Perhaps before we bash Homeschooling we should talk to DUers who are homeschool or...

[LynneSin]

..homeschool their children.

Mind you - not all children homeschooled are fundie whackjobs who want to stunt their children's education by using a contorted version of the bible as their main text book. Not all homeschoolers are future campers at the Jesus Camp.

I know of one DUer who homeschools her kids and another poster who is homeschooled herself. So perhaps before we pass judgement on all homeschoolers we should get to know a few of those here at DU.

I had an old co-worker who left her job to homeschool her kids. Main reason - her son had severe allergies and it was easier to homeschool him then to deal with the reactions he would get around common foods like wheat, peanut and other standards found in kids meals. She was hoping that as he got older he would learn enough about his health (and hopefully outgrow some of the serverity) so he could be integrated back into the school system.

[uppityperson]

1. Too many confuse home schooling with a particular mindset.

kick and rec.

[LynneSin]

2. That's true - homeschoolers have gotten a bad rep for sure

Just hoping that we don't buy into it - and I'm sure I have in the past.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. Some home schooled kids I tutored

belong to a Hindu household. The photo of their guru was in every room. Others I know of are Sufis, others pagans, others Quakers. One parent was a Tai Chi master. The home schoolers around here sure break the stereotype of what it means to home school.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

3. There are a whole group of environmentalists

living in NW Arkansas who home school their kids. Most live in remote areas and have solar power, etc. They are all anti-war progressives. I've helped tutor some of these home-schooled kids. They are being taught to think for themselves and out of the box.

[JackBeck]

4. I know a lot of same-sex families homeschool their children.

Instead of having to put-up with the crap the kid would go through attending a public school.

[LynneSin]

7. That's smart but very sad

it's a shame that kids would use that to taunt other kids.

I thought one day our public school systems would deal with bullies

[JackBeck]

8. Breaks my heart as well.

Fortunately, more and more schools are creating gay-straight alliances to deal with the problem. If these had been in place when I was a teen, maybe the name-calling wouldn't have stopped, but I would have at least had a place to turn for support.

www.glsen.org

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

17. If not that, then something else ...

Bullies will hassle other kids. Any reason will do. "Same sex parents" is just one more.

I doubt that school systems can really be effective. Unless there's a weapon involved, the bullying can get subtle. School administrators try to avoid lawsuits.

[LynneSin]

18. I went to a school that was all white kids (rural PA)

trust me - they found other things to pick on for lack of color in our school

:cry:

[mike_c]

6. my daughter home schooled right up until college...

...with some Montessori stints during the elementary school years, but home schooled entirely during middle and high school. Now in her latter 20s, she works in a head start program for at-risk kids. She did well in college and is far better prepared to get on with her life than I was at her age.

More often than not, fundies home school to RESTRICT their childrens' education, not to broaden it. Using their narrow-mindedness to broad brush all home schoolers really misses the mark, IMO.

[MsFlorida]

9. my youngest was homeschooled

only because there wasnt enough room in the gifted program. He was testing out at the 12th grade level in 3rd grade.

It was a difficult choice for me, because I was newly divorced and I really needed this job because it came with benefits etc., florida's schools are very backward and we were relocated here from the north - where the schools are exceptional. It was a complete and total culture shock for us.

Rather than have him condemned to some whacko right wing nut teacher, I removed him from school and with the help of many others (including a few teachers from the north) put together a program that worked for him.

We belonged to a co-op where the kids went on field trips together and interacted once a week (usually on fridays). All of these homeschooled kids, could run circles around most adults with the knowledge they have of their country and the world. Not to mention, most of them speak two different languages other than english. I wish all schools were like this. The kids were actually excited to learn and looked forward to it. It didnt stop on weekends either, learning was a year round event.

I made the mistake of having my oldest son in this screwed up system and it wasnt a good choice. If I could do that over I would in a new york second.

I am all for homeschooling with the proper curriculum.

