I don't know that I'll be in this echo much but I have long been a fan
of home schooling. I believe it brings greater learning and retention
results than public school. I've heard it said now and then that public
school is important so that kids learn to socialize. Here, in Dallas,
there was a drive-by shooting at Sunset High School that put six kids in
the hospital. I don't think kids need that much social activity. One
person in this echo mentioned that she heard her kids using language and
improper attitudes towards certain subjects and she decided they could
do better at home. I agree, though, for different reasons.
It seems, in this day, we worry much about how the child feels and
popular publically approved thought is the children shouldn't suffer any
duress. We seem to forget that it's okay for the parent to know more
than the child. If I had children, I would teach them at home.
Inevitably, they would want to try public school. "No," I would say.
"Why?" they would say. "It may hard for you to understand, right now.
Daddy does know better. This is better for you."
Being a parent is not easy and it sometimes requires making decisions
that aren't popular.
My father taught me to read. My step-grandfather taught me the short
route through differential calculus. Since I was ten, he had given me
books on electronics. Now that I'm going to school to get a better job,
I had a 98+ average in my active devices class (diodes, transistors,
amplifiers, electronic switches.) On tests, I had four 100's and a 97. I
didn't have to take the final.
I went through public school. I spent high school in what had been the
best district in Texas (Richardson I.S.D.) I had some good teachers. I
happened to meet my senior english teacher about about seven years ago
at a restaraunt. It had been nine, almost ten years since I had seen
him. He had recently resigned his position because of pressure to pass a
failing student in his class so that she could go with the rest of the
pep squad on an extended school outing.
My favorite author was Robert A. Heinlein. His grandfather went to a one
room school. In the eighth grade, his grandfather had to leave school
and take care of the farm, due to a death in the family. When he left
school, he could do calculus, including the native tongue of english, he
could read and write german, latin, read hebrew and greek, read some
Shakespeare, do most any math in his head, and knew the science of the
day. He certainly knew enough chemistry to run a farm. All this from an
8th grade "drop-out" in nineteenth-century Butler, Missouri. In 1980,
University of Southern California admitted only the top 8% of students
in the state. 50% of incoming freshmen had to take remedial english.
Standards have dropped since then, or the school would have gone out of
business.
Public schooling is failing to do even what it was originally designed
to do and is now subjecting our children to dangers and crap that they
could do without. I say, more power to home schooling. Whatever your
reasoning, you'll find your children learn much more.
Later,
Ron.
 * SLMR 2.1a * "Extra pickles.  A warrior's condiment!"  --Worf
--- Maximus/2 3.00
---------------