by Terry 75 Replies latest jw friends
Great Teacher,
Every July 4th I want to go to Gettysburg. I want to see the re-enactment. The weather changes my mind. Is there some way of paying for a place to watch the re-enactment? If there isn't some way to do it commercially, I suppose I will never see it. My mom and I paid for some man to drive us around in his car. He knew a lot.
The poor troops had to fight in the weather. Valley Forge freaks me out about the weather. I can't take it for more than a few minutes in winter.
Band, I don't live there anymore, but I have heard that they've closed up the battlefields and you now have to pay admission to get into the site. I don't know what arangements they have for crowd control and access to the reenactments. You used to be able to just drive through the battlefield on the public roads as it covers much of the surrounding area. People who lived there were angry when they learned their usual way home was blocked off by entrance to the park. They now have to drive out of their way to get home without paying park admission. It was quite the local brouhaha.
Me, in a hurry, sure she was asleep, trying to "get out of there".
Yes, that reminds me, when I said it was bedtime she would often resist.
All I had to do was say; "ok, I'm going upstairs to pick which book we are going to read tonight".
She would then beat me up the stairs because she really wanted to pick which book I was going to read.
Worked every time!
abe
I am conscious that I am older but I get very upset with the lack of knowledge of current students. My nephew is a prime example. He graduated from a decent local college. He asked me for feedback on his law school application essay. I was stunned to read his essay. My sister must have spent about $100,000. on his college education and room/board. I am not angry with him. How does a college collect tuition money and not have students able to write a single sentence? In the past, I would have rewritten the essay. I can't write all of his work. He will probably be accepted, too.
Students have no clue as to when the Revolutionary or Civil War took place. They are not familiar with Founding Fathers. These are not isolated examples. When I walked through the community college, I believed the material being taught was appropriate for a noncredit course. We let something happen to our education system. Microsoft Office should be a noncredit course. No wonder America is slipping down so fast.
School has been dumbed down for many years. My gdgt's we're not taught cursive. The school felt it was not necessary anymore. I was appalled and we are trying to help them learn. They seem content to not worry about it as their teacher said they didn't need to. When they were in K-1 they learned very little. Half of the kids did not speak English. We were outraged and my DIL moved our girls to a different school after that. It was an eye-opening experience for us.
Ironic that a post about being scientifically literate fails so miserably at even the most rudimentary level of using scientific methods.
| Posted: 06/01/2012 11:35 am Updated: 06/01/2012 11:35 am
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By Kelsey Sheehy
Between deciphering college financial aid awards and settling into a shoe-box sized dorm room with a perfect stranger or two, making the move from high school to college can be a shock to the system for even the most put-together teenager.
The transition, many may assume, would be even more jarring for students coming from a home-schooled environment.
"Transitioning from home school to college can be a daunting experience, especially with the lack of socialization that is associated with home schooling," says Los Angeles-based therapist Karen Hylen, who counsels people she says have not made the transition successfully.
But parents and students from the home-schooling community say the nontraditional method yields teens that are more independent and therefore better prepared for college life.
More than 2 million U.S. students in grades K-12 were home-schooled in 2010, accounting for nearly four percent of all school-aged children, according to the National Home Education Research Institute. Studies suggest that those who go on to college will outperform their peers.
Students coming from a home school graduated college at a higher rate than their peers -- 66.7 percent compared to 57.5 percent -- and earned higher grade point averages along the way, according to a study that compared students at one doctoral university from 2004-2009.
They're also better socialized than most high school students, says Joe Kelly, an author and parenting expert who home-schooled his twin daughters.
"I know that sounds counterintuitive because they're not around dozens or hundreds of other kids every day, but I would argue that's why they're better socialized," Kelly says. "Many home-schoolers play on athletic teams, but they're also interactive with students of different ages."
Home-schooled students often spend less time in class, Kelly says, giving them more opportunity to get out into the world and engage with adults and teens alike.
"The socialization thing is really a nonissue for most home schoolers," he says. "They're getting a lot of it."
Jesse Orlowski seconds Kelly's sentiment.
Home schooled from the age of three, the 18-year-old San Diego native played baseball for two years in high school, started a flag football league, is a "big fan" of swing dancing, and is an active street performer.
"I had a lot of time to pursue outside interests… to really zone in on things," Orlowski says. "If I wanted to make something happen I usually could, with a little wiggle room."
Extracurricular activities were not the only opportunities Orlowski seized. The flexibility of home schooling allowed him to focus on his passions: math and science.
As a junior, Orlowski convinced a physics professor at San Diego State University to let him sit in on an upper-level electrodynamics class. He later helped that professor with research projects.
"I can go out and say, 'OK, what class do I want to take, from what professor, at what college in San Diego?' and then I just go out and try and contact them," he says. "Most people would be skeptical at first and then I'd meet with them and they'd say, 'Alright, let's give this a try.'"
Orlowski enlisted the help of admissions counselor and author Marjorie Hansen Shaevitz, who previously worked in the office of the dean of students at Stanford University, to help craft his home-schooling experience into a high school transcript.
[Ask these questions at freshman orientation.]
Home-schooled students often choose academic and social pursuits because they find them important and meaningful, and college admissions officers are drawn to that authenticity, Shaevitz says.
"They have to take account of time… that other students have structured," she says. "The possibilities of showing all the kinds of things that colleges are looking for -- curiosity, confidence, resourcefulness, ability to deal with challenges -- you name it. That's a part of being a home-schooled student."
Rather than a hindrance, home-schooling was an asset, Orlowski says, one that landed him acceptance into 10 top-tier schools, including Princeton University, Vanderbilt University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Orlowski will attend MIT in the fall and plans a double major in math and physics. His advice to other home-schooled teens:
"The flexibility that home-schooling gives you, you can leverage that into getting all sorts of opportunities," he says. "Seize the day by using home-schooling as a springboard to college admissions."
Thanks for the article Shadow. The posters on this site love to act superior based on their perceived scientific knowledge despite the fact that none of them are chemist, biologist, physicists, or any other type of scientist. Not only that, none them have a degree in a field of science nor do they have any other type of qualifications. These people read a book on evolution and watch a few YouTube videos and then act like they're Nikola Telsa, Heinrich Hertz, or Leo Szilard.
Space Madness,
I did not know Simon collected data about people's professions and interests when we registered. If I know nothing about you, how can you make your statement? A few home schoolers may do well. The ones I see are fools. Their parents are the bigger fools. Education is not only about facts and jobs. Home schooling is often a political judgment. We need public schools. Good ones.
Benjamin Franklin had no science degree but he experiment with electricity. Lightning rods saved thousands of lives. He was bigger than the Beatles. Electricity was only a fraction of what he studied.
SM: The posters on this site love to act superior based on their perceived scientific knowledge despite the fact that none of them are chemist, biologist, physicists, or any other type of scientist.
Um, you know this how?
You are no doubt correct about some, maybe even many JWN posters, but you most certainly are not correct about all.
Shadow, thanks for bringing a balancing article to the thread.
In the OP, Terry was talking about a particular type of Home Schooling associated with fundamentalist Christians that subscribe to creationism. The first post makes that clear. I do agree, however, that the thread title is nonetheless misleading. Terry could have worded it better, but again, his OP does make that clear.
As your article clearly points out, many home schooled children do quite well and are in fact scientifically literate.
It really isn't correct to generalize about "home schooling" this way. I am a huge proponent of alternative means of education. But home schooling isn't for everyone. Parents can't teach what they don't know and unless they hire qualified tutors, their children will likely get an inferior education.
YMMV