[Midlodemocrat]

10. I homeschooled BoyMidlo for eighth grade.

It was a great experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

[LynneSin]

11. Yeah but you also paid to waterboard you kids

:hide:

I'm kidding I'm kidding!!

Midlo kids had swimming lessons and according to Sen Kit Bond - that's just like waterboarding!

[RedEarth]

12. This is just one more example on DU .....

passing judgment on people based upon which state they live in, or a particular region of the country....region bashing is quite prevalent on DU. Homeschooling is just one more example.

[The2ndWheel]

13. And even if they are all

"fundie whackjobs who want to stunt their children's education by using a contorted version of the bible as their main text book."

...it doesn't matter.

As opposed to what? Various whackjobs(and who isn't one, in their own whacky way?) who want to stunt the education of other people's/their children by using a contorted version of (fill in the topic here) as their main text book?

There is a fine line between diversity and conformity. In our whacky ways, everyone sort of wants both. Even if you want complete diversity for all, that is technically forcing conformity on everyone. Living in that reality, I'm not surprised we're all a little whacky.

[dmallind]

14. Well there is a difference between "ALL" and "usually"

It seems the only way not to offend someone on DU is to launch into a huge explanation of the difference between generic and universal criteria, and to specifically exclude any good progressive types who may be different. Wouldn't it be easier for us all just to assume that, rather than to assume that every passing comment is meant as a universal condemnation/

For example "Committed Christians tend to be pro-life" is absolutely true, without even implying that it is impossible tpo be a pro choice committed Christian and certainly without including all of them in the statement.

Similarly homeschoolers tend to be homeschooled for religious and "moral" reasons - 72.3% in a 2003 survey

http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/homeschool/TableDisplay.asp?TablePath=TablesHTML/table_4.asp

The only criterion that outranks this one is "concern about environment of schools" which obviously does NOT exclude any religious or "moral" concerns.

So homeschoolers DO tend to be homeschooled for religious reasons, and it's inarguable that the vast majority of those are for Christian religious reasons. It's not "bashing" homeschoolers to say this, and it would be an intensely dull and prolix post that went into all the statistics and exclusions instead of just making a generic point with exclusions that should be inferred.

People seem to look for reasons to be offended rather than reasons to engage in honest discussion too often around here.

[smoogatz]

15. The distinction is between homeschooled and "Christian" homeschooled.

"Christian" homeschoolers pull their kids out of the public schools because they don't teach important fundie facts like how the earth is 4,000 years old, how God selects our Republican Presidents, and how the Constitution was inspired by our favorite parts of the Bible. Also in the curriculum: Surfing Gay Porn Sites Because The World Must Learn the Truth; Secularism: Satanic Cult Or Communist Plot?; and Where Would Jesus Shop: Why God Loves Wal-Mart.

[MNDemNY]

16. "homeschool" all you want, but NO tax incentives, No vouchers.

[sjdnb]

24. I agree. I've worked in a wide range of public school districts

From those who spend $900/student to one that spends an unbelievable $12k/student. I don't agree with the current formula for public school funding, btw, but I digress.

In any event, I cannot support anything that diverts public funds to support private education.

Numerous voucher schools have been found to be little more than get-rich-schemes for their administrators and given the increased scrutiny and oversight of public school performance, I find it ironic that, as a matter of course, that the 'alternatives' are, most often, exempt from even minimal oversight/performance evaluation.

For the last 30+ years I've watched the public school system be crushed under the weight of poorly thought out and shortsighted 'fixes' layered one upon another - frenzied curriculum changes, classroom configuration changes (desks in a circle, tables in a circle, etc.), short days/long days, gender segregation, and on and on. All of it doing nothing to address the real problem which, IMHO, could better be addressed by something like Kennedy's ten years to the moon approach:

1) Survey successful graduates and find out what works. And, by successful I don't mean those making the most money. What I do mean are those who graduated K-12 with a well rounded education/knowledge of core academic subjects (US/World History, Math, Science, Literature/Grammar, Geography), an appreciation of the arts and culture, life skills, and a thirst for knowledge.

