Homeschool article with vicious comments from Aug 2010

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

Oh boy, I cannot believe the vicious comments to this article from a NYTimes blog from August:(

 

 

http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/17/deciding-to-home-school/

[Rebecca VA]

I only read the first (of eight) page of comments, but I just don't see them as being that vicious. I think the comments are well-thought-out and should give the author food for thought. What are her true motivations -- better academics or better bonding? Has she talked to her son about this? Is his school so deficient that she needs to yank him out? Does she plan to homeschool through high school or for just a year or two? The author is vague on her reasons, and these are legitimate questions.

 

I do commend her, however, for wanting to bond more with her son. I hope her homeschooling works out!

Edited September 16, 2010 by Rebecca VA

[fairfarmhand]

Here is a comment that piqued my interest:

There is value in the homeschooling experience, don't get me wrong. Unless you have some other reason other than wanting to spend more quality time with your son (which you could simply try harder at working into your life) I would recommend considering homeschooling for a year during the pre-teen years to help him ease through that difficult time.

 

 

So is it that wrong to homeschool because you would like to spend time with your kids? I have many , many reasons for homeschooling, but one of the major ones is that my family is able to spend LOTS of time together. I want to be the influential person in my kids life (is that arrogant?) at least through their early years. I honestly can't say that I feel bad about that.

 

Really, parents everywhere decry the "peer pressure" that kids have and worry about their peer dependence. But from infancy (some kids) we are putting them largely in the company of their peers. I think, why not expose them to many ages.

 

My kids are not holed up in our home all day; they get out...really more than I really want them to. But they are not spending their days mainly in the company of other kids at their exact age and stage of development. They're around older kids, younger kids and lots of adults.

 

Do we have to homeschool to "improve" our kids educational experience? Basically when I started out, I figured that I could do "at least" as well as the public school. I feel that we are doing better, but that is not my point. A kid can get an average homeschool experience, and an average public school experience. So they both seem like they should be viewed equally...

Edited September 16, 2010 by fairfarmhand

[Dmmetler]

What I find interesting is that so many people assume that the reason listed for homeschooling in one, fairly short blog is the ONLY reason.

 

I seriously doubt that's the case. I admit that many of the author's reasons applied to us last year, and my DD was only in Kindergarten. But those weren't the reason that caused us to decide to jump to homeschooling. It was the realization that homeschooling would let us meet our DD's academic AND social needs better, by removing that time pressure and allowing her to ENJOY the time she had to play after school, before and after dance class, and so on that really was the deciding factor.

 

Oh, and to the parent who says that a teacher who has even taught 5 years has 125 years of experience, and that this is better for the child...sorry. I taught for a decade before I had my daughter, teach would-be teachers at the university level, and write curriculum materials professionally.

 

I'm STILL learning more by homeschooling one child than I learned in the classroom, and my daughter is learning more than the students did in any class I taught. The difference between 1-1 and 1-25 is dramatic. 1-1, you're really teaching, and you can immediately see if the child is learning and alter what you do. `1-25, you're throwing material out there, trying to judge whether or not it has hit, and altering accordingly, but at any given time, there will be some kids for whom the bar is too low, some for whom it's too high, some who are asleep, and so on. It's, by far, the least efficient way of teaching known. Since it's the only game in town for so many people, I do my best to help make it better-but it's still FAR inferior to the ideal.

 

Now, it's true that the ideal would involve the teacher being an expert on everything-but the fact is that at age 8, the parent mostly IS. With the possible exception of a specific foreign language, there's nothing that you haven't studied yourself.

 

Oh, and the idea that homeschoolers don't see other kids, don't participate in activities where they will deal with time pressure and learn to be in a group and generally stay at home all the time is getting REALLY old-and I've only homeschooled since May!!!

[NanceXToo]

I haven't had time to read this yet, but I've read plenty of other nasty, negative comments about homeschooling in response to other articles, and all I can say is, take it with a grain of salt.

 

There are a lot of judgmental, ignorant and crude people out there who will bash anything from homeschooling to nursing a baby to co sleeping to taking your kids to a restaurant to just about anything. I can't even be bothered to waste any time or exert any emotional energy getting worked up about nonsense like that. All I know is that in MY real life, I've never gotten a single negative word, look or anything of the sort for any of my parenting choices- be it homeschooling my kids, nursing them in public, or putting a safety harness on a toddler.

 

If some faceless nameless people on an internet somewhere, who have no bearing on my life or my relationships with my family, want to spend THEIR time spouting off about those things on a website, more power to them. I'm not going to lose sleep over it!

[Brigitte]

I always find it rather amusing that the majority of people think that they way kids are schooled today is the way it has always been done. Schools with hundreds of children, 25 in a class, historically speaking is quite new. It was not that long ago that parents kept their children home for their education.

[SailorMom]

I can't believe the one comment about "if you have a special needs child the best place to be is in public school"..... what planet is that person on?!?!?! PS faile special needs kids at an alarming rate. I'm sure this poster does not have a differently abled child or he/she would never have said this.

