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Re: homeschooling-public school teachers are scapegoats
Posted by Guy on 11/10/05
I am a homeschooling Dad and I never slam P.S. teachers. You folk do too much for too little pay. Please read , as soon as the moderator approves it, my posting on why my wife and I chose to homeschool. Guy On 7/13/05, carr wrote: > Having worked several years in a large public high > school(though not as a teacher), my impression of the > problems of public education is that they have little to do > with teachers. Most teachers I met were gifted, creative > individuals and I would have loved to have been in their > classes years ago when I was a teenager. They are doing > their best to teach a population that has many distractions. > Also, in today's litigious society, teachers are relatively > powerless to combat disruptions in their classrooms and > personal accountability for student behavior is an > increasingly rare thing. Rather, the teachers become the > scapegoat for anything and everything negative that happens > in their classrooms. They often have little administrative > or parental back-up for decisions that would benefit their > teaching environment. This must be very disheartening for > teachers and burnout and poor morale seems to be on the > rise, probably much worse in some schools than others. > That said, I have chosen to homeschool my children for at > least part of their education.(And I am one of those people > who used to think homeschooling was a very wierd thing > before I had my own kids). This has been an agonizing > decision that required months of thought, prayer and > research. Am I nervous that I am not a teacher? Yes, I > certainly am. However, though I may not have a teaching > certificate and all that it requires, I do feel confident > that I know my what makes my child tick, what her passions > are, what scares and intimidates her, what motivates her > etc. better than any other person out there. I feel this > knowledge plus a desperate love for my child and the fact > that there is a one on one ratio of teaching will help us > succeed. > I think that when homeschooling fails, it is because this > decision was taken too lightly or perhaps as a defensive, > reactionary move and as a way of "punishing" the school > system. Homeschooling is a huge committment that requires > lots of planning and forethought and should never be done on > impulse. > I don't really understand all the hostility on these > posts. I am sure there are homeschoolers out there who are > not doing a stellar job of educating their kids, just as > there are kids in a less than satisfactory public school > environment. There is no perfect teaching environment and > there are pluses and minuses to every way of teaching. To > choose an educational environment for one's child is a very > personal decision that considers many factors. There are as > many children thriving in public schools as there are > exemplary homeschoolers.
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