2) Get rid of elected school boards. Replace them with an advisory board who have an expertise in education and a commitment to it.

3) No calculator/computer usage as a matter of standard curriculum in grades K-6. No, I'm not a Luddite, I just think the mind is a terrible thing to waste. Let them hit the keyboards in middle school, after they can multiply 23x12 in their heads.

4) Challenge students who are up for the challenge. An example: In my youngest children's grade school, the students were never asked to read out loud. The 'logic' was that it might be embarrassing. Don't expect teachers to make every child in their class perform at the same level/same time. Some kids bloom later than others, some have gifts that take a while to come to light. If you really do want "No Child Left Behind", don't leave them behind because they don't fit into the 'scheme' of the day.

5) Quit making teachers out to be the bad guys and pay them and respect them as the professionals they are. Give them some freedom in developing their curriculum/methodology. Now, believe me, I've dealt with teachers I didn't agree with. However, many of the issues I've encountered did not stem from what the teacher wanted to do/thought they should be doing, but what they felt they had to do. Either because they were expected to live up to standards that did LITTLE to NOTHING to truly improve education, just served to satisfy arbitrary benchmarks required to secure funding and/or to satisfy guidelines imposed by micro managers who have had little or no actually classroom/education experience (politicians and bean counters).

6) Change the funding formula to provide the same level of per student spending in every district throughout each state.

I have more ... but, I have to pull the cookies out of the oven. Can you tell this is something I am passionate about? Hope the cookies aren't burnt.

ADDENDUM: I also worked in private schools (K-8) and 'homeschool' during the summer months to augment their education.

[starroute]

19. We homeschooled both our kids on and off

For a bunch of reasons, ranging from the totally dumbed-down nature of the school curriculum to harassment by other kids to the fact that my younger son had gotten totally school-phobic and was failing everything 6 weeks into 10th grade.

The older one was a conscientious student, did all the assignments we gave him, and read a bunch of adult-level books. The younger one constantly blew us off, lied about what he'd read, and spent most of his time playing MMORPG's -- but somehow it didn't make much difference. He still learned more than he would have in school, and rebuilt his self-confidence besides. He went back for 12th grade, got all A's in his final semester, and got into a good college.

I'm not sure what the moral is -- except that kids will learn when and as they want to learn, and the schools don't have much to do with it.

[Ghost in the Machine]

20. I like the program I use for my son.... it's helped him tremendously over the past 3 months

It's not christian based, though it falls under Tennessee's "church related" schools. There is no signing of a "statement of faith" required and I set my own curriculum. I'm an atheist and wouldn't use a fundie curriculum to save my life.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Farm School at Home
Satellite Campus Program
Jacki Willard, Coordinator
3135 Lakeland Drive Nashville TN 37214
615 889-4938 (voice & fax)
Click for Office Hours
Click to email Jacki

The Farm School located in Summertown (about an hour and a half South-Southwest of Nashville) has been serving The Farm Community and selected students from outside the community since 1971. Established as a one-room school, we are now housed in a beautiful passive solar building serving grades K - 12. The Farm School has recently been recognized by the TN Department of Education as a Category IV Exempted School. Operating under the Jeter Memo The Farm School founded the Farm School at Home satellite program
as an umbrella for off-Farm, home-based learners.

The Farm School Vision
The Farm School is an educational resource center and hub of activity making the knowledge and physical resources of The Farm available to an international community of lifelong learners of all ages.


The Farm School Mission
The Farm School seeks to support diverse individuals actualizing our unique potentials as we work and play toward personal, community and planetary wellbeing.


The Farm School Educational Philosophy
At The Farm School students learn as they apply basic skills and content to real-world problems with a focus on peace, equality and sustainability. We use responsive curriculum to connect what our students learn to their and our community's needs, interests, experiences and values.


