Eastsiders hop on home school bandwagon

Homeschooling is the easy way out for some parents, kids dont have the social skills that they need life...Internet instruction? thats not teaching ..sorry..

really wrote:

Homeschooling is the easy way out for some parents, kids dont have the social skills that they need life...Internet instruction? thats not teaching ..sorry..

what social skills do they need that are learned at school?

It would have been nice for Alex Hinojosa to have told us how old Alex Barnes is. From the information provided, we can't really tell whether Alex was reading ahead of his age group, or behind. I'm betting that reporter Hinojosa was not home-schooled.

The author of The Peter Principle, Dr. Lawrence Peter, was an educator who had an inside view to the problem of our public schools. In no other profession do we see more incompetence, so much quasi-illiteracy, among those who call themselves "educators." I did enough substitute teaching in my younger days to get the same perspective; enough to persuade me I would never be happy there.

Education was much better in the frontier days. Abraham Lincoln only had one year of formal education. His mother became his teacher. Lincoln's vice president, Andrew Johnson, had no formal education at all. Those two men carried our Government through its most troubling, historic years.

Thomas A. Edison was taken out of school by his mother and home-schooled. Bureaucracy (hierarchiology, as termed by Dr. Peter) ruined public education. I'm glad that the Peter Principle was on my reading list when I considered becoming a teacher. I am eternally indebted to Dr. Peter. He helped to open my eyes before I became enmeshed in the present-day politically correct policies of dumbing down our children with emphasis on diversity at the expense of conformity, assimilation and conventional, practical thought and learning.

Top-heavy hiring of predominantly minority teachers, many of whom are not even native English speakers, has contributed to the problem in cities like El Paso. Cross-subject teaching by bilingual educators also exacerbate the dumbing-down in speech and English.

In the end, all education is self-education, but teachers can facilitate this truth, or destroy self-motivation. Among public-school educators, a general lack of knowledge and skills, and a general lack or morals, is a national tragedy.

The reason we home-school is simply this: we DON'T teach our kids to pass a test. The best thing we ever did was pull our son out of private school, and we'll be damned if he ever sets foot in public school -- especially in El Paso. The dumbing-down of the kids began when the administrators took full control and the teachers were, for all intents and purposes, treated like second-class citizens. I have many friends who teach and they are disgusted with the system in place. Public school children are being cheated by being taught to pass a test. And don't feed the home-schoolers that line of garbage about "missing out on social developement" by not being around other kids. That is simply not true. We have our son enrolled in other activities away from school that allow for plenty of peer interaction. Bravo home-schoolers!

really wrote:

Homeschooling is the easy way out for some parents, kids dont have the social skills that they need life...Internet instruction? thats not teaching ..sorry..

You are absolutely incorrect! What social skills are they missing? Learning to fight amongst your peers? Disrespect others? Bully? Join gangs? Enlighten us, please. Sounds like you're envious of those who chose not to be sheeple.

The A Beka reading program used at Immanuel Baptist school advanced my children's reading skills way beyond their secondary public school grade level. You don't have to sacrifice the social skills needed to function society "good or bad". The worst program ever used in El Paso schools was Accelerated Reading. It taught students to read books for points and prizes, instead of for personal love of reading. Most graduates of these programs hate reading so much , they hardly ever read a book for enjoyment. Individually, parents can enrich their childs education outside school. I also enrolled my children in Kumon math studies that allowed them to learn at their personal level, the rewards were good !

Home School Them All wrote:

It would have been nice for Alex Hinojosa to have told us how old Alex Barnes is. From the information provided, we can't really tell whether Alex was reading ahead of his age group, or behind. I'm betting that reporter Hinojosa was not home-schooled.
The author of The Peter Principle, Dr. Lawrence Peter, was an educator who had an inside view to the problem of our public schools. In no other profession do we see more incompetence, so much quasi-illiteracy, among those who call themselves "educators." I did enough substitute teaching in my younger days to get the same perspective; enough to persuade me I would never be happy there.
Education was much better in the frontier days. Abraham Lincoln only had one year of formal education. His mother became his teacher. Lincoln's vice president, Andrew Johnson, had no formal education at all. Those two men carried our Government through its most troubling, historic years.
Thomas A. Edison was taken out of school by his mother and home-schooled. Bureaucracy (hierarchiology, as termed by Dr. Peter) ruined public education. I'm glad that the Peter Principle was on my reading list when I considered becoming a teacher. I am eternally indebted to Dr. Peter. He helped to open my eyes before I became enmeshed in the present-day politically correct policies of dumbing down our children with emphasis on diversity at the expense of conformity, assimilation and conventional, practical thought and learning.
Top-heavy hiring of predominantly minority teachers, many of whom are not even native English speakers, has contributed to the problem in cities like El Paso. Cross-subject teaching by bilingual educators also exacerbate the dumbing-down in speech and English.
In the end, all education is self-education, but teachers can facilitate this truth, or destroy self-motivation. Among public-school educators, a general lack of knowledge and skills, and a general lack or morals, is a national tragedy.

