Another argument against homeschooling that I hate!

[happyhomemaker25]

This past week I've read a few articles and had no less than 3 conversations where this has been brought up.

Homeschoolers need more regulations because parents are just not qualified enough in most cases to give a quality education.

My major problem with this line of thought is that it is implying that if I just send my kid to public school they will get a quality education. I call bull-honkey on that.

If the schools could show me that every kid they churn out is a great scholar or heck, even just ready to attend CC, I would not hate this argument so much.

Not every homeschool kid is getting a great education, but having more regulations is not going to do any good. The school districts here can't even agree on why certain schools are failing, why should they get to determine who is doing a good job with homeschooling?

Homeschoolers are falling through the cracks, is the battle cry. Yeah, so? How about focus on the public schoolers graduating with a 3rd grade reading level, the inability to count money, and not even a basic knowledge of how our government works before you start judging homeschoolers.

For the record I'm not against public schools, I am against them judging homeschoolers. Just a rant. :)

[Ellie]

I'll join you in that rant :rant: and raise you one :cursing: . I'll also add :boxing_smiley: and :banghead:.

[Shellers]

My son was going to end up one of those public school graduates that can't read. That's WHY we homeschool.

 

Seriously, his school was letting him go by year after year reading at a 1st grade level. He did all his homework and classwork but nothing was clicking. He was NOT actively being taught how to read, but his teachers insisted one day he would just get it. :confused:

[Tammyla]

My state is regulated and always pushing for more...:tongue_smilie:

 

I would argue they should catch the countless students falling through their own cracks, and then worry about the homeschooling ones.

[imacoffeemom]

This totally reminds me of a saying.... I homeschool because I have seen the village and I don't want it raising my children!

 

I think those who express negative opinions of homeschoolers, do so out of ignorance. If they really knew what we accomplish in a day, they'd have a different opinion. Too many parents are stuck in the mind set of sending their kids to public school because that is all they know.... just send their kids on the magic yellow bus and call it good. It takes a lot of courage to stand up and say "No way! Yes, I will take on my kids' education (scary)".

 

And if I hear one more person ask me "How I socialize my kids, I may scream!"

[amo_mea_filiis.]

I'll join you.

 

I was recently asked, "How do you remember stuff well enough from third and fourth grade to teach it to your own kids?"

 

:confused:

 

:glare: Seriously? LOL

 

My son was going to end up one of those public school graduates that can't read. That's WHY we homeschool.

 

 

:iagree: Dd can't do basic math but was doing "excellent" in regular PS for 5 years!

 

This totally reminds me of a saying.... I homeschool because I have seen the village and I don't want it raising my children!

 

 

:iagree:

[Rbsmrter]

I taught in a public school before homeschooling so I guess that would deem me "qualified" to teach according to some people's standards. I've found that the approach to teaching is VERY different based on the setting. I realize that the rigor of teaching programs is often up for debate, but I felt like I was very well prepared to enter the classroom. Of course I had a passion to do it and pushed myself throughout the program. However, very little of what I learned at college applied to homeschooling. Teaching a classroom of 30 just isn't the same as teaching a classroom of 3. The strategies, approaches, and perspectives are different. I do think I learned quite a bit about child development, but I could easily have done that by reading a textbook on my own. Regulations, in public school or in the home, don't create better teachers. The more regulations they heaped on us in public school (generally related to the EOY tests), the more resentful the teachers came. Bad teachers didn't suddenly decide to be good teachers because of new rules, they just figured out ways to bypass them. More than anything, I think its the desire and passion that makes a difference. When a mom is committed and intentional, she is fully capable of providing her child with an exceptional education. The same concept applies to a public school teacher. I really don't think those 4 years of college provide anything more than book knowledge.

 

It's hard to create regulations that force people to WANT to provide a quality education. It takes time, work, and effort and not everyone is ready to do that, whether you are talking about a "qualified" teacher or a mom.

[Farrar]

This totally reminds me of a saying.... I homeschool because I have seen the village and I don't want it raising my children!

 

I don't mind if the village helps raise my children, actually... I mind if the bureaucracy does. :tongue_smilie:

[Photo Ninja]

I'd ask them if their confidence in the public education system was seriously so low that they didn't expect me to have at least enough background to handle passing on 3rd grade level knowledge.

