How do you deal with 'anti home schoolers'

[Hydraman]

I'll say an AMEN to training our children to be ADULTS--- They already know how to be children!!! I will also add that NO-ONE has the right to undermine the moral values that parents teach their children -- even if they ( the teachers) themselves don't think that morals are just relative! If a public school teacher cannot keep his or her yap shut about things like this ; then they should have their certificate pulled!!! [img]/forums/images/icons/mad.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/mad.gif[/img]
This even carries over to the indocrination center (college) level!! If these anti-American professors can't keep their stupid ideas to themselves (while collectring a Gov't paycheck;I.E. my tax dollars) the same applies. The irate town folk used to tar and feather ding-a ling teachers that tried to undermine their own teachings!! [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]
Maybe we need to resort to some of the old ways!!Bye now!! Y'all have a nice day!! [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Bayrat]

All I can say to you and to the rest of the good people of your ilk Brian is God Bless You. Perhaps this is how our future can be salvaged and the ideals this country was founded upon preserved. I can recall back as far as the Sixth grade having teachers that tried to impose their political beliefs on the class. It was the Kennedy/Nixon contest and one of them held a mock election in the classroom. If you did not vote for Kennedy, his man, you were put down in front of the rest of the group. I was one of the few that did not agree with his line of thinking and paid for it at at young age. I can only imagine what it is like in public [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img] "school" now.

[MDSteve]

I think this topic has two sides. One side you have parents teaching the kids above average grade level. That is great and if my wife and I could not have her work that's what I would have. The opposite is also true about parents teaching. The children are behind in reading and math. I only know of two families who home school and they show opposite results. One has middle school kids that are developing their own video games. The other children are not advancing well. I am sure home schooling and public school is only as good as the teachers. I went to the so called worst public high school in my county. We had some problems but I was lucky and my teachers cared. If I stayed home from school (or skipped school) I would get a call from my math teacher making sure everything was alright and asked if I was going to be in school the next day. I guess she was one of the teachers who cared about her students.

I hope I didn't upset anyone. I still think it is all about the teachers.

Steve

[Hydraman]

I guess I should clarify a few things on my position.

1. The PARENTS are to be the primary teachers in any child's life and education process, whether at home or in the Government school. If the parents fail to do their jobs, then the GOOD teachers don't have much to work with.

2. The teachers job is merely to reinforce what the Parent is teaching; never to undermine what a responsible parent is teaching.

3. ALL education hinges on whether the parent succeds or fails at their job!

4. Now I will really get radical!! DADDY, you are the PRIMARY educator in the home. The children learn by watching and mimicking YOU!!!! I know, I can already hear the screaming and yelling at me, but that's OK. [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

I guess that if I were raising my kids now, I would want to monitor EVERYTHING that they are learning. The only way that I can see doing this is to do it MYSELF. I think children are too precious to entrust them to a stranger, who may not have anywhere near my value system!!!

[Haz]

Many good points have been made on this thread about the educational process. I have found that education is a unique process to the teacher and student. If either one is lacking in motivation or abilities, then the entire process becomes a tedious and stressful excercise. I have one child who would not and probably could not read until he was eight years old. Now he reads although somewhat reluctantly at age ten. Someone might say that it was my fault, but fortunately I had previously taught both of my older daughters to read at age 5. My son just wasn't ready to read when he was six. I am so glad that we did not place him in public school as he would have been labeled as a child with a learning disability. He recently took some tests required by our state in 3rd grade and did well (about 75th percentile) in language arts and reading. I was pleasantly surprised with his results and I expect him to continue to improve. His motivation has improved and we have noticed his confidence in his abilities as a student has also increased. He loves art and draws many pictures of wildlife and birds so this is probably where his real talents lie. I have to give a lot of credit for his improvement to some of our close friends who have been homeschooling longer than we have, who gave us advice about reading and development and probably saved us from making some poor choices.
Haz

I sure won't argue with you. I think everything you said is the truth!

