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Progress? - 7/9/2010 2:18:08 PM

AlwaysLisa

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Not sure I agree with this....

I keep seeing advertisements for home schooling, online. Grades 1-12, can now study and learn via laptops, where ever they happen to be reclining.

On one hand, I wish we had this when I was a tot! On the other, will there be sufficient socializing? On the other..(yes, three hands!).. there is much more socializing done via cellphones and the like nowadays anyway.

Views, opinions?

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RE: Progress? - 7/9/2010 2:57:08 PM

PeanutTigerinBox

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I don't think that home schooling would have been a good option for me, at least not with my parents, as I doubt I would have done much and wouldn't have learned more either. also personally I think it is important for kids to go to school with all its ups and downs it contains.

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RE: Progress? - 7/9/2010 3:00:29 PM

Termyn8or

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Got plenty more hands to that.

I hear this has been going on down under in the outback for quite some time. Places where transportation would be ridiculous. Also I would doubt there was much socialisation going on under those circumstances.

Academically it could be made vastly superior. At least here, the home schooled do alot better on standardized tests. If the system was made flexible, students could breeze through subjects which they understand easily and spend more time on what they find more difficult. It would even be better if students could graduate early if possible and move on to higher education more quickly. Now I don't know if this guy was home schooled but just Google for Lewin A R W Edwards. His resume is online. He quit college at age 16. His resume is online and he has his own website last I looked. Over here it is rare that anyone gets out of primary education early. Academically I think it has alot of potential.

I am mixed on the issue of socialisation though, sometimes I think it is not a good idea to send kids to school at all, and limit influences, but that only works if the home and family influences are good, and who the hell can judge that ? However in many urban schools now, socialisation adds up to learning how to do drugs, steal and lie. Certainly avoidance of that environment should be a good thing at least in the inner city. But then if forced to live in the inner city because of financial reasons, will they have the resources to home school ?

All in all I think it's worth a shot. If it really takes off and can be made available to all we might see the end of schools as we know them. Hundred year old rotting buildings full of asbestos which need to be torn down and replaced. Multitudes of people to work in and administer the system. The inequities of said system and so forth, all solved in one fell swoop. Transportation is another big one.

If mankind survives, this may be the actual next advancement really.

T

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RE: Progress? - 7/9/2010 4:21:55 PM

littlewonder

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My daughter attended cyberschool for a few months. I thought it would be a wonderful thing for her because she has a lot of mental problems dealing with social situations. Unfortunately she couldn't even seem to bring herself around to even complete this simple instruction.

I do however still find that cyberschools are a great tool for some children if the parents are still involved. Most such schools still have social get togethers in person, field trips, etc....but cyberschools are only going to work for parents who want to homeschool their kids and can be involved in their education every step of the way.

There's a ton of work involved...much more for parents who send their kids to brick and mortar schools.

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RE: Progress? - 7/9/2010 4:33:07 PM

BonesFromAsh

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quote:

ORIGINAL: AlwaysLisa

Not sure I agree with this....

I keep seeing advertisements for home schooling, online. Grades 1-12, can now study and learn via laptops, where ever they happen to be reclining.

Not all that different from adults taking courses online if you think about it.

On one hand, I wish we had this when I was a tot! On the other, will there be sufficient socializing? On the other..(yes, three hands!).. there is much more socializing done via cellphones and the like nowadays anyway.

Sufficient socializing? I guess it depends on how involved the parent/s choose to be with the local homeschooling community and what they do to foster opportunities for their children to socialize.

Personally, I don't really see texting and posting on facebook (what passes for online interaction with many of the teens I know) as socializing.

Views, opinions?

I spent this past weekend with a friend who has chosen to "unschool " her kids. When I asked them what if anything they missed about attending public school, all of them said they missed recess and spending time with their friends.

< Message edited by BonesFromAsh -- 7/9/2010 4:35:44 PM >

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RE: Progress? - 7/9/2010 5:46:55 PM

TheBanshee

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Sometimes socializing IS the problem - some kids can be quirky and kids who are a little "different" wind up being friends with other social outcasts or worse - develop terrible self-esteem issues. Sometimes the schools in their enthusiasm to "help" they label a kid and make sure a problem is magnified. A school should be an institution of learning. Schools have become polarized by politics and parents wishes are often undermined.

The social class system in high school can make for wonderful memories or can emotionally scar someone forever. I went to a class reunion and while we looked through the yearbook I asked about a classmate, had anyone heard from him? Someone spoke up and said "yes, I asked him to come, he said he hated high school and never wanted to go back and see anyone from there again". I thought about that, I didn't know this person well, but I never thought he was a bad guy, in the middle of the social pack somewhere. After a couple of decades you'd think he'd get over it, right? I wasn't at the top of the social ladder myself, somewhere in the middle too. I look back at my high school years with affection. Perception is everything. It wasn't that this person didn't care to come, but obviously it struck a very raw nerve so many years later.

