SOTDRT

[alikat]

Would someone be able to enlighten me as to what SOTDRT stands for?

 

Thanks!

[Buzzard]

School of the dining room table

[FundiesInMyFamily]

School of the dining room table. Usually refers to not so smart fundies trying to homeschool and ending up with terrible results, like teenagers who read/write at a grade school level and so on.

[alikat]

Thank you!!

[slickcat79]

School of the dining room table. Usually refers to not so smart fundies trying to homeschool and ending up with terrible results, like teenagers who read/write at a grade school level and so on.

Yeah, that. I can't speak for everyone, but generally it's a specific subset of fundie homeschooling. It doesn't refer to all homeschooling, or even all christian homeschooling...so people who are mocking the SOTDRT are not necessarily insulting all homeschoolers. If you homeschool, there is no need to take it personally.

[Buzzard]

Yeah, that. I can't speak for everyone, but generally it's a specific subset of fundie homeschooling. It doesn't refer to all homeschooling, or even all christian homeschooling...so people who are mocking the SOTDRT are not necessarily insulting all homeschoolers. If you homeschool, there is no need to take it personally.

Exactly! SOTDRT generally implies teaching your kids shit you dont know crap about out of a book you bought off of a fundie website and written by klewlezz folk. No field trips or outside influences that may be ebil, no "guest teachers" or real skilz that may allow your child to integrate into society/workforce at a future time.

[alikat]

So, I guess you could say that the Duggars are a good example of SOTDRT before they were seduced by TLC? But I guess Jim Bob did take them on 'field trips' occasionally. So, maybe the Maxwells? Or are they too high up the fundie chain? The Jeubs, or Kendal maybe?

[YPestis]

Look up the Maxwell family website at titus2.com/blog to see the results of the SOTDRT system.

[GeoBQn]

So, I guess you could say that the Duggars are a good example of SOTDRT before they were seduced by TLC? But I guess Jim Bob did take them on 'field trips' occasionally.

I'd say it still applies after TLC seduced them, though they use more computers and less the dining room table now. But yes, it was coined for the Duggars. Specifically, a scene in the first special, 14 Children and Pregnant Again, where all the kids were sitting around the table as Michelle gave them a lesson on bankruptcy law. All the children, ages 16 to 1, learning the exact same thing, with no regard for tailoring the lesson to different age levels.

[bananacat]

Yeah, the Duggars still have pretty dismal education, and even though they do some stuff on the computer, most of them are still taught at the dining room table. I think SOTDRT applies mostly to the half-assed education of fundies because they don't believe in making schooling a separate thing from the rest of life. Even thought plenty of non-fundie homeschoolers won't necessarily buy a desk and will be happy to use their dining room table, they still tend to make a bigger deal of it and take it seriously, and invest either more time, money, or effort into it than certain fundie homeschoolers. To me, SOTDRT means a half-hearted lesson while the kids are already at the table for other reasons, and not any attempt to make lessons a distinct part of the day. I can see some cases where it would be ok to have a toddler sibling along, but at the SOTDRT, having half a dozen whiny little kids around can't be conducive to learning.

[alikat]

It does make me wonder what sort of education the lost boys or Johannah are getting. The older girls seem to have all their time taken up by 'cooking', cleaning or taking care of the youngest, that I hate to think what reading level 8 year old Justin is at, for example.

[slickcat79]

I'd say it still applies after TLC seduced them, though they use more computers and less the dining room table now. But yes, it was coined for the Duggars. Specifically, a scene in the first special, 14 Children and Pregnant Again, where all the kids were sitting around the table as Michelle gave them a lesson on bankruptcy law. All the children, ages 16 to 1, learning the exact same thing, with no regard for tailoring the lesson to different age levels.

There was also a line in the opening sequence of 17K&C where Josiah said something like, "As for school, that happens around the dining room table". It was during his Smuggar Jr. period. After a couple of seasons, they cut that line out...probably because we never saw them doing school on the show, especially with J'chelle actually teaching them.

It does make me wonder what sort of education the lost boys or Johannah are getting. The older girls seem to have all their time taken up by 'cooking', cleaning or taking care of the youngest, that I hate to think what reading level 8 year old Justin is at, for example.

There was a short webisode on the TLC website last year that featured Jill doing flash cards with Hannie and Jenny at the Little Rock house. Jim Bob pontificates about how they spend a few hours in the morning working on schoolwork, then do chores all afternoon so they can "stay busy the whole day". Doing chores is on the same level as their education. We've also seen that as of last year Jackson could not read and didn't know what letter "monkey" starts with, so I imagine the other lost boys are slightly above him in that area. It's also possible that Jackson is something of an anomaly, while the others may be earlier readers. We've certainly seen some intelligence in Hannie, and Jeremiah is supposed to be the chess whiz.