Education in the U.S.A.

[Rebelle]

Education in the U. S. A.

Our options:

1.  Public School Education - open to the general public, offered by the government, paid for by taxes.
2.  Private School Education - selective of students, not administered by government, charge tuition
3.  Home School Education - education of children at home, typically by parents or tutors.

Which would you have preferred for yourself?
What did your education consist of? Your experiences and views?
Which would you prefer for your children, given your lifestyle, values, etc.

I prefer home schooling for my future children.  It’s one of the reasons I wouldn’t want to live under a communist government.  I asked my mother who lived in a communist country (Former Soviet Union) about that education system and if it was possible to home school under such a government.  I wondered if they allowed people (usually a small percentage of parents desire to do this) the freedom to educate their children the way they deem best.   Whether parents would be arrested if their children weren’t enrolled in a public or private school.  She just laughed.  That answered my question.

Teacher’s are trained primarily to control a class and spend very little time actually imparting deep knowledge and understanding of a subject especially considering how many hours are wasted in a classroom.  Also, consider all the important subjects that the public or private schools won’t teach.

I grew up in the Los Angeles Unified School District.  I looked up the website of the high school I graduated from which boasted about a magnet program that I was actually enrolled in which didn’t give the opportunities it spoke of.  School was very disappointing.  They don’t pay attention to the students talents or interests in order to develop them in the areas where they are gifted.  They might do right by a few students but so many slip through their hands.  So many children don’t get the education they deserve.

You can home school  in preschool, kindergarten, elementary, junior high, even high school.
Home schooling stops at college. 

Colleges are getting more comfortable with home schooled students enrolling in their campuses.  Because of the efforts of parents and the supportive structures they have set up, lawyers defending the freedom of parents in the courts this educational movement has grown.


Currently reading “The Home School Reader” Perspectives on Home Schooling from Home Education Magazine.

[Sativa Indica]

Im not from the US, Scotland was where i was educated, but i still have alot of faith in the public school system there. I do agree that the public school system is the best way for the government to programme our children, 9 hours a day spoon feeding them info only to have them regurgitate it back out twice a year. It does create brain dead pupils who seem to almost accept every aspect of this fucked up world as natural and normal.

However, my only beef with home schooling is that i feel, it could never really compare to the diversity and ability of a school system. sure i could easily teach my child a variety of subjects, namely maths, history, english, physics, tech studies, Home economics and maybe even chemistry and modern studies. But i could not even begin where to start with Biology, art, music, business management, french, german etc. i often test my lil sis on her mathematics skills, try to evaluate what level she is and often give her some quick tricks i use, and i do enjoy that.

I just dont see how a parent, or two, could give a child that amount of diversity. not only that, but in scotland from 3rd year, 15 yeards old, you already make your 1st choice of 7 subjects that you want to continue. so you start two years of secondary school doing everything, then you choose 7 that you like to study for 2 years. after the 2 years you have standard grades, then you choose [usually] from your 7, 5 subjects which you want to study more in depth to then continue onto university.

Not to mention the inspiration that a child might have from a teacher they both liked and respected. i hated english in school, never needed, however i loved the english department. they where the most sound out of all the teachers, chilled out and on the level. they taught me alot about respect to elders, when to be sarcastic and rude, or when to be mature. i was a cheeky shite in school, loved being so, but my english teacher knew EXACTLY how to 'reach me'. all he did was mention NWA and what did they believe in/fight for, and he made me work.....shit in retrospect taht saved him ALOT of grief from me, and essentially from anyone else in my class.

your parents and your parents, but you teachers teach you not only about maths, englich etc, but also how to function with shit bosses, 9-5 routines, deadline etc.

like i said, this is both good and bad, as YES it only teaches you how to further build up this shit hole of a society.

i should also mentiond that school system is NOT for everyone. i have friends who dropped out after standard grades, simple cuz they could not function in such a system. what they did was go straight into the work place, straight into a job/apprenticeship and most of them are very much successfull today.

Scotland education system >>>> anywhere else in the world.

plus, NO TUITION FEES, everyone is entitled to free education all the way through university and beyond, i.e post grad

[t-t-t-toxic]

i went school in london and still go uni in london. i wouldnt trade my public school for anything else to be honest. it was a shithole with more violence than teaching and more failures than kids who passed 5 subjects out of like 11 (gcse pass rate was like 17%) but it taught me to appreciate free education no matter what and it taught me a lot of life skills that neither of the other two options can teach you. it taught me to communicate properly and to live on my own 2 feet and not rely on others.. including people we're taught to respect such as teachers and relatives.

[Rebelle]

I am glad to hear good things about schools in Scotland and London.
Free education all the way to college sounds great.
The U.S.A. doesn’t get that concept at all. Students graduate with debt that takes them years to pay off. So many don’t even enroll because of the money required.

