Homeschooling: German Family Gets Political Asylum in U.S.

[irmamar]

Originally Posted by laepelba

To play devil's advocate (because I really, obviously, don't advocate in favor of home schooling...), I have to point out a couple of things:
- In the United States, there are laws regulating home school situations. They are very closely scrutinized, and the students MUST pass specific tests given by the governing bodies on a very regular basis.
- In the United States, education is free to age 18 for those who choose public school education, and compulsory for all children, public school, private school, or home school. If parents cannot prove that their children are being educated, there are most certain legal consequences.
- There is no such thing as "unbiased" education, and often times, the parents who choose to home school disagree with the content and approach of the public school system (in general) in the United States. For example, parents who do not want their children learning sex ed. at school, but prefer to teach them these things at home. Or parents who don't want their children to learn evolution because they believe in creation. Etc.....

I'm sure that your way of education is quite different from ours. But maybe those children are too manipulated by their own parents. Or that's my opinion. Opening to another points of view (even evolution or sex) is good and even you can have your own thoughts about something. It's good to know that something exists, that there are people who think in a different way from yours.

I don't like homeschooling, I think this is a great error and, if it depended on me, there weren't a legal loophole in my country but a prohibition (the same prohibition that I'm praying to be accepted about the prohibition of bullfights in Catalonia; nothing to do, by the way). I only would accept homeschooling in some cases, that's all.

Good devil's advocate playing, by the way.

[Jessica]

Home schooling allows the parent to select the exact lesson plan or curriculum the students will learn from based on what the parent thinks is best for the student, not the public school system. It is often found that many public schools teach students subjects that are academically inappropriate, not demanding, or that are in reality best left to the parent to teach.
Home schooling offers a control mechanism over this and allows for a way to adapt the student's education to particular interests and requirements while continuing to provide a challenge level that will keep the student developing in requisites of his or her learning abilities.

Home schooling offers flexibility of the educational process. Some students do extremely well at some things but not at others. Home schooling a student of this nature would allow that student to stand out where his or her strengths are while at the same time allowing that student to spend a little more in the advancement of the weaker areas.

Some students are exceptional and do well with all subject matter they are being taught. For them, home schooling allows for the education process to be more stimulating since a more academically demanding curriculum can be adopted. Exceptional home schooled students are able to follow their interests and development path devoid of the time constraints or curriculum restrictions that are present in the customary learning environment.




Home Schooling Pros and Cons

People new to the idea and concept of home schooling often have a thousand of questions to raise. Here is some helpful information to guide you in weighing things out:

Some home schooling advantages:

1. Allow quality time, providing individualized attention and instruction. Home schooling parents can better understand their children; observe how kids progress, what areas they find difficult and help them out.
2. Children learn in their own pace. At home school, children can advance at any time, not waiting on others or if the kid is a slow learner or having difficulties in a certain subject area, she/he can remain to focus on that area without pressure that others are already moving on.
3. Parents pattern their teaching style and curriculum in accordance with the child's learning style, allowing him/her to successfully understand the subject matter, thus better results are achieved.

4. No peer pressure. At a home school, age classification is not a factor, therefore children not only associate with children their same age level, but with children of different ages and adults as well, so they can decide on their own without the influence of peers.

5. "Hands on learning". Activities which are outside the context of books are very much essential to the child's learning process. Trips to the park, the museum, the zoo, going fishing with mom and dad can be a great time to spend an afternoon educating your child.

Some home schooling disadvantages:

1. For the home school parent, much time and effort is required for preparation of teaching materials, lessons and managing the child's opportunities in order to cultivate friendships and expand on the child's interests.

2. Parents who home school do not have enough time to spend for themselves when kids are constantly at home. This frequent time of being together can be at times suffocating and, therefore, can not work in certain families.

3. Home schooled children do not have a lot of opportunities to bond and develop friendships with peers. For many families, this really is not a problem and is supplemented by taking the kids out to play in the park, attend lessons in ballet, jazz, etc. However it takes a lot of effort on the part of parents to insure that their kids have these opportunities.

Whether to home school or not, it all depends on you, as a parent, on how much are you willing to give your child. On top of all the learning materials, the field trips, home schooling entails a lot of love, patience and encouragement.

personally, I would not want to be home schooled. but I see nothing really wrong with home schooling. if you want to home school your child, you can

[laepelba]

Originally Posted by irmamar

I'm sure that your way of education is quite different from ours. But maybe those children are too manipulated by their own parents. Or that's my opinion. Opening to another points of view (even evolution or sex) is good and even you can have your own thoughts about something. It's good to know that something exists, that there are people who think in a different way from yours.

I don't like homeschooling, I think this is a great error and, if it depended on me, there weren't a legal loophole in my country but a prohibition (the same prohibition that I'm praying to be accepted about the prohibition of bullfights in Catalonia; nothing to do, by the way). I only would accept homeschooling in some cases, that's all.

