Animals
I visited the Carnival of Education today. There are some outstanding post. One of the most troubling from HorseSense & Nonsense in the post Teacher Watch: LAUSD--How Much Money to Protect Bullies? tells how a teacher became a victim of student bullies and the administration did nothing to protect her.
Kitchen Table Math offers the opinion that Math isn't being taught in the public schools.
A History Teacher explains why he went on to create an activity that centered around the Just War Theory which uses a number of factors to determine if a war is justified. Early versions of the theory date back to Classical Greece and were later refined during the European Middle Ages to help balance Christianity with the need to fight wars.
At Life Without School, Marjorie ask How Much is Enough? Both my kids love to read but have very different taste in literature. I agree with Marjorie, for heaven's sake let the kid read what he finds interesting. After all since they were checking the books out at the library one would assume the child was suppose to be reading for "pleasure". And this take the cake.
I don't either, that was one of the many reasons I decided to homeschool. The dryer just went beep so I'll have to check out the rest of the Carnival of Education at a later date.
- Kestrel9000 Attacks Homeschooling At Daily Kos
First off I am going to take umbrage at the title of the post, Revisionist History: The Christian Right and the Miseducation Of Our Children. Shining Celebi and Lord Epa are mine and The Big Kahuna's kids they do not belong to anyone else. The idea...
- Why Homeschoolers Care About Public Schools
A certain blogger delights in pointing out problems they perceive with homeschooling (without any facts to back up their imaginary problems). While I personally think they should mind their own business as my homeschooling my own children in no way concerns...
- Here They Go Again Bashing Homeschooling
A small minority of homeschoolers hold a very public Creationist Science Fair, and now the general public thinks all homeschoolers are creationist and that homeschooling should be strictly regulated on a national level or altogether banned. Carlo elaborates...
- Socialization In Public Schools
Those of you who read my blog regularly know about the Bay High Brawls, in reference to that this was in the soundoff today Fighting won't stop • To all the people talking bad about the fights at Bay High: I am a Bay High student and I do not appreciate...
- Public Education Is Inherently Destructive
One of the big problems with the public school system is that the schools are not accountable to the parents. Parents have their children's best interest at heart; unfortunately public schools often do not. Public education is inherently destructive....
Animals
Carnival of Education
I visited the Carnival of Education today. There are some outstanding post. One of the most troubling from HorseSense & Nonsense in the post Teacher Watch: LAUSD--How Much Money to Protect Bullies? tells how a teacher became a victim of student bullies and the administration did nothing to protect her.
It's important to know that, in the original trial, after less than half a day deliberating, the jury ruled against LAUSD, saying that it failed to take reasonable steps to protect a teacher from ongoing harassment that created a hostile work environment.At Edspresso Dr. Matthew Ladner's post NCLB Has Jumped the Shark - Exit Strategy Needed makes the argument for parental choice and accountability of schools.
Bottom-up accountability--parental choice--ultimately represents a far more promising reform strategy: not a magic bullet, but a linchpin reform. Higher education provides a chilling cautionary tale of non-transparent markets in education. Give me (reliable) data, or give me death.
Kitchen Table Math offers the opinion that Math isn't being taught in the public schools.
The teacher also gives them "review" sheets (the sneer quotes are there because "review" implies a topic that's already been covered, and they don't cover a topic in any sense of the word). One was on long division. Ricky couldn't do it. He'd never seen anybody do long division, nor did he understand factoring. I asked him if his teacher had shown them how to do this, and he said no -- which normally I would take with a grain of salt, had I not seen so much disorganized nonsense already. He said she sent it home with this -- and he dug out another worksheet, a "how to" sheet on long division. He's in the 8th grade. Forget the silly in-class worksheets, and forget the fact that the teacher sends them home with worksheets (traditional problems) so they'll get decent grades on the state exams. Here's my question: How can you send work home with your students and ask them to do something they've never been shown how to do? How can you justify that? If I tried to get away with that, I'd be in the Dean's office -- and it wouldn't be pretty.A lot of posters offer the comment that the "bright" students in public schools either have tutors or parents who teach them after school. I wonder IF these or the same public school parents who unmercifully bash homeschoolers?
A History Teacher explains why he went on to create an activity that centered around the Just War Theory which uses a number of factors to determine if a war is justified. Early versions of the theory date back to Classical Greece and were later refined during the European Middle Ages to help balance Christianity with the need to fight wars.
At Life Without School, Marjorie ask How Much is Enough? Both my kids love to read but have very different taste in literature. I agree with Marjorie, for heaven's sake let the kid read what he finds interesting. After all since they were checking the books out at the library one would assume the child was suppose to be reading for "pleasure". And this take the cake.
As an interesting follow-up to the dad's plight, I learned in The Washington Post that parents are being taught how to teach their kids. I found it interesting and astounding. Its like they want to be involved, but they want to be told what to do. The things the parents are learning at these sessions, I learned about when I first started reading about education generally. I cannot help but wonder why people send their children to school at all if it requires that they attend class at night just to help them with their school work. I suppose if my children were in school, I might attend such sessions, but I'm glad I'm a homeschooler so I can spend that time with my kids or my spouse instead.
I know people don't understand homeschooling, but I can't understand why they are homeschooling their kids in addition to sending them to school.
I don't either, that was one of the many reasons I decided to homeschool. The dryer just went beep so I'll have to check out the rest of the Carnival of Education at a later date.
- Kestrel9000 Attacks Homeschooling At Daily Kos
First off I am going to take umbrage at the title of the post, Revisionist History: The Christian Right and the Miseducation Of Our Children. Shining Celebi and Lord Epa are mine and The Big Kahuna's kids they do not belong to anyone else. The idea...
- Why Homeschoolers Care About Public Schools
A certain blogger delights in pointing out problems they perceive with homeschooling (without any facts to back up their imaginary problems). While I personally think they should mind their own business as my homeschooling my own children in no way concerns...
- Here They Go Again Bashing Homeschooling
A small minority of homeschoolers hold a very public Creationist Science Fair, and now the general public thinks all homeschoolers are creationist and that homeschooling should be strictly regulated on a national level or altogether banned. Carlo elaborates...
- Socialization In Public Schools
Those of you who read my blog regularly know about the Bay High Brawls, in reference to that this was in the soundoff today Fighting won't stop • To all the people talking bad about the fights at Bay High: I am a Bay High student and I do not appreciate...
- Public Education Is Inherently Destructive
One of the big problems with the public school system is that the schools are not accountable to the parents. Parents have their children's best interest at heart; unfortunately public schools often do not. Public education is inherently destructive....