Doc’s Sunrise Rants

Doc,

As a public school math teacher I was intrigued by your post. I found it interesting that you attack the broad generalizations made against homeschool students by making equally poor generalizations about public school students. Not all public schools have pregnant teens wandering aimlessly through the hallway, passing by various drug deals on their way to a class taught by an unmotivated, underqualified teacher.

With my limited research of homeschooling I have a couple of issues that maybe you can help me sort out.

First, why does their seem to be so much anger tossed at the public school system? From my standpoint you and I are very much alike, we are both concerned with providing a quality education to young people. Instead of firing barbs back and forth, would it not be more productive to share ideas and resources about teaching and learning? For example, I would love to hear about some of the real world experiences you have encountered, and how they were spun into lessons. A homeschool teacher might have some interest in some of the discourse in my classes about various patterns in math. Everyone knows there are bad teachers, and certainly you would admit there are at least a couple of bad homeschooling parents.

Second, I have seen many statements similar to this one… “I allowed my children a LOT of freedom to learn what they wanted, based on their interests. I probably was never truly an unschooler, because while I allowed them choices - I only provided good choices. Good choices in learning activities, and in social activities.”

How do homeschool parents balance the freedom of direction, while still making it to the desired end? What does it mean to say that you only provided good choices? Is it a difficult transition for homeschool students when they have to make the transition to figuring out for themselves what the good choices will be? What if the child does not “choose” to ever want to do math?

Thank you for any insights you can provide, and understand that there are at least a few of us “professional teachers” that truly do care about education and young people.

First of all, I made no generalizations. I distinctly wrote about my experiences, and my opinions, which are based on 22 years of child rearing, my oldest son’s short lived experience in government schooling, and years of tutoring in the same school district in which I live, PLUS my own employment in the state university system as an instructor. I’m not without a clue….

My opinions about public school teachers and THEIR opinions of homeschooling were limited to some edublogs I had been reading. My opinions about public school students were limited to my experience with high school students (which, as the mother of four very social teens, is not sparse by any means).

Now I’ll try to answer the rest of your comment questions without wondering too much about your reading comprehension skills. I’m guessing you have not read any of my archived articles or you’d probably already know that I’m not anti public school, anti public school teacher (gosh, didn’t I mention in a comment just above yours that many of my friends are public school teachers?).

I, personally, am not directing any anger towards the institution of “public school”. However, I question the motives of a government body who would dare to undermine my parenting decisions and which, as a group, attempts to pass laws limiting my decisions over the well being and education of my own children. As parents, we don’t need “public education” to dictate to us when, where, and how we teach our children. I taught my kids how to converse in one of the most difficult languages on earth, before they were three years old. I am pretty sure I can teach them how to do algebra. Public education is a fairly new concept in the scope of western civilization.

If you encountered any anger in my post, it was towards public school teachers who know little or nothing about homeschooling, yet feel the urge to write disparaging articles about it anyway. I can appreciate a logical argument. What I read yesterday was just a bunch of opinions without substance by people who know nothing about the subject they choose to write about.

As to your assessment that “Not all public schools have pregnant teens wandering aimlessly through the hallway, passing by various drug deals on their way to a class taught by an unmotivated, underqualified teacher.”, you’d be hard pressed to qualify that statement with supporting evidence. Show me proof of the existence of a high school where every single student is happy and engaged, and every teacher is absolutely qualified to teach the subject they’re teaching. Since I never said “all public schools” in my post, I’m not sure why you invented this statement and attributed it to me.

Please keep in mind that I hold a teaching certificate. I know what it takes to become a teacher. My oldest son is currently enrolled at Western Oregon State University, where he will graduate in the spring with a degree in education, and the hope to become an early elementary teacher (after grad school of course). I know what every student at my son’s university is required to learn in order to become a teacher. Honey, it ain’t much. And you certainly don’t need to be a genius in order to pass many of the classes. You sure don’t need to be a top student - as long as you pass with the minimum requirements, you’re as apt to latch onto a plum teaching position as the kid who graduates first in the class. That’s real life.

My contention is that any parent can do the exact same thing. All the homeschooling parents that I know and it’s literally thousands if you count all the parents I’ve encountered in two decades of real life support groups and online support groups, message boards, email loops, and blogging.. where was I? Oh yes, all these parents use all the resources available to them, they research learning theory and learning styles, they research methods and curriculum, they try things and when they don’t work, they try something else. They have a freedom not afforded in a crowded classroom that depends on one adult and a base standard.

I can duplicate what you do in the classroom by putting up a whiteboard and making my kids sit in rows, listening to me drone on and on about math and then giving them a homework assignment. Sure, they learn the material, but what is the value learned? What an absolute waste of 50 minutes a day, or however long your class is. I don’t even teach math. My kids read the little blurb in the algebra book (we used Lial’s College Math and Algebra series, check it out here) and did as many of the problem set as they needed to do to “get it”. If they need help, they can ask me or go online to any of 10 million math help sites. Can you duplicate this? Can you change math programs at will? Can you customize your teaching for each of your students? Can you say that every single one of your students finishes the class “getting it”? Have you ever failed a student? Are you a slave to a standardized test? A school board? The taxpayer?

I don’t “spin real life” into lessons. We live real life, and that’s the lesson. We go to the store, we buy groceries according to unit pricing, natural ingredients, the social aspect of where that food came from and who produced it. Real life isn’t about pointing out that a simple trip to the grocery store includes untaught lessons in social studies, geography, science, math… real life is about all the things you do in a day. You work, you pay bills, you spend your leisure time in thoughtful activity. You don’t make a lesson plan out of life. It happens and you learn. It’s natural learning and it’s how children spend their first 5 years - before the government steps in and forces an arbitrary schedule on them and brainwashes them into a socialization pattern that in my opinion, and the opinion of a growing number of parents, has ruined what once made this country strong - individual thought.

I don’t know any of these “bad homeschooling parents” of which you speak. A parent who keeps their child out of school for a variety of unsocial or illegal reasons is not a homeschooling parent. They’re just bad parents. There are no bad homeschooling parents. To make the choice to direct your child’s education requires dedication, and bad parents don’t bother with that. Don’t blur the line between child abuse and homeschooling. There are many more abused children in the public school system than being homeschooled. They are abused by their parents and/or public school employees.

How do I give my children only good choices? Is this a trick question? I do that by being a good parent. I give my children choices like this: “You have a choice, you can watch history channel, or discovery channel”. The bad choices, like MTV and Playboy, are already deleted in the parental control section. Duh. Giving children bad choices AS choices doesn’t really teach them to make good choices a habit, now does it? This isn’t rocket science dear. Read my series on Classical Unschooling, in the sidebar. Children, even teens, do not have the emotional maturity to make good choices all the time. I’ll continue to be the one to guide them down the “right choice path”, thank you. I’d rather not trust that chore to an adult who really knows nothing about my particular children, and has many, many other children to guide too. Visit any city, large or small - any time of the day, and you’ll find pockets of teens making poor choices. Those kids aren’t homeschooled, I guarantee it.

I’m not anti public school. I’m not anti teacher. Teachers should be allowed to teach, and not be suppressed into automatons who simply read from a text and push a standardized test. They should be free to choose their own materials and texts. Students should be grouped by ability and not by arbitrary grade/age groups. However, teachers are NOT allowed to do this and the university system isn’t turning out teachers capable of doing this. That’s the saddest commentary on the public school system.

I’m not sure what I answered, or even what you asked. However, I felt like writing this morning so now you’re blessed with yet another batch of my opinions. Enjoy!