🚀 go-pugleaf

Bradley Richards (bradley@ai-lab.fh-furtwangen.de) wrote:
(snippage)

: 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.

: IMHO to be effective, home-schooling requires a *huge* investment of time and
: effort on the parents' part. This is also something not available to most 
: families of "minimal means", as it assumes a great deal of otherwise free time 
: and energy.

: Moreover, for the parents to be able to effectively teach subjects above the 
: grade-school level, they are going to have to be well-educated themselves--not 
: in one or two subjects, but in *every* important subject. Parents who are this 
: well-educated are very likely not poor, which again eliminates most families of 
: "minimal means".

: So, why should someone oversee and approve home-schooling programs? Because 
: there are parents who would like to think they could home-school, but will 
: either fail invest the required effort to make it work, will lack the education 
: to make it work, or who will give the schooling a bias unacceptable in modern 
: society--for example, perhaps deciding that children can really do without any 
: science courses.

: In my view--granted I left the States 5 years ago--the biggest problem with US 
: public schools is a societal/parental problem. There are too many parents 
: who don't care enough about the education and discipline of their children. 
: Their children are disruptive, and become the "lowest common denominators" 
: to which classes are paced. Other problems with bureaucracy, low funding, etc. 
: are important, but very much secondary.

: The sad thing is that this problem cannot be legislated or regulated away. It 
: is a societal attitude problem, and--like all societal problems--it can only be 
: changed over the course of many years, through the careful application of 
: campaigns like those that have been used to discourage smoking and drug use.

: Cheers,

: Bradley

: -----------------------------------------------------------------------
: Bradley L. Richards, AI Lab, Fachhochschule Furtwangen, D-78120 Germany
: http://www.ai-lab.fh-furtwangen.de:80/~bradley/
: bradley@ai-lab.fh-furtwangen.de

As the son of a now-retired teacher, co-worker with another, I can only
agree one hundred percent with your post, and I would also like to 
recognize your post as one of the most thought-out and level-headed ones 
in this long-running thread. I congratulate you for articulating the case
for public schools so well, and for not falling onto the bandwagon of
blaming "the system" when it is not the actual place where the failure
has occurred. 

There is one point I would like to question, however, and that is the one
where you blame disruptive children on their parents. I am sure, given the
level tone of the post, that your intent was not to blame the entire 
situation on parents, but I would like to add one thing: I believe that
a part, not a small one, of the problem which causes children to be out of
control in classrooms (as well as at home, in public, etc) is the effect 
of 1) television, which lowers that lowest common denominator to action-
action-action (where the slightest moment to reflect on whether what the
child is seeing is right or wrong is a chance to change the channel to
another one of MTV-style bites) and 2) the loss of respect for public
officials in general, beginning with Nixon in the end of the 'sixties, 
and ending with the current attempt by the plurality party in the US
Congress to find _something, anything_ to pin on our President, in order
to embarass him, not to help the country.

That long-winded sentence done, I have to go to Staff!
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