The Farm School Services
The Farm School is a community school, an umbrella for off-Farm home-based learners (Farm School at Home) and a homeschool resource center.


The Farm School at Home
We are very excited to be able to offer an alternative for homeschool families that, for whatever reason, are not comfortable registering with their Local Educational Agency (LEA) or with a denominational Church Related School (CRS). We require no statement of faith and are not interested in mandating curriculum or any other decisions. We believe in responsive education matched to the needs, interests and experiences of individual children. And we believe that the adults best able to negotiate curriculum with children are the adults spending time with those children on a daily basis.

https://home.comcast.net/~farmschoolathome/index.html

Read more about The Farm Community Here:
http://thefarmcommunity.com/

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PEACE!

Ghost

[progressoid]

21. No no no.

Everything is a black or white issue.

All home schooled kids are white fundy xians that want to start jihad against the government.

[Th1onein]

22. I homeschooled both of my kids.

And I'm not a fundie. Never have been. I homeschooled them because I didn't like the way the teachers talked to the students at their schools. They treated the kids like they were dirt. And I'm not going to have my kids treated badly; I don't give a shit who it is. I heard one teacher screaming at a kid to shut up, and that was it for me. Plus, my son had cystic fibrosis and I didn't want him picking up every single respiratory bug there was in school.

[Maat]

23. I'm a homeschooler ..

all homeschoolers, please join us in our DU homeschool group.

My kid goes to a hybrid program; she goes to class two days per week, and I work with her for three. She's doing SO MUCH better than when she was in a conventional one-size-fits-all classroom. We are switching to an even more flexible program, where we will be doing "total homeschooling," with the option of taking a class, or two, or more, and in which we will be working closely (and meeting monthly) with our "E.S." (education specialist).

She is no longer bullied, she doesn't have to deal with 'zero tolerance' or reciting the Pledge each and every day. She no longer has to worry about bathroom tickets. She doesn't have to study the Bible 'as literature' (yes, that is creeping into our schools around here).

We can get very creative designing the learning assignments, and, at the same time, teach her the critical skills and information she will need in order to succeed in university.

Beloved Daughter is just a highly artistic person, who just doesn't march down the conventional path. She went from being under-confident to being very confident and skilled.

The option has been a 'lifesaver' for us; the stress level of everyone in the family went down by leaps and bounds the day we started, and has stayed down ever since.

Thanks for the thread, L.S.

[lostnfound]

25. I want to homeschool. Schools are a fast-track factory for worker widgets.

"Dumbing Us Down" and "Underground History of American Education" are fascinating reads for how schools have been used to squelch the tradition of independent livelihoods. The American economy was turned into a series of corporate beehives, and people got acclimated to tolerating a police state or a prison environment.

I think the question of how schools are shaping the modern consumer/worker is very relevant to everything that left-wing radicals care about -- the environment, personal freedoms, lively debate, excessive corporate power.

I have plenty of respect for teachers; but they certainly aren't free to educate the way they see fit.

[Quixote1818]

26. My sister home schooled her two kids. Lets just say they won't ever post on DU

My nephew became too hard to control and she had to put him in a private school. He got kicked out of that school and one or two more. Finally she had to "settle" for "horrible" public school and he has done OK there. They are both ahead of other kids their age but both are kind of withdrawn and seem to lack confidence in themselves when it comes to their social lives. They are both VERY naive about the world. My niece is in collage but seems more interested in getting married and having kids than a career.

Unless you really know your shit and can get the kids out and about so they can sharpen up their social skills I don't think it's a good way to go. They get ONE point of view of the world and that is dangerous. As Homer Simpson once said "I love kids, I can teach them to hate all the things I hate!" Yep, the kids are like clones of Mom when it comes to personal opinion about the world. She produced two dam good Republican, fundamentalist Christians!