Articles Homeschooling

Why Do ?Educated? People Fail To Seek To Be Informed Before Expressing their ?Definite Opinions"?
Shouldn?t one of the fundamental goals of education be to teach the sort of critical thinking skills that enable one to consider all sides of a situation before forming a thesis or hypothesis (never mind a mere ?opinion?)? It sure is a primary goal in our home anyway. How I wish it were also the case in our public schools. Yet, how can we expect public school students to learn critical thinking skills when their own *teachers* lack them? On this very day, under a YA Home Schooling thread, a public school teacher claiming to have both ?18 years of experience? and ?definite opinions on home-schooling? advised an earnest mom seeking to home school her 5th grader that ?if you have aspirations of college scholarships, there are none for children who are home-schooled.? What? Where has this teacher been?? That home schoolers RECEIVE scholarships, a good many of them to top-rated schools, is not only a FACT, it is OLD news. http://www.collegescholarships.org/scholarships/homeschool.htm http://homeschooling.about.com/od/highschool/a/colleges.htm http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2000/novdec/articles/homeschooling.html Moreover, for years now, even without college scholarships, homeschoolers have been legally eligible for financial aid. [Higher Education Act Amendments of 1998 (Pub. L. No. 105-244)] http://www.collegescholarships.org/scholarships/homeschool.htm Wow. If teachers themselves either lack or don?t want to bother with their own critical thinking skills (never mind impart such skills to their students), one would hope they would at least bother to get their facts straight. As requested, the link to the thread in question is: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090301063216AALCs0l&pa=FZB6NXXtFWMW0cLWwekf.W_oH5V2CmXKNXyM7mw0PHVl1RoVQM4-&paid=add_watch Thanks to you ALL for your answers. Svengteach ~ You provide an interesting perspective, having not only taught in the public schools, but also now in the community college system. As a concerned educator, I share in your observations and certainly value your input. Thank you for your answer! Jolie ~ Thank you for requesting the thread (I hadn?t thought about it remaining ?forever? on that searchable thread?yikes!) Thanks not only for your answer here, but very much also for your answer under that thread. Shiori_hime ~ You raise a very good point that the lack of critical thinking skills leaves one prone to merely parroting lies and popular misconceptions. It seems that as a culture, we are increasingly (and alarmingly) deficient in the skills necessary to make informed decisions, or to form knowledgeable opinions. I also so agree with what you said about ?conformity? and ?multiple intelligences? on the other thread. Very well said. I appreciate your answer (s)! BraxOwl ~ Thank you, not only for your answer here, but also for your answer under the other thread. Thank goodness you are teaching your children to research and think for themselves, for we need more like them (and you!) in this world. Without these skills, we, as a culture, become increasingly less educated (despite being ?schooled?) and dangerously more ignorant, all of which put our nation in jeopardy, on numerous levels. I also so agree with what you said on the other thread about conformity and different learning styles. Thanks so much for all your input! Pepe ~ Thank you for your thoughtful and balanced response. I certainly appreciate your viewpoint as a fellow teacher. You are certainly right that, this being the Internet, people make ridiculous statements they?d never make in person. I also agree that one teacher?s reply on Yahoo Answers doesn?t mean that *all* teachers share the same opinions or misinformation. (continued below) While I also agree that ?no profession has members who are all perfect in their ability to reason and think critically,? my primary concern is that teachers, from whom children are legally required to learn, are not teaching the critical thinking and research skills that enable our children to become truly educated (and not merely ?schooled?). As a people, when we lack the skills necessary to think critically and independently, we become increasingly (and too often dangerously) dependent on the biased opinions spewed forth by the media, as well as on popular misconceptions (that themselves are often spawned by various sensationalism-driven media). My concern wasn?t so much with the anti-homeschooling opinion itself as it was with the misinformation on which the opinion was founded. I have no problem with opinions that differ from my own, and in fact welcome them, as long as they are well thought out and based on facts and creditable information. (continued) As far as homeschooling goes, I myself don?t even think it is right for everyone. Then again, I don?t think public school is right for everyone either. Every child is different, as are their circumstances, so I go by a case-by-case basis. Nevertheless, I can?t deny that the deficiencies I?ve seen in our public education system over the past three decades seem to be growing worse, not better, no matter how much money the government keeps throwing at it. The lack of critical thinking and research skills with which too many students are graduating nowadays is only one of those deficiencies. In fairness to public school teachers (and I was one myself years ago), the amount of standardized testing, and the emphasis on school ratings, has skyrocketed over the past several years. Friends who have taught in the public elementary schools for years (in different parts of the country) tell me that being forced by their respective districts ?to teach to the tests? has robbed them of being able to truly *teach* in the way they once did. They are under such pressure now that they complain of no longer having the TIME to present things for the children to first ?observe and discover? (the pre-requisite for critical thinking). Instead, the teachers feel forced to race through material in a way that is distasteful and frustrating for them, as well as less than stimulating for the children. I see this even in our own public school district, which nonetheless is consistently rated #1 in the county. (continued...) I certainly didn?t mean to single out any *one* teacher (on the Internet no less) because I see first-hand a lack of critical thinking skills in too many teachers at all levels in numerous different school districts, and certainly in students. As a private tutor at both the primary and secondary levels and a teacher of outside enrichment classes, I continue to be dismayed at how ill-prepared students are?especially and most alarmingly at the secondary level--to think critically or even to know how to begin to conduct research. Their willingness to simply *copy* others? work is so widespread that the number of companies that write students? papers for them has exploded, the demand is so high. Thank you so much again for your answer, as well as for providing us with another perspective ?from the front,? as it were. Once again, thanks to all of you for your great answers!

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