 

 

Yup! I had a version of this conversation once. I was told that I was not qualified to teach my children because I can't possibly know enough. I reminded her that my dc were early elementary grades. She nodded and said there is too much information to learn in those grades and I don't know enough. She firmly believed that ps teachers know enough to teach, though. I reminded her that I graduated from a ps, taught by teachers who, according to her, "knew enough to teach". So if the ps teachers are so smart and teach well, why wouldn't I know enough to teach second grade and K? Doesn't she trust that the ps gave me a good education to have at least second grade skills? I pointed out that either the ps taught me academic skills, as she repeatedly stated only the ps could do, or the ps failed me. If the ps taught me as well as she believed it did, then I have the academic skills to pass on to my dc. If the ps did not educate me to an early elementary level, then why would I want my dc to spend 13 years in such a failed educational system? She stammered for a bit and didn't know what to say.

 

She tried to save face by saying that I was an exception and of course she knew I was educated, but other hsers are not. I pointed out that most other hsers also graduated from the ps system, so if other hsers are not educated enough to teach their dc, she was admitting that the ps system has failed.

 

I hate to admit it, but I enjoyed that conversation because I had her in a corner (figuratively speaking) and she couldn't get out. I made my point.

[Scarlett]

This past week I've read a few articles and had no less than 3 conversations where this has been brought up.

Homeschoolers need more regulations because parents are just not qualified enough in most cases to give a quality education.

My major problem with this line of thought is that it is implying that if I just send my kid to public school they will get a quality education. I call bull-honkey on that.

If the schools could show me that every kid they churn out is a great scholar or heck, even just ready to attend CC, I would not hate this argument so much.

Not every homeschool kid is getting a great education, but having more regulations is not going to do any good. The school districts here can't even agree on why certain schools are failing, why should they get to determine who is doing a good job with homeschooling?

Homeschoolers are falling through the cracks, is the battle cry. Yeah, so? How about focus on the public schoolers graduating with a 3rd grade reading level, the inability to count money, and not even a basic knowledge of how our government works before you start judging homeschoolers.

For the record I'm not against public schools, I am against them judging homeschoolers. Just a rant. :)

 

I have to say....that I only have a high school education....and I've been a very lazy homeschool mom the last 3 years due to divorce/moving/remarriage/ etc....and yet my ds12 has excelled.

 

I've heard two thots on that...

 

1)Well, he is so smart (I think the implication is that no telling WHAT he could have done if in public school)

2) I've done more with him than I realize

 

The truth is probably somewhere in the middle.

[Cricket]

Yup! I had a version of this conversation once. I was told that I was not qualified to teach my children because I can't possibly know enough. I reminded her that my dc were early elementary grades. She nodded and said there is too much information to learn in those grades and I don't know enough. She firmly believed that ps teachers know enough to teach, though. I reminded her that I graduated from a ps, taught by teachers who, according to her, "knew enough to teach". So if the ps teachers are so smart and teach well, why wouldn't I know enough to teach second grade and K? Doesn't she trust that the ps gave me a good education to have at least second grade skills? I pointed out that either the ps taught me academic skills, as she repeatedly stated only the ps could do, or the ps failed me. If the ps taught me as well as she believed it did, then I have the academic skills to pass on to my dc. If the ps did not educate me to an early elementary level, then why would I want my dc to spend 13 years in such a failed educational system? She stammered for a bit and didn't know what to say.

 

She tried to save face by saying that I was an exception and of course she knew I was educated, but other hsers are not. I pointed out that most other hsers also graduated from the ps system, so if other hsers are not educated enough to teach their dc, she was admitting that the ps system has failed.

 

I hate to admit it, but I enjoyed that conversation because I had her in a corner (figuratively speaking) and she couldn't get out. I made my point.

 

No fair using logic. :lol: People obviously just say these things without thinking. Some of this stuff is crazy.

[Aelwydd]

You know what, anti-hs'ers are pretty mundane in their arguments. I've heard the "How are you qualified though?" question too many times.

 

Yawn.

 

IMO, there is a far more interesting question. If I were to apply thoughtful critique to hs'ing, I would investigate: How do hs'ers successfully match their teaching style to their children's personality? And replicate that each year for several years?

 

That's my single biggest challenge as a hs'ing parent. I have the knowledge. I have many tools to teach.

 

But learning how to figure out how to make the material click in his mind is not easy. I'm primarily a visual learner, and heavy on the deductive reasoning. He's tactile, gets math on an intuitive level, and the way I have to present the information to get it to click is sometimes very foreign to how I would think, or process a new concept.

