Report: Homeschooling Growing Seven Times Faster than Public School Enrollment

Originally posted by AFewGoodWomen
Wouldn't it be neat to have one room schoolhouses in neighborhoods again? One every couple of blocks.

Why can't parents who homeschool their own children also homeschool others from the neighborhood??? Seems like it would be feasible and help the problem of social skills.

The problem I see is "education by the untrained." Once you get away from the basics (into something like chemistry, for instance, or anatomy and physiology or calculus or statistics or even music composition) the amount of knowledge needed to teach it well may not be something that the parent can pick up quickly. Having a mathematics teacher present calculus is very different than having a self-taught mathematician present it (I am speaking from experience, having taught calculus at the university.) While having the self-taught person present it might work out well for some, if you have a kid who's got the potential to be a mathematician, they really need to interact with someone who can answer deeper questions.

I just don't see a pool of experts of that kind being readily available to homeschoolers.

reply to post by Byrd
The 'expert' in these cases appears in the form of a book. Almost anything can be learned and taught with books.

Originally posted by Elliot
reply to post by Byrd

 

The 'expert' in these cases appears in the form of a book. Almost anything can be learned and taught with books.

Not always. Especially with regards to higher math and science. The student needs to be able to question the teacher, and the teacher needs to be ready to answer the questions in m,triple ways. In other words, people learn information differently and an effective teacher presents that info Ito fit the learning style.

To further my explanation....consider how the majority of us raised in the eighties were taught math....by formulaic approach. We had no real understanding of the base ten system, or how it can be manipulated mentally to solve problems. We didn't understand tht 596-327 could be solved any other way than to "borrow" , and we didn't understand why we were borrowing groups of ten or why that worked.

My cousin home schools here children, now that her son is in high school she's really struggling to keep up with the subjects she had trouble with.

Originally posted by Byrd

The problem I see is "education by the untrained." Once you get away from the basics (into something like chemistry, for instance, or anatomy and physiology or calculus or statistics or even music composition) the amount of knowledge needed to teach it well may not be something that the parent can pick up quickly. Having a mathematics teacher present calculus is very different than having a self-taught mathematician present it (I am speaking from experience, having taught calculus at the university.) While having the self-taught person present it might work out well for some, if you have a kid who's got the potential to be a mathematician, they really need to interact with someone who can answer deeper questions.

I just don't see a pool of experts of that kind being readily available to homeschoolers.

That's a good point Byrd. Homeschooling is taken seriously by a lot of people, and some of these people have children who are advanced learners. This angle is being addressed and taken care of though. In most cases, a parent is going to have to shell out a few extra dollars to get their child connected with the right people and/or curriculum that can teach their child what they need to know outside of the typical state mandated curriculum. Public schools on the other hand are getting funding's cut every year, and advanced programs are usually the first to get the ax.

The pool of experts may not be readily available, but they are available. You just have to look.

www.home-school.com...

www.hoagiesgifted.org...

People should also remember that it is unrealistic to think that a parent who home school's their child does everything. Maybe in the elementary years, but not so much in the 7 to 12 years. This is where networking with other parents and educators is extremely important. Find the right people and you will find they can be extremely helpful.

Originally posted by smyleegrl
reply to post by signalfire

 

I have a 55 gallon African Cichlid aquarium in the classroom. We use a biological filter and run the filtered water through moss before it returns to the tank. We also do an experiment where we use regular tap water versus aquarium water to water the classroom plants, and see which plant grows more quickly. The cichlids raised a hatch last year and we traded the babies to a local pet store for the fish food. The kids love the tank and the plants.

We also raise a small garden outside the school. The kids plant the stuff every spring, we teachers tend it over the summer, then the kids harvest the "crops" in the fall. Then we use the crops to make meals for the kids to sample (the garden isn't that big).

I really believe hands on learning is the way to go....practical, educational, and fun!

Those African cichlids you're raising are the 'tilapia' of aquaponics fame. Given enough water and food, in a year or so they're plate sized. They're the most commonly raised meat fish; they need a rather stable temperature range but one fix for this is to have the fish tanks in a heated area like a garage and pump the water outside to a hoop house raft system for the plants. If you're already breeding them, you're way ahead of the game technically. Also, you can decrease or eliminate the cost of commercial fish food (which is unsustainable and possibly contaminated) by raising your own worms (vermiculture, another job skill believe it or not) and duckweed.

