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December 5, 2006, 4:16 am PST
11/24 Great School Debate
Quote From: eyerissI'm a parent and my son is still crawling but I definitely have thought about his future more and more. I would love to be able to home school my son when it comes to that point, but am I qualified? I believe in order for a parent to home school their child, you can't just think, "I think I can do it". The next most important thing to a child's home life is their education. You really have to know whether or not you can handle it and be able to teach them the elements that they need if you want them to have a decent education. Unless you know or have learned all the fields that they are to study, then hey why not? But sometimes, do you know enough? What if your child has a higher level of learning than you thought? What do you do? You can't try to catch up. When a child is put into public or private school, they can be advanced to a higher class. If the child is being home schooled, what do you do then? When I was in school, I did pretty good in almost all of my classes. Math and depending what type of science, was my downfall. If I am not confident in my own learning abilities in certain subjects, i'm not going to try and be their teacher. I can be their teacher in other ways as every parent should be.
But parents also homeschool their children because they worry about whether the schools really are safe. The shootings in the past years and months have definitely made me more cautious but where is it really safe anymore? You can't always be there 24/7 or else your child will never be able to be independent. Everyone is their own person. Even if you home school your child, they need to have some social interaction with people especially in their age group.
I support the school system in their work to educate the children. But I also give props to parents that have given their children an education thru homeschooling. So I guess it all depends on us, the parents. Whether we feel we are qualified for the job. (apologies if this message appears twice, the connection was a bit funky)
Hi, and welcome!
This board has slowed down considerably, but you've asked quite a lot
of questions that have been discussed here already, so if there are
very few responses, that is why :)
These are common questions many parents have, and ask themselves when
they consider homeschooling actually. "Can I do it?" is a parent's
biggest concern. But only the parent can answer that. For my own
children, we see their learning as something we are involved in every
day, from the day they were born, to the day they leave "the nest".
Many parents ask the question "can I teach?" well, that's up to the
parent. But they often ignore the other question, "Can my child
learn?" and the answer to that is a definite yes. Compare newborns to
5 year olds and that's enough of an answer.
One thing about homeschooling, it does not necessarily mean the parent
"teaches everything" (I''m mostly thinking of higher "grades") However,
my confidence would have to be pretty shaky if I believed (for
instance) I could not give my child a kindergarten education :)
But for more advanced learning, if a child is zooming ahead of you in
some cases, the child has most definitely tapped into their own innate
desire to learn and has started to think for themselves what they need
(one of the goals of homeschooling, right? to be independent?) and
will likely seek out the ways to learn what they need. There are many
ways to meet those needs. It can be either a formal class, an on-line
course, a private tutor, another homeschooling parent who is
knowledgeable in a subject... whichever form of progress said
subject(s) would take would depend entirely on what both you and the
child are comfortable with and feel you both need to facilitate the
next challenge.
Now, school shooting are not an everyday occurence, and they are a
tragedy, and my heart aches for everyone who had tragic losses in those
incidents.
However, something to be concerned about is the every-day environment.
(as you said, your child is still very young) Does your child enjoy
being around a lot of people? Would the pressures and common
complaints about public schools be something he could handle? Or would
it affect his desire/will/ability to concentrate at the subjects at
hand? Is his teacher someone he feels like there could be a good
student/teacher relationship? Do YOU like the teacher? Do you like
the structure of her classroom? Has he made friends there or does he
feel lonely? (being surrounded by 25 children is no guarantee against
loneliness).
Many of my friends have their children in school (we live in a great
neighbourhood and the school is quite nice), and while many people
might think homeschooling takes a lot of energy and involvement, so
does public school, even with the fact that teachers are giving the
material. Many parents find that many things they wish they could be
doing with family or lifestyle, instead ,tend to be put on the
back-burner, to be involved with goings-on at school. So, whether or
not a parent chooses to homeschool, public school, private school (not
much discussed on this forum), or unschool, parental involvement is the
key. In many senses you're almost as much the student as your child is :)
All kinds of things to consider. So many choices in education, all of them valid, all of them do-able on various levels.
We chose to facilitate our children's learning at home because it was a
good fit for our lives and our lifestyle. Our children have their
social needs met with the friends and people we associate in our
neighbourhood and in our day to day lives, and I have every confidence
that they won't be clinging to my legs saying "No Mommy!" when they are
of age to want to leave the nest :) They don't behave that way now, and
they exhibit more maturity every year, and I don't see that, barring
catastrophic circumstances, changing :-)
Best of luck with your choices!
WW
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Parents want the best for their children, but what’s the best way to educate them? Dr. Phil’s guests face off in a debate about whether to school, homeschool or unschool. Dana and her husband, Joe, call themselves radical unschoolers. They say education happens as a side effect of life, and they don’t believe in tests, curriculums or grades. Are their three kids learning what they need to know? Then, RaeAnn says public schools are death traps and wants to homeschool her children. Her husband, Steve, says their kids are safer at school than they are at home. Can this couple reach a compromise? Plus, Nicole feels like an outcast at 26. She says she hated being homeschooled, and couldn’t relate to other kids. Share your thoughts here.
