[cngp90]

I have been homeschooled all my life and will graduate next year from it and I wouldn't change that if I could go back and do so. There are great advantages to homeschooling as have already been mentioned and I believe it is a great way to prepare for life as an adult. I know it has helped me to be more socially ept (if that's a word) especially among adults and younger children, whereas, as it has been mentioned, public schooling tends to prepare you for interaction with only one certain age group. I believe homeschooling can also give you time to make your bond with God strong before you go out into the world and are under so much more pressure. I do wish that my parents would have given me more interaction with non-christian or just non-homeschooling kids along with their guidance instead of sheltering me quite so much; more 'on-field training' more or less to prepare me for my life now, as I now have to make more and more choices on my own and interact more and more with those that aren't on the same path as me. I think it is extremely important to protect the right to homeschool. And you definitely can't say that homeschooling produces ignoramuses or socially inept people- take a look at this:

http://www.knowledgehouse.info/famous.html

[thesteve]

Originally Posted by cngp90

And you definitely can't say that homeschooling produces ignoramuses or socially inept people- take a look at this:

http://www.knowledgehouse.info/famous.html

so here's something I'm wondering...

Constitutional Convention Delegates...I realize they were homeschooled, but somehow I have trouble believing that I should base the homeschool system circa 2007 on the success of homeschoolers circa 1787.

in fact, going through the list, it seems like alot of the people on the list were homeschooled in a time where that was a fairly common practice...I mean...Joan of Arc is on that list...

granted I'm not going to go through and verify the entire list, but some of them just seem plain silly, particularly the "actors" list. When you're away from home for the majority of the year, the parents of actors hire tutors so you can homeschool...though if the success of Lindsay Lohan is pinned on homeschooling, then my kid will be public schooled all the way!

[Jfool]

I believe home schooling is an emerging part of American culture... even tho its been around since Adam and Eve, I believe it will evolve into a modern day institution and become more common place in the future.

[nate95366]

Originally Posted by KFBobInsanesMom

I can't think of any teacher I know about (but obviously I don't know all the teachers) who taught more than two subjects....for example, algebra 1 and algebra 2, or biology and earth science. They might have 2 algebra 1 classes and 1 algebra 2 class on A days and then the other way around on B days. (2 algebra 2 classes and 1 algebra 1 class). Once you prepare the lesson for the A day, you have it ready for the B day also.

In the 5 periods I teach, there are terms where I only have 1 class to prepare and terms where I have 3 classes to prepare. The strange thing that I've noticed is that when I have less material to teach (i.e. terms when I'm only teaching Chemistry "B," for example), I tend to work harder on other things (like teaching the one thing well, communicating with parents, writing equipment grants, doing general maintainance on lab equipment). Maybe that's just me, but I'd be bored out of my skull and probably would not teach if all it consisted of was a copy/paste of other people's stuff and then me running the tests through the scan-tron.

Nate

[KFBobInsanesMom]

Originally Posted by nate95366

In the 5 periods I teach, there are terms where I only have 1 class to prepare and terms where I have 3 classes to prepare. The strange thing that I've noticed is that when I have less material to teach (i.e. terms when I'm only teaching Chemistry "B," for example), I tend to work harder on other things (like teaching the one thing well, communicating with parents, writing equipment grants, doing general maintainance on lab equipment). Maybe that's just me, but I'd be bored out of my skull and probably would not teach if all it consisted of was a copy/paste of other people's stuff and then me running the tests through the scan-tron.

Nate

Well, I tell you something even sadder.....the Physical Science teacher had several videos she wanted to show. The school said "NO", because the only videos that can be shown are the ones the school provides. I don't know if you have ever watched a "Brain Pop" or not, but I can tell you that after the first few the high school students did not find them "cute". The teachers are not allowed to use their own material, at all. Even the posters she put on the wall had to ones the school said she could order and put up.

The school board here basically controls every last little thing the teachers can do. You can walk from one Physical Science class into another and see the exact same posters, same handouts, same tests, etc.

A lot of teachers here have pretty much given up on actually teaching, and just go through the motions. Part of the reason I did not apply for the special ed teaching position this year was because as a lowly little para I can pretty much do as I please (since they don't want to deal with my student). I had him read whatever I felt like, we went off on all sorts of tangents and talked about the ACLU, civil rights, womens rights, etc. As long as I kept him up with the classes he was in, they never even walked into my room to check up on anything. I'm not going to stick with something that isn't working for a student, or not use other resources available just because someone who doesn't even know my student said I can't use them. It has to be frustrating to be forced to use material that is poor quality when you know of, or have, good material just because the school board won't let you use anything they don't provide.

I admit that LA schools are awful, but the ones in VA where we used to live were just as bad.

[nate95366]

Well, I tell you something even sadder.....the Physical Science teacher had several videos she wanted to show. The school said "NO", because the only videos that can be shown are the ones the school provides. I don't know if you have ever watched a "Brain Pop" or not, but I can tell you that after the first few the high school students did not find them "cute". The teachers are not allowed to use their own material, at all. Even the posters she put on the wall had to ones the school said she could order and put up.

The school board here basically controls every last little thing the teachers can do. You can walk from one Physical Science class into another and see the exact same posters, same handouts, same tests, etc.

A lot of teachers here have pretty much given up on actually teaching, and just go through the motions. Part of the reason I did not apply for the special ed teaching position this year was because as a lowly little para I can pretty much do as I please (since they don't want to deal with my student). I had him read whatever I felt like, we went off on all sorts of tangents and talked about the ACLU, civil rights, womens rights, etc. As long as I kept him up with the classes he was in, they never even walked into my room to check up on anything. I'm not going to stick with something that isn't working for a student, or not use other resources available just because someone who doesn't even know my student said I can't use them. It has to be frustrating to be forced to use material that is poor quality when you know of, or have, good material just because the school board won't let you use anything they don't provide.

I admit that LA schools are awful, but the ones in VA where we used to live were just as bad.

I guess that makes me glad to be in Iowa, for now at least. Nebraska (taught there my first year until this job at the same school my wife works for opened up) was good, too.

Nate