My wife and I home school (my wife does most since I work, I help when and where I can, weekends and such)
Public schools are not an enviroment for learning anymore its just glorified daycare in most comunities. My Child gets all the social skills she needs from Church, group of friends. etc....she dosnt come home speaking like a charicter out of some GANGSTA video. (some of my friends children do)...my daughter dosnt concern here self with looks or wieght as much as some girls do.
Public schools make rules and everybody treats them like laws...school rule here in my comunity if you get hit leave the area and tell a teacher or other adault this includes the H.S. if you strike back under any circumstances you will get suspended for fighting along with the agressor. I dont condon fighting but i do belive in defence of one self.  


i just had to rant and blow steam after reading some coments in a thread about wusses and america....

P.S. my wife teachs my daughter the english and grammer part of her leasons because mine suck!

I agree...
were looking into home schooling too.

Very Cool, burn. I was homeschooled, and all of my younger siblings are too. I plan to teach my kids, with my wife, when I have a wife and kids[:D]. Recently, I finished a year at a homeschooler's co-op, teaching 5th-6th grade Science and Grammar. I really applaud those who make the decision to be responsible for the education of their childre(our numbers are on the rise) and I would necourage every parent to at least explore the option.

I have no respect for our government actively and knowingly pushing a Neo-Humanist worldview on our youth. I reject utterly theiridiocy, and try to impress some original thought into the minds of the high schoolers I meet. It's hard thoiugh, these kids aren't just "educated", they're practically indoctrinated. I was just reading here about the kid who thought that the NWO would be cool, like Star Trek, and his brother had Stalin's "share or be shot" plan down to a "T". Where did he get an idea like that? Hmmm?

Conservative/Libertarian/Constitutionalist thought is like Ancient Mayan to public school kids, but you gotta try. Biggest place you can make a big difference is with your own kids, and I'm glad that you do. The battleground of the war we collectively fight is in the mind...

Juggernaut[%(]

thanks for the support...

homeschooling also provides me with a lot of quality time with my child. She already loves to shoot. (shes not into it as much as me[:)].
Must public schools condem firearms.
When i was in high school i was on the rifle team..we fired small bore both .177 pellet and 22lr we had an underground indoor range..some students complained and said we were baby killers and wanted us banned. we pulled in more UIL money than our football team. needless to say we wernt banned but i always wondered what would happen if we sucked and the money wasnt coming in. (UIL moey is the money a school gets for being beter a extra coricular activities in texas..or at least it used to be way back when)

I have a child on the way (our first) and I couldn't never send him/her to public school.  How do yoou get started in home schooling?  Do colleges accept home schooled children?  I am very interested since I think this is my only option (can't afford those fancy-schmancy private schools [BD]).

While I mostly agree with you I think that some public school is neccisary. I attended public school myself and I don't talk like a ganster.  While I agree that somw of middle school and all of high school was basically a glorified day care I think that elemntry was probably the most educational.

Just because you tend to learn more and you dont have all the kids trying to rebel all at once.

If we did things as they do in some other countries we would be better off.  Namely you make it through 9th and then you goto college or you work.  the other years are just day care.  Except for those few students who tend to really concentrate you just go off of past knowlege.

Anyways just my cent and a half
[sniper]

All 50 states allow you to homeschool, though most require you to be under an "umbrella" school, where you just turn in grades to them, and the kids take the standard Stanford Achievement Tests every other year. No biggie.

Colleges do take homeschooled kids, I'm in Baker college of MI right now with a very good GPA. I'm taking their Online classes from home, but just about any college will accept homeschooled kids on campus too, I had that option, but prefer to work over the computer. Homeschooled kids win  the big spelling and gegraphy bees for a reason, colleges are not unwilling to take them if they meet entrance requirements.

As to the actual schooling process, my Mom read to me, and taught me to count while I was young, and when I was older, we just moved on to bigger books, and textbooks. Many textbooks aren't worth 2 cents, for exaple, the only effective way of teaching reading is phonics, but most school's curriculums don't use phonics text, preferring the look-say method, so you have to do some research.