Good devil's advocate playing, by the way.

Irmamar - I agree with you about being open to learn that there are people who think/believe differently than you! I don't call it a "legal loophole", though. In fact, I DO strongly agree that there needs to be the legal opportunity afforded to families who want to choose this option. In the US, freedom of choice is key. Even if someone wants to make what I might consider to be a poor choice, it's theirs to make. And it's not mine to control. If the State runs the school, and every child is required to attend that school and has no other educational options, you really are setting yourself up for biased education that could (in the long term) lead to horrible political and social disasters.

Jessica - it seems you copied and pasted most of that post. Please state a reference. The pro's and con's don't really represent a thorough overview, and are quite biased.

[irmamar]

Originally Posted by laepelba

Irmamar - I agree with you about being open to learn that there are people who think/believe differently than you! I don't call it a "legal loophole", though. In fact, I DO strongly agree that there needs to be the legal opportunity afforded to families who want to choose this option. In the US, freedom of choice is key. Even if someone wants to make what I might consider to be a poor choice, it's theirs to make. And it's not mine to control. If the State runs the school, and every child is required to attend that school and has no other educational options, you really are setting yourself up for biased education that could (in the long term) lead to horrible political and social disasters.

Jessica - it seems you copied and pasted most of that post. Please state a reference. The pro's and con's don't really represent a thorough overview, and are quite biased.

I meant that here, in my country, there is a legal loophole about homeschooling, not in yours. I've read that there are people who is interested in this kind of education (, by the way), but they're not able to put it into practice because it's not legislated.

[poli]

Originally Posted by irmamar

I'm sure that your way of education is quite different from ours. But maybe those children are too manipulated by their own parents. Or that's my opinion. Opening to another points of view (even evolution or sex) is good and even you can have your own thoughts about something. It's good to know that something exists, that there are people who think in a different way from yours.

I don't like homeschooling, I think this is a great error and, if it depended on me, there wouldn't be a legal loophole in my country but a prohibition (the same prohibition that I'm praying to be accepted about the prohibition of bullfights in Catalonia, but that's digressing; it nothing to do with homeschooling by the way). I only would accept homeschooling in some cases, that's all.

Good devil's advocate playing, by the way.

Tu uso del inglés es

Originally Posted by irmamar

I'm sure that your way of education is quite different from ours. But maybe those children are too manipulated by their own parents. Or that's my opinion. Opening to others' points of view (even evolution or sex) is good and you can still have your own thoughts about something. It's good to know that other ideas exist, that there are people who think in a different way from yours.

I don't like homeschooling, I think this is a great error and, if it depended on me, there weren't a legal loophole in my country but a prohibition (the same prohibition that I'm praying to be accepted about the prohibition of bullfights in Catalonia; nothing to do, by the way). I only would accept homeschooling in some cases, that's all.

Good devil's advocate playing, by the way.

--------------

Originally Posted by irmamar

No, I do not agree with you, at least in Spain. Here it's not forbidden, there is just a legal loophole, there isn't any law against homeschooling. But if you don't send your children to school, you can even be arrested and lose your parental authority. The state takes charge of childrens' education: it's compulsory and free until 16 years of age. (And the state is the only organism which can supply everything to a child until 16 years). Later, they can study at home, there are studies available through correspondence. But children younger than this age must be at school (except in some cases, such as a disease). School is the entrance room to life.

Furthermore, there is freedom of thinking here, you can be from a convinced fascist to an absolute comunist or a perfect anarchist. There's nothing wrong if you obey the laws. Mind is free and State let us think what we want to think. As I said before: teachers teach and parents educate (although children decide to think what they want to think when they grow).

Lou Ann, I agree with you about what you said about diversity. The more knowledge we acquire in our life, the better we can be developed as persons. I don't think there is much diversity in homeschooling after reading your words. And yes, as you explained, maybe the children are not closed in a room, as I said. But I think we can't compare a big school, with thousand of pupils of different ages, to a small group of family's children of the same age. Activities, contact with other school mates in the recess, contact with different teachers whom you can admire or censure (you can't censure your parents), these are the things that allow us to enter in adult life, to become an adult. Forget overprotection, nature will separate childrem from their parents soon or later, let's learn a bit of independence and personal growth.

Bien escrito. Aquí tambien hay la libertad de pensamiento, pero aquí el movimiento que anima escuela en casa tiene una fuerza de política derechista al extremo en el nombre de la libertad-- algo que Alemaña prohibe por razones historicas.

[irmamar]

Originally Posted by poli

Tu uso del inglés es


--------------


Bien escrito. Aquí tambien hay la libertad de pensamiento, pero aquí el movimiento que anima escuela en casa tiene una fuerza de política derechista al extremo en el nombre de la libertad-- algo que Alemaña prohibe por razones historicas.

