Scholar: Scot

[Lemon]

I can understand your opinion, but just think about a few things here too.
Who's to say the teacher can write a test correctly? Many can't.
A lot of home schoolers are actually college educated and many are more qualified to teach their kids than the actual teachers are. And another thing, attending classes and getting a degree doesn't necessarily mean that they are great teachers. My kids and grandkids have had some real doozies over the years. They have had some great ones. They have also had some who were average and several who probably couldn't begin to pass the test that they were administering.
It would probably be hard to find someone on the street to set your broken bones, but many could. And the "dentist" used to be the local barber who also did surgical procedures. He had no formal education to do those procedures, he was self taught, more than likely.
One thing I always remember is something I heard years ago. Every class, whether medical, dental, law school, whatever else, had a bottom half. How do we know that the professional we are trusting to save our lives wasn't at the bottom of the bunch? And the teacher could have been there too.

I understand the point you are making, Muduh, and while I don't doubt 'A lot of home schoolers are actually college educated', I highly doubt that 'many are more qualified to teach their kids than the actual teachers are.' Students in high-schools receive instructions in each classes from different teachers who have degrees in their respective field that they are teaching in. The bio teacher has a bio degree, the English teacher has a English degree, the math teacher has a math degree etc. A single parent or even a couple cannot hope to have the combined experience in university and the knowledge of all of these teachers. The most they can do is probably a major and several minors in several interrelated fields. They could probably study ahead with books etc by themselves so that they can answer the kid's questions for subjects that they aren't familiar with, but the depth of their understanding and thus the quality of teaching is probably limited.

As for Scot, he didn't really stand out this week, this week the spotlight was pretty much on Jeremy, Davis, and Melissa. Hopefully the editors will give him more airtime in the coming weeks so that we can get to know him better.

[Muduh]

You may well be right. I only have Tenneessee to go by and the schools in this state rate pretty close to the bottom of the list. I'm not too sure about this year, but as recently as a couple of years ago a large percentage of the people who were teaching were not qualified to teach the subjects they were teaching. Also many of them didn't have all their credentials. And many others were teaching subjects that had nothing to do with their degree.
I agree totally that most kids are better off in a school environment rather than being home schooled but there are many exceptions. Each parent has to make the choice.
I'm not arguing a point for Scott or anyone else. I think that each parent has to make their own informed decision.

[Aota Bass]

I think home schooling is fine and good if it's done correctly, with academics emphasized as much as in any other school, and as long as there's some other outlet for the student to interact with people their own age somehow.

I think obviously Scot was home-school well, with his astounding SAT score (1580? Something like that?) and his ease of interacting with the other contestants.

So Muduh and Lemon, I don't think either home, public, or private is necessarily always better/worse than any of the other options- it really depends on the individual situation.

Either way, I like Scot. He just seems like someone who's going to be a genuinely good person.

[MereRen]

No offense taken, KMK. Your stance is actually what is going through the minds of the average person. I enjoy the opportunity to explain homeschooling with some one who is willing to listen and give me chance. I don't argue with the rest. LOL!

No, I do not write any tests. The curricula comes with everything that I need (textbook classes). Many of friends have children that love to read and they just read and read all types of history books (fiction, non-fiction) while we may use a typical history text. Those type of homeschoolers don't always test, but their children often take the CLEP tests and if passed there's an A. Many of them have their child write report of some type and then grade them.

As I said, it really doesn't matter how it's done as long as they are able to do well on the SAT/ACT.

Regarding education, my older dds had teachers that may have been educated, however, they were horrible teachers. I had college profs that could not deal with anyone out of their own subject matter.

Most importantly, homeschoolers know how to locate help if they need it. My contacts are friends that are high school teachers and college professors. My brother, a math teacher, was my back-up for math. We haven't needed him.

Many homeschoolers, especially on the high school level, are self-motivated. Many of them teach themselves. I was always a math-a-phobic and only took up to Alg II in college. My son is the opposite, but we have done the math courses together and he helped me in Geometry. LOL! Homeschooling is not school at home. It's an experienced shared together. I don't stand at the board and talk. :-)

Regarding the experiencing of various personalities. Well, my son participated in Little Dribblers and Little League, along with church or other activities. Believe me, he experienced a wide variety of people. Even further is the diversity one will experience in the homeschooling support groups. There are all types there, too.

One argument that doesn't stand with me is the comparison to the medical professions. Those are highly technical and there is no comparison--it's life or death many times. I can accept the comparison of a teacher to a highly-trained mechanic. Not everyone can do the job, but many are talented. You can locate the info if you want to and do it yourself or you can turn the job over to someone else. The newer vehicles are becoming more difficult and you may need to seek help from an educated person.

