

The Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List - jimwise
http://www.secular-homeschooling.com/001/bitter_homeschooler.html

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ChuckMcM
Nice. Having home schooled our children I have to say that it is definitely a
conversation starter and not always in a good way. Its interesting that the
list posted though only tangentially touches on the the crux of the issue.

The public is being bombarded with messages every day that education in the US
has apparently fallen below every country in Africa in terms of how much we
spend on our children and fallen behind every other 'first world' nation in
science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The outcome is that people
who are unable to home school but wish they could apparently feel threatened
by those who do.

At our house the decision to take our kids out of school was not easily taken.
It meant that either my or I would be spending our 'life capital' investing in
the elementary school education of our children rather than on other aspects
such as maybe career points, starting a new company, or building a service
organization to help the less fortunate. Since we were looking at what was
essentially a 8 to 12 year commitment (we weren't sure if we'd want them to go
to an institutional type high school or not) there was a potential to use that
time to do any number of things. So if someone tells you they are home
schooling their kids understand also it tells you what they are not doing.

Not everyone is a good teacher, but anyone who has graduated from college and
is committed can teach their kids what they need to know prior to entering
high school.

Public education is broken in a number of ways, both in how they allocate
resources and how they evaluate effectiveness. Private education more able to
evaluate and allocate effectively is not necessarily affordable to everyone,
home schooling, for those who have both the time and the ability to make the
economics work out, is, in my experience, very effective at providing the
foundation.

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brudgers
> _"We all hate you, so please go away."_

> _"We...laugh at you because you have to go on weekends and holidays when
> it's crowded and icky."_

> _"So go be shallow somewhere else."_

> _"It's not fair"_

> _"shut up!"_

Apparently, the author attended public school in the seventh grade.
Unfortunately, the author still relies upon the same set of social skills.
Ironically, the author makes secular homeschooling appear less like a well
considered decision made by a thoughtful adult.