It all depends on the kid - and the parents. Those kids who might be "quirky" or the "square pegs" may find a much better fit with cyber school and often the differences are what makes someone uniquely wonderful.

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RE: Progress? - 7/9/2010 5:48:57 PM

Aneirin

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Many have bad memories of school, not just the academic regime, but the characters that one came across at school, as they were thrust into an enviroment with people not of their choosing. As adults we know to keep away from places where unsuitable people may gather, yet we expect our offspring to do things we wouldn't because we know better.

Oh yes people may say it's good for people to experience other people, all the types that may be in society as it gives experience, but why, why is that necessary, why garner an oppinion that goes on into later life, why subject impressionable people to the not so nice in society. Do we in what we do reap what we sow.

The so called cyber school I think would have been useful for myself if it was computers were not room sized when I was at school, for I had my own social life, people I knew and trusted, but school was a day and nightmare, my studies were lost due to the aggression I felt there. I could have done much better if it wasn't for the fact I lived in fear from bullying. Very very hard to concentrate on studies if one's life is consumed with constant aggression, more mental than physical and that included the teachers, as some people should never be allowed to be in charge of others, least of all the impressionable. One of the reasons why I believe psychometric testing should be used to weed out the unsuitable.

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RE: Progress? - 7/9/2010 6:46:05 PM

Toppingfrmbottom

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I wish that my family home life had been good enough to do home schooling, my parents suggested it, but regular school in a real school building was my reprieve from the abuse going on at home, and as horribly treated as I was in school, and as awful as I felt about going to school, I was NOT willing to give that reprieve from the abusive situation for 8 hours a day up. I raised hell any time the idea of homeschooling was brought up.

There's home schooling organizations that plan outings for home schooled kids, and I really don't think getting enough socialization into a kids life, would be that hard.

quote:

ORIGINAL: AlwaysLisa

Not sure I agree with this....

I keep seeing advertisements for home schooling, online. Grades 1-12, can now study and learn via laptops, where ever they happen to be reclining.

On one hand, I wish we had this when I was a tot! On the other, will there be sufficient socializing? On the other..(yes, three hands!).. there is much more socializing done via cellphones and the like nowadays anyway.

Views, opinions?

< Message edited by Toppingfrmbottom -- 7/9/2010 6:47:14 PM >

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RE: Progress? - 7/9/2010 6:50:09 PM

BonesFromAsh

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quote:

ORIGINAL: TheBanshee

Those kids who might be "quirky" or the "square pegs" may find a much better fit with cyber school and often the differences are what makes someone uniquely wonderful.

Amen!

I was one of "those" kids....the quirky/artsy one who ended up taking the option of attending a vocational school the last 2 years of high school in order to be in a smaller class (10 instead of the usual 20-25 kids) and hone a talent/skill that wouldn't have had a chance in regular public school.

If cyber-school/homeschool/whatever works for the child and they're able to develop skills that will eventually help them to become a functioning member of society...whose to say what's right and what's wrong.

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RE: Progress? - 7/9/2010 7:04:08 PM

DesFIP

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Home schooling, if the parent is competent, is highly advanced over 30 kids in a class. My oldest was home schooled for seventh grade due to medical issues. She got through in a morning what her friends in school took six weeks to accomplish. Because it was one on one. We focused on one subject at a time. So three days straight might have been devoted to the book she was reading. And then a day or two to do an entire chapter in math.

Science was my downfall. For that, we had to depend on the textbook.

There are many people who homeschool so you can get together a couple of times a week for field trips. Or one parent can teach math to three kids while another handles the writing assignments.

What I will tell you is that the school system went out of their way to make this difficult. I finally had to threaten to take the matter to my attorney to get them to comply with the state regulations. And all I wanted was to know what tests they wanted her to take to prove she could enter the eighth grade. They had the balls to tell me that they wouldn't give me that information, instead I had to administer test after test until (if ever) they said it was okay. After I pointed out that they were in violation, they finally admitted the first test was the acceptable one.

Oh and her reading level was 12.9 at the end of seventh grade, meaning just a month or two shy of graduating high school. Had they allowed kids that age to take the GED she would have passed it.

Home school kids are usually the ones who win the National Geography Challenge, Jeopardy Kids and such. There are colleges who have turned whole dorms into boarding school like environments suitable for 12 to 16 year olds who have finished high school.

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