RE: Education: What to do about it...
Great article. That's a lot of food to digest. We homeschool our kids with a very basic, the 3r's, curriculum. The goal is to have them self taught, and then to give them time to pursue their own interests. A few years back we sent two of our kids to public school to see how it would go, and to give me a needed break. My younger son did fine in kindergarten, but my older daughter was held back a grade because of her age, even though she tested in 9th and 12th grades in math and English. She was not challenged at all, and when we asked if the teacher could give her extra work to fill her time, we were told that was against policy. I got my break for the year, which was much needed, but at my daughter's expense. We went back to homeschooling and have not wavered since. During that year at PS, she had a good friend who was behind in some subjects. My daughter told him about her favorite book in the library, and went to help him check it out. The librarian would not let the boy check it out because it was above his comprehension level. I was speechless. My daughter checked it out the next library trip, and gave it to him.
For what it's worth, my daughter scored 30 on the ACT last year, and just completed her first year in college on the Dean's list. She absolutely loves every single class and subject she takes.
I believe I read your previous post (unless I'm confusing it with another), and there was one commenter that kept bashing homeschooling. While he is allowed his own opinion, there are many homeschool families that disprove his beliefs. :)
I agree with what you said here. There wasn't anyone bashing home schooling on my previous post. That would have given me someone to mentally joust with. :)
My last post a couple of days ago the one I linked at the top of this article was about the Prussian Education System, how it has invaded our systems, and some major problems with it.
If you have a child in modern U.S. education that is excited and excelling the modern system can quickly squash that. My youngest child was doing 9 digit addition and subtraction in his head by the time he was in kindergarten.
It also turns out his approach to division was producing the correct results, but was done in a completely different way than taught. They of course wanted him to stop and do their method so he would SHOW HIS WORK, because they didn't understand his method. I didn't pull him out soon enough.
Then when he reached the point where they taught him estimation that brilliant math mind was homogenized and that odd genius he would apply no longer worked that way anymore.
He wasn't the only child of mine that I saw the excitement killed in. No Child Left Behind was a very bad bill. It could be read another way "All children taught at the same speed".
It doesn't work. These days in the U.S. homeschooling is likely the best way to go. I also don't consider college these days any better. I've had to be tech support for many colleges and what I've seen over the years has been appalling so I'm glad your daughter made it through that unscathed.
@clickinchicken Ahhh, I had a similar experience to your daughter's friend in 3rd grade when I tried to check out the book Holes from the school library and they wouldn't let me because it was "recommended for grades 5 and up." This was baffling and infuriating because I had read all the available Harry Potter books (1-4) before 2nd grade even began, and it was well within my comprehension. It's sad and ironic how schools often limit students when they should be pushing them.