to the flexibilty that homeschooling offers. My brother and I always had short school days, there was no set length of time that we had to do each subject. Some days my mom would give us a break and we'd go to the park or hiking. On days we did school, we were always done early and had plenty of time to spend with friends, or working a job, or relaxing. We never had a set amount of days for school so if we wanted to travel one week, we always were able to. If we were out at night, there was never a hurry to get home and get to bed because the next day was a school day, we could take it easy the next morning if needed.
I don't think it's possible to write a post about homeschooling without addressing the socialization aspect. Anyone who is familiar with homeschooling knows that the idea that homeschooled kids are social rejects is a huge myth. In my entire life of being homeschooled, I have never had issues socializing, neither has my brother. I have only ever met TWO families who's children had socialization issues. I am really inclinded to believe that socialization is more of a personality trait. If you think about kids in public and private schools...there are those with social issues in both places. It's not limited to homeschool students nor is it more common. Studies done on this have been numerous and there are too many to link here.
It's also important to point out that homeschooling does not hinder college applications. I was accepted into every school I applied to. The fact that I had been homeschooled was never even questioned.
Homeschooling does not work for every family....and even families that choose to homeschool do it in different ways. Some are more scheduled than others, some use a set curriculum, some use online programs...etc. There are so many options.
I am looking forward to being a homeschool mom. :) I'm looking forward to teaching my child(ren) and helping them learn in an environment they are comfortable in and in a style that suits them best.
***
If you are wondering what was so offensive...someone took issue with the fact that I said I didn't want to get up at six am. They called me lazy and selfish and attacked my parenting style. Then they proceeded to call all homeschoolers mindless and accused me of wanting to create little mindless clones exactly like myself. This entire comment was made by someone who could not spell and then later admitted to "lurking" and "internet stalking" so...yeah, didn't do much to help their arguement. Oh the blogging world.....
I wrote the following blog on another blogring I'm a part of. The comments got SO HEATED that the blog had to be removed.
But...here is my controversial post. (I highly doubt many of you will find it all THAT controversial.)
***
The idea of homeschooling is nowhere near as controversial as it use to be. When my mom started homeschooling me in 1989, it was a BIG deal and my parents received a lot of negative remarks about it and were met with a lot of skeptism. As more and more research came out and more parents began to educate their children at home, homeschooling gained more respect.
Unfortunately a lot of lawmakers and politicians do not see it this way and in many countries, it is illegal to homeschool. The Home School Legal Defense Association does a LOT of work on behalf of families but as it sits right now, the choice to educate your children at home is still legal in the United States, although aspects of the current healthcare reform bill have the ability to endanger that right. As long as it is legal (and depending on circumstances if it is illegal), my husband and I plan on homeschooling our children.
Everytime I read a post on Xanga about the education system, something that happened to a child while they were at school, teacher-parent clashes...my first thought is "That is one reason why I'm choosing to homeschool my kids!!"
Ultimately, it boils down to one main reasons for our family (then a bunch of other reasons).
Main Reason: I do not feel comfortable with someone else having control over my child for eight-ten hours a day. This is by far our biggest concern. I don't even leave Andrew with a sitter (other than grandparents) for short periods of time. It is my responsibility as a parent to raise my child and that does not belong to someone else.
I should say I do not think teachers are bad people or can't do their job. I have a lot of respect for teachers! My degree is in education and I understand that it is a very challenging profession. But it is not a teacher's job to raise their students, and a lot of times, that's what it turns into.
Other reasons (these aren't listed in any particular order):
-I dislike the idea of "Zero Tolerance" policies. I understand why they were put in place but, it takes the common sense out of the situation the majority of the time. I've read too many stories of children being expelled from school for bringing a tiny little lego gun to school or defending themselves. I will never encourage my child to fight, but I do expect him to learn how to stand up for himself...and sometimes that means fighting back.
-I'm uncomfortable with someone else talking about sex to my child. It's my job and his father's job to educate him in this area. That job does not belong to a school.
-Children learn in different ways and at different speeds. A classroom of 20-21 children with one teacher and maybe one aide is not the best situation for this.
-Outside influences. There will come a point in my child's life where he will make his own decisions about friends, who he hangs around, what he does....etc. But at a young age, I CAN protect him and it's my JOB as a parent to protect him from things he is not ready to handle.
-I don't want to get up at 6am Haha....this is true though. Schools here start at 7:45am. To beat traffic, you need to leave by seven at the latest. Or...I can keep my kids at home and we can enjoy leisurely mornings and not rush around to beat traffic or get somewhere! (That was one of my favorite parts of being homeschooled when I was younger.)
-I look forward to the flexibilty that homeschooling offers. My brother and I always had short school days, there was no set length of time that we had to do each subject. Some days my mom would give us a break and we'd go to the park or hiking. On days we did school, we were always done early and had plenty of time to spend with friends, or working a job, or relaxing. We never had a set amount of days for school so if we wanted to travel one week, we always were able to. If we were out at night, there was never a hurry to get home and get to bed because the next day was a school day, we could take it easy the next morning if needed.
