Re: Re: Why should we have to defend teachers?


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Posted by wait a minute . . . on September 09, 2002 at 00:07:39:

In Reply to: Re: Why should we have to defend teachers? posted by Joe Hadenuf on September 07, 2002 at 22:31:56:

Unlike most teachers, I have no particular axe to grind with home schooling, especially where parents are intelligent, dedicated, and see that a sensible academic program is followed. As with any human endeavor, though, there is abuse within the ranks of home schoolers. Most of the problems come from parents who don't follow through with their responsibilities or who try to abuse the system. I'd like to mention a couple of cases that illustrate some of the problems that I've seen.

Home schoolers in my state used to have the right to award credit and a grade to their children for courses that they may have been taking prior to their removal from public school. In some cases, I have seen children pulled from school because they were failing classes, awarded a high "grade" by their parents after little or no study at home, and returned to school the next year with the school required to accept those fake grades. I have heard students admit that they didn't work on their problem subjects at all, but brag that the school was required to accept their parents' word. Of course, if the course was a prerequisite to another course and the student fails the subsequent course, it's all the school's fault, according to the parents. Recently, though, home schoolers have been required to pass a comprehensive exam in a given subject to get credit for that subject.

I have also seen several cases where parents pulled their children to home school them because their kids were about to be penalized for serious misconduct. They "protect" their children from the repercussions of their own actions, and in the process teach them one of the worst of all possible life lessons.

In some of these cases, the parents can't do the most basic math and can't even write a legible or comprehensible note to the school, but they're going to take over their child's education. I have seen parents who want their children to go to college but feel that their children don't need all that English, math, and science that the high schools try to require them to take. Then they wonder why their kids don't get accepted to colleges with rigorous acceptance standards.

As I've said, I have no problem with home schooling where parents are competent to do so. I have a problem with parents who are just too lazy, dumb, ignorant, or out of touch with reality to school their children effectively, or who are trying to use home schooling as a dodge. I don't think that this characterization fits the majority of home schoolers at all; most will do a good job. Nevertheless, not all home schoolers are fit to do so. Teaching children takes more than good intentions.


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