I can understand now why parents want their kids homeschooled.

Before I used to be against homeschooling and private tutors but since I've gone through my elementary school report cards and compared them with the intelligence assessments that were given to be at the same time, I figured out that from grade 1-7 that teachers marked students in a biased manner. I also read the comments by my teachers and I've noticed they are based more on social conformity and personality than academic skills. I think they gave straight A's to the suck-ups who were extremely obident to the point of being almost like robots; they also made sure that they stayed away from children ' who didn't fit in the education system like myself and my brother who were creative thinkers that were great with computers who were independent learners. I also was an undiagnosed high functioning autistic and the teachers didn't know that and thought I was a troublemaker and future criminal. Now that I look back I wonder why my parents didn't home tutor me during elementary school because that was the only time I had bad marks, as I started to go on the honor roll when I went into grade 8 for some reason.

It seemed that elementary school education during the early to mid-90's was nothing but a social experiment run by fascist teachers.

Are these observations one reason why you choose to home school your kids or am I missing something else?

 

I chose to homeschool my children for many different reasons which have broadened over the years. However, this does remind me of one friend who pulled her two children out of school. One was an energetic, outgoing little girl and the other a shy, soft spoken boy. After working one on one with the them she realized that her daughter, although she got good grades, was below grade level and her son, who recieved poor grades, was actually ahead. Her theory was grading was biased because of the temperamental differences in her children.

 

Welcome to the United States where you expecting anything else ??

 

I believe in public education so much that I am 8 months away from being certified to teach.

But yes, temperament does affect teachers' reactions to students... They are human and doing their best. Collicky babies get handled less by their parents than smiling children - does that mean parents are fascists? No.

 

I meant that SOME, not all teachers grade students in ELEMENTARY schools based on their own subjective views and relationship towards that student. For example, Mr. X only gives As to the students that he feels more comfortable with who don;t question his authority and whose parents are supportive of the school and who are average middle-class conservative citizens. These students who get good grades from Mr. X also aim to please him both socially and academically by agreeing with everything he says to other students and only befriending other students that the teacher also likes.

I'm not saying that all elementary teachers are like that. I've had a couple of good teachers in my grade school years. I'm just saying that parents need to pay attention to the teaching styles and views of their children teachers and home school them if they don't get along with your child.

 

:iamwithstupid:

WHAT A GODDAMN COCKSUCKING LOAD OF HORSESHIT!

i was a psychologist for almost 17 years.
i gave up a career i loved to no end because, i almost lost my physical health to sever burnout... i cared too much and, it broke my heart day end and day out to see all the kids fucked over by the both church and public schools!:sad:

i have no respect for any instuition that breaks kids wills and murders their spirits!

i now work for the ACLU.
the ACLU even has a website devoted to the civil rights of kids.
on our website we educate parents and kids in how to protect themselves from the public "schools."
we help them to file lawsuites aganist you tyrants.
you heard right! people who work for church and public "schools" are are nothing but baby sitters and jailers.


i hold my head high in pride that i was a real educator as a psychologist, and i was able to enjoy watching people grow, develop, and empower themselves.

the philosophy of the public "school" model is that, you mold childern to be "good citizens." a "good citizen" is code for: obedent slave to our church, corporate, or government masters.

the philosphy of psychology is you don't mold people to "educate" them. you let people unfoled to educate and empower themselves.

there are real schools built on the open model like psychology is built on. the best known of them are the montessori schools.
while we are on montessori schools. most people who work for the public "school" systems; won't put their own kids in public "schools."
most of them put their kids into montessori schools.

when i was a psychologist, i worked with a lot of people who worked in public "schools." these were always the best and the brightest, who wanted to really give their all for the kids. they all left the public "school" system. the system destroys the best it has weather educator or learner.

the cream does not rise to the top in church or public "schools." it is the shit that flots in them.

i hope your not shit sitka. i doubt that you are.
if your here at hip forums, your most likely one of the best and brightest!:cheers2:
most likely, after a few years in the public "school" system, you will bale out to save yourself... JUST DON'T WAIT TO LONG!
i sure would hate for your life and your relationships go down the tiolet!:sad:

 

For a majority of people, the public school system is just perfect. It serves its purpose perfectly.

