Should Homeschoolers vote for Santorum?
Santorum is a homeschooling dad, the obvious question is should homeschoolers vote for Santorum? At first glance it is east to say “yes” and I did just that. I thought he would be a better president than Mitt Romney. I still do, but I now see him as a bad alternative to Romney. I do believe from a temporary view point he would be good for homeschoolers, but I don’t think he will do much to increase freedom in the US or around the world and that will harm homeschooling in the long run.
Santorum is an old testament Christian who will seek to destroy Islam through the use of our young people and the military. His statements are filled with hate and racism, although I doubt he knows what he is saying. This will make other leaders in countries where homeschooling is not welcome even more wary of adding it. As a Christian Conservative, I could not vote from Santorum. Christ’s message was of hope and love, not of a conquering empire. We know what Love is, because He first loved us. Love does not hate, it does not envy, and it certainly doesn’t seek to destroy entire nations.
Santorum would sacrifice our financial future and our countries security in order to perform his own crusade, much like the Catholic Church did centuries ago. As a Christian our job is to bring people to Jesus Christ, by preaching the good news, which is the gospel, not send people to Hell. I hope that those who homeschool and are Christians will stand with me and not vote for Santorum.
Showing posts with label homeschooling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label homeschooling. Show all posts
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Canadian Study Addresses Homeschooling and Socialization
No surprise to anyone who has homeschooled or to teachers in a public K-12 institution.
Homeschooling and Socialization:
The prevailing assumption is that the greatest drawback to homeschooling is the http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifloss of social interaction with peers. Times have changed however, making peer interaction more of a problem than an asset. Instead of peer interaction facilitating the process of socialization, it is now more likely to lead to the premature replacement of adults by peers in the life of a child. Such children become peer-oriented rather than adult-oriented and are more difficult to parent and teach. Furthermore, peer-oriented children fail to mature psychologically and their integration into adult society is compromised.
Homeschooling and Socialization:
The prevailing assumption is that the greatest drawback to homeschooling is the http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifloss of social interaction with peers. Times have changed however, making peer interaction more of a problem than an asset. Instead of peer interaction facilitating the process of socialization, it is now more likely to lead to the premature replacement of adults by peers in the life of a child. Such children become peer-oriented rather than adult-oriented and are more difficult to parent and teach. Furthermore, peer-oriented children fail to mature psychologically and their integration into adult society is compromised.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
CNN Homeschooling Report Response
CNN had a very neutral home school report today. It was almost a very positive report, but of course they had to reiterate some stereotype thinking. The article itself, which you can read here is very positive: http://amfix.blogs.cnn.com/2010/09/21/communal-homeschooling-on-the-rise/
The issue I had was with the onscreen reporters. I understand they have to report on a number of issues and homeschooling is probably something they did not take time to research and it was not a big part of their day. So I do not blame them, but I do want to answer some questions they brought up.
How do they know they are not falling behind or how do they get caught up to other children? They then touched on the fact they are tested yearly, and the “parents” say they are doing well. This is true, but you don’t have to ask the “parents” you can look at the statistics. According to research by Dr. Brian D Ray, NHERI.org, “Repeatedly, across the nation, the home educated score as well as or better than those in conventional schools 15 to 30 percentile points higher.” It is not a maybe homeschoolers are doing well according to their parents, it is a Statistical FACT! Perhaps a better question would have been what can parents who send their children to a traditional school do to keep up with their homeschooling peers?
This is the question our Government needs to answer. I believe until they answer this question a teacher who spends 8 hours a day, for 8 months and never sees the child again can only have a limited impact on that child no matter how much they care and try. A child is not meant to learn from 1 Adult with 29 other kids distracting them.
