Homeschooling

[roadrunner]

Not everyone can pull it off, it all depends on the learning style of the kiddo and what subjects they excel in. When homeschooling, you as the parent are the "after school" help the professional-career teacher provides.

Imagine a 17 year old taking Calculus and the best you did in High School was Algebra II with a C average.

Public education has a few issues. First, it's ran by too many educators. Educators by nature don't have the personality type to effectively run what should be ran as a business with education as the product and students/parents as the end user. Second, curriculum should always be paired with the subject matter the student excels in. If those subjects are STEM, then the curriculum should reflect that. If they are in Humanities/Social Sciences, then it should reflect that. Third, tenure-ship. Tenure-ship is the dumbest thing that could have ever hit public education - this is what creates lazy teachers.

Homeschooling, while sounding appealing, has some issues as well. Even though there are programs that allow intermixing for social construct, most of the time, it is with like-minded groups. When they get out into the "real world" - they will mix with larger assemblies of people that weren't homeschooled and will have to learn how to adjust to that way of thinking and dealing with their "problems" in the course of your day. On the flip-side, you don't have to put up with the ____________.

There are benefits to both.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Not everyone can pull it off, it all depends on the learning style of the kiddo and what subjects they excel in. When homeschooling, you as the parent are the "after school" help the professional-career teacher provides.

Imagine a 17 year old taking Calculus and the best you did in High School was Algebra II with a C average.

Public education has a few issues. First, it's ran by too many educators. Educators by nature don't have the personality type to effectively run what should be ran as a business with education as the product and students/parents as the end user. Second, curriculum should always be paired with the subject matter the student excels in. If those subjects are STEM, then the curriculum should reflect that. If they are in Humanities/Social Sciences, then it should reflect that. Third, tenure-ship. Tenure-ship is the dumbest thing that could have ever hit public education - this is what creates lazy teachers.

Homeschooling, while sounding appealing, has some issues as well. Even though there are programs that allow intermixing for social construct, most of the time, it is with like-minded groups. When they get out into the "real world" - they will mix with larger assemblies of people that weren't homeschooled and will have to learn how to adjust to that way of thinking and dealing with their "problems" in the course of your day. On the flip-side, you don't have to put up with the ____________.

There are benefits to both.

I’d argue that (depending on what state you live in) lazy teachers are more of a product of low salaries and ridiculous amounts of continuing education required to advance on the pay scales. Also terrible parents, not being able to discipline students and forced inclusion in the classroom. Tenure allows educators the freedom to teach based on their own interests. Imagine having one single kid in class that is a daily time bomb of bullshit that interiors everything and Jon matter what you do, the admins just send them back to you. Or imagine getting stuck with a mentally handicapped kid which requires the teacher to make additional daily plans for because the parents can’t admit that their kid is not capable of what the others are. Imagine getting called into meetings because there is a parent who is angry that you held their kid to the same standard as all the other kids in a classroom. How about parents who are such dipshits that they pull their kid out for months on end then make demands for you to create work for their kid to do while they are gone, the admins pander to the parents and the teacher gets stuck with an additional ten hours of work to complete because some shit parent is too lazy to make their kid go to school.

Tenure just lets teachers care less about that sort of stuff and rightly so. If tenure makes the teacher lazy, I would argue that they were already lazy. It also protects teachers from personal vendettas from administration and school boards especially in smaller communities where it can be harder to keep your head down. I know a teacher who was not retained because he didn’t hold a door for a school board members wife. I’ve know a few who were let go without due cause just because principals wanted to open jobs for their friends.

I agree that public education is massively screwed up and generally terrible but I don’t see tenure as a bad thing for teachers.

 

[roadrunner]

I’d argue that (depending on what state you live in) lazy teachers are more of a product of low salaries and ridiculous amounts of continuing education required to advance on the pay scales. Also terrible parents, not being able to discipline students and forced inclusion in the classroom. Tenure allows educators the freedom to teach based on their own interests. Imagine having one single kid in class that is a daily time bomb of bullshit that interiors everything and Jon matter what you do, the admins just send them back to you. Or imagine getting stuck with a mentally handicapped kid which requires the teacher to make additional daily plans for because the parents can’t admit that their kid is not capable of what the others are. Imagine getting called into meetings because there is a parent who is angry that you held their kid to the same standard as all the other kids in a classroom. How about parents who are such dipshits that they pull their kid out for months on end then make demands for you to create work for their kid to do while they are gone, the admins pander to the parents and the teacher gets stuck with an additional ten hours of work to complete because some shit parent is too lazy to make their kid go to school.