Take a look on line, you can literally grow a substantial amount of the food for say, 100 people in 1/4 acre. There's Will Allen in Milwaukee who is growing 1 million pounds of food a year on three acres; he's made quite the business out of it and is providing food and employment as well as training in a food desert in the central city. He's even getting his compost, used to both heat his greenhouses but also grow the worms, from local breweries (of which Milwaukee has a few...) for free as a waste product, then recycles the completed compost into another product, all bagged up and ready to sell. The guy's a genius

Feel free to contact me Smyleegrl if you want to talk further about this, I'm coming at it from the area of a lifetime aquarium hobbyist but the rest is dead simple. The plant seeds are available on line commercially by the pound, so don't think you'll be stuck buying those tiny seed packets like in the grocery stores. Here's a blurb from a small farming venture (mom and pop) near me: www.southernoregonmagazine.com...

My favorite site for information about this is 'Friendly Aquaponics' out of Hawaii, but there's plenty of other info out there. No need to pay for information; at Friendly's they have an archive of their newsletters and they say themselves, if you read through all them carefully you'll have the equivalent of their 2K$ training program for free.

reply to post by signalfire


I will absolutely look into this info....and you may get bombarded by questions! Be prepared!

Originally posted by Elliot
reply to post by Byrd

 

The 'expert' in these cases appears in the form of a book. Almost anything can be learned and taught with books.

Yup, or hire a tutor by the hour for everyone in the class, if need be. It's relatively cheap and a good tutor can handle any grade level. My son in law can handle anything from K through PhD physics courses and I've seen him switch between both. Kinda fun when the kindergartner wanted to know more about the quantum physics stuff

Originally posted by DarthMuerte
reply to post by smyleegrl

 

More good teachers should do just that. Just imagine, a free-market solution to a real and growing problem. Teachers who really love teaching could teach smaller classes of like 8-10 students out of their own homes and in less time than wasted by traditional schooling.

There is a lot of empty business buildings all over the country that would work well for urban areas, as well as towns and most villages. The real problem with dismantling the educational system, is suburbia and rural America.
For suburbs, I could see several teachers renting/buying a large house and remodeling it to their needs. Housing supplies might meet this need. Rural America though? Maybe finance additions to local Post Offices, and have the Post Offices rent the space to teachers. Even then though, a satellite online education may be best for most kids.

Lastly though, there are special needs children that might get torpedoed by the collapse of the public school system. A system of checking on the kids ,nothing too fancy or overreaching, just regular checkups to ensure the child is where the child should be, and is in good emotional and physical condition.

The end result of any change should be for the better, and take into account those who are vulnerable. Look at China; the Chinese educational system is much like what I just talked about, it has many, many different private schools. Sadly, abuse is in those private, sometimes teacher led schools is more common then it should be.

Of course in America, people could use various Federal child care licensing programs as a bed rock for any future, widespread educational Dojo's(in Japanese it means "place of the way", how cool is that?). Everything from background checks, and slight local police involvement as Officers of the Peace(like Police Officers showing up occasionally to give anti-crime and safety lectures).

reply to post by smyleegrl
I understand what you are saying about 'questioning' an expert, but it can still be done and an expert can be found even if you have to pay them. As I have said a little way back, i have homeschooled and on return to school my child was in top classes for all subjects except math, where she was in set 2 because she liked that pace of working and not because she was not very capable. BUT, anything I needed help with understanding i would study and study and ask for help if necessary. I don't claim to be able to teach anything to degree level but feel capable of all subjects to age 16 - 18. I DO understand that most parents would struggle, but home schooling can be and has been a very successful way to school IF you do NOT isolate yourselves from others and make great efforts to meet as many different people as possible as often as possible.

reply to post by DarthMuerte


I love seeing this.
I did a report in a college course about homeschooling. Being in my late 20s at the time, I got a warning from the professor about doing it. I basically told him to stick it up his butt, and did it anyways. Got a C on the paper, where others got As and such for sub-par papers.

