Cammie Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 http://www.salon.com/mwt/feature/2009/10/19/o_hehir_homeschooling/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebecca VA Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Wonderful, WONDERFUL article (which mentions SWB)! Terrible comments from disgruntled readers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garga Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Great article, terrible comments (like the pp said.) Egad. Those comments were awful. Especially the one where the person said that she finds parents who actually want to be around their children all day to be strange. Sometimes I forget how opposed to homeschooling people can be. It saddens me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Great article, terrible comments (like the pp said.) Egad. Those comments were awful. Especially the one where the person said that she finds parents who actually want to be around their children all day to be strange. I think this is a commonality with people who are opposed to, say, breastfeeding, co-sleeping, "attachment parenting," taking care of one's elderly relatives, etc., not that any of those by themselves (or not doing them) always is associated with anything else. But the reason some people find various of those offensive is the idea that one is being "manipulated" by someone else and that there are "expectations" of family love/togetherness/duty. Everyone should be independent from birth! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marylou Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Read the article, but not the comments. I wasn't overly impressed. Especially when the guy says his kids know more of Hindu theology than he does. Sounds like he isn't a reader/learner to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marylou Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Just read a few of the comments--wild! "There are important lessons learned in a classroom that home schooling just won't provide - how to withstand boredom" My answer . . . umm . . open a book and READ it! "Unfortunately for every kid getting a reasonable non-ideological home schooled upbringing, there is probably five getting a god driven agenda. And while this article is all peachy-keen on how well it is working out, I'm sure the downsides will manifest themselves eventually. Good luck to the parents. I hope it works out for you, your children, and society." Non-ideological upbringing. Sorry just doesn't exist! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murphy101 Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Wonderful, WONDERFUL article (which mentions SWB)! Terrible comments from disgruntled readers! :iagree: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 I found this to be the most interesting point of the article: One of the numerous screwy things about raising children these days, especially in a hotbed of social-Darwinist parenting like New York, is that by taking time off to hang out with a couple of toddlers, Leslie became a home-schooler by default. Neither of us completely understood this until it happened. But in an economy that essentially requires all able-bodied adults to work outside the home, and an environment where preschools for 3-year-olds have an intensely competitive application process (and can cost $15,000 a year), you can't opt out without making a statement, whether you intend one or not. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommyrooch Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Great article but reading the comments..... Let's just say that I have smoke coming out of my ears right now. I guess I also naively did not think that people were that negative towards or so uneducated about homeschooling. One comment really opened my eyes to it. It was actually from a person that was homeschooled back in the 70's. She supported homeschooling which was good. She did say though that unfortunately it seems that things had not changed much since she was homeschooled back in the 70's. She said she remembered her feeling of dread back then when someone would ask her what grade she was in because she knew the second they heard she was homeschooled people would look negatively at her. She said that judging from the negative and ignorant responses in many of those comments really is telling in that people's opinions really haven't changed that much. What a shame. It is one thing for a person to not agree with homeschooling because it isn't a fit for their family but it is a whole other thing to cast such a negative light on something that they have absolutely no real clue about. Judgements should be reserved for those that have taken the time to really research the topic and have looked at the pro and cons on both sides. Not given by those that are uninformed, uneducated, and lacking in true understanding of what they commenting on. This just burns me but I can't say it surprises me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snickerdoodle Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 "Unfortunately for every kid getting a reasonable non-ideological home schooled upbringing, there is probably five getting a god driven agenda. And while this article is all peachy-keen on how well it is working out, I'm sure the downsides will manifest themselves eventually. Good luck to the parents. I hope it works out for you, your children, and society." http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/ads-for-atheism-appear-on-manhattan-buses/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murphy101 Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 (edited) The comments are ridiculous. I hate when people say things like "most homeschoolers are behind". So you met 5 homeschoolers who are behind and that constitutes most? Grrrrr Even if many/most are