Rant on Fast Food Rocket Scientists

[Lunachick]

Quote:
Amen to that I would love to see all year round school.. IT would stillequal the same amount of days and vacation.

Depends on where you live. Here at the Jersey Shore (NJ). The beaches/boardwalks and small towns along the shore depend on the high school kids to work the summer jobs available here. I don't think the business would do very well without the kids.

Not too many adults will work at the boardwalk stands, and we need fit younger types to be good lifeguards.

 

[TheOLDNewChick]

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My parents are child beaters because I got spanked as a young'un?
I always thought that's why I know to mind my P's & Q's and be respectful.

 

[redhen]

there's a BIG differance between child beating and spanking...big differance....

 

[FunnyFarmer]

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hmm.....this might make me unpopular, but if you have to pour hours a week into the kids public school education, why not just do it yourself at home? It'll take a lot less time & leave much more time for other activities plus you're not trying to live by someone else's schedule. I know homeschooling isn't possible for everyone, and some people just don't want to. But it is an option. People look at me all the time and say "I don't know how you homeschool, I couldn't handle the hassle and stress" and I say "well, I don't know how you handle the hassle and stress of public school!"

When I was a kid (granted I was way too smart for my own good) in elementary school, my folks had to spend very little time on my education. They did read out loud at home and it was expected that I would bring home good grades, and I knew that if I got in trouble at school I would REALLY be in trouble when I got home. I certainly agree that kids should be sent off to school ready to behave appropriately and to learn and that too often these days they're not, but you're going to send your kids to school I think you should be able to assume that they will get most of their ACADEMIC education from the school, and that you won't have to do it over again or supplement it at home. Otherwise, seriously, why send them at all?

Putting on my heat-retardant suit now

 

[Trollkiller]

Good discussion so far, I am impressed that we are all attacking ideas instead of people. Too often these kinds of discussion train wreck. Thanks for keeping the choo choo on the tracks.

 

[jbowyer01]

FunnyFarmer I was actually thinking the same thing when I posted my message (in re: to the flame retardent suit). Actually I love the fact that some individuals homeschool their children. (I actually had to homeschool my daughter for 6 months when we moved due to some health issues on her part) I love diversity, I choose to keep my children in public school so that I could make a difference in our school district (I went to school here) so I thought for it to be an effective fight I needed to be involved and my kids needed to be enrolled.

 

[Trollkiller]

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No flames from me because we do home school. The problem that a lot of people run into home schooling is the parent lacks the discipline to do it. It is real easy to skip days when nobody is keeping up with your progress.

The second problem is funding. The schools get x number of dollars per warm body, regardless if they are in the classroom or are sitting in detention for being late to class. Home schoolers have to pony up all the money for books, study guides, classroom materials, and so forth. Most of the time one parent is not in the workforce in order to teach so the funding is coming from one income stream not two.

We decided to home school long before the children were of school age. My wife has not worked in 6 years in order to home school. I have a decent job that pays a fair rate but it is difficult to maintain a house hold on $35k gross without any government assistance.

For a lot of people the choice is either to go on government assistance or send the kids to school. Home schoolers tend to be an independent lot that does not want to rely on the government for anything let alone food and shelter.

It is a difficult choice, do you send the kids to school for a second rate education, do you get on welfare so you can home school or do you do as I did and suck it up and live below the "standard" of living in order for the kids to get properly educated?

Edited to correct how long my wife has not worked.

 

[SewingDiva]

To be honest, I have zero interest in home schooling my kids, it has about as much appeal as doing surgery on myself. My kids will be in HS in three years and what do I know about teaching calculus or AP chemistry? Not a darn thing. I also think school prepares kids for entering the work force. We have one of the best school systems in my state, so perhaps it's easy for me to feel this way though.

Phyllis

 

[Trollkiller]

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If by preparing them for the work force you mean teaching them to conform above teaching them critical thinking I will agree.

 

[I have WHAT in my yard?]

The failure to teach critical thinking is one of public schooling's biggest failures!

I would home school but for two things: my daughter's dyslexia flummoxed me I did not know how to teach her to read. She now has a wonderful tutor who is a reading dyslexia specialist who magically got her over the worst parts!

Second: my own personality. I have little patience as it is and being home with them all day every day would kill one of us! LOL!!

I wish it were different but I figure it is better to know than to deny it and end up miserable and making them miserable.

I DO homeschool during the summer months.