Most educators don't like the idea of it, as it cuts into their business.

reply to post by macman


Some educators want serious reform....and homeschooling is a start.

reply to post by terriblyvexed


The internet and public libraries can be your friends! I don't know a lot of stuff, but if you know how to read then you know how to teach yourself. If you teach your kids to read and how to research and study, they can teach themselves. The only problem I had was with math. Again, internet helped us learn together what I didn't know enough to help them with.

For those of you looking for math resources, check out Kwan Academy or Singapore math. Great tools to use, I use them in the classroom but they also make materials for homeschooling.

reply to post by Byrd


Therein lies the crux...not enough resources. Visiting teachers for various subjects would be the answer. They would be on a volunteer basis, however, fully certified. It would be great for those working on their master's degree as perhaps these volunteer hours (with proven student success) could go towards college credit.

I'm a hopeless idealist and I apologize.

ttobban
reply to post by terriblyvexed

 

It's the beauty of the information age! No longer are we subjected to the miniscule amounts of information that books provide. Math and science are the only true languages in the World that don't indicate an exaggerated form of learning/communication.

Herein is the problem, fundamentalist Christians do no believe in science, they teach their children that the world is 6000 years old, and that the old testament of the bible is actual history. I am not a religious person, but have had a lot of religious training, it is all a bunch of whoo haaa as far as I am concerned. God doesn't want me, and the devil is afraid I will take over.

People of the earth, honestly take the time to study. Homeschooled kids are not the answer, they are the problem.

reply to post by BubbaJoe


The problem is the large amount of taxpayer dollars that are funneled into union teachers, public schooling and large, deteriorating buildings to public education where you can spend 12 years "at school" and can't read, but you can certainly put a condom on a banana.

No matter how much the gov't is against private education - home-schooling - public education will go the way of the edson.

reply to post by BubbaJoe
Homeschooled kids.............are the problem!?

How utterly offensive.

We homeschool. We are not religious in any form, though I accept that religious people can and do homeschool and we are doing a very good job of homeschooling. Our child is well socialised, up with technology, advanced in maths, science and english. Our child is an outstanding artist and very creative. How exactly is our child and our child's education a problem?

Go to a local school, observe the classes and the behaviour of far too many of the children and then decide who the problem is.

One has metaphorical smoke coming from one's ears hence one will now stop writing!!

BubbaJoe

ttobban
reply to post by terriblyvexed

 

It's the beauty of the information age! No longer are we subjected to the miniscule amounts of information that books provide. Math and science are the only true languages in the World that don't indicate an exaggerated form of learning/communication.

Herein is the problem, fundamentalist Christians do no believe in science, they teach their children that the world is 6000 years old, and that the old testament of the bible is actual history. I am not a religious person, but have had a lot of religious training, it is all a bunch of whoo haaa as far as I am concerned. God doesn't want me, and the devil is afraid I will take over.

People of the earth, honestly take the time to study. Homeschooled kids are not the answer, they are the problem.

I home school my youngest son, who is in 5th grade this year.

His history that he is being taught is NOT the bible. He's learning about events in the US after the Civil War.
His science is not that the world is only 6,000 years old. He's learning about Water Conservation, Water Sheds and the Water Cycle.

In Math he is learning about Expressions of base numbers and exponents.

In ELA he's learning about Direct Address, writing composition and different types of punctuation.

His courses are based upon both the national standards and the state standards (that is until they go to the new Common Core standards down the road), which he'll be tested on and must pass.

He's home schooled because the bullies at school had him in tears just about every day.....and unlike when I went to school decades ago, he's not allowed to confront them, else he would get in more trouble than them for doing so. And the school refused to take action about it.

The problem isn't that he's being home schooled.

The problem is people like you that make assumptions about kids who are home schooled.........

terriblyvexed
Homeschooling might be cheap if you can teach them yourself, but what about people like me?

One of my girls just passed 3rd grade, and got an award for being top of her grade. She's been a strait A student since she started school, and is way better at math than me, and to my frustration constantly correcting my grammar I use to argue that I think I know how to speak (according to google I don't) now I just let her educate me...

How much would someone who could teach your kids cost? I think I'd like that if I can afford it.

They have home schooling groups where parents get together and teach a groups of kids what they are good at. Some do art, some do math, etc. you can check it out online to see if there is a group near you.