Comments on: 2010 Home School Science Fair

By: Ellsworth Mcmonigle

Ellsworth Mcmonigle — Fri, 05 Jul 2019 22:50:26 +0000

Hey, On occasion your navigation bar becomes invisible on my iMac, I thought you may like to know.

By: Graves

Graves — Sun, 16 May 2010 11:58:24 +0000

As a former homeschooled child, I am disgusted by all the comments that SUPPORT homeschooling.

Yes, I’m happy to acknowledge that there are some homeschooled students out there who get a well-rounded education and social opportunities. But sadly, that is not the case for most homeschooling families. The students are generally deprived of a good education. I was because my mum is scientifically illiterate and terrible at math. I also lost all the friends I made in the public school system.

Fuck homeschooling.

By: Deborah

Deborah — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 01:34:56 +0000

Hmm…interesting set of comments. I wonder how many of the posters who have such nasty things to say about home education have even MET a real homeschooler? Or seen a group of them playing in the park, all ages together, with NO bullying and (generally) plenty of cooperation? One comment suggests that homeschooling is “unconventional”, which could not be closer to the truth. My husband and I are radical unschoolers, we have seven (college) degrees between us, we live on site at a scientific research facility, and the last thing we want for our kids is a “conventional” education. Our kids (one of whom is in college now) learned to read at ages 8.5, 13, and 11. The age at which a child learns to read is NOT correlated with bad educational practice: in fact, many kids who are not developmentally ready to read are dragged through years of “Reading Recovery” and similar programs, their schools forced to conform to the mandates of NCLB, even as recent research suggests that the age at which many kids are able to sound out words is much older than previously thought, possibly as late as 11. My homeschool group has some young earth creationists in it, and their parents are actually (surprise!!!) intelligent, articulate people who are providing a fairly comprehensive and rigorous education for their children, despite the fact that their understanding of scientific method is, well, “unconventional”. There are also young earth creationists on the local school board and attending the public schools, and they’re every bit as passionate and evangelical as their homeschooled peers, and their kind are wasting time in public school biology classes across the nation every day, with their lists of prepared questions which they naively think cast doubt upon the theory of evolution. (Their lists have nothing to do with real science, but that’s beyond the scope of this comment, which is already far too long.) I’d suggest that anyone who is seriously concerned about education of American children as a whole needs to switch his/her focus from homeschoolers to the concerted effort by the conservative Right to influence the Texas State Board of Education, which pretty much writes the standards for the textbooks which are used by public school children in almost every state of the union. Following recent actions by the board, textbooks must include material that suggest that the United States was “intended” to be a Christian Nation, and historical figures have been specifically included in or excluded from the texts on that basis. The language in biology textbooks has been altered to suggest that evolution is a questionable theory to which reasonable alternatives (intelligent design) exist. Homeschooling is legal in every state in the U.S. I don’t question anyone’s decision to send their children to the public schools, with all of their problems (of which I am well aware; my eldest did finish his compulsory education at a public high school), and the very *least* that civility demands is that the same courtesy be extended to those who choose to exercise their legal right to homeschool.

By: Mitch Brown

Mitch Brown — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 08:14:13 +0000

Well Alasandra, what do you mean by groups? Is it like a class room of 20 children, or small groups 5 to 10 children, just curious.

By: Alasandra

Alasandra — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:19:12 +0000

Mitch, Most homeschoolers belong to a homeschool group. This allows kids to get together with other children their age that are homeschooled and go on field trips, as well as take classes at local museums. The George Ohr Museum did a lovely Art History Class for homeschoolers when I was homeschooling. My boys are in college now.

Most homeschoolers are also enrolled in recreational sports groups, Boy/Girl scouts, 4-H and a host of other organizations where they can meet other children.

By: Mitch Brown

Mitch Brown — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:33:38 +0000

Okay Alasandra, I was just noting that it is a possibility that a child or teen may lose friend from home schooling. If the child has been home schooled through his/her young life then it would be hard to find friends depending on where you live. By where you live I mean, in the city with many children his/her own age, which could lead to many friends for him/her to play with. But if you live on a street with no children or no other houses how will he/she obtain friends other than relatives.

By: Lynn

Lynn — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 03:44:04 +0000

Virgil: I’d be interested in learning how the Christian view of getting energy from chicken droppings differs from the non-Christian view of getting energy from chicken droppings.

According to the rules, the Christian project would have to relate chickens to the Bible in some way,… such as YEC findings that chickens (like all birds with feathers, beaks and wings) were created *before* the egg. On Day Five.

By: DuWayne

DuWayne — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 18:32:57 +0000

Dj –

I am really not all that keen on going into why he is not somewhere he can deal with better options – suffice to say that I had little say in where he is now. He is not in a regular public school, he is in a therapeutic dayschool – one that has as many violent, some criminal thugs for students, as kids who just have general, if not extreme behavioral issues. Also suffice to say, a resource room can only manage so much.

But I think that there are many other reasons to homeschool, including a friend who chose to do so, because the quality of teaching was problematic at best and the school literally had metal detectors and armed security.

As for compensating for social interaction, when we were homeschooling eldest for the semester we did, he got daily social interaction with other kids and he wasn’t even in daycare. He was taking a phys ed class through the community center, we made weekly trips to OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry) and he did several workshops there, he went to the library three to four times a week, we went to the park virtually every day it didn’t rain and we didn’t have a cross-town trip, we went to regular playdates and a playgroup (where he was one of the older kids, helping show younger kids how to share and play nice with other kids) and finally, I ran several activities at more than one community center – as well as story time at the library.

Not only did he get plenty of socialization, he also had (and really has had and continues to have) a lot of opportunities to help younger children learn how to socialize.

I understand that a lot of parents may not have the time or inclination to make that kind of investment, but honestly, in regular school or being homeschooled, I think that stuff is critical – especially as it does include being forced to interact with kids he doesn’t like and/or doesn’t get along with. As well as affording him the opportunity to upset his friends because he decides to be an asshole – or vice-versus. I really don’t think public (or private, or charters for that matter) schools are nearly that critical for socialization – quite the opposite, I don’t think the socialization that goes on in them is particularly healthy.

A lot of eldest’s skills at developing interpersonal relationships are in spite of, not because of his experiences at school.

By: DJ Ronnie D.

DJ Ronnie D. — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 16:54:50 +0000

I agree that it is in your child’s best interest to be homschooled because he has special needs that have to be met. However, I do not think that it is right to homeschool a child just for the sake of doing so. It’s not right to deprive a child of interaction with eachother. While there are compensations for this, they are not on a day-to-day basis.
Also, why doesn’t the school offer some kind of one on one help room? Most schools do. It seems to me that a resource room, like that, would be more beneficial to a student because it will help them reach their full potential-academically and socially.

By: Nutrimill Grain

Nutrimill Grain — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:19:08 +0000

Ahh, the days of the science fair… good for any ideology!