Espero que no me estés tomando el pelo...

No puedo opinar sobre la enseñanza en casa como la entendéis vosotros, porque yo no la he vivido ni la conozco. Pero sí te puedo contar mi historia. Mi padre era tal vez la persona más inteligente y más culta que he conocido en mi vida. Era químico, pero sabía de todo: arte, historia, música, latín, matemáticas... La hora de comer era para nosotros, sus hijos, un suplicio: cada día tocaba examen. Desde la tabla de multiplicar del más pequeño hasta el símbolo del sulfato de magnesio, pasando por la tercera declinación de latín o el imperfecto de subjuntivo del verbo caber, uno tras otro íbamos recitando las respuestas a sus preguntas (¡ir al colegio era un descanso!). Mi padre hubiera sido capaz de enseñar a sus hijos perfectamente, pero yo soy feliz de haber podido ido al colegio. Allí, además de instruirme con conocimientos, consiguieron que me descubriera a mí misma (o a intentarlo, al menos); me hicieron leer libros y expresar qué era lo que yo opinaba; me obligaron a ir a conferencias o charlas y después me preguntaban sobre mis conclusiones... Eso no hubiera podido hacerlo mi padre, porque él quería que yo pensara como él, y eso no es posible. También te puedo decir que yo adoraba a mi padre, que le admiraba como ser humano, pero también admiraba su inteligencia y su incansable capacidad de trabajo. Pero yo no soy como él, ni quería serlo tampoco.

Esto lo digo porque hay mucha gente que cree que sus hijos son de su propiedad, que pueden manejarlos a su antojo, pero la realidad es muy distinta. Y como colofón, unas palabras de Kalhil Gibran:

Tus hijos no son tus hijos,
son hijos e hijas de la vida,
deseosa de sí misma.
[...]

[poli]

Bien dicha, Irma. En mi opinión todos los niños reciben enseñaza en la casa,( o sea buena/o sea mala) y buenos padres que hacen caso de su hijos y ayudarles aprender son los mejores. Tenías el gran priviligio de tener un padre brillante y interesado en sus hijos. Pero, como tú y la mayoria de la gente que respondaron en este hilo, veo la gran importacia de enseñanza afuera de la casa tambien.

Y no esoy tomando tu pelo. Comunicas muy bien en inglés escrito.

[irmamar]

Muchas veces no somos conscientes de lo que tenemos hasta que lo perdemos...

Pero bueno, aún hago muchos fallos (algunos los podría evitar ). Pero me acabas de alegrar el día. ¡Gracias!

[Perikles]

Bien dicho, Irma. The relationship between parents and children is usually far too complicated and emotional for it to include teaching. For that you need a distance provided by an external teacher. There are very very few exceptions to this. (Intenté escribir en español, pero me doy por vencido )

[Jessica]

Did you guys read the article about a kindergartner that got threatened with suspension for making a 'gun' ??? that is so stupid, I read some of the comments, and someone said she was going to home school her kids



http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapi...suspended.html

[irmamar]

It should be common in a country with so much weapon holdings per capita.

[bobjenkins]

Originally Posted by irmamar

It should be common in a country with so many weapon (holdings) per capita.

¿Qué puedo decir? a la gente le gustan sus armas

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cr...ers-per-capita

Me interesa un hecho que dice cuando se prohibe las armas de fuego, el número de homicidios por arma se sube . I read that after banning the ownership of firearms in Australia the murders by guns raised 400% because the criminals are going to get guns illegally regardless of laws, the laws are only keeping people from being able to defend themselves. Afterall nearly all the murders are by criminals who have obtained sus guns illegally


es como pone un signo afuera de la casa que dice, "No tengo una arma de fuego, por eso usted puede entrar y no podré defenderme"

[irmamar]

No sé. Aquí está prohibido tener armas de fuego sin licencia (y conseguir una licencia es dificilísimo). Sin embargo, apenas hay muertes por armas de fuego. Personalmente, a mí no me gustan.

Si vienes aquí, déjate las pistolas en casa.

[bobjenkins]

Originally Posted by irmamar

No sé. Aquí está prohibido tener armas de fuego sin licencia (y conseguir una licencia es dificilísimo). Sin embargo, apenas hay muertes por armas de fuego. Personalmente, a mí no me gustan.

Si vienes aquí, déjate las pistolas en casa.

[Jessica]

I know that, but this is going way too far

[CrOtALiTo]

Originally Posted by Jessica

I know that, but this is going way too far

Jessica.
I have a question for you.
Do you go to the school?


Because if you take classes school inside of your home, then you should have the basic knowledge of the studies university likes that the guys that goings to the truly school.