I learned non-revisionist history from A Beka textbooks, learned my math, literature, Bible, Geography, sciences(even did experiments), writing and could be done with school by 2:00 PM, working my assingments mostly without help by 4th grade. The rest of the day was mine excluding chores. That's how we homeschooled, and how my mom still does with my little siblings. There's a lot of books and internet resources now too, so check out "homeschooling" on Google.

It's the ONLY way for me and my future family. As to how I turned out, well, that all depends on who you ask.[;)]

Juggernaut[%(]

Public Schools are more like 2 working parents babysitting buildings

Public schools teach children how to deal with people.  Some teachers are dicks, others are not, some kids are assholes, others are not.  Children who are homeschooled will lack the ability to deal with simple social issues that normally would be no problem.  

JBR, you wasn't have gone to public school in NYC I guess[B)]

i iz uh produkt uv thu publik edukayshun sistum!!! (HA! Let's see spell check fix that!)

[;D]

You may have a point. I don't feel I lack the ability to handle most social situations, but there's I'm not so sure about.

I can't speak ebonics in any form-

I don't mumble, slouch, and ignore other adults when they speak to me-

I don't don't recall any proper verbal answer for "You wan some happy stuff man? First one's free."-

I can't seem to join the Ritalin crowd-

I sure don't cuss as fluently as my publically indoctrinated peers-

I gasp when I hear Neo-relativism in the mouths of grade schoolers-

Hmmmm...I'm not ready for the real world, am I?

So, seriously, where did you get this theory? I said that we're taught at home, not locked in boxes until age 21. I have a PC tech/digital imaging job job right now(age 18, have since age 14, working part time.), I can carry on a coherent conversation at work, stores, church, and I don't stammer when someone says, "How was your weekend?"

See, I'm not lacking due to not having received a harsh psychological pummeling in the arena of public education. Every single one of my siblings are articulate, friendly and polite, right on down to the three year old. We have friends at church, my mom takes them shopping, and we visit back and forth with friends and neigbors. Where's the problem?

JBR, support your gross generalization of all home taught persons, please.

Juggernaut[%(]

            I agree with this totally, I think home schooled children are at a disadvantage when they get out in the real world, they have no street smarts and others could and will use that against them.

When is the last time any of you voted in an election for school board?  Who are your school board members?  What do they stand for and against? The "government indoctrination camps" you have all had your little circle-jerk criticizing are controlled AT THE LOCAL LEVEL by a school board elected by you and your fellow citizens.  If all the horrible things you had to say about public schools where YOU live are true, then stand up and take credit for helping make them that way.  The school board YOU elected steered the district in that direction.  Especially in a rural area or small town, there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn't know the members of the school board personally or (gasp!) run for the board yourself.  I personally know people who have done just that and taken a large school district in the direction they wanted it to go, to include getting rid of administrators and other personnel they considered incompetent.  Why haven't any of you?
For that matter, were you involved in PTA at all?  Did you attend open house and parent-teacher nights?  How involved were you in the system before you decided to abandon it?

I admire you and your wife for having the patience and skill to conduct home schooling. I learned the hard way that the school system nowadays is not exactly the kind of environment you want to put your kids through.
There will be a point that you have to realize that there is much you can't teach. Not everyone has the skill to teach everything.
What are your plans when they need to be taught subjects that are not wihtin your realm? Do you have some sort of co-op with other parents who home school?
Good job.