They also brought up the fact that parents are trained teachers and how that is an issue. Another interesting fact according to 2009 study by Dr. Brian D Ray, NHERI.org, “Whether homeschool parents were ever certified teachers is not related to their children’s academic achievement.” So this thought that a Mother or Father who is not traditionally trained in teaching can’t do a good job is incorrect. The text books that homeschool students use are designed to be read and self teaching. Meaning a parent can read it and the child can read it and they can understand it together. As the children get older the less they need to ask the parent to help. The parent doesn’t have to know everything about everything, they just need to know how to read the text book and help the student out where he is struggling. If you don’t feel confident in helping someone 20+ years younger than you understand something, it is probably because you are not confident in the education you received. So instead of trying to understand that subject and struggling through it you want to send your child to the same education system that made it so you couldn’t teach someone a basic math, science or grammar fact, that my friend is the definition of insanity.
The issue I had was with the onscreen reporters. I understand they have to report on a number of issues and homeschooling is probably something they did not take time to research and it was not a big part of their day. So I do not blame them, but I do want to answer some questions they brought up.
How do they know they are not falling behind or how do they get caught up to other children? They then touched on the fact they are tested yearly, and the “parents” say they are doing well. This is true, but you don’t have to ask the “parents” you can look at the statistics. According to research by Dr. Brian D Ray, NHERI.org, “Repeatedly, across the nation, the home educated score as well as or better than those in conventional schools 15 to 30 percentile points higher.” It is not a maybe homeschoolers are doing well according to their parents, it is a Statistical FACT! Perhaps a better question would have been what can parents who send their children to a traditional school do to keep up with their homeschooling peers?
This is the question our Government needs to answer. I believe until they answer this question a teacher who spends 8 hours a day, for 8 months and never sees the child again can only have a limited impact on that child no matter how much they care and try. A child is not meant to learn from 1 Adult with 29 other kids distracting them.
They also brought up the fact that parents are trained teachers and how that is an issue. Another interesting fact according to 2009 study by Dr. Brian D Ray, NHERI.org, “Whether homeschool parents were ever certified teachers is not related to their children’s academic achievement.” So this thought that a Mother or Father who is not traditionally trained in teaching can’t do a good job is incorrect. The text books that homeschool students use are designed to be read and self teaching. Meaning a parent can read it and the child can read it and they can understand it together. As the children get older the less they need to ask the parent to help. The parent doesn’t have to know everything about everything, they just need to know how to read the text book and help the student out where he is struggling. If you don’t feel confident in helping someone 20+ years younger than you understand something, it is probably because you are not confident in the education you received. So instead of trying to understand that subject and struggling through it you want to send your child to the same education system that made it so you couldn’t teach someone a basic math, science or grammar fact, that my friend is the definition of insanity.
Monday, September 20, 2010
College Transition
I was home educated my entire life. As the oldest of 4 boys I can safely say that I was the Lab Rat. My younger brothers are receiving a higher quality education than I ever received. I am not worried about them going into college or the real world, and neither should you worry about your child because if I did it, then so can your student.
In college you have to study on your own, you have to make yourself go to class; you have to know how to read a text book and study. All of these skills are better learned at home than in a modern school setting. So being prepared for the college academic experience is not the issue people must worry about.
I believe the question must refer to home schooling socialization. I had no trouble making friends, sure I didn’t know all the in and outs of making fun of people and how to act at the big frat party right away, but is that true and good socialization? This was probably due to how I was raised and that I wasn’t at the high school parties and I enjoyed building up my friends. I also believe that my personality is just that, my personality. When you come from a different background people assume that is why you act how you do. You are home schooled people assume that your quirks are because of that. I can safely say that neither I nor any of the home school students I know that went to college had any issues making friends or acting socialized. Typically I was asked why I behaved so well.
I never once had a person ask if I was home schooled, so I must have fit in well. Personally I probably fit in too well. Which is another concern of parents, will my children continue to follow the values that I lay forth. According to Research done by Dr. Brian Ray (www.nheri.org) 94% strongly agreed or agreed to the statement, “My religious beliefs are basically the same as those of my parents.” Contrast this to information found on www.exodusmandate.com “After your kids spend 12 years in public schools, there is a 70% chance that when they leave home, that they will quit going to church.” So if your goal as a parent is to raise your child to love God, then home schooling is clearly beneficial.
