Homestead mailing list

[rayzentz AT aim.com]

O.K., Ray, my question for you is the same as my question for Gloria, how do 
you know you wouldn't have gotten a more positive experience being 
homeschooled?
    Ok.   First of all, I don't.   Satisfied?   That being said, however, 
          the activities I enjoyed and excelled at were not available outside 
the public school setting. 
          You can pontificate if you wish, on the fact that if there were no 
public schools, other avenues 
          would open.   Might as well pontificate on which came first, the 
chicken or the egg?

Also, I notice your qualifier of "actually being done."  If by that you mean 
that you don't see public school being replicated in a home setting, please 
remember that public schools are a dismal failure as clearly exhibited by 
their own "report cards."  Why would homeschoolers want to duplicate that in 
their homes, although, some do.  Is that how you judge "actually being 
done?"
          I know several homeschooled children who could not read, could not 
perform simple real-life math 
          applications, and generally were incapable of dealing in any 
effective way with society.
          This was largely due to the parents total abdication of any 
responsibility to provide
         educational opportunities for their children.   Teaching, or at 
least facilitating, basic 
          skills such as these are what I consider "actually being done"
Define "social skills."  <snip>
So, please tell me what you are talking about when you say "social skills."
          Simple.   The ability to deal with ones peers in an effective 
manner.   At its base, this
          may also be due to totally different mindset between home schooled 
and public schooled
          individuals.   On this list, many of you complain about the need to 
deal with unpleasant
          people.   The process for learning this begins when young.   

Oh, and while you're at it, please tell me how many of those public school 
students have exhibited the exact same lack of such skills as you say you 
have seen in homeschoolers, cause, <snip>
          Plenty.   I have never once said that public schools were perfect, 
only that active parental 
          involvement was necessary for success.   The same applies for home 
schoolers.

Plus, I've seen way more anti-social behaviors exhibited by public school 
students than from homeschoolers.
          Never mentioned anti-social behavior at all, merely poor social