Tenure just lets teachers care less about that sort of stuff and rightly so. If tenure makes the teacher lazy, I would argue that they were already lazy. It also protects teachers from personal vendettas from administration and school boards especially in smaller communities where it can be harder to keep your head down. I know a teacher who was not retained because he didn’t hold a door for a school board members wife. I’ve know a few who were let go without due cause just because principals wanted to open jobs for their friends.

I agree that public education is massively screwed up and generally terrible but I don’t see tenure as a bad thing for teachers.

You are correct. It probably depends on the district.

But, when a teacher knows they can't be fired...

 

[thinhorn_AK]

You are correct. It probably depends on the district.

But, when a teacher knows they can't be fired...

There are things they can do though. For example, make teachers move into positions or schools that are undesirable. Most teacher contracts are through the district and don’t guarantee a certain position. Stick somebody in kindergarten or move them across the city so their commute is an hour rather than 10 minutes. In the case of alaska, assign them to a village that is terrible. While tenure makes it very difficult to fire teachers, it’s not all that hard to push a teacher out. Fact of the matter though, at least here in alaska is that it takes roughly a thousand work days and over a million dollars in legal fees over that thousand workdays to get rid of a tenured teacher. A thousand work days adds up to over 5 years since teachers only work about 200 days per year. With changes in administration it may never happen so they usually get bought out for what they would earn in that five year time period and given a good recommendation. The district saves time a s money and gets to wash their hands of the incident while the teacher pockets a few hundred thousand dollars and moves on.

 

[Pony Soldier]

Over the years and a lot of universities, I have found that not everyone can teach. Maybe 20% have what it takes to share information. Then add into that understanding the many options that are out there to teach to match the individuals strengths and handicaps. I had a classmate in high school that was not a great student. I learned at a reunion that she was severley dislexic. She completed a masters but had to take everything on an audible input. She still struggles to read but has a near photographic memory.

Home schooling is certainly an option and can be a better option than some of our public schools.

 

[roadrunner]

There are things they can do though. For example, make teachers move into positions or schools that are undesirable. Most teacher contracts are through the district and don’t guarantee a certain position. Stick somebody in kindergarten or move them across the city so their commute is an hour rather than 10 minutes. In the case of alaska, assign them to a village that is terrible. While tenure makes it very difficult to fire teachers, it’s not all that hard to push a teacher out. Fact of the matter though, at least here in alaska is that it takes roughly a thousand work days and over a million dollars in legal fees over that thousand workdays to get rid of a tenured teacher. A thousand work days adds up to over 5 years since teachers only work about 200 days per year. With changes in administration it may never happen so they usually get bought out for what they would earn in that five year time period and given a good recommendation. The district saves time a s money and gets to wash their hands of the incident while the teacher pockets a few hundred thousand dollars and moves on.

This is why it's important to have non-educators aligned with the administrative positions. Run the district like a business with education as the product.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

This is why it's important to have non-educators aligned with the administrative positions. Run the district like a business with education as the product.

Most districts do. Unfortunatly there are far too
Many variables to meet the needs of every student so it becomes a one size fits all program.

I’d just be happy if schools and teachers gained the right to tell parents to **** off. Don’t like what’s happening in the public school? Take your special kid and put him elsewhere, no skin off the schools back. Instead administrators spend their days dealing with parents who think their kids are special.

 

[roadrunner]

Most districts do. Unfortunatly there are far too
Many variables to meet the needs of every student so it becomes a one size fits all program.

I’d just be happy if schools and teachers gained the right to tell parents to **** off. Don’t like what’s happening in the public school? Take your special kid and put him elsewhere, no skin off the schools back. Instead administrators spend their days dealing with parents who think their kids are special.

And sometimes as parents we need the right to tell a district and teachers the same.

I know of a teacher that has a bad habit of losing students' assignements that turned them in on time and then marks it late when they have to resubmit it. And , this teacher is tenured.