I don't think it's possible to write a post about homeschooling without addressing the socialization aspect. Anyone who is familiar with homeschooling knows that the idea that homeschooled kids are social rejects is a huge myth. In my entire life of being homeschooled, I have never had issues socializing, neither has my brother. I have only ever met TWO families who's children had socialization issues. I am really inclinded to believe that socialization is more of a personality trait. If you think about kids in public and private schools...there are those with social issues in both places. It's not limited to homeschool students nor is it more common. Studies done on this have been numerous and there are too many to link here.
It's also important to point out that homeschooling does not hinder college applications. I was accepted into every school I applied to. The fact that I had been homeschooled was never even questioned.
Homeschooling does not work for every family....and even families that choose to homeschool do it in different ways. Some are more scheduled than others, some use a set curriculum, some use online programs...etc. There are so many options.
I am looking forward to being a homeschool mom. :) I'm looking forward to teaching my child(ren) and helping them learn in an environment they are comfortable in and in a style that suits them best.
***
If you are wondering what was so offensive...someone took issue with the fact that I said I didn't want to get up at six am. They called me lazy and selfish and attacked my parenting style. Then they proceeded to call all homeschoolers mindless and accused me of wanting to create little mindless clones exactly like myself. This entire comment was made by someone who could not spell and then later admitted to "lurking" and "internet stalking" so...yeah, didn't do much to help their arguement. Oh the blogging world.....









"Children learn in different ways and at different speeds. A classroom of 20-21 children with one teacher and maybe one aide is not the best situation for this."
You have a VERY valid point, however, students can also learn in a public school setting at their own pace. By having a guided mini-lesson, explaining what they will be learning (such as 2 digit addition) and then breaking the students up into achievement groups (high to low) and having their assignments and tasks differentiated to their needs allows for those students to learn at their own pace: more challenging 2 digit addition problems for the higher achieving students and simpler, repeating 2 digit addition problems for the struggling. Also, a Montessori classroom is one where the teacher is only the facilitator, and the students learn at their own pace too. Might be helpful to visit one--I was VERY skeptical about the whole process because of the very point that you make in favor of homeschooling--that students learn at their own pace--in a Montessori classroom, THEY DO...the teachers (usually 2-3 at any given time) only facilitate learning and manage the classroom to minimize arguments and disruptions, but the students learn for themselves. I witnessed 2 first graders teaching themselves about exponents! IN FIRST GRADE...
Also, I understand fully the concern that you would have for your child going to school. there have been times that I have been afraid of a student and I'm the teacher--that should NEVER be the case, but sadly it is. My point is this: if you train your child in how he should go he WILL choose his friends wisely. He will learn, through your instruction and discipline about who friends are, and will only minimally learn through his mistakes about friendships.
Does that make sense?
Again, I TOTALLY respect your decision, and, if I ever get married and have kids, I would most likely homeschool mine up till about middle school only because I feel that my education background could provide my kids better knowledge and I could teach them MORE...Each state has its own set of frameworks that need to be covered. However, there are SO many that if we were to focus on just two in each subject each day, students would be in school for 22 years. As a teacher-parent, I could start them earlier on curriculum that could provide them with advancing opportunities.
My mom taught us a lot at home, both spiritually and secularly. I learned to read when I was 3, and my strongest memory from kindergarten is reading books to the other kids in the class. I learned arithmetic long before I went to school, and discovered negative numbers when I was around 4. So yes, there was a lot of teaching that went on at home, and I fully condone that. If every parent would do that, public schools would have a LOT fewer problems.
I also had some fantastic teachers who dealt well with those of us in the class who were ahead of the curve. My first grade teacher was a genius, and she kept me busy by giving me my own "secret drawer" full of educational things to read. I remember getting interested in science because of booklets she gave me on desert plants. By the time I was in middle school, I attended a magnet program for kids like me. It absolutely kept me working hard and thinking, and learning at a speed that was good for me (even though different than other kids in the school) and with flexible learning styles.
I loved public school. I did really well in it and I'm very glad my parents (who were overly qualified to teach us at home if they'd wanted to) didn't homeschool me. I would've missed out on a lot of really neat opportunities.
Most legitimate issues with homeschoolers come down to poor parenting practices or character weaknesses in the children that would also cause problems in public school. I definitely don't buy that more homeschoolers have issues passing exams or aptitude tests than public schoolers. I've seen too many public school kids fall through the cracks for that to be true. With good parents, about any schooling situation can work. I think that at least through 7th grade, homeschool is the definite best option for us. Since I lack a bit in math (background, not ability), I may use community college to do high school math, I am not sure. I have plenty of time to freshen up on it along the way. Everything else I feel totally competent to teach better than the system could. And I think people forget about options like that. Homeschoolers can use outside resources like co-ops or community college or even a single class/extra curricular activity from the public school (in some states) to fill any gaps they are worried about.
Statistics don't show much difference at all in the education of these two groups. It is simply not true that parents lacking college degrees are unqualified to teach their children at home.
I can see why your blog caused issues since so many are opposed to homeschooling (with a few exceptions for those they believe qualified). I am thankful for the right to teach my children in whatever way I see fit--using any method that suits our family.