 

So, that's the more interesting question in my mind. And in any case, I think hs'ers still have the advantage in that ps' teachers don't generally adapt their teaching to their pupil's strengths. They can't--not with 25 kids or more in a class.

 

Which brings up my point: in comparing a teacher with a Master's degree to a hs'er with a H.S. Diploma, the former may have a great deal more education. But between the more highly educated, but less adaptive, teacher and the less educated, but more responsive parent, who is more likely to make the connection necessary to impart information?

 

You can have six PH.Ds, and a decade of teaching experience, but if you cannot establish that conduit to a child's mind, it's useless information. Because it is not reaching its destination.

[JennyD]

I have this conversation quite often with people. My point is always the same -- that regulation without enforcement is useless, and do they really want to shift resources away from the public schools in order to seriously regulate and monitor homeschoolers? Because while it wouldn't be impossible, it would also be no small job, and would take away both money and personnel away from elsewhere in the system.

 

The answer to this is *always* no, which leads me to think that what people really mean is either that homeschooling should be illegal OR that they think of regulation in terms of some kind of expressive or hortatory function. Personally, the latter bothers me way more than the former. But I only take the conversation in that direction if I think the other person is up for it. :D

[Hen]

You know what, anti-hs'ers are pretty mundane in their arguments. I've heard the "How are you qualified though?" question too many times.

 

Yawn.

 

IMO, there is a far more interesting question. If I were to apply thoughtful critique to hs'ing, I would investigate: How do hs'ers successfully match their teaching style to their children's personality? And replicate that each year for several years?

 

That's my single biggest challenge as a hs'ing parent. I have the knowledge. I have many tools to teach.

 

But learning how to figure out how to make the material click in his mind is not easy. I'm primarily a visual learner, and heavy on the deductive reasoning. He's tactile, gets math on an intuitive level, and the way I have to present the information to get it to click is sometimes very foreign to how I would think, or process a new concept.

 

So, that's the more interesting question in my mind. And in any case, I think hs'ers still have the advantage in that ps' teachers don't generally adapt their teaching to their pupil's strengths. They can't--not with 25 kids or more in a class.

 

Which brings up my point: in comparing a teacher with a Master's degree to a hs'er with a H.S. Diploma, the former may have a great deal more education. But between the more highly educated, but less adaptive, teacher and the less educated, but more responsive parent, who is more likely to make the connection necessary to impart information?

 

You can have six PH.Ds, and a decade of teaching experience, but if you cannot establish that conduit to a child's mind, it's useless information. Because it is not reaching its destination.

 

My approach to teaching new concepts is to teach a topic in as many creative ways as I can think of- to make sure they really understand. So, even though I think I know how my kids learn, I still throw out explanations that will appeal to different types of learners. I love that I have the time and freedom to do this. I was really surprised to discover my auditory processing disorder student actually memorizes extremely well with songs- I'm glad I didn't skip that method, thinking he couldn't learn that way.

 

I love explaining as many ways as I can...though I do try to reign it in when I see they've gotten it...

 

I think a passionate, caring mom can figure out methodology even without the education degree because she is simply searching to teach a concept. We often stumble on the best explanation, or if we are not reaching them, we will research how to teach it.

[stripe]

I don't mind if the village helps raise my children, actually...

 

I'm with you. I need a helpful aunty and a nosy neighbor.

[Aelwydd]

My approach to teaching new concepts is to teach a topic in as many creative ways as I can think of- to make sure they really understand. So, even though I think I know how my kids learn, I still throw out explanations that will appeal to different types of learners. I love that I have the time and freedom to do this. I was really surprised to discover my auditory processing disorder student actually memorizes extremely well with songs- I'm glad I didn't skip that method, thinking he couldn't learn that way.

 

I love explaining as many ways as I can...though I do try to reign it in when I see they've gotten it...

 

I think a passionate, caring mom can figure out methodology even without the education degree because she is simply searching to teach a concept. We often stumble on the best explanation, or if we are not reaching them, we will research how to teach it.

 

Yop. And how many teachers, either public or private, would utilize song for one particular student's learning style?

 

That's something you can offer your child that is a distinct advantage over the ps teacher--even one with a grad degree. :)

[Mommy22alyns]

All I can say is :iagree:.