The entire state of NM's public education system is a farce and ranks last in the nation.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

And sometimes as parents we need the right to tell a district and teachers the same.

I know of a teacher that has a bad habit of losing students' assignements that turned them in on time and then marks it late when they have to resubmit it. And , this teacher is tenured.

The entire state of NM's public education system is a farce and ranks last in the nation.

New Mexico ranks about last place in the nation for most things other than sunsets. I lived there for many years and taught there. Education in that state is a complete joke. I agree, parents should be able to do as they please with their child’s education as long as they remain compliant with the law meaning their kid is attending school in some form. Seems like each year the expectations and demands on teachers increases while salaries don’t necessarily keep up. In new mexico, it takes ten years in their pay scale system for a teacher to reach a salary level of 50k per year beginning teachers Barry clear over 30k and it takes 5 years to get to 40k. Pair that with administrators that side with the parents rather than the teachers and it’s clear why NM isn’t drawing the best and brightest. Out of the 30 people in my graduation group, zero of them still teach in NM.

 

[RS_Non-Res]

I was a licensed science teacher and didn't put my kids in public schools (OMDB). Homeschool the first couple years then opened a school at the church I attend.

I see teaching of "transfer of authority" as a real challenge with homeschooling.
Boys absolutely need to get out of the mommy environment progressively about 6-8th grades.
Mothering and teaching are both full-time jobs.

Homeschooling is much better than public school, but is a distant second behind a formal school run on good moral principles. Those principles need to drive every lesson, every day, and every year of education, not just the choice of a schooling venue, and it isn't easy to do that. But it is far easier than achieving a good end without principles.

“It is therefore as important to make no mistake in education, as it is to make no mistake in the pursuit of the last end, with which the whole work of education is intimately and necessarily connected. In fact, since education consists essentially in preparing man for what he must be and for what he must do here below, in order to attain the sublime end for which he was created, it is clear that there can be no true education which is not wholly directed to man’s last end, and that in the present order of Providence, since God has revealed Himself to us in the Person of His Only Begotten Son, who alone is ‘the way, the truth and the life,’ there can be no ideally perfect education which is not Christian education.” Pius XI 1929

 

[bobinmi]

We tried to do it during covid. It ain't for us. I've already got a full time job and it was very obvious to me that I'm not a capable instructor. I gotta love the people on here questioning how much some of us love our children if we send them to public school though. I pay attention to the lessons that they receive at school and we talk about the fact that its OK to question things and we are very clear about what the "public" believes is right and natural and what we know to be correct. I like that they get push back for some of their Christian ideals at young ages and I've been more than impressed with some of their responses. I think the key to any of this is parental involvement. Whether that be in a public/private/home schooling if parents aren't involved it won't be a great outcome.

 

[Newtosavage]

I’d argue that (depending on what state you live in) lazy teachers are more of a product of low salaries and ridiculous amounts of continuing education required to advance on the pay scales. Also terrible parents, not being able to discipline students and forced inclusion in the classroom. Tenure allows educators the freedom to teach based on their own interests. Imagine having one single kid in class that is a daily time bomb of bullshit that interiors everything and Jon matter what you do, the admins just send them back to you. Or imagine getting stuck with a mentally handicapped kid which requires the teacher to make additional daily plans for because the parents can’t admit that their kid is not capable of what the others are. Imagine getting called into meetings because there is a parent who is angry that you held their kid to the same standard as all the other kids in a classroom. How about parents who are such dipshits that they pull their kid out for months on end then make demands for you to create work for their kid to do while they are gone, the admins pander to the parents and the teacher gets stuck with an additional ten hours of work to complete because some shit parent is too lazy to make their kid go to school.

Tenure just lets teachers care less about that sort of stuff and rightly so. If tenure makes the teacher lazy, I would argue that they were already lazy. It also protects teachers from personal vendettas from administration and school boards especially in smaller communities where it can be harder to keep your head down. I know a teacher who was not retained because he didn’t hold a door for a school board members wife. I’ve know a few who were let go without due cause just because principals wanted to open jobs for their friends.

I agree that public education is massively screwed up and generally terrible but I don’t see tenure as a bad thing for teachers.