All I know about homeschooling is the kids I've met who have been completely or partially schooled at home, and I find that everyone of them is doing well socially with other kids their age. Having volunteered and worked at  my daughter's school for three years now (K-2nd), I find many faults with the system; the family system, the school system and the county/state system. The kids who seem to do the best at school seem to have the most parental involvement, i.e. the parents ask questions of the teachers and administraters, they make sure the kids are doing their homework and sending it back in, and if they have a major problem, they find out when the next school board meeting is and show up at least for the open comment period where they ask serious questions and demand serious answers and not rant and hurl insults at other people.  The school system: Instead of starting to teach children using examples of the size of world a child CAN understand (your neighborhood, city, for the first few grades, then on to the county, state, then to the U.S., etc.) first graders are already being taught things in a global sense which they cannot comprehend.This is a failure in teaching  a sense of community. Kids wind up with no sense of responsibility for the people they live with everyday. Aboriginal tribes taught individuality within the context of the tribe - no jails/prisons  needed, work for the suvival of the group, banishment  or other punishment if you didn't. Schools restrict a child's understanding of taking personal risks. Striving to be the "Perfect" society where "even one child hurt is one too many" keeps the children from learning their physical limits. I have seen playground equipment taken out that kids loved & used because some playground safety inspector deemed it unsafe (tire swings, monkey bars, swings  etc.). This happens in our parks too. I know about the LIABILITY b.s. and I think that could be turned around if we taught our kids that they are responsible for pushing the limits and that the world isn't "SAFE", if you slip and break an arm it's called an ACCIDENT, and no one owes you anything except maybe comforting by your parents or from yourself when you are older. The State: I think state testing and withholding of money for schools based on these one-time test scores is wrong and illegal. Just like when certain federal officials say we won't give this state any of the money that is SUPPOSED to go there if they don't pass laws we don't like.The schools and the parents who send their children there should decide how they are going to gauge the effectiveness of the teaching. Man, I could go on! If your children go to public or private school, TAKE AN INTEREST IN WHAT THEY ARE DOING! Every night, or at least once a week, go over your kids school work that they brought home. Turn off the spoiled-brat, over-paid unimportant sports crap on the television, hell, turn the stupid-box off altogether like we have always done, and let your child know you care about what goes on in THEIR life. Sports figures are NOT HEROES, Actors and Actresses are NOT  STARS, and Musicians are NOT ICONS. I reserve these terms for everyday people in my community who do outstanding things we all can be proud of. That's it , I gotta stop.......

With todays economy the way it is with two income families and like myself being divorced (so many divorces) home schooling is out of the question for many families.

One of my big gripes is the fact that with the lack of discipline schools now have over children in the class room it seems to me that they have had to lower the standard for education just to pass children and to get them out of school.  I cringe when I see a school grade card or a test from my children and they get say a 70 and it is marked a C.  C's when I was in school meant average, 70 was a D and and just one point away from failing.  I believe the way grades are given now kids think they are smarter than they really are and when they hit the real world they are in for a rude awakening.

My wife is a middle school teacher.  She would agree that in most cases the lack of discipline in the classroom has two roots.  

This first is no discipline in the home.  It is impossible to expect a teacher to undo the bad habits and lawlessness that a student has been allowed to develop at home.  Many students have no consequences at home for their behavior at school.  

The second reason is that a lot of administrators now days will not back their teachers.  Corporal punishment, expulsion, suspension, repeating a grade, etc seem to have gone the way of the dodo due to worries about lawsuits, etc.  Many administrators also seem to bend to parental pressure and allow kids to pass, etc just to keep the parents at bay.  

I agree with several comments made about public schools being daycares.  My wife frequently comes home frustrated that after she spends most of her time telling students to sit down, be quite, and behave, that she has little time left to teach a good lesson.  

One local teacher recently was recently complaining about low teacher pay.  If she were being paid to babysit she might expect the following 180 days x 7 hours a day x $5/hr x 25 students = $157,500 a year.  This is a far cry from what teachers actually make.  Go figure.

drjakeb, not to be slamming you but, daycare employees don't get paid per child so divide that last sum by 25. Daycare owners don't make $5.00 per hour, per child  either. For the hours a teacher voluntarily or "voluntarily by way of the admin." puts in at school (before, during and after hours), and considering the frustration with trying to control 20-30 kids and help them learn something, they are not paid well in most places I've been. Parent volunteers can help them out alot.