[NoPlaceLikeHome]

I always find it rather amusing that the majority of people think that they way kids are schooled today is the way it has always been done. Schools with hundreds of children, 25 in a class, historically speaking is quite new. It was not that long ago that parents kept their children home for their education.

 

:iagree:

[SailorMom]

Yes - and no one seems to notice that the US is FAR behind in education - and started going downhill after school became institutionalized here.

[Garga]

I can't believe the one comment about "if you have a special needs child the best place to be is in public school".....

 

 

This called to mind how doctors and people in the past would immediately put mentally handicapped children into mental institutions to be raised. It was thought that it was impossible for parents to raise these children at all. If I parent tried to raise their Down's child (for example) at home, their doctor and friends thought they were being ridiculous.

 

Nowadays, some people will still have the same response: special needs? You can't possibly help--send them to an institution to be helped.

[elegantlion]

My ds was in private school for prek and K. We did the Hurry up, hurry up every morning. For two non-morning people (me and ds) this was very draining. When he was in 1/2 day prek I barely had time to recharge before I had to go pick him up.

 

I'll admit when we started discussing homeschooling I seriously had to move those fringe benefits aside and think of what would be best for his education. Homeschooling won, but a bit part of me was jumping up and down knowing we'd no longer have to deal with the morning Hurry up! nonsense.

 

I'm pretty sure the blogger didn't choose homeschooling just for the benefits to her schedule. I'm not surprised she chose to blog about that aspect, it's so nice to just wake up in the morning and not rush.

 

As usual some people see a slice of someone's life and assume that is their only focus. :confused:

[Teachin'Mine]

I liked the article and the comments. It brought back the memories of our year of BM school. It was pretty much how the author said - lots of rushing to get to school, then lots of rushing to get to bed to get up to get to school the next day. And unfortunately very little learning at school.

 

Wasn't the reason we home schooled, but it sure was nice to get out of that rat race. :D

[mama2cntrykids]

I can't believe the one comment about "if you have a special needs child the best place to be is in public school"..... what planet is that person on?!?!?! PS faile special needs kids at an alarming rate. I'm sure this poster does not have a differently abled child or he/she would never have said this.

 

You're right on! With an Aspie son, I've heard the comment about PS being able to benefit him more than once. It's just NOT true! Granted, there are times that I want to send him to PS just so someone else can deal with him (not realistic, I know!)...but it's just a thought and I know it would make his situation worse.

[happyhomemaker25]

So... wanting to spend more time with your child and learn alongside him is not a good reason to homeschool? Huh. :001_huh:

[Guest]

What I find interesting is that so many people assume that the reason listed for homeschooling in one, fairly short blog is the ONLY reason.

 

I seriously doubt that's the case.

 

Exactly. :iagree::iagree:

 

This blog always draws incredibly judgmental comments, for some reason. All the wackos seem to come out, eager to provide the world with their One True Way to do everything right.

 

I'm always surprised by this, because for some reason I expect anyone who frequents the NYT to be a little more thoughtful and analytical about what they read, and to realize that the nature of a blog is not fully explicatory and detailed like a book. Funny how many of them seem not to.

 

I was actually really intrigued by the entry and e-mailed the author. We've corresponded several times. One thing she said was that her publicist and Lisa Belkin, the Motherlode administrator, both warned her that the response would likely be critical. It takes a really brave and strong person to know this going in, but to decide that getting your message out and perhaps encouraging potential homeschoolers is important enough to face the criticism. She did say that it was a lot more nasty in tone than she had expected, and that it took a while to accept that these were not INFORMED critiques, and move on.

[msjones]

 

Oh, and to the parent who says that a teacher who has even taught 5 years has 125 years of experience, and that this is better for the child...sorry. I taught for a decade before I had my daughter, teach would-be teachers at the university level, and write curriculum materials professionally.

 

I'm STILL learning more by homeschooling one child than I learned in the classroom, and my daughter is learning more than the students did in any class I taught. The difference between 1-1 and 1-25 is dramatic. 1-1, you're really teaching, and you can immediately see if the child is learning and alter what you do. `1-25, you're throwing material out there, trying to judge whether or not it has hit, and altering accordingly, but at any given time, there will be some kids for whom the bar is too low, some for whom it's too high, some who are asleep, and so on. It's, by far, the least efficient way of teaching known. Since it's the only game in town for so many people, I do my best to help make it better-but it's still FAR inferior to the ideal.

 

Now, it's true that the ideal would involve the teacher being an expert on everything-but the fact is that at age 8, the parent mostly IS. With the possible exception of a specific foreign language, there's nothing that you haven't studied yourself.

 

 

:iagree:

I love what you've said here. You've pretty much summed up why I teach my kiddos at home. I taught 8 years of ps and loved it. But, once I tried a tutoring setting, there was no question that it was superior to what I was able to provide in a large class setting.