Sarah Maxwell Report Card Advocate

[mango_fandango]

5 hours ago, blessalessi said:

http://articles.titus2.com/r-your-kids-missing-the-boat/

We tried having a dedicated thread for the Seriously articles but it kept getting lost in the main snark board.  Maybe we could try again now we have the Titus2 v2.0 board available to us?

HA HA HA. Reading, important to Stevie? He of the dictum "our kids don't read, they write?" Of course he has to ruin it with the "be careful of what your kids read" bit. 

[Marian the Librarian]

"Reading is the key that unlocks unlimited resources."

This, from Stevehovah the Shelterer, the Controller, the homeschooler whose adult "graduated" children can't write a cogent paragraph??

Don't fuck with me tonight, Steve. This librarian is NOT in the mood.

[Granwych]

Dayumm, his Corners just get screamingly more "stupidy" (as my Caribbean-born dh says.)  

[VodouDoll]

On March 31, 2016 at 1:23 AM, Marian the Librarian said:

"Reading is the key that unlocks unlimited resources."

From the July 2011 Dad's corner:

our children enjoy learning new software, acquiring new skills, working toward certifications, and additionally, the young men love sermon preparation and the ladies doing Bible studies. It is important that our children become lifelong learners. I believe when a person stops learning, they will likely stop growing and begin to shrivel up mentally. Teach your children to work and give them a love for learning. The caution is always to guard our minds and choose to learn only things that do not compromise our convictions.

So that about sums it up. A top-notch education only exposes you to thoughts you already think and ideas you already have. So sayeth Steve.

[devoe364]

On 2/5/2016 at 3:47 PM, louisa05 said:

I had a student at Christian school who started in tenth grade after being homeschooled for all years prior. His reading level was drastically below grade level; he could not write even a simple sentence; and though he knew basic math facts, he could not do even the most basic algebra or geometry (even though mom claimed she taught both). 

The principal had a meeting within weeks with all of his core teachers and the mother to discuss how far behind he seemed to be and get her to approve some testing to determine where he was and if there were learning disabilities to consider. At the meeting, mom acted incredibly confused and repeatedly assured us that when she did all of this stuff in home school, he "did great and got all A's". 

I'm not sure I would take a homeschool report card from religious homeschoolers too seriously. 

So much this.

When my marking was subject to review (because a parent whose child had previously attended another school in the same division blamed me for her daughter getting 60s) my marking was found to be completely in line with cirriculum guidelines.

The marking of her previous teacher? She was applying standards from a Grade 3 class to a Grade 7 class. Of course the student did well.

That said, I have two step-cousins who were homeschooled (I think there Dad is an Alberta fundie). When Mom left with the kids and they got put into regular schools both of the youngest two were bumped down two grades. Two grade levels.

I have seen homsechooling done well. Usually as a group effort, where kids, especially high school age, learn from subject matter experts. So if I were homeschooling my kids, I would teach Social Studies, History, Core French and English at a high school level. I would rely on other parents in the group to teach Math and Sciences, and I would take their kids for the subjects that I was versed in. The kids from these kinds of groups are usually extremely well socialized, well read, and incredibly perceptive for their ages (at least in my experience).

It is the SOTDRT where Mama is the only teacher outside of those Godly people who teach us trades that Mama doesn't know, that seems to result in poorly socialized and academically challenged kids (at least in my experience).

That said, because of my issues, if I had biological children, I would most certainly homeschool. Because I am high functioning, my dyslexia was missed until the 7th Grade.They didn't even notice that it impacted my Math more then anything else, because I had and have, great coping skills, until 5 years after I was done High School. 

So do I believe I could do a better job as a parent with one or two kids who may have special needs (dyslexia runs in my family - all of my Dad's kids, and my Dad have it to some degree, and at least 3 of his grandkids have it as well) in identifying these things? Yes. 

Of course, I'm also a teacher with 7 years of classroom experience. That might help!

[Foudeb]

That's precisely what gets me with homeschooling - the arrogance to assume that a random person, who may or may not have any academic qualifications, is better suited at teaching than people who have been specifically trained for it. Of course there are advantages in having only a handful of pupils rather than a full classroom. But does that trumps experience with kids, actual teacher training, and the in-depth mastery of the subject matter itself?

And of course we can all point to a teacher we had that wasn't that good (either objectively bad, or just a teaching style that wasn't suited to us personally). But teachers change every year, whereas a homeschooled kid is stuck with that same parent for their entire schooling.

I don't understand why there isn't compulsory testing at the end of every year for homeschooled kids. If the parents do a good job, surely there's nothing to be afraid of, the kid will be within national average. And that would put a nice, neat stop to the Maxhell / Rodriguii / etc situations, where the kids are being (imho) criminally neglected.

[devoe364]

On 5/27/2016 at 10:05 AM, Foudeb said:

That's precisely what gets me with homeschooling - the arrogance to assume that a random person, who may or may not have any academic qualifications, is better suited at teaching than people who have been specifically trained for it. Of course there are advantages in having only a handful of pupils rather than a full classroom. But does that trumps experience with kids, actual teacher training, and the in-depth mastery of the subject matter itself?

And of course we can all point to a teacher we had that wasn't that good (either objectively bad, or just a teaching style that wasn't suited to us personally). But teachers change every year, whereas a homeschooled kid is stuck with that same parent for their entire schooling.

I don't understand why there isn't compulsory testing at the end of every year for homeschooled kids. If the parents do a good job, surely there's nothing to be afraid of, the kid will be within national average. And that would put a nice, neat stop to the Maxhell / Rodriguii / etc situations, where the kids are being (imho) criminally neglected.

I used to be completely anti-homeschooling for that very reason. As a qualified teacher, yes, I know more about teaching then Mama Duggar, or Anna, or omg, can you picture Jessa homeschooling Spurgeon? Seriously. It will be disastorous, and as far as I am concerned, denying your children a national recognized education is neglect.

While most elementary school teachers are not subject matter experts, high school teachers typically are, which is why homeschooling can be very effective in a collective situation - imagine, being taught biology by a medical doctor (I saw this in a high school home school collective) and being taught chemistry by said doctor and a pharmacist? I wish!

That said, I taught with a former Doctor. She didn't like the paper work associated with research and got a two year after degree, thinking she would have less paperwork to do. She struggled to dumb down the subject matter enough for high school kids, and when she taught Grade 8 science and had a student who read at a grade 2 level, that kid was left on her own and failed, because she didn't meet the ciruculum outcomes.

It can always go either way when dealing with people. However, I truly believe it is narcissistic to believe that you know better than an educated professional.