RE: More Americans Are Overcoming The Homeschooling Myth
I have a friend who works in the education industry who gave me the whole "parents are arrogant for even thinking they can come close to doing the job of a trained professional and it's detrimental to their kids" kinda deal, and then moved the goal posts when I pointed out that my (very cool) moderator is a retired schoolteacher who approves of my "unschooling" methods (she keeps approving us every year) and one of my friends (also an "unschooler ") used to be a school teacher, to "oh well maybe you're doing something right but the proof will be in when they graduate from uni".
Parents did initially resist as well but now mine and my mother in law are realising how awesomely everything is working out and are fully into it, father in law just can't because no matter how well they do he simply can't get past "kids are supposed to go to school" and some people are just like that. At one of the "extracurricular" activities the kids do I even had one parent anxiously justifying why it was acceptable and "character building" for her child to be mercilessly bullied at the school he was attending (I was trying very hard to be non-judgemental but in that situation, if the school wouldn't/couldn't do anything to stop/resolve the situation, I would have walked away from it).
LoL yep sounds like you screwed up that social experiment terribly, they will never forgive you :D I hope my kids grow up as happy and successfully as yours :)
Great story. I think our boys will do a much better job than us. We had no clue, little support and experimented as we went along. By the time we finished we finally realized what our philosophy had become. We taught them how to learn. With that skill anyone can do anything.
And this points to the absolute failure of public education. It trains to pass tests, not how to think. Sure, there are exceptions and some teachers are awesome. But the system is broken. It's designed to cater to the lowest common denominator and reward the status quo. Excelling is often meaningless. As long as you can get kids to pass tests, you'll continue to get funding. If they slip, ask for more funding. If/when they still slip, adjust the tests so they can pass, or make them meaningless drivel.
Not that I have an opinion or anything. I'm super excited that our property taxes went up this year so that we could pay more for local education programs. :/
Oh, I got on a rant. haha ;o)
Here's to sabotaging our kids' social skills!