Education is the great equalizer...it's also a big sham.
I wasn't going to post anymore today. Too much to do, but I have to get this off my chest. I'm feeling really ticked right now.
One thing that bugs me is how people like Greg Laden are constantly going on about how homeschooling is horrible and keeps kids sequestered from others who think differently, yadda, yadda, yadda. School is such a wonderful thing that helps us be exposed to other cultures and people and opinions.
However, after reading about the little boy who was kicked out of his class, I think these people have their head in the sand. In reality, most teachers are just as conformist as those who homeschool, except that they simply have different values. (Not all, mind you...but enough to make a kid's life miserable if they fall outside of the first standard deviation.)
What makes me really sick is how the anti-homeschool crowd will talk about how school is supposed to help kids get along with others and learn about people's differences. The whole socialization argument, repeated ad naseum. And all I can think is, "Yeah, right. Look at what they did to that six-year-old boy." If he's supposed to learn to get along with others, shouldn't the teacher be the one to show him? Look how she handled it!
I finished reading the book Genius Denied, and it really got me upset as well. The Davidson Institute only deals with children who have IQs at 145 or above...i.e. the profoundly gifted. The book had very few good things to say about public schools, and with good reason. It's amazing what these hugely brilliant children can do, and yet they were forced to do things they'd learned years before their peers. Kids who were capable of doing college level work were forced to learn nouns and verbs and fractions...and were then harshly disciplined if they were acting out due to boredom. Some of the stories are far worse, with kids becoming physically ill or chronically depressed because of their lack of stimulation in school.
These kids' mental health and intellectual development took second fiddle to the forced cloistering of children into rooms with age-mates. The only "different opinions" these kids ran into was that of children far below their intellectual level who couldn't stand to have someone different around...and they were made to feel like there was something wrong with them without ever having their wonderful gifts recognized and developed to their full potential. This sounds far worse than keeping a child home to spend time with siblings and in the real world while being allowed to fully explore their interests.
I think the take-home message is this. Schools only benefit you if you are "normal". If you fall outside of the norm, behaviorally, intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, what have you, the teachers don't want to deal with you, the administrators don't want to deal with you, and the students don't want to deal with you. It doesn't actually help people to get along with others; it only gives positive reinforcement to those who do and makes the rest the students feel like outsiders because they don't. It caters to the middle 50% when trying to keep children intellectually stimulated. The slow kids can't keep up (and are constantly forced to compare themselves to the smart kids), and the smart kids are bored to tears.
I'm really not believing that education is an equalizer of any form. It's more that it's a reinforcer of conformity.
One thing that bugs me is how people like Greg Laden are constantly going on about how homeschooling is horrible and keeps kids sequestered from others who think differently, yadda, yadda, yadda. School is such a wonderful thing that helps us be exposed to other cultures and people and opinions.
However, after reading about the little boy who was kicked out of his class, I think these people have their head in the sand. In reality, most teachers are just as conformist as those who homeschool, except that they simply have different values. (Not all, mind you...but enough to make a kid's life miserable if they fall outside of the first standard deviation.)
What makes me really sick is how the anti-homeschool crowd will talk about how school is supposed to help kids get along with others and learn about people's differences. The whole socialization argument, repeated ad naseum. And all I can think is, "Yeah, right. Look at what they did to that six-year-old boy." If he's supposed to learn to get along with others, shouldn't the teacher be the one to show him? Look how she handled it!
I finished reading the book Genius Denied, and it really got me upset as well. The Davidson Institute only deals with children who have IQs at 145 or above...i.e. the profoundly gifted. The book had very few good things to say about public schools, and with good reason. It's amazing what these hugely brilliant children can do, and yet they were forced to do things they'd learned years before their peers. Kids who were capable of doing college level work were forced to learn nouns and verbs and fractions...and were then harshly disciplined if they were acting out due to boredom. Some of the stories are far worse, with kids becoming physically ill or chronically depressed because of their lack of stimulation in school.
These kids' mental health and intellectual development took second fiddle to the forced cloistering of children into rooms with age-mates. The only "different opinions" these kids ran into was that of children far below their intellectual level who couldn't stand to have someone different around...and they were made to feel like there was something wrong with them without ever having their wonderful gifts recognized and developed to their full potential. This sounds far worse than keeping a child home to spend time with siblings and in the real world while being allowed to fully explore their interests.
I think the take-home message is this. Schools only benefit you if you are "normal". If you fall outside of the norm, behaviorally, intellectually, emotionally, spiritually, what have you, the teachers don't want to deal with you, the administrators don't want to deal with you, and the students don't want to deal with you. It doesn't actually help people to get along with others; it only gives positive reinforcement to those who do and makes the rest the students feel like outsiders because they don't. It caters to the middle 50% when trying to keep children intellectually stimulated. The slow kids can't keep up (and are constantly forced to compare themselves to the smart kids), and the smart kids are bored to tears.
I'm really not believing that education is an equalizer of any form. It's more that it's a reinforcer of conformity.