One birth - so much controversy...

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taekwondodo
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One birth - so much controversy...

Post by taekwondodo »

Originally posted by The Drastic SpasticThis is the problem I have with it. There don't seem to actually be any controls on who can do it. Some people are probably great at it, some are okay, and some are just horrible. In general, I think kids are better off attending school outside of the home, with qualified teachers. Of course there are some parents who are genuinely up to the job but I don't think that's the rule.
Same can be said for teachers, public or private school, sadly enough. A teaching credential isn't a guarantee of intelligence or competence either(and in fact at least at one point on the 90s when I read the article in Newsweek those going into teaching programs in the US generally were ranked in something like the bottom third of their college graduating classes) and I've known people with no better than a high school degree and even some without even that much who've done a pretty amazing job of providing an excellent education for their kids and even sent them off to Ivy League colleges - and if homeschooling is so questionable then why are so many colleges these days, including schools like Stanford, actively recruiting homeschoolers? There's no arcane magic formula to creating an educated and informed human being, much as the public schools and teachers unions would like us to think. It's really pretty amazingly simple, really, and has worked for a pretty long time. Some of the most brilliant and best educated people in the history of our nation (or any other) didn't have much or any formal education. My father had an 8th grade education due to the Depression and WWII and he was a very well-educated man, he simply got most of it on his own.

The only homeschoolers who really worry me - and I still wouldn't want to see their right to educate their children at home being taken away by the government - are the far right and far left who are using home education to brainwash their kids into their narrow and stifling worldview...because whether you or I or anyone else likes it or not it's not against the law and shouldn't be (at least here) for people to pass on their values and beliefs to their children and it's not the governments right or responsibility to counter-brainwash our nation's children with whatever the political party currently in power thinks they should know/think/believe instead.

If you want to argue against homeschooling I can give you any number of resources both on-line and in print to consult so you can at least come up with a better argument than, "I don't think people should do it because schools are awesome and you just can't trust those scary uneducated people not to screw up their kids."

As I said, though, from everything I've seen and read about them the Duggars are the kind of scary, radical right wing, quiverfull, dominionist fundies who give homeschooling a bad name and who just concern me in general even if they weren't homeschooling. (And while religiously motivated homeschoolers are still a statistically huge sample of the population it is becoming a more and more common educational choice for people who simply want their kids to get a better education than they'll ever get parked in a classroom with 20-30 of their age-mates and supposed peers with the minimal supervision provided by one adult who has to provide crowd control almost as much as a supposed education.)
taekwondodo
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One birth - so much controversy...

Post by taekwondodo »

Wow, apparently I killed it. Poor li'l thread.
fourpawsonthefloor
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One birth - so much controversy...

Post by fourpawsonthefloor »

Heh. I think it was an excellent debate though. Its been lovely seeing you taek! We should start another one. LOL

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One birth - so much controversy...

Post by fourpawsonthefloor »

AH-HA! I found a fab article (sorry for the double-post, but its to bump it so its not overlooked) that discusses the ways that you may think you'll be as a parent, and what you end up being. Now as a mother, there is some stuff that I disagree with in this article (like dumping sugar packets on the table - wtf?) but its a good illustration on how society judges mothers, and what as a mother you learn that you just have to settle with.

http://lifestyle.msn.com/FamilyandParen ... tid=789141
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wingyding
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One birth - so much controversy...

Post by wingyding »

Hey, the woman can have as many kids as she likes, until they start to need aid from a government to take care of them all. But, since this particular couple doesn't accept any financial aid, they can keep going just as long as they'd like.
I just hope their children get the attention they need.
Neither Love nor Evil conquers all, but Evil cheats more.
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taekwondodo
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One birth - so much controversy...

Post by taekwondodo »

Originally posted by fourpawsonthefloor
AH-HA! I found a fab article (sorry for the double-post, but its to bump it so its not overlooked) that discusses the ways that you may think you'll be as a parent, and what you end up being. Now as a mother, there is some stuff that I disagree with in this article (like dumping sugar packets on the table - wtf?) but its a good illustration on how society judges mothers, and what as a mother you learn that you just have to settle with.

http://lifestyle.msn.com/FamilyandParen ... tid=789141
I laughed my way through that entire article, Paws, though I'm with you on the sugar packets. Oh, and letting the kid kick the guy in front of him on a flight from Italy. That was a total wtf moment for me. It's so true how much you have to adjust your standards once you're faced with the reality of kids; though there are some things I won't compromise on, like TV in the car or, honestly, gaming systems in the house (which is easy b/c my kids don't really seem to care too much about their lack...and they do make up for it with a fair number of computer role-playing and strategy game and Neopets accounts for the mindless arcade type stuff).

People who treat parenting as a competitive sport, though, either by trying to have the most pure and unsullied or most accomplished or most spoiled kids pretty much scare me. ><

And wingyding, yeah, they are entitled to have as many kids as they want and can support but I'm equally entitled to think they're scary and I hope like hell that people like them don't manage to take over our country by sheer force of numbers.
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