[TimSullivan]

Hydraman, you really put the responsibility on the parents. In the vast majority of situations you are correct. I worked for a "Government school" and too many parents expected the school to raise their child. It was not unusual for us not to be able to contact a parent when there was a problem. You could write letters and leave messages on the answering machines and still no response. The only way I was able to contact some was call them at work. Many times I had to leave the message with the supervisor.

It was always a pleasure to call a parent when a student was not being responsible and know that they expected more from their child. Kids are not perfect and do make mistakes but together the school and the parents have a good chance of developing the child into a responsible adult.

[BrianP]

Gee, I'm glad to see my little post generated such interesting discussion. As you might have guessed by now, I'm pro homeschooling, not anti school, although I can say that while I had a lot of good teachers, I had a lot of bad ones too.
I really believe that many parents would rather spend more time with their kids, but the pressures of day to day life means they can't afford it. And some people shouldn't be teaching their kids anything, just like some parents shouldn't have become parents in the first place.
That being said, I would never walk up to somebody and berate them for sending their kids to a public school. I would never say that they are brainwashing their kids, or exploiting them because they follow the state curriculum.
Why is it, though, that people feel perfectly free to say that about our family? [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img] One neighbour laced into my oldest son for our 'misdeeds'! Kinda strange if you ask me.

Oh well. To all you home schoolers out their good luck! To all you public schoolers: good luck. I hope your kids do real well, home or public schooled. But as for those of you who would attack those of us -- well there isn't an Instant Face here which shows what I think ....

[TimSullivan]

<font color="blue"> Oh well. To all you home schoolers out their good luck! To all you public schoolers: good luck. I hope your kids do real well, home or public schooled. But as for those of you who would attack those of us -- well there isn't an Instant Face here which shows what I think ....
</font color>

Very well said and I wish you and yours my best wishes.

[Hakim]

Homeschoolers are familar with most of these names, but it is often of interest to those unfamiliar with the history of homeschooling, to realize that some of the most gifted and successful people in American history did not attend formal public schools exclusively ...

The Homeschool Hall of Fame
Notable Homeschoolers

So many children in history through today have been home schooled, and then become not only functional, but highly successful members of our society. Here some of the people, from the 1700's through today, who spent some or all of their time being schooled at home rather than in the public schools.!

Interested prsons may read more extensive accounts of the biographies of many of those who were homeschooled in Chapter Four of Linda Dobson's Homeschoolers’ Success Stories (A Brief History of Home Schooling). It is available at Amazon .

Homeschoolers’ Success Stories

Presidents
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, William Henry Harrison, Theodore F. Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, John Tyler, Franklin D. Roosevelt

Governors
Patrick Henry (VA), Charles Pickney III (SC), Richard D. Spaight (NC), William Livingston (NJ), Richard Bassett (DE)

U.S. Senators or Congressmen
William S. Johnson (CT), George Clymer (PA), John Francis Mercer (MD), William Blount (TN), William Few (GA)

College Presidents
John Witherspoon – Princeton, Timothy Dwight – Yale, William S. Johnson - Columbia

Chief Justices of U.S. Supreme Court
John Rutledge, John Jay, John Marshall

Preachers &amp; Missionaries
John &amp; Charles Wesley, John Owen, Jonathan Edwards, William Carey, Dwight L. Moody, John Newton, Hudson Taylor

Scientists, Economists, Businessmen
Blaise Pascal, Booker T. Washington, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Benjamin Franklin, Andrew Carnegie, John Stuart Mill

Authors
Mark Twain, George Bernard Shaw, Irving Berlin, Charles Dickens, C.S. Lewis

Famous Women
Abigail Adams, Margaret Mead, Mercy Warren, Martha Washington, Florence Nightingale, Phyllis Wheatley, Agatha Christie, Pearl S. Buck

Generals
Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, Robert E. Lee, Douglas MacArthur, George S. Patton

Philosopher
Charles Montesquieu

Artists
John Singleton Copley, Andrew Wyeth, Rembrandt Peale, Claude Monet, Ansel Adams, Charlie Chaplin

Composers
Anton Bruckner, Felix Mendelssohn, Amadeus Mozart, Francis Poulenc

Web Developers
Muhammad Chishti