Well call me slow. I am usually up on these sort of thing but boy did I miss this one.
This whole school, homeschool, unschool debate going around did you all know about this? I guess I was still back on the breastfeeding debate and wasn't paying attention.
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/opinion/erbeblog/archive/061127/unspooling_unschooling.htm
Derek has never really liked school that much. He has his moments. Homework is just awful but golly who can blame him. He's smart but can be lazy.
Joseph loves school. LOVES IT! So much so he plays school at home. No kidding.
http://spunkyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2006/11/unschooling-conspiracy.html
Derek's been in private school and now public school and while he likes public better and I really like not writing that very big check every month for the private school I liked the quality of the education he was getting better at the private. Having said that Dominic and I have had to step it up and really keep Derek focused on other things besides Halo and Cartoon Network lately as public school is really boring him. But we are parents and raising him is not the schools responsibility.
We have some friends that homeschool and they have very nice sons who seem to be on track. I am impressed with the things they are doing. I do not have the patience for that. I have seen some homeschooling going terribly wrong. The kids seem to not be able to handle social situations with peers and prefer adults instead. And if you need at least a Bachelors degree to teach then dont you need some sort of futher education to homeschool? Apprently not. But I am no authority on it to say the least. But this whole "unschooling" seems outrageous. Just dont do anything academic at all. Just let the kids learn what they want to learn. Hmm.
I dont want to offend anyone but how will they ever learn decent writing skills? From myspace? Please.
I always tell my boys there is a whole world out there and you might not like what is in every corner but the beauty is you can discover it all. I dont think "unschooling" your child allows them the realistic freedom to do that. Now if you have a child like Bear Gryill
http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/manvswild/manvswild.html?clik=netmain_feat1
there is no way you can homeschool, send to school, no this kid is smarter than all of us. But I get the feeling that most of the unschoolers are just lazy. MOST. Not all.
I dont like this debate as Opus would say from Bloom County it makes my feet itch I think I'll go back to breastfeeding I am more comfortable with that subject.
1 comment:
I saw this on Dr. Phil. The people who "unschool" their kids are all about giving them experiences that they will learn from. Personally, I think that school is an experience everyone needs to have, not just for the academics, but for social issues as well. Think about it, you wouldn't even know me if we didn't have school. People make life long friends in school, and that cannot be duplicated anywhere else. I know people who homeschool, and they seem to like it, but it requires the parent to be more disciplined than the child, and also requires a HUGE amount of commitment. The parent has to be the one to keep the kid on track, which can cause some friction. On the flip side, I know a former teacher who now homeschools her 1st grader and pre-k kids. They are doing more than the kids in their grade, but when you have 1 on 1 schooling, that is what happens. You still have to report to the state, the kid still has to take standardized tests and other things that make the parent responsible for what they are teaching, but if they can handle that, it would be something to consider.
Now, as a future teacher (I should be teaching by summer), I happen to know that with No Child Left Behind and the upgrade of the California State Standards, the public education system is by far superior than any other. Private schools do not require teachers to be credentialed, public does (each district is required to have 90% credentialed) and California has some of the highest standards in education, which makes it the best state to be in a public school.
Personally, I like getting rid of my kids for a few hours a day. Ok, rid is a bad word...free from my kids.
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