We home-schooled our four. At first because we moved so often and lived in
such remote places, the only way to have any continuity in their education
was to home-school. We started in Iran with excellent Calvert
Correspondence courses from Baltimore, Maryland. When we moved to
Kentucky, I put the kids in the local rural school. At the first
teacher/parent conference with my third grade daughter's teacher, the
teacher said to us, "She don't give me no problems." I started using the
correspondence courses again. We home-schooled all kids through moves to
Venezuela, North Carolina and South Carolina. When we moved to Chicago, I
put them in the excellent local schools. I think they managed through all
of the schooling!
Tina
On Mon, Jul 1, 2013 at 11:03 AM, Ken Norton <ken@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >From what I have seen in some 20 years associated with public schooling
> in
> > the USA, this is also a large part of why our schools fail so many kids
> > (not as in "failing grade", although that's often true also, but as in
> > "fail to educate well"). Conformity is valued far more than any sort of
> > evidence of "genius" as used in these articles.
>
> SOAPBOX ON
>
> With two kids still in "the system", I've definitely got my own set of
> observations about this. The school district we're in is certainly a
> "middle of the road" one when it comes to education. In fact, they
> have to work hard to bring a couple items up to minimum standards.
> While the school excells in music and sports, it fails in other areas.
>
> Our girls started out going to a private school, and then we home
> schooled (using the excellent K12 curriculum), then we had them in the
> Grinnell school system (which was one of the best in the state), and
> finally here where we live now. The K12 program was TOUGH and is said
> to be about three semesters ahead of the typical public school. I
> don't dispute that at all, because when we they went to Grinnell, the
> first year was entirely review. Going from Creston to here was another
> year setback. So, from K12 to current school is no less than a two
> year delta.
>
> Both girls are pulling in around 3.90-3.95 GPA and would have a solid
> 4.00, but there literally are classes where the teaching is so bad
> that they aren't getting it at all. We've personally interacted with
> these teachers and fully understand why "Johnny can't read". They have
> passion for teaching, but no skill. Others have skill, but no passion.
> That doesn't matter, though, when the student is passionate about
> learning because the student will still learn if the material is
> presented accurately. As both of our girls are in the top 5% in the
> standardized tests, we know they're smart enough and hard working
> enough, so when we see a test result with a "D" on it, we know there
> is a problem. We know there are a number of teachers with inadequate
> knowledge of the subject being taught.
>
> In my day job, I'm responsible for knowing my subject matter. That
> requires a constant learning and growing. Knowledge is not static. If
> I knew 100% of everything there was to know in my job, within 18
> months, I'll know only 50%. That's why I spend an average of 10 hours
> a week learning. Unfortunately, in the teaching profession, I believe
> few teachers understand this themselves. The longer they teach, the
> less they know. XX years of experience is a bad thing in my opinion,
> if the teacher isn't constantly learning.
>
> SOAPBOX OFF
>
> --
> Ken Norton
> ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
> http://www.zone-10.com
> --
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>
>
--
Tina Manley
http://tina-manley.artistwebsites.com
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