All you have to do is look at the ratio of people that succeed in that system and you can quite clearly see the point.

If however, you want to raise independent, free thinking individuals who actually 'think' rather then regurgitate, then home schooling is definitely a better choice.

Something to keep in mind though, regardless of where a person goes to school, the most important factor in how they are raised, is just that, how they are raised, by their parents.

 

I was home schooled until 7th grade. I was public schooled from 8th grade until I graduated and it was a terrible five years. It truly did break my spirit and it took me a long time to realize why I was so unhappy. As a kid I hated being homeschooled, now I only wish I had stuck with it.

 

Bleghhhhh public ed.
Elementary school was just as suckish in the late 90s too.
When I was young, no one had faith in me at 1st, thought I was one of those who had severe learning disabilities and cognition disabilities. The 1st and 2nd Grade screwed me up bad. I had an issue that just because I liked someone the people who were supposed to help me scorned me, and blatantly tried to make me conform. I really didn't have the support I needed in elementary school. I did alright in elementary school but still teachers yelled at me and I was like what the hell?
So yeah...public schools in general are just awful.

It got slightly better in highschool as opportunities in different classes were better. People know me as a Comm and humanities buff.

 

As with anything they both have pros and cons, but in general, home schooled students have much higher test scores than Public education students. Granted, some students are not the best test takers in general, but you would find this in both categories. I was home schooled through high school and public from 1st to 5th grade. I learned much more and experimented with alternative methods of learning during the latter years.

 

It is the BEST choice my brother and sister in law have made for their kids, hands down! Now instead of dealing with bullshit, acting out, bullies, catering to the lowest common denomantor, etc. these kids are getting a classic style education but with a modern, pragmatic, progressive outlook. My 13 year old niece has just qualified for College-pre Chemistry. I couldn't be more proud of her! We email back and forth about chemistry because she knows I love it. We talk about the properties of matter, the fractalness of science, the emptiness of it all, the elegance of it all, the Periodic Table, etc. We wouldn't have these discussions if she was still in the public school system.

 

I had good teachers while in Public School. But one moment really stands out to me. I was in kindergarden, and we were making an art project designed to model birch trees, I think, with the vertical stripes. Anyways, I wanted to impress my teacher, as I was always a very "people" pleasing little girl, and thought if I made the stripes vertical, she would be pleased with me. She actually held my paper up as an example of what NOT to do. This was in kindergarden. I was so mortified.

 

Are these observations one reason why you choose to home school your kids or am I missing something else?

My kids begged me and were miserable in their "very good" public school. THAT's the only reason I homeschooled. I WISH I had known about homeschooling sooner. I would never have sent them to public school at all.

Sadly I was caught up in the idea that I wanted them to "fit in" and be "normal". That's been firmly rejected by my kids. LOL

My family and kids have been happier. The kids learned far more, were in the real world more and have found the things they are passionate about.

 