In college you have to study on your own, you have to make yourself go to class; you have to know how to read a text book and study. All of these skills are better learned at home than in a modern school setting. So being prepared for the college academic experience is not the issue people must worry about.
I believe the question must refer to home schooling socialization. I had no trouble making friends, sure I didn’t know all the in and outs of making fun of people and how to act at the big frat party right away, but is that true and good socialization? This was probably due to how I was raised and that I wasn’t at the high school parties and I enjoyed building up my friends. I also believe that my personality is just that, my personality. When you come from a different background people assume that is why you act how you do. You are home schooled people assume that your quirks are because of that. I can safely say that neither I nor any of the home school students I know that went to college had any issues making friends or acting socialized. Typically I was asked why I behaved so well.
I never once had a person ask if I was home schooled, so I must have fit in well. Personally I probably fit in too well. Which is another concern of parents, will my children continue to follow the values that I lay forth. According to Research done by Dr. Brian Ray (www.nheri.org) 94% strongly agreed or agreed to the statement, “My religious beliefs are basically the same as those of my parents.” Contrast this to information found on www.exodusmandate.com “After your kids spend 12 years in public schools, there is a 70% chance that when they leave home, that they will quit going to church.” So if your goal as a parent is to raise your child to love God, then home schooling is clearly beneficial.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Classical Education and Freedom
Classical Education and Freedom - Jennifer Courtney
For centuries, the classical model of education prepared generations of young adults for the challenges of leadership and government. The goal was to produce virtuous leaders and citizens, not to produce skilled workers. This focus on free thinking and self-government is especially crucial to the life of a democracy. A classical education focuses on critical thinking skills, logic, debate, and rhetoric, i.e., the art of expressing the best ideas in the best way. In the true sense of the liberal arts, the lessons in a classical education are designed to make men and women more free. As Americans search for solutions to current issues, we should address past educational models that worked.
With its focus on critical thinking skills and practice in eloquent oral and written communication, a classical education prepares students in a democracy to be informed, self-governing citizens. In his book, The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes our Future, Mark Bauerlein notes Thomas Jefferson’s understanding of the link between freedom and an educated populace: “Education would preserve the sovereignty of the people, and without it, the very system designed to represent them would descend into yet another tyranny in the dismayingly predictable course of nations” (2008, 212). Modern schools aim to produce good workers, a form of utilitarianism, while turning their back on the important task of raising adults who understand human nature and the complexities of human institutions.
Classical education is steadily gaining momentum as more and more classical schools open around the country. Likewise, many home-educating families have turned to this model, and they seek to educate their children with excellence. Leigh A. Bortins has founded a company to address these needs. Her corporation, Classical Conversations, has established classical communities across the country to support families who wish to give their students a classical education. Students meet once a week to discuss great literature, debate current events, conduct science experiments, present philosophy lectures, and generally sharpen one another’s thinking and communication skills. In her book, The Core: Teaching Your Child the Foundations of Classical Education, Ms. Bortins outlines the goals of a classical education: “Both factory and computer education rob a child of the need to think and replace loving, caring mentors with a machine or a system. The classical model emphasizes that learning feeds the soul and edifies the person rather than producing employees to work an assembly line” (2010, 5).
Now that the goals of a classical education are established, the method itself can be examined. To summarize briefly, the classical model occurs in three phases of learning known as the Trivium, which is Latin for “three roads.” Grammar, the first stage, roughly corresponds to our elementary schools, lasting until the student is 11 or 12. This stage involves memorization of the rudimentary facts of any subject. Memorization comes easily to these young students and is critical preparation for the higher orders of thinking. The goal of this stage is not rote memorization or cramming of meaningless facts that will soon be forgotten; in contrast, parents and educators train students to acquire a base of facts that they will use in later studies and to develop a mental system for organizing and retaining those facts.