Homeschooling isn't for everyone and I would never talk someone into this way of life. Living on the farm isn't for everyone, either, but I love it. We love homeschooling and our relatives are seeing the results. Those who were skeptical are now speaking up and saying that they were wrong.

You will find some ill-educated homeschooled children and you will find students who fell between the cracks in public school. One of my children fits the later. She shouldn't have graduated at that time and she passed the exit tests. :-(

So, no rotten eggs, K! I just really appreciate the manner in which you posted.

[Lemon]

Hi MereRen, thank you for taking the time out to provide detailed explainations of home-schooling to people like us who haven't had much contact with it! Shows that you CAN learn something valuable by watching reality TV and going to reality TV discussion boards

I just have one question, though. I have a close friend who has a six-year-old son. She is considering home-schooling. But her worry is that he won't get to experience having various types of kids in his class and interacting with them, ex. white, yellow, black, rich, poor, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, atheist, jock, geeky, popular, loner, etc. Her and her husband are a middle-class couple living in Vancouver, Canada and they are worried that their son won't get the full benefit of multi-culturalism in the country because his friends will be pretty much confined to kids of people similar to them, aka middle-class kids with similar values and cultural taste. A school is a snapshot of a society and they are afraid their son will gain a one-sided perspective of people in society. Even by sending their kids to after-school sports, theatre, extra-curricular lessons etc, the pool of kids who participate in these activities are pretty limited. From your experience, have you had this problem with home-schooling? If so, how did you overcome it?

Hope this isn't too off-topic ;o

[MereRen]

I apologize for taking so much time regarding an off-topic way of life. I suppose it could help others to understand Scot and other homeschoolers. Just remember that every homeschool family is as different as every family in the school system. I’m just giving you a glimpse of this movement. Homeschoolers are often pre-judged in a manner that would be unacceptable for ethnic or religious groups.

In homeschooling circles, socialization is often called the “s” word. It seems that everyone believes that a child cannot be socialized without the school system—public or private. This is far from the case. Our homeschooling support group has families from all denominations and ethnic groups, although the majority are Christian. That most likely will not be the case in every homeschool group, but the opportunity presents itself in many scenarios. It most likely depends on where one is located. Children do not have to experience everything first hand (in person) to understand, appreciate, or develop a distaste for it.

Schools are not always a snap shop of society. I was 25 yrs old before I met a Hispanic person. I now live in a high-Hispanic populated area. I didn’t have culture shock when I moved here nearly 25 years ago. In my high school, many moons ago, there were a few black people, but everyone else was white. My hometown was in a Midwest rural area, however, my parents instilled the value of human life in me at home. I didn’t have to go to school with the other cultures in order to respect them. In my opinion, socialization is a non-issue unless a parent chooses to totally shelter their children from the world. Regardless of what the media says, those families are very few. In fact, I would venture to say that those families are not true homeschoolers with their children’s best interest at heart.

Our family is a very traditional, conservative, Christian family. My children were older when exposed to certain facts of life and I was happy to enjoy my son’s childhood longer. In spite of their longer years of innocence, my sons have experienced more variety of people than my older children ever did through their years of schooling. Boy scouts really exposed my older son to people, extremes in personalities, leadership, and much more.

None of my children experienced “cliques” at home. Meaning that as a family, we have friends of varied financial, cultural, or whatever status. We do choose friends that have our values, because we have more in common with them. It was in the context of school or socialization (even homeschooling) that they encountered cliques. Where does my Autistic son (near mentally-retarded) received unconditional friendship? I can say that it isn’t with our average, local, school kids. I know them and they know our family (small town). They haven’t been taught how to deal with special needs people. Inclusion hasn’t been working in this area at all! It isn’t at church, either. His acceptance is in the homeschool community—whether it’s a new family or an established relationship. That has been really consistent.

Everything that I’ve said could be challenged by someone in another area. I can only speak of that in which I am familiar.

[KMK0902]

MereRen,

Thanks for your long explanation. I commend you for working with your children to make sure they receive an education you are happy with. You explained the way homeschooling works in your aera very clearly. It's a different world to me, one I find intersting, but not quite willing to join.
I guess the most important part in this discussion is our kids - as long as they are happy and satisfied all is well in the world!!

K

[Muduh]

K, most of us aren't cut out for it, that's for sure. I wouldn't have the patience even if I had the education. I always loved the sight of that school bus in the morning.
A lot of kids are just self motivators who need very little instruction anyway. None of mine were. My grandson would do quite well if they just gave him his assignments and let him turn them in about once a week or so.

[robynbird]

Meren, you explained Homeschooling so well! This is only my first year homeschooling, and I can say that my daughter is learning so much despite me. She tested well on the standardized tests my ISP (Independent Study Program) requires and so I am confident that I haven't ruined her education thus far. LOL

[Lemon]

Thank you MereRen for your thorough explanation! I will pass this information along to my friend. Much appreciated.