Gabriel Sechan wrote: >> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> >> One thing to keep in mind though, education aside, is that public or private >> school also lets the kids experience socializing with their peers, along >> with adults that aren't related to them. Peers/adults outside their family >> and immediate neighbors, and it's usually a wide range of races, religions >> and social backgrounds. Dealing with a variety of different people is a >> valuable experience to kids. >> > That's what most homeschoolers want to avoid. Apparently there's exceptions > on this list, but every one I've ever met were right wing religious nuts who > didn't want their kids to learn how to think or to appreciate diversity- they > wanted them to be carbon copies of their racism and religion. They home > schooled specifically so they wouldn't meet Jews, blacks, hispanics, etc.
I find this interesting. Here's some more interesting facts about the history of public schools: ..... "After the Declaration of Independence, 14 states had their own constitutions by 1791, and out of the 14, 7 states had specific provisions for education. Jefferson believed that education should be under the control of the government, free from religious biases, and available to all people irrespective of their status in society. Others who vouched for public education around the same time were Benjamin Rush, Noah Webster, Robert Coram and George Washington." ..... "Until the 1840s the education system was highly localized and available only to wealthy people. Reformers who wanted all children to gain the benefits of education opposed this. Prominent among them were Horace Mann in Massachusetts and Henry Barnard in Connecticut. Mann started the publication of the Common School Journal, which took the educational issues to the public. The common-school reformers argued for the case on the belief that common schooling could create good citizens, unite society and prevent crime and poverty. As a result of their efforts, free public education at the elementary level was available for all American children by the end of the 19th century." ...... "The Catholics were, however, opposed to common schooling and created their own private schools. Their decision was supported by the 1925 Supreme Court rule in Pierce v. Society of Sisters that states could not compel children to attend public schools, and that children could attend private schools instead." ...... http://www.servintfree.net/~aidmn-ejournal/publications/2001-11/PublicEducationInTheUnitedStates.html So public schools were created, not out of some socialist drive, but to provide education to all, regardless of means. It is my opinion that some of those who lead the propaganda campaign against public education want to destroy it, because an ignorant populace is easier to control. One only has to look at the number of people who vote against their own self interests in elections to see that it is working. I graduated from public school almost 40 years ago. I don't see much that has changed in the intervening years. Those students who's parents are actively involved in their children's education do well in public school. Those students who don't care and who's parents don't care, do poorly. I don't remember any motivated students that did poorly in school. What I do remember and what seems to be true today as it was then, is that kids in general don't value intelligence. I did well in school, I was an outcast in part because of it. As someone else pointed out there are numerous epithets used against those children that do well in school and they are still, as they were when I was in school, mostly outcasts. Based upon this experience I would say that most of the home schooled children would do just as well in public schools, because their parents have high expectations and motivate them. My conclusion is that it parental involvement and student motivation that are the deciding factors in success in the schools more than any other factor. Home schooling is irrelevant. Teacher expertise is only slightly relevant. There are forces at work in this country, that have gained ground in the recent decades that want to destroy public education and will stop at nothing to achieve these ends. Those people who disparage public education in forums like this are being used as tools of theses forces. YMMV -- Neil Schneider pacneil_at_linuxgeek_dot_net http://www.paccomp.com Key fingerprint = 67F0 E493 FCC0 0A8C 769B 8209 32D7 1DB1 8460 C47D I help busy professionals diversify their self-directed IRAs and portfolios with real estate they don't have to manage. Please let me know if you or someone you know would like more information. -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