Logic (or dialectic) comprises the next stage, corresponding to the junior high school grades. Students naturally become interested in asking why, debating issues, and reconciling ideas. The classical model complements their natural tendencies by teaching them formal logic and debate. In preparation for their own debates, they must be equipped to recognize and avoid errors in logic. Classical educators work with a student’s natural developmental tendencies at this stage by facilitating Socratic discussions of history, literature, philosophy, and science while helping them hone mental discipline through studies of Latin, formal logic, debate, and higher math.
Grammar and logic, the first stages of a classical education, have prepared the student for the final phase of the Trivium―rhetoric. By the end of the rhetoric stage, students should be able to speak and write persuasively and eloquently about any topic they have studied. One of the fundamental premises of a classical education is that words are important. During the logic stage, instructors teach students not to fall prey to the words of others. During the rhetoric stage, classical educators teach students to captivate others with their words. Like logic students, rhetoric students continue to discuss big ideas through history, literature, philosophy, and science. In addition, they now cultivate the best means of communicating these ideas through writing and speaking. They are not working to create clever or catchy sound bites (this is our modern conception of rhetoric); rather, they are honing their skills of recognizing what is true, good, and beautiful, and persuasively and eloquently communicating their knowledge to others.
A concrete example will help to illustrate the Trivium. A grammar stage student will learn that George Washington was the first president of the United States, that he was inaugurated in Philadelphia in 1793, and that the Constitution gave him certain powers as the leader of the executive branch. A logic stage student may delve more deeply into the reasons the Founding Fathers felt so strongly about separation of powers and checks and balances and may discover why Washington voluntarily stepped down after two terms. A rhetoric student will apply Washington’s leadership lessons to a position in a student legislature, deliver speeches about presidential precedents, or debate current events and legislation in light of Washington’s presidency.
In addition to employing a methodology that works with the mental and spiritual developmental stages of students, a classical education embraces material that prepares students to understand the philosophers, political leaders, authors, and artists who have influenced our culture. Perhaps it is time for American educators to re-examine the classical methodology in order to produce leaders who are prepared to preserve and re-energize our democratic society. Perhaps we could aspire to John Milton’s vision in Of Education by stirring our students to have “high hopes of living to be brave men and worthy patriots, dear to God, and famous to all ages.”
Jennifer Courtney, with her husband Tim, has been classically home educating her four precious children for six years. She currently serves as the Oklahoma State Manager for Classical Conversations, Inc. In this role, she recruits and trains directors in the establishment of classical home education communities. She also writes classical education articles and speaks to parents and other educators who want to understand and implement a classical education. Jennifer graduated summa cum laude from Oklahoma State University with an Honors degree in English. Her background in the liberal arts inspired her to encourage others who desire to mentor young people as they explore the great ideas of the past in preparation for the future.
For centuries, the classical model of education prepared generations of young adults for the challenges of leadership and government. The goal was to produce virtuous leaders and citizens, not to produce skilled workers. This focus on free thinking and self-government is especially crucial to the life of a democracy. A classical education focuses on critical thinking skills, logic, debate, and rhetoric, i.e., the art of expressing the best ideas in the best way. In the true sense of the liberal arts, the lessons in a classical education are designed to make men and women more free. As Americans search for solutions to current issues, we should address past educational models that worked.
With its focus on critical thinking skills and practice in eloquent oral and written communication, a classical education prepares students in a democracy to be informed, self-governing citizens. In his book, The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes our Future, Mark Bauerlein notes Thomas Jefferson’s understanding of the link between freedom and an educated populace: “Education would preserve the sovereignty of the people, and without it, the very system designed to represent them would descend into yet another tyranny in the dismayingly predictable course of nations” (2008, 212). Modern schools aim to produce good workers, a form of utilitarianism, while turning their back on the important task of raising adults who understand human nature and the complexities of human institutions.
