Andrew Lentvorski wrote:
Paul G. Allen wrote:
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
My family (wife) has been homeschooling for years and we really are
pleased
with it. The results are impressive overall. This certainly has the
best
teacher/student ratio and really is the ideal I think. I'm aware
some may feel
they can't afford it.
Did you hear about the new law requiring parents that home-school to
have teaching credentials? It was on the news a few nights ago. I can't
remember if they said it's proposed, on the floor, or what.
I'm torn on this one, but I think I'm going to have to agree with it.
The people truly capable of home schooling are probably capable of the
extra level of work required to get that certification.
The certification process is a scam designed to extort money from those
that want to teach.
I applied for certification so that I could be an instructor at the
National City Adult School for our monthly Installfests. The
certification process consists of taking a test that could be passed by
a sixth grader (well, maybe not in California). Despite that, there were
a couple people there taking it for the second time! Then they claim you
have to take some courses that will cost you at least $2000, and that's
at some of the cheapest schools around. At that point I balked because I
couldn't justify the cost. There is no substitution of experience or
work. Even a former teacher from another state would have to pay to be
"certified".
So for example, I was an instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy for two
years, I've taught at SDSU and UCSD and done all the lectures for KPLUG
and the hands-on stuff at the Installfests, and as a submarine officer
prepared and delivered lessons on Nuclear Physics, yet somehow I
wouldn't be qualified to teach my own kid how to read and do math?
The idea that a concerned parent making the effort to teach their own
child is somehow going to be damaging because they aren't "certified" is
ludicrous. How much do you need to know to be "Smarter than a Fifth
Grader" (tm) ?
Gus
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