As the husband of a public HS teacher, I can tell you this is spot-on.

 

[Glendon Mullins]

We home schooled this year (daughter 12 son is 7) due to disagreeing with the school making the kids wear masks pretty much 24/7. Ordered the curriculum, whole nine yards. etc. This is pretty much how it ended up and we decided they are going back this year if we have to dress them in full body Haz Mat suits lol

LOL it really wasnt that bad though, seriously. It was a good experience to have for them and us. I do beleive nothing beats an organized learning enviroment though, at home there is just to many distractions for students and teacher/parents. Not to mention the memories and freinds and socialization that comes along with regular school.

 

[Huntindog45]

My ex wife is an admin in a school district and she formally oversaw the county home school curriculum, worked with parents, etc. Unfortunately a very large percentage of the parents who wanted their kids in home school are largely without a great education themselves and ended up hurting the kids greatly. When kids would return to a typical school setting after their parents bad mistakes they were FAR behind the kids that moved on through the system.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

My ex wife is an admin in a school district and she formally oversaw the county home school curriculum, worked with parents, etc. Unfortunately a very large percentage of the parents who wanted their kids in home school are largely without a great education themselves and ended up hurting the kids greatly. When kids would return to a typical school setting after their parents bad mistakes they were FAR behind the kids that moved on through the system.

Yup, homeschooling is a hallmark of the unintelligent who think they are better than everybody else.

 

[grfox92]

If I still lived in NY my kids would be homeschooled.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

 

[Glendon Mullins]

My ex wife is an admin in a school district and she formally oversaw the county home school curriculum, worked with parents, etc. Unfortunately a very large percentage of the parents who wanted their kids in home school are largely without a great education themselves and ended up hurting the kids greatly. When kids would return to a typical school setting after their parents bad mistakes they were FAR behind the kids that moved on through the system.

I know it probably different results for different areas etc. but all of the home schooled kids in our county (granted we have a very small population) actually tested and were well ahead of their public school kids etc.

not sure if that is a pat on the back for the local homeschoolers, or a kick in the nuts for our school system here in virginia

 

[scattergun]

My ex wife is an admin in a school district and she formally oversaw the county home school curriculum, worked with parents, etc. Unfortunately a very large percentage of the parents who wanted their kids in home school are largely without a great education themselves and ended up hurting the kids greatly. When kids would return to a typical school setting after their parents bad mistakes they were FAR behind the kids that moved on through the system.

That, plus the whole home-schooling thing seems like it would be a gargantuan pain in the nuts.

 

[christian1]

Homeschooled all five of our girls. 1) It's best when they are young. Give them that foundation. 2) Teach them to learn. Teach them to read and write and think 3) It's not for all your kids. As they get older you will see the ones that want to seclude themselves and stay in their shell or the ones that don't want to stretch themselves. These are the kids that need some form of outside "push" to help them out of that shell. Wish we had done this with my third, but we didn't.

chris

 

[Mojave]

Homeschooling can be a good thing for your child and the family but only if you pick the correct curriculum/style of teaching that fits each child.

There are religious ones and non-religious ones.

Some states will pay for the non-religous one.

We use Bob Jones because the interface and teaching style is exceptional. I am Catholic and a biologist by education but not by trade. I do not agree with their science program, as the default is always "because God said it was this way". It is very Southern Babtist in that the Earth is 4500 years old or something like that. Other than that goofy part, it is the best system I have seen. For 3 kids it cost about $4000 a year using their online portal, and their videos. You can buy just the books and DIY it if you want to. I recommend their videos and portal.

My wife was a professional certified master teacher certified in several states. She picked this one. I do not know what other ones she tested. There were 5-6 in the house over the past 5 years.

There is a Mormon one called the "bold and the beautiful" or something like that. I do not know if indoctrinates your kids into LDS or not. We never tried it. I think the price is very low.

There was not a good quality Catholic one when we started, maybe there is now.

We used Abeka initially, and it isn't for us. They video tape a class of kids and the kids have to stand up to answer or ask a question. Reminded me of the youth of Hitler videos.

Bob Jones is similar to watching Captain Kangaroo or Mr. Rogers Neighborhood. Except they pus the kids really hard. We like it.