I never thought that I would be posting in this section, but one of my neighbors asked me to help her 6th grade twins with some math stuff. She is divorced.
My neighborhood is moderately affluent; the township has the best public schools in the state. Our daughter went there, and I was impressed. I don't impress easily. I am the product of a Jesuit Prep School with Latin, Greek, and all that as well as having two Master's (Engineering and Business from top 10 Schools). I taught graduate B school at a top 5. My wife had a Master's in Music and a Cum Laude Law degree from Germany. Sadly, we lost her a few years back. We each read (read) at least 40 books/year.
I am not trying to wow you with my credentials, but it is important for this discussion because this woman was home schooling her children. She also dropped out of college and is not the brightest light on the block. Yet, she felt that it was her moral obligation to teach her children; she belongs to some obscure religious sect with no schools in the area. Teaching her children anything but biblical verse is clearly a task for which she eminently unqualified.
The stuff was simple algebra, and it did not take me long to get the kids on the right track since they are not stupid. Mom conveniently ducked out of the room to make some calls which ticked me off to no end.
While mom was on the phone, the kids asked me to explain some rules of grammar to them- one of which was the use of prepositions. I then took my leave. Later that evening, the woman called me and was somewhat indignant that I would teach her children "low" English by using "between you and me" instead of "between you and I". Would it have made any sense to explain the correct rule? I really feel sorry for her children. They both have curious and bright minds which are being starved to death.
There are obviously many bad public school systems in the US, especially in the Inner Cities where education is the only way for these kids to get to a better life, but home schooling is not the answer. My wife and I would not have tackled it even though we both could match general and specific knowledge with the overwhelming majority of educators through the high school level.
Home schooling by unqualified parents is the worst of all possible worlds: bad educational foundation and incomplete social development.
My neighborhood is moderately affluent; the township has the best public schools in the state. Our daughter went there, and I was impressed. I don't impress easily. I am the product of a Jesuit Prep School with Latin, Greek, and all that as well as having two Master's (Engineering and Business from top 10 Schools). I taught graduate B school at a top 5. My wife had a Master's in Music and a Cum Laude Law degree from Germany. Sadly, we lost her a few years back. We each read (read) at least 40 books/year.
I am not trying to wow you with my credentials, but it is important for this discussion because this woman was home schooling her children. She also dropped out of college and is not the brightest light on the block. Yet, she felt that it was her moral obligation to teach her children; she belongs to some obscure religious sect with no schools in the area. Teaching her children anything but biblical verse is clearly a task for which she eminently unqualified.
The stuff was simple algebra, and it did not take me long to get the kids on the right track since they are not stupid. Mom conveniently ducked out of the room to make some calls which ticked me off to no end.
While mom was on the phone, the kids asked me to explain some rules of grammar to them- one of which was the use of prepositions. I then took my leave. Later that evening, the woman called me and was somewhat indignant that I would teach her children "low" English by using "between you and me" instead of "between you and I". Would it have made any sense to explain the correct rule? I really feel sorry for her children. They both have curious and bright minds which are being starved to death.
There are obviously many bad public school systems in the US, especially in the Inner Cities where education is the only way for these kids to get to a better life, but home schooling is not the answer. My wife and I would not have tackled it even though we both could match general and specific knowledge with the overwhelming majority of educators through the high school level.
Home schooling by unqualified parents is the worst of all possible worlds: bad educational foundation and incomplete social development.
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