If this is accurate...

[gwyndolyn]

http://broadband.zoomtown.com/news/read.php?id=13904167&ps=1011&lang=en&_LT=HOME_USNWC01L1_UNEWS

...that's just fucked up.

I hate people. I don't know if I've said that today or not.

Comments

[gwyndolyn]

Hi! I don't mind as long as you're not a secret troll, asking me questions only to jump on me and get nasty! :)

Our reasons are different from others in a lot of ways, but mostly just in that we're coming from the opposite direction most homeschoolers do. In a very large way, we do homeschool because of religious and political reasons- we see more and more religion, bigotry, and general stupidity making its way into schools, and we want no part of it. The larger reason for why we do it, though are that we think that they will get a better, more well-rounded education than at a public school. We don't believe a cookie-cutter, assembly line educational model is a good one, and we don't think the whitewashed US history that is taught in schools is worth a damn. We want our kids to grow up individuals, instead of being taught from age 5 to follow orders without question, always listen to authority, and never question what they are told. Add all that in with the facts that we want the kids to not be socially retarded, we don't think kids should be yanked from their parents when they're barely more than babies, and that we LIKE our kids, and we have a whole slew of reasons.

Ok, /babble for now. Feel free to ask whatever, hope some of that answered some questions!

[christina_tm]

Don't worry; I won't get nasty with you unless you get nasty with me first :).

I completely agree. Kids who are homeschooled do better on SATs and fare better in college than kids who attend public school. Of course there are plenty of bright kids who are public educated, and dumb kids who are homeschooled. But as a whole homeschooled kids do better. And (despite what homeschoolephobes would have us believe) they actually have better social skills than kids who go to public school.

I think its great that you have such an interest in your kids' education and enjoy spending time with them. I always hate it when I see parents who rely on school as a babysitter and use their kids as image enhancement.

[gwyndolyn]

I like that, using kids as 'image enhancements'. It's a good description. My dad was like that- I always told him I wasn't here to make him look good. My kids are 6 and 7, and they are definitely their own people- half the time my daughter (7) has pink/purple/red/combo hair. I told them they can shave their hair into mohawks, dye it and do liberty spikes if they want to. It's not my hair. I don't decide how it looks. We're not into telling them certain words are *bad*, either. We just tell them words are words, and if you're using any word to hurt someone, that's not good. So they can cuss if they want. We don't censor movies, either- we just explain. My 6 year old's favorite movie is the new Dawn of the Dead. He loves the special effects, and the extras on how they did them. We're very odd parents, I guess.

I know so many people anymore who say, even before their kids are out of school for the summer, 'I can't wait until school starts again!' I mean, why do these people even HAVE kids? People can't be bothered to parent anymore; they plop their kids in school, then in front of the tv with junk food. They don't TALK to them about or explain anything, then wonder why they have fat, belligerent kids.

You know, in a lot of states anymore, many parents end up homeschooling and don't even realize it. In Ohio, probably 95% of what they teach in school is the Proficiency Tests, which leaves the parents to pick up the slack at home in the form of homework. We have 1st graders with 4-5 hours of homework a night, and 4th graders so worried about their test scores that they are throwing up beforehand. If that doesn't scream problem, I don't know what would.

Blah. I have to stop myself, I'll go on and on LOL

Sorry to ramble on you, but it's nice to have someone ask me about our homeschooling who seems genuinely interested, instead of looking for a reason to jump down my throat about it :)