I’m curious, how long have you been out of school? I saw a documentary recently in which students go to a classroom, go to their desks, but their desks have a computer on it. It wasn’t like this several years ago.
The emergence of technology will change the traditional way of schooling.
You might not even need teachers. Just give them a computer and they will search out information. Some people don’t go the library to do research like they did in the past. They just look it up on the computer.

Added (edit)

People get online college degrees.
Even students in regular colleges can take some of their courses online.
This can be done in high school and down.

I absolutely agree that home schooling is not for everyone. My younger sister, who I respect and love, has a good career and a college degree, prefers private school for her children because LA public school (sorry but she has even worked in them) can be very bad.

I wanted to highlight home schooling because I wasn’t aware of this option until very recently. When I discovered this option I was at peace to find something that fit my views and lifestyle.
I have to say I am a very domestic person. Anything about the home appeals to me. Home school, home church, home based business, etc. I have made it so that I work mainly from home.

I look forward to waking up in the morning, cooking breakfast for my husband and children, getting them dressed. Home schooling is what you make it. This would be how I might conduct my “classroom”. I would have my children take a walk with me for about an hour in the morning. This will be good exercise, fresh air, sunshine, in nature. Then we would have uninterrupted sustained silent reading (ussr). Then we would go over the workbooks and other materials that home education suppliers provide. I will lead a drum circle (I’m a drummer) for an hour. We would draw and journal in our notebooks. I would teach them to do chores around the house. We would make frequent trips to the library, museums, live theater, etc. I would enroll the children in boxing, karate, ballet, piano, foreign language and other classes they might like. Both parents can teach, not just the mother. The father could read bedtime stories at night to the young children and give the mother a break. There really are great ways the father could be involved depending on his area of expertise. They can coach in sports.

Also consider those children that move around a lot because of the nature of their parents job. If they were home schooled their education won’t be interrupted. I read in an article that Will and Jada Pinkett Smith home school their children. That’s the only celebrity couple I am aware of at the moment.

[fLow]

There are positives and negatives for all of them.

I would prefer home schooled. Being home schooled does not mean missing out on socializing. It does mean limiting socialization though, which is good. I also like that concentration can be enhanced. Around peers, the work does not seem as important and doesn't sink in as much as it does when you learn in a less social environment. Being in a classroom means being exposed to gendered and racist expectations. Avoiding these is excellent for education. It means certain fields and potential careers wont be rejected on social grounds because of their associations with undesirable groups.

[Rebelle]

fLow gets what I’m saying  lol
Can you home school in the UK? Are people there doing this?
Toxic - I wouldn't trade my shithole of a public education either...... but ....my children won't experience what I did.

Public and private school education is usually conducted from the morning hours until the afternoon, weekends free, the summer off. Children are being conditioned and trained in the schedule of working adults who similarly leave their homes in the morning to return in the late afternoon. You hardly have any real free time to enjoy nature or life. People don’t get rest because they can’t afford to and are worked to exhaustion. Home schooling can continue into the weekends, summer and be year round. It’s more flexible and can take the child’s interests and energy into consideration.

Another issue with today’s society is the neglect of children by their parents who allow schools and day care to raise their children. Family life is minimal.

[fLow]

Yes, you can. However, education must be monitored by social services and welfare. I think the national curriculum still apply as mandatory, so home schooling is not separation from national education.

[Knight]

It does mean limiting socialization though, which is good.

Why?

I agree with crack and tox, I really think school up to a certain point is not primarily about the things you get taught - languages, maths, etc - it's about the experiences you go through, the mistakes you make, the skills you acquire through dealing with the system, the teachers, the other students and society. I think that's true in general anyways, I wouldn't trade the worst experiences I've made in my life for anything.
I understand the fear of relying on others to raise your kids but I think if they're are never fed a lie, they will never know what a lie is. I've only become skeptical of todays world because I was confronted with the bad sides of it. You ain't shit if you don't know how to deal with shit.

I would never want to be homeschooled and I will not allow it either if I ever have children.

[Victor]

The influence that the public school system has on the large majority of children is to actualize the agenda of the liberal bourgeoisie. The only students that receive efficient libertarian education are those who not only reject the system, but educate themselves through literature and social interaction between others who resist conformity.

Those who advance through higher education - after being coerced by the state-influenced society - do so not by innate intellectual though, but by dull memorization skills. This perceived authority obtained by petty degrees, for those already networked in the upper-class of society, makes these people opinion leaders who continue to fuel and perpetuate the system. Participating in it alone keeps this iron-clad, repressive organization mobile. Now consider the uncountable casualties of those who are swindled by the system that promises riches in exchange for obedience and negates any form of social-consciousness.

There are other ways to keep children in contact with society. There are always sports and clubs which keep children interacting with one another. But the deprivation of either the individual or the collective is detrimental to human progress and when one is negated, growth becomes stagnant.