Here are some websites, (USA) that you might look at:
http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/MI/
http://www.pearsonlearning.com/
Home Schooling - Yes or No?
by winnie 40 Replies latest jw friends
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BlackSwan of Memphis
I understand your rebuttal points, Black Swan, which is why I did not answer "yes" or "no" to this question. The schools in your area do sound awful. I was one of those children who suffered in the public system. Thank God I learned to read from the British West Indies reader before I returned to Canada in the second grade. But I would have suffered far more at home alone with my mother. I chose a private school for my own children. I wonder now if I overreacted. There are some very good public schools here as well. My daughter joined the public system in High School, and she adjusted quite quickly. She had her moments early on. I remember her coming home from one of her English classes, disgusted. The student had asked, "What does comprehend mean?"
I thought your viewpoint was very well balanced actually. I am trying to go about this discussion from the perspective of those reading but not partcipating who have similar concerns that you and others have posted. I hope I have not come across harsh, that is certainly not my intent!!
I can definitely see why people are concerned! I was concerned myself. But when we looked at the situation practically, we decided this would be best.
"What does comprehend mean?"
I don't believe you overreacted. I think you took your childrens education seriously. Which is more than I see many parents do.
Separating children from their school peers for religious reasons does seem unhealthy. There are immigrant and religious associations here who have supplementary Saturday schools to educate the children on their cultural heritage, without separating them from the public system.
See I too understand this point. It can be quite unhealthy. I have to say, I do see the point of people who do not want their children spending all this time with children who are coming from homes where their parents have poor ethics and morals. Take a 10 year old boy whose parents are trying so hard to train up to be a good kid and stick him with 3 or 4 others students who are not getting the same training and it's a bad recipe. Kids at these ages want so badly to be "in", to be "cool". Each child has a different personality that must be taken into consideration and a certain level trust has to play a part at some point. It's just that, everything a parent will try to do to teach their child to be "good" can be so easily undermined during the school week.
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OnTheWayOut
While I feel that kids need the social interactions and they need teasing in school to prepare them
for disappointments as adults, home schooling can be successful. Interactions can be found in
other ways.My thing, especially with the JW's I have known to homeschool, is that they don't really do any
schooling. The parents pull the child out of public school at a young age, tell them to read the books for
homeschooling, and don't do much monitoring. Many of these parents don't do field trips to the
museum or include sports, even if they do monitor or teach the THREE R's.I have known a number of homeschooled kids to never finish the books, because they are out with
their pioneer mom in the field service and working with dad cleaning offices at night when they are
teens.Homeschooling would have to be structured- school hours, assignments, homework, very few personal
interruptions. Many parents form a group for homeschooling. It's really a tiny private school. That works,
that's great, but not pretend-homeschooling.I would send my kids to public school, then add to their education to challenge them. If school is poorly
educating them, suppliment it on your own. I imagine the parents that do that actually spend more time
teaching their kids than JW's that do pretend-homeschooling. -
stillajwexelder
No - the biggest education in life is being around and interacting with other people and cultures
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BlackSwan of Memphis
Homeschooling would have to be structured- school hours, assignments, homework, very few personal
interruptions. Many parents form a group for homeschooling. It's really a tiny private school. That works,
that's great, but not pretend-homeschooling.Bingo.
No - the biggest education in life is being around and interacting with other people and cultures
Many homeschooled children interact with people of All age groups and diverse cultures.
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themonster123
i live in Orange County-it seems like home schooling was extremely popular in my old hall/ this area for I'd say about 90% of my friends were homeschooled. II went to normal high school...home school t's so isolating, but, hey, you'r enot supposed to hang otu with worldly people so there ya go.
It's not good, in my opinion.
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SixofNine
My daughter (15) has been homeschooled with stunning success.
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jelcat8224
I think it depends on each individual child. Both of my younger siblings were homeschooled through the first few years of school, when most of the curriculum circles around cutting out snow men, valentin's hearts, christmas trees, easter eggs, and the like. (not that there is anything wrong with these, but I do think that there is far too much time spent on these activites and not enough on actual learnng IMPO) What we found, however, is that when they DID reenter the school systems, they were LEAPS and BOUNDS ahead of the other children with regards to their education. right now my youngest sibling is two grade levels ahead of his age group. Now, of course this would not be the case with every child and I would never say yes or no across the board either way. There are pro's and con's to both sides and every parent needs to wiegh those in light of their circumstances and children.
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jillbedford
I was home schooled from 8th grade up. I did not want to be home schooled. The approach was to get the books for me, I mailed off tests to be graded by real teachers in another state. I had a 3.85 GPA in school and went to failing in the 8th grade. I could not seem to teach myself advanced math, which used to be my best subject. My mom did not understand this math either. My Dad understood but had been taught a different way. The entire problem had to show with no errors or it was not counted as correct, even if the end result was the correct answer. I was a regular pioneer and had a part time job working 30 hours a week. I also cleaned a large office buliding 3 nights a week, working 10p to 3a on those days. So school was not a priority. Armageddon was coming so school came last. I got as far along in the correspondence courses as I could. I took my GED at 18 and passed with flying colors.
Since then, I have taken college courses and have an associates degree in business and I have an associates degree in fine art and photography. My former job paid for tuition if you had a 3.0 or better. I could not be promoted without a degree.
Home schooling helped me to take responsibility for my own education, which is lacking in many areas.
I would NEVER recommend home schooling. Home schooling does not allow for education from many different people, with different approaches and attitudes. It is not entirely about socialization, but more about seeing things from all different sides and forming your own educated opinion.
But it does keep kids from worldly influence so their departure into the "world" can be delayed until they do finally get more education.
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sass_my_frass
All the home-schooled kids I know have lousy jobs and no friends. Home-schooling is popular among JWs here, who knows why, I think their mums wanted an excuse not to pioneer. It's a guarantee that they have no contact whatever with non-witnesses until they enter the workforce, where they are useless to everybody. I think their parents have deprived them of an important part of a child's reality, and a lot of fun and important social learning opportunities. Kids need more people and influences in their lives than just their mum.