Excellent analogy. Don't use too many big words next time. The majority of the Times readership (at least in El Paso) will get brain freeze as a result.

I teach here at college level and the level of reading comprehension and writing skills of many of our students is very low. I assume this is a result of coming out of the public schools in the area (not only EPISD) and, not being in the public school system, I cannot say why. But it is not unique to El Paso. Everywhere in the country parents are up in arms about it.

Yet, when I get a look at the books and class materials of the public schools, especially math, I wonder why. These materials seem much more comprehensive and challenging than the books I used in HS (1960s). Yet, myself and my peers could read and write well.

Go figure.

Public school sucks, unless you live in a good neighborhood that has good schools. But most kids go to crappy schools in which they get teach nothing. Home schooling is very wise and brave, for some reason some parents don't like other parents that home school their kids. Envious perhaps?

I agree with both your quotes. All the schools teach now a days is how to pass the TAKS. Administrators are more worried about how their school is going to compare to other schools and not what the kids are really learning. I especially like your comment below. My child goes to public school but is in activities outside the school, where she gets to know people from schools all over El Paso and there are two kids that are homeschooled there too. I don't see a difference in the way they act. They are all (the group)respectful and get along very well.

JRMaynard3 wrote:

<quoted text>You are absolutely incorrect! What social skills are they missing? Learning to fight amongst your peers? Disrespect others? Bully? Join gangs? Enlighten us, please. Sounds like you're envious of those who chose not to be sheeple.

Welcome to the world of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), circa 2009. Seven and a half years after former President George W. Bush signed the biggest quality-control effort in American education into law, NCLB has proven itself to be a classic case of good idea, bad execution. It's a noble effort that ended up degrading teachers' morale and putting so much frantic focus on testing that real education got left behind. As schools across the country scramble for higher test scores, the kind of twisted logic that's undermining Sokolsky's teaching has become an epidemic, especially in districts like San Lorenzo that already face significant social and economic challenges. But despite all the disappointment, puzzlement, and frustration over NCLB, we finally have the chance to create a law that can actually fulfill its potential: After two years of delay, Congress plans to begin revamping NCLB by the end of this year -- and it's nearly impossible to find someone who doesn't agree that something must change. The good news is that there are encouraging signs that the Obama administration is dedicated to seeing it through: Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has launched a listening tour to meet with students, parents, teachers, administrators, and staff to get their perspectives on the law. "He wants to give states and districts the flexibility to be innovative, while still maintaining accountability for improved results," says Carmel Martin, Duncan's assistant secretary for planning, evaluation, and policy.

I wonder if people would like TAKS more if funds were dedicated to shoring up the deficiencies between districts, instead of expecting poorer districts to automatically be able to match what a more fortunate district can do. That way a student in El Paso could get the same level of education as one in Dallas, Austin, etc.

I believe that not everything comes down to funds and that intelligent, capable people can be found in just about any district you'll find. But certainly the extra funds wouldn't hurt.

My wife and I homeschooled our granddaughter for three years,(6th, 7th, and 8th grades). She started Andress HS this year and she is in 10th grade math and pre-ap english. Every day she comes home and says school was easy because we taught her. Don't put all home schoolers in the same basket.

eastsiders are always jumping on bandwagons, posers

really wrote:

Homeschooling is the easy way out for some parents, kids dont have the social skills that they need life...Internet instruction? thats not teaching ..sorry..

How is that the "easy" way out? These parents dedicate their lives to making sure their kids get a better chance. They spend countless hours teaching their children. Pawning your child off to public school everyday and not being involved in their learning is the easy way out.

My son is 15 months and he'll either be going to private or home school. I admire the parents that work so hard for their kids.

abcs wrote:

Public school sucks, unless you live in a good neighborhood that has good schools. But most kids go to crappy schools in which they get teach nothing. Home schooling is very wise and brave, for some reason some parents don't like other parents that home school their kids. Envious perhaps?

I went to one o the "better" schools in El Paso and I was bored out of my mind. I seriously don't think I learned anything useful in high school.

"But most kids go to crappy schools in which they get TEACH nothing." - good example

if parents are dedicated to their child education and a good future kids will do much better in their adult lives and prosper.

the public school system fails our our children year after year, generation after generation. just take a good look at how unprepared public school kids are now, they only learn to have sex, get pregnant, skip school, take drugs, become targets for the drug cartels, drink alcohol, cheat, steel. if these are americas future we can consider ourselves in very very deep trouble. especially when america is in danger of becoming a third world country sooner than late. god help us all.

public schools are only making kids stupid, ignorant,and social misfits. and yet every year we pay higher taxes only to have our youth fail in life. the school districts only care about taking tax payers money to give inept teachers raises and spend foolishly on other thing.

have you heard of the latest school shooting in Las cruses NM.? there are your social skills. and lets not forget columbine and their their exceptional social skills teaching.