|
Post by antichrist on Apr 7, 2009 15:08:46 GMT -5
@ silencesoloud8603
Wow, I'm sorry for what you went through. As I said, they should have a test that you have to write under supervision. At the counselors office at a local school. This would be the best way of catching them IMO. You can't just mail the test out because there's nothing stopping the parent from giving the kid all the answers.
|
|
|
Post by silencesoloud8603 on Apr 7, 2009 15:51:09 GMT -5
dantesvirgil: Sorry for assuming that you've only seen the "good option for some people" side of homeschooling. It's just that I've [obviously] mainly just seen the bad side; even the few nonreligious homeschoolers I've met practice "Cartman-style homeschooling" (South Park season 3, episode is called Hooked On Monkey Fonics for those unfamiliar with the reference). The ones that it would be good for have all had it ruined by heavy doses of fundamentalism in the curriculum.
Antichrist: Thanks. I'm just glad my math, verbal, and test-taking skills are high enough that I was able to get into a good college where I can erase the past damage despite getting either shitty information or lack of information altogether. I could have easily not gotten lucky enough to start thinking for myself and get the fuck away from Christianity; in that case I'd be headed for either a shitty Christian school, a community college, or a low paying job fixing cars or greeting people at Wal-Mart the rest of my life. I completely agree with what you're saying about testing. If parents can't afford or won't muster the willingness to take them to the school, either the test is brought to them or it's off to public school with the kids.
|
|
|
Post by dantesvirgil on Apr 7, 2009 17:15:24 GMT -5
The people who had similar experiences to yours had a really shitty time. I mean, I grew up JW, which was really bad to start with, because it's basically a cult. Public school was the one place I could sort of blend in--except when my folks' beliefs made me stick out like a sore thumb. But I could actually read and study lots of stuff that had nothing to do with the JWs. The people stuck homeschooling that I knew had really abusive parents, really domineering with their education, too. So to be stuck at home all day with those people and only getting out to go knock on people's doors and bother them was a nightmare. So I felt sorry for them.
But my opinion would be to try not to dwell on a bad start. Your skills are clearly good enough to get you past the initial fuck up your parents did and get you into college. I would concentrate on sort of mentally "rewriting" the narrative about your education. I know some kids, also kids with bad public school experiences, who keep reliving that old, bad story in their heads. I wish they would learn how to rewrite the ending, if you know what I'm talking about.
|
|
|
Post by antichrist on Apr 7, 2009 17:35:53 GMT -5
I only did almost one year of Christian school. Fortunately they had set it up as a "private school" (3 families) not homeschooling. Therefore they violated the law by not having a certified teacher on board. It was closed down and I was returned to public school.
The bad thing is that the school board put me in Grade 7, but if I failed, they would stuff me back in grade 6. I wasn't doing well, but then a teachers strike came up so they automatically passed everyone. Then I worked my ass off in grade 8 just so I wouldn't be put back.
Other than some muttering about Christian prosecution, the idea of home schooling was never brought up again.
|
|
|
Post by silencesoloud8603 on Apr 8, 2009 2:01:08 GMT -5
But my opinion would be to try not to dwell on a bad start. Your skills are clearly good enough to get you past the initial fuck up your parents did and get you into college. I would concentrate on sort of mentally "rewriting" the narrative about your education. I know some kids, also kids with bad public school experiences, who keep reliving that old, bad story in their heads. I wish they would learn how to rewrite the ending, if you know what I'm talking about. I definitely get what you're talking about in terms of "rewriting." Dwelling on getting a bad start has long been one of my greatest pitfalls, which, especially since I suffer from depression, has caused me to occasionally have mini-episodes where I basically can't function and can only complain to any unfortunate friend that happens to be around. It's especially hard because I have a lot of friends who are/were excellent students in public school, take lots of AP classes, are excelling in classes to the point of fluency in their foreign language (oh, but I have Rosetta Stone! That's so much better; progressing in difficulty at a 28.8K modem viewing the picture thread-esque rate and never teaching anything useful) and making me think the textbook is right there in their hands when talking about certain subjects... I envy the awesome start some of my friends have gotten more than starving Africans envy John Goodman. Lately I've been able to focus on how, by some major luck, my academic future is still rather bright and after a few years I'll be at or above the same "level" as those who had a good start. In a way I'm actually the one who has the advantage because some of the people in the same boat as my friends, maybe even some of my friends themselves, will think "I don't have to work that hard because *insert excuse about high school being easy or having credits from AP classes*" and end up struggling more than they should. I know I'll be fine; it just sucks mightily seeing my friends with all these opportunities from school that I wish I'd had, and I naturally want to prevent other people from having the same homeschool experience I did. That's one of the reasons why I think there should be so much additional regulation, or, to be more accurate, the reason I can be so militant about it at times.
|
|
|
Post by dantesvirgil on Apr 8, 2009 9:54:54 GMT -5
It's not luck that got you where you are. It's because you're smart and capable. You need to "write" that into your narrative as well.
|
|
|
Post by dasfuchs on Apr 11, 2009 5:35:48 GMT -5
I would rather homeschool my kids than send them to a public or (Satan forbid) a publicly funded Catholic School. I just want them to understand that education is a lifelong process, not something that can be crushed into 10 months out of the year for 14 years then never spoken of again, which is someting I find schools fundamentally lack these days. It's not like it's an unfounded fear, when stats show that 80% of Americans read exactly 1 book or less a year. Of course, by the time I have kids, I'll have at least 2, most likely 3, or possibly 4 university degrees, including one in education. WTF, one book a year? I average two books a week! How much stuff do they read on the comp though? Granted they aren't books, but if they're online reading things that can better themselves, I'm all for it
|
|
|
Post by gadfly on Apr 20, 2009 20:57:23 GMT -5
I was homeschooled. I had a little bit of public schooling (kindergarten and a little bit of second grade), which was a very mixed bag. I made some friends, but there was a teacher's aide there who terrified me. At one point I was so stressed that I sometimes cried myself to sleep at night.
I kind of sprang up like a weed after that with my mom's homeschooling. I was not the best of students (headstrong about what I wanted to know and didn't want to know), so as a consequence I was very weak in math when I entered community college three years ago, but I have stronger reading and writing skills than most of my fellows. I loved writing and reading when I was younger, so that's what I did.
Playing almost exclusively to my strengths has helped and harmed me in some ways, but given the sort of person I am, it's hard to see myself turning out differently.
|
|
|
Post by wmdkitty on Apr 20, 2009 21:43:26 GMT -5
WTF, one book a year? I average two books a week! How much stuff do they read on the comp though? Granted they aren't books, but if they're online reading things that can better themselves, I'm all for it Point, but a good percentage of what's out there is drivel so badly written that it would fail Grade 1 standards. If they're gravitating towards well-written works of fiction, good on 'em.
|
|