behind - so what? The argument that they wouldn't be if they were in school is just nonsense and wishful thinking. Because the majority of school testing doesn't back it up when you look at the fact that a huge portion of college freshmen need remedial math and language arts. Which means they probably need history and science as well. The worst one can definitively say about home schooling over-all is that it likely isn't any worse than public school over-all. Of course there's respective individual cases that don't fall on the mean or average in both categories, but most don't (or shouldn't) judge an entire system outside the mean and average. As for the argument about school is more than academic - it's socialization. The primary function of a school is academics. I don't care what else they might or might not offer, if they are failing at the primary objective, then they are a waste of taxes and time, imnsho. Not to mention it begs the question that if they can't manage the primary reason for their exisitance, then I question how well they can manage to do other things. Don't they know they are just advertising for people why we shouldn't send our kids to schools? Dozens upon dozens of commenters that are not using logic or being very socialable or accepting of others!:lol: Edited October 20, 2009 by Martha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiobrain Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 I read this whole thing a few weeks ago.... I am still flabbergasted by the seriously vicious way that some people express their negative view of HSing. I think it is important to break the stereotype that people have in their heads about it, as we are not all conservative christians, and there are a myriad of reasons to HS. Even if we were CC, so what!? Anyway, it is just another educational choice. This little innocent and charming (though by no means ground-breaking) article is yet another attempt to mainstream thinking about people's home education. So I am glad it was written.. plus I obviously live in a bubble where most people I know are positive about it. :D Good to be reminded about the negative viewpoint. As far as "being behind" I know that if someone read something my 11 y o wrote, they would be horrified, if they had a conversation with him, they would be shocked (in a good way) so again... WHO CARES!!! We can cater to our kid's asyncronous (sp?) learning. A school cannot. Most people have been educated in a crappy school system, and they fear the unknown or different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LibraryLover Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 I think homeschoolers play into the 'Hsers are behind" mindset as much or more than any non-homeschoolers. The constant threads here, fi, about how most parents are not 'rigorous' , and how they 'can't relate' to relaxed hsers in their coops or playgroups says it all. I think many hsers are very often our own worst enemies as too many hsers, especially school-at-homers, are forever moaning about the horrible hsing parents they know who aren't 'doing anything'. (As if a child crying over math or getting punished for 'dawdling ' over spelling words contributes to a child who loves or cares about learning). I get no negative hsing ncomments in my life. The negative hsing comments are all from online. From hsers who believe they are doing it 'right' and everyone else is doing it 'wrong'. "We have no friends, nobody homeschools the way we do!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AuntPol Posted October 20, 2009 Share Posted October 20, 2009 Wow on the comments. I didn't realize so many people were so intolerant of other's life choices. I am so blessed that I don't have to deal with major backlash or anti-homeschool mentalities. Most of those who were against our choice kept it to themselves and have come out since and told us they were mistaken to have doubts because the changes in our children have been overwhelmingly remarkable. Really, the only "issues" we have are that I have one die-hard Aunt who is not convinced about homeschooling but is polite enough to avoid the topic for most part and I get an occasional "I could never do that!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justamouse Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Wonderful article. Those comments? Yeowch. :glare: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicole M Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 I found this to be the most interesting point of the article: Me, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 Wonderful article. Those comments? Yeowch. :glare: Thanks for the laugh! I loved the line in one letter, in response to another about how homeschoolers are woefully unprepared for life: "Until you can resist the urge to come to conclusions in the utter absence of supporting evidence, you might want to consider not bragging about that Ph.D." Off to have kiddo clean up his dishes and start making sure he is behind in spelling, reading, math, grammar, and....let's see, what's on the menu....rock formation and castle seiges! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted October 21, 2009 Share Posted October 21, 2009 I Strangers usually say "wow that is great" or "hey, I wish I had been homeschooled". I keep bracing myself for negativity, but it hasn't come. :iagree: Out my way, this has been the source of many interesting conversations. I think I've had more interesting conversations with strangers over this topic than any other one topic in my life. I love it when my son politely goes over to a table with an old couple and says "Pardon, I was wondering where your accent was from" and gets a pair of grey heads and wrinkled faces talking about Kenya long ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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