Classical education is steadily gaining momentum as more and more classical schools open around the country. Likewise, many home-educating families have turned to this model, and they seek to educate their children with excellence. Leigh A. Bortins has founded a company to address these needs. Her corporation, Classical Conversations, has established classical communities across the country to support families who wish to give their students a classical education. Students meet once a week to discuss great literature, debate current events, conduct science experiments, present philosophy lectures, and generally sharpen one another’s thinking and communication skills. In her book, The Core: Teaching Your Child the Foundations of Classical Education, Ms. Bortins outlines the goals of a classical education: “Both factory and computer education rob a child of the need to think and replace loving, caring mentors with a machine or a system. The classical model emphasizes that learning feeds the soul and edifies the person rather than producing employees to work an assembly line” (2010, 5).
Now that the goals of a classical education are established, the method itself can be examined. To summarize briefly, the classical model occurs in three phases of learning known as the Trivium, which is Latin for “three roads.” Grammar, the first stage, roughly corresponds to our elementary schools, lasting until the student is 11 or 12. This stage involves memorization of the rudimentary facts of any subject. Memorization comes easily to these young students and is critical preparation for the higher orders of thinking. The goal of this stage is not rote memorization or cramming of meaningless facts that will soon be forgotten; in contrast, parents and educators train students to acquire a base of facts that they will use in later studies and to develop a mental system for organizing and retaining those facts.
Logic (or dialectic) comprises the next stage, corresponding to the junior high school grades. Students naturally become interested in asking why, debating issues, and reconciling ideas. The classical model complements their natural tendencies by teaching them formal logic and debate. In preparation for their own debates, they must be equipped to recognize and avoid errors in logic. Classical educators work with a student’s natural developmental tendencies at this stage by facilitating Socratic discussions of history, literature, philosophy, and science while helping them hone mental discipline through studies of Latin, formal logic, debate, and higher math.
Grammar and logic, the first stages of a classical education, have prepared the student for the final phase of the Trivium―rhetoric. By the end of the rhetoric stage, students should be able to speak and write persuasively and eloquently about any topic they have studied. One of the fundamental premises of a classical education is that words are important. During the logic stage, instructors teach students not to fall prey to the words of others. During the rhetoric stage, classical educators teach students to captivate others with their words. Like logic students, rhetoric students continue to discuss big ideas through history, literature, philosophy, and science. In addition, they now cultivate the best means of communicating these ideas through writing and speaking. They are not working to create clever or catchy sound bites (this is our modern conception of rhetoric); rather, they are honing their skills of recognizing what is true, good, and beautiful, and persuasively and eloquently communicating their knowledge to others.
A concrete example will help to illustrate the Trivium. A grammar stage student will learn that George Washington was the first president of the United States, that he was inaugurated in Philadelphia in 1793, and that the Constitution gave him certain powers as the leader of the executive branch. A logic stage student may delve more deeply into the reasons the Founding Fathers felt so strongly about separation of powers and checks and balances and may discover why Washington voluntarily stepped down after two terms. A rhetoric student will apply Washington’s leadership lessons to a position in a student legislature, deliver speeches about presidential precedents, or debate current events and legislation in light of Washington’s presidency.
In addition to employing a methodology that works with the mental and spiritual developmental stages of students, a classical education embraces material that prepares students to understand the philosophers, political leaders, authors, and artists who have influenced our culture. Perhaps it is time for American educators to re-examine the classical methodology in order to produce leaders who are prepared to preserve and re-energize our democratic society. Perhaps we could aspire to John Milton’s vision in Of Education by stirring our students to have “high hopes of living to be brave men and worthy patriots, dear to God, and famous to all ages.”
Jennifer Courtney, with her husband Tim, has been classically home educating her four precious children for six years. She currently serves as the Oklahoma State Manager for Classical Conversations, Inc. In this role, she recruits and trains directors in the establishment of classical home education communities. She also writes classical education articles and speaks to parents and other educators who want to understand and implement a classical education. Jennifer graduated summa cum laude from Oklahoma State University with an Honors degree in English. Her background in the liberal arts inspired her to encourage others who desire to mentor young people as they explore the great ideas of the past in preparation for the future.
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