Public school is all about labels. Labels by the admin, teachers and other students.
My 9 year old 3rd grader has trouble with reading and wanted so badly to go back to public school to be with his "friends."
He has since found out that with his two year absence with being enrolled in online charter school, not only do the teachers think he's defective now, but many of those "friends" out and out said they weren't his friend anymore because he was gone. Even though he tried to keep in touch and schedule play dates.
We just got his OAKS score for math today and it was not good. However, I KNOW, because my husband and I work with him after school, that the knowledge is there. It has occurred to us that he just may be one of those who doesn't do well with testing, like his older brother and I. Public school is not the place to be if you are one of "those kids."
He will be home schooled next year, if I can't get him into a different school. This other school is more "art friendly" and as such, is a bit more lenient with a "free thinker."
As I said, the knowledge is there. He can do the work and often does math problems "just because."
I know that his reading has improved, but "testing" him most likely wont show that either.
His strengths are arts and sciences, but because of his "scores" in reading, he is in classes below his abilities.
I know that with more work, his reading is improving. Oddly, the work isn't at school, but what we do at home. So, as a family, we actually feel that home is where he needs to be. He can work at his pace, at his ability level, without a "test" saying that he can't.
We "test" kids far too much in this country, expecting these "on the spot" numbers to tell us what our kids are really capable of. Ask any teacher and the end result that these tests bring is mostly about funding. A school with poor scores gets poor funding and vice versa.
In school, I was a 4.0 student, on honor roll and actively recruited by the Talented and Gifted group. I was punished for interacting with students who were "beneath" me. I was burning out in 4th grade and my doctor told my mother to have the school "back off." They REFUSED, saying that my scores and the scores of those in my "peer group" (other 4.0/obedient kids) were responsible for their funding and that if they were to "back off" their funding would slip. It "slipped" all right. My mom pulled me out of school and taught me at home from Christmas Break of 4th grade, on to 6th grade, when we moved. The "burnout" had taken its toll by then and I was miserable in school. The elementary school I went to for 6th grade and the junior high I was in, both expected to see scores like I'd had before and that wasn't going to happen. I had started on a "mental breakdown," which manifested over several years and when it was done, I had entire sections of learning gone. EEGs, MRIs and the like could find no cause. The cause was eventually determined by a psychologist to be a "block" due to the earlier stress. I got PTSD from elementary school! He said that though my mom did the right thing in withdrawing me from public school, the damage was already done and it was not likely that I would ever regain those lost bits.
My oldest son didn't do well in public school either, mostly due to boredom. He is "test phobic" as such, his scores were poor indicators of his ability, so he was put in classes that were well below his actual ability. At home 80% of the time and in online charter for middle school, he completed three grades in two years and is now officially the youngest student to be enrolled at his charter high school. The regular high school would not take him, based solely on his age. Oddly, they didn't care what his "scores" were.
In our family's case, online charter provided the materials and testing for us to home school without the cost of traditional home school curriculum.
Due to our only available internet connection, online charter is no longer an option. This is due to new rules put into place after the state board of education was overrun by public school teachers who thought that if they had enough new requirements put in the online charter would have to shut down. They didn't shut down, instead they got stronger and with the exception of families like ours having internet issues, enrollment is better than ever.
Without online charter, our only other options are "unschooling," traditional home schooling (with the cost) or a combination of the two. We will be using the combination method, which allows him to learn in the "real world," via educational TV and computer programming and with books bought from a curriculum provider.
I said before that we were considering this "other" school and yet I followed with home schooling. This is because the probability of him getting in to this other elementary school is pretty low. We have to wait until the students who live inside the "boundary" have enrolled before we can try to register him. The available spots have been very few in the past. They don't look any better this year and may actually be fewer yet. So, this other school is a long shot and we honestly aren't counting on it in any way.
I want my sons to think for themselves and have actual knowledge, not just regurgitated facts. Public school is not where one would go to gain such knowledge. As a professor I had in college said "I am not a teacher, I am a facilitator. Teaching gets you to regurgitate information up onto the paper. As a facilitator, I give you the information and it it your job to "learn."

 

I had to get home schooled. We had a Jewish teacher when I was very young who told us that our forefathers were no longer a part of German history. My parents said fuck that. It was a good thing for me though. I was not to be confined a classroom and instead the corridor of central Europe and the northern states opened up as my class room as a went traveling a lot with my father to farmers markets and events.
Sure, I may not know exactly what Pythagoras was trying to do but when I'm adorned as goddess like status I won't be building pyramids, I want a big igloo cave instead. =]

 

Irminsul;
You hit the nail on the head. The boys learn business and math skills when we vend at summer festivals. Not having to adhere to a public school schedule has really helped in the past.

 

These days with the PUBLIC scene getting worse,I BELIEVE HOME SCHOOLING IS QUITE BENEFICIAL to learning more w/o having un-needed crap surrounding them!

 

I go to a private school and it's only marginally better. People are still ignorant and close minded. People actually said out loud that Charles Darwin is "crazy". When my friend and I were drawing hammer+sickles and pentacles in her notebook people gave us looks ranging from wtf? to I'M REPORTING YOU TO THE POLICE YOU SICK BABY KILLERS!!!!!!! But, hey. At least I'm not bullied anymore. Which is only minor. No one invites me to things and 2 of the 4 (counting me) free thinkers at my school moved this summer. The grading is still based on bullshit like school spirit, ability to conform, how much of a sheep you are, etc....

 

Your kids seem unlike 99% of their generation. I like that.

 

sorry moving the post to another thread