mrblitz wrote:When I initally said Home Schooling, I was strictly referring to the Dangers in our Schools today. I'd rather have a Sociopath as a son that is alive, then a dead kid.
No seriously, I know HomeSchooling isn't the solution to stopping Gun Violence in our Schools, but tell me what is the solution?
Real Gun laws! Reading the Second Amendment in context! and probably the most important one.........PARENTING, some people with kids should actually try it.
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I was not tyrying to imply that Christians should not pass on thier beliefs to their children, or muslims or mormons or athiests or anyone for that matter.
Basically my issue boils down to this. I believe that all people should confront cognitive dissonance as much as possible. I don't believe this happens enough at public schools. at private schools and especially at home school.
As humans we should use our education as a chance to challenge our personal world views as much as possible. That is my goal as I teach my history classes. Sometimes I am successful and sometimes I am not. All I ask of my students is to think, something that doesn't happen in a great deal of classrooms around the country.
Also you are right, there are students who get to me late in thier high school career and are reading at 4th and 5th grade reading levels. It is a huge problem in the public schools. It drives me crazy. I mean really how am I supposed to explore Mein Kampf, or the Constitution with someone who has a hard time comprehending 'Run Spot Run'.
I cannot argue that there are no issues with Public Education, there absolutely is. My concern regarding Home Schooling revolves around the censorship and blindness when it comes to looking at all sides of possibilities.
I whole-heartedly agree with this...
One of the major problems I have with the public school system is that so much of the curriculum is scripted. Students are taught exactly what the-powers-that-be have determined is the most important information, and that information is presented in a tidy, little "cookie-cutter" package. With classroom sizes approaching 40-students in most districts, I guess it has to be that way...
Look at a subject like American History, for example... Unless you are an exceptional student, in "gifted" or honors classes, you will learn all the basics and not much more... You'll cover the Pilgrims, Jamestown, skip on through to the Revolutionary War, hit up the Louisiana Purchase and a little about manifest destiny, move along to slavery and the Civil War, touch on Reconstruction for 15 minutes, spend enough time on the Industrial Revolution that if you get a pass to the restroom you'll miss it, 15 minutes about World War I, maybe 30 on World War II, skip over Korea entirely, pause at the JFK assassination and the Civil Rights movement, maybe show a picture of Richard Nixon and have a debate over whether Viet Nam is pronounced N-A-M or N-O-M, and then you're basically done...
Somewhere along the line it was determined that these were our "high points."
But, in an age where literally every single piece of non-classified human knowledge is at our finger tips, why in God's name would we try to encapsulate this great social experiment in that little bubble?
In an alternate environment, where there was a better than 40-to-1 ratio between student and instructor, so much more could be accomplished.
A well-motivated student could cover those basics with a laptop and the History Channel in a week, and then spend the rest of his time fleshing out his understanding by studying all the other people, places, and things that make America what it REALLY is...
But there's no room for that in public schools. It's everything a teacher can do just to pack all of that information into the heads of the 200-or-so students they are responsible for every semester...
Such a waste of resources, if you ask me... No where in our system is there room for a student to slow down and ask "why?" And then go find the answer for themselves... No where in our system is there room for a student to challenge the status quo, and perhaps draw their own conclusions as to how we arrived at where we are...
And THAT, my friend, is what education should REALLY be about...
My school isn't like what you described there at all. Yes, we do learn about all those topics but it's not just a skim over them. We spend a good 2-4 weeks on every "unit" and we do get into the why. I suppose maybe it's just because I'm lucky that I have a great teacher, because people with other teachers don't seem to know nearly as much about the topics as the people who have the same teacher as me, but I don't think blanketing the education system with that statement is 100% truthful.
mrblitz wrote:When I initally said Home Schooling, I was strictly referring to the Dangers in our Schools today. I'd rather have a Sociopath as a son that is alive, then a dead kid.
No seriously, I know HomeSchooling isn't the solution to stopping Gun Violence in our Schools, but tell me what is the solution?
Real Gun laws! Reading the Second Amendment in context! and probably the most important one.........PARENTING, some people with kids should actually try it.
I happen to believe that the gun laws in our country are perfectly fine the way they are.
Simply creating a law will not deter someone who is intent on committing an atrocious crime such as a school shooting. It will not affect their ability to obtain a firearm, either.
If you would perhaps elaborate on a specific law that you would like to see come into existence, then please do so. In most instances, adding or removing a gun related law only hurts the victims, not the criminals.
mrblitz wrote:When I initally said Home Schooling, I was strictly referring to the Dangers in our Schools today. I'd rather have a Sociopath as a son that is alive, then a dead kid.
No seriously, I know HomeSchooling isn't the solution to stopping Gun Violence in our Schools, but tell me what is the solution?
Real Gun laws! Reading the Second Amendment in context! and probably the most important one.........PARENTING, some people with kids should actually try it.
I happen to believe that the gun laws in our country are perfectly fine the way they are.
Simply creating a law will not deter someone who is intent on committing an atrocious crime such as a school shooting. It will not affect their ability to obtain a firearm, either.
If you would perhaps elaborate on a specific law that you would like to see come into existence, then please do so. In most instances, adding or removing a gun related law only hurts the victims, not the criminals.
If you study out the stats (in Texas at least) those who have guns legally make up for something under 10% of gun-related crimes. And if we are talking about school shootings, then all of them have the gun illegally. The only thing it would change is prevent those who want to legally have guns from having them.
I don't like/drink beer and people abuse that and kill other people, but I am not lobbying for it to be banned.
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by BGbootha » Fri May 25, 2007 2:41 pm 
