🚀 go-pugleaf

    
>     
> Bradley Richards wrote:    
> >     
> > In article <328D4204.1B2B@rmii.com>, sockeye@rmii.com wrote:    
> > >Andrew Dashiell wrote:    
> > >    
> > >> As regards home    
> > >> schooling, why shouldn't the home curriculum be state approved -     
>     
> [ ... ]    
>     
> > >    
> > >3) Beg the same authorities who accredit the private schools, and run    
> > >the public schools, for the "privilege"(NOT "right"!) of educating your    
> > >own child in your own home.     
>     
> [ ... ]    
>     
> > While I don't disagree with your statements, I think that it is entirely proper    
> > that home-schooling is allowed only under supervision. However much one may    
> > like to vilify the public school system in the US, one thing remains true:    
> > teachers have training in how to educate children. And, with older children,    
> > teachers have training in the specialty fields that they teach.    
>     
> [ .. ]     
>     
> 	Sigh ... look, this is a simple and symmetric issue, really. It is a    
> given that children need guidance and education, and that if that    
> education is poorly provided the kids suffer; if it is well-provided    
> they prosper. It is implicitly assumed that school is a good environment    
> for kids, and that homeschooling is suspect. Those who wish to    
> homeschool must prove their fitness to the school; but schools need not    
> prove fitness to the parents. Have you ever heard of a public high    
> school being shut down because the quality of the education was too low?    
> I haven't. If you send Junior to school on Monday, and he is beaten into    
> unconsciousness for his lunch money by other "students", he had better    
> be back in the SAME school on Tuesday or his parents will answer to the    
> authorities. Sure, if the assailants are caught, they might be punished,    
> but even if such assaults occur in the same school on a daily basis, the    
> public school authorities will not conclude that the school is an    
> unhealthy place and send the students home. This is not a hypothetical    
> situation; many thousands of kids are trapped in public schools that are    
> not healthy places, and often not even safe. Never, ever, do the    
> authorities proclaim their own schools unfit, no matter how bad they    
> are.     
> 	It is true that not every home would make a good homeschool, and that    
> few parents know everything they need to teach their kids. Not every    
> SCHOOL makes a good school, either. The fact is that ALL parents know    
> SOME of what their kids need, and MOST homes could homeschool at least    
> SOME of the time. I can easily see a situation where a parent works,    
> say, Wednesday - Sunday. Why not have the kids at home on Monday and    
> Tuesday? Most school systems will dismiss this arrangement out of hand,    
> and leave the parents with no option but to put the kids in school for 5    
> days a week and with a sitter the other 2, leaving almost no time    
> together. Shouldn't the parents have the right to say no? Why not let    
> the parents do all the teaching they are willing and able to do, then    
> let the government pitch in to help?     
> 	Again, it is clear that a child is a dependent, and if his/her    
> guardians exercise poor judgement *he will suffer. The supporters of    
> institutional education want us to assume that their judgement is always    
> sound, even when it clearly is not, and to force all others to prove    
> they are not incompetent or deranged in order to raise their own    
> children. I am not at all convinced that the schools are any better than    
> the parents. Why is institutional schooling the default? If you need a    
> default position, why not assume the parents are competent adults who    
> love their kids and *offer* them help on that basis? Why is the school    
> taken to be a valid judge of the parent's fitness, but the parents are    
> not assumed to be valid judges of the school?     
>     
> =Eric    
>     
Because that would express a position of sanity and common sense?   
   
It would be interesting to know how many parents are home-schooling  not for     
religious or academic reasons, but for political reasons and reasons of     
health and safety. Parents are not oblivious to the issues you mention     
above, though many feel helpless to effect any change at the public school     
level.   
   
Thanks, Eric, for such a clear analysis of the issue -   
   
Lynn

lynnt@sean.oregon.com  ***  Mom to Kimberly, 15  ***   Homeschooler    
Aun Aprendo                     *****                    Team OS/2