Jim, one of the main arguments that people come up with (as a reason not to homeschool, because they don't want to admit they're lazy or scared of a new idea) is that they say public school is for 'socializing' their children. Rather than socializing, I hear more about bullying, peer pressure to get involved with drugs and crime, etc. I am amazed that some parents seem to be so lazy that they want to leave SOCIALIZATION to the schools, too!

How do you feel about this, since you're actually doing it?

You say your wife was a school teacher... are you familiar with retired teacher/counselor Linda Schrock Taylor, who taught school and then went home and homeschooled her son? Now THAT is one in the eye for the public schools! (Linda Schrock Taylor archives: http://www.lewrockwell.com/taylor/taylor-arch.html)

My congratulations and support for making the time and effort to homeschool.

Sue

Some hopefully common sense thoughts on the current problems about teaching children today.

i) Schooling success is a function of class size. The smaller the class the greater the success (to a point)

ii) Home schooling is of course just primarily just an exercise in one or two children class sizes. Greater time and care can be afforded to each individual child.

iii) Larger class sizes are subject to disruption. I was a disruptive influence in class when I was at secondary school for various reasons to the point I was removed from the class. An example was when I completed 2 weeks mathematics work on surds and indices in a single afternoon. Some will struggle to keep up and some will be left twiddling their thumbs. One size does not fit all.

iv) A maximum class size of no more than 15 and an optimum of around 8-10 is best. Teachers don't even then really have to try. One of the best school teachers in Engineering Science in Scotland (he had the highest examination pass rates) used to always disappear off to the teachers common room for a coffee and cigarette almost every lesson for about 20 minutes after setting a tough problem.

v) Word recognition versus phonetics. This is an easy one for the main stream English teacher who doesn't know any better. Ask them what the word analogy means then teach them to program a microprocessor firstly in binary machine code then in Assembler. They will soon get the point.

vi) One of the downsides to home schooling is actually the teacher or to be more precise the lack of very specific hardcore expertise in specific subjects esp Maths, physics and chemistry etc. When in primary school (aged about 11 to 12) my father was given some course work arithmetic where he had to point out to the qualified primary 'English' teacher the mistakes of the incorrect marking where my correct answers were being marked down.

vii) Discipline. Hire more male teachers than female ones. Female teachers will either themselves get bullied by the school children or overcompensate in disciplinary matters when there is no need. Jean Brodie was a f ascist.

And finally, always remember that a poor university education is not always a barrier for not achieving success just as long as you know how to spell potatoe or know that the Canadian National Igloo doesn't exist. I am always amazed that ill qualified politicians, who no nothing about teaching on both sides of the fence always seem to have an agenda with regard to education. Most teachers know how to teach, just let them get on with it (in those smaller class sizes of course) without all the administrative and political nonsense they have to deal with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwDknTtkVdc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usK3eA9tezA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w84BDXVL7UI

I always remember looking forward to go to my public school but then again it was just like the film Gregory's Girl (yes I had hair like that as well ).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEol7v7cA7Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aG545vIYkQA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrfLHS_Ylxs&feature=channel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr6BzQ2Q2uI&feature=channel

Thank you, Jim!

You explained what I have seen and thought. In my case, anyway, every single home schooled young person I have met was friendly, polite, able to understand words and concepts beyond their public school counterparts, and were a joy to be around.

Most parents seem to invest about four scheduled hours a day for home schooling, but also take advantage of opportunities that come up during each day, like having the children figure out how to add fifty percent to recipe ingredients, how to come up with a complete diet for their chickens out of individual materials, ask them to design small structures, keep track of pets' veterinary history, and make a point of taking them to businesses (pre-arranged) where an employee (or owner) will take them on a tour and explain how it works.

Many people point out that many parents aren't educated enough to home school, but the desire to do so can be a great incentive. There are all kinds of sources available to parents so they can provide a complete education.

I took a friend's cat to her vet's office for an appointment, and met a young woman with Down's Syndrome, her mother, and the young woman's young daughter. She proudly explained that she and her mother were going to home school her (apparently normal) daughter. I was very surprised, and glanced at her mother, who smiled and nodded. I was overwhelmed with the idea that this young woman had both the courage and the will to even try to do this, even with the help of her mother, when it's simply too scary for most American parents.

I also read somewhere that private colleges especially, are quietly hiring home schooled teachers.

Thank you for all your information.

Sue

Am Fear Liath Mor:

You have many valid points. However, here in the U.S., no matter how good a teacher may be, he/she is not ALLOWED to teach by any method other than what their school board dictates. The attitude that children and sheep are pretty much the same is dominant here.

Disruptive children are NOT removed from classes for any appreciable time, they are allowed to continue and interfere with the child who wants to learn.

Many studies have been done on the best methods to teach reading. Phonetics (usually phonics here) came out as best in every single study, with no exceptions. The American Public School system decried the studies as faulty (ALL of them!) and continued to teach word recognition. And they were allowed to do so. Which fact alone tells me that there are other issues that matter more, and education itself is not really a consideration.

The only (very rare) exceptions are usually in smaller towns when the parents band together and DEMAND that phonics be taught as the only way.

"... lack of very specific hardcore expertise in specific subjects esp Maths, physics and chemistry etc."

I cannot find a list of classes offered in my county, but I am quite certain that the number of math and science classes offered isn't exactly extensive, if they offer them at all. Our school system is ineffective at even teaching the basics.

Discipline doesn't exist here, in virtually any place or any form, not just the schools.

"Most teachers know how to teach, just let them get on with it ... without all the administrative and political nonsense they have to deal with."

I can tell you for an absolute fact that THAT isn't going to happen without a major revolution of irate parents, and THAT isn't going to happen, either.

The U.S. has the most expensive educational system, and the poorest. I guess throwing money at a problem really doesn't fix it.

Sue

Sue:

It isn't as easy as that. In the US certain things get tossed into 'education' that just don't show up in other nations. The cost of busing, including keeping, administering and maintaining a large fleet of buses and drivers, doesn't show up on many other nations education's costs. Many European nations rely on their municipal mass transit systems to move the children to and from school.

School buildings in some other nations are not administered under education but rather they are listed and funded under local government as municipal buildings.

The US system has mandated that all children, regardless of potential costs, be given an education. Whereas some other nation simply neglect these children, and some European nations, maintain special schools and tutorial systems. In both cases the related costs are much less or, often, don't show up as general education funding.

In the US middle and upper middle class families pulled their children from public schools as a response to integration in the 60s. Because of this the average income of families sending their children to public schools has drop. In LA county approximately a third of all children in public schools come from homes below the poverty line. They tend to be poorer, many not speaking english, often intellectually neglected in early life, often emotionally neglected or abused.

While teachers in the US, and the teachers union, are often blamed for rising education costs the reality is that US teachers tend to make much less, and be a lower SE status, than in other developed western nations and teacher to student ratios tend to be much smaller in the US than in other developed nations.

We demand much from public education in the US than other nations. Much of this demand has little to do with any actual classroom teaching. At the same time the public system has been drained of many of the children who are easiest to teach. Children who start school with good academic skills, coming from families that are inclined to be engaged and support their children's education, children who are emotionally well adjusted and least likely to be disruptive have left many districts.

I meant to add a link to an interesting article about education and how it has changed from the structure before 1800 to what we have now. How what it meant to be a teacher or student changed.

http://www.adlit.org/article/5981

To those interested in education and teaching kids the Adlit site has a lot of resources. So spend some time finding out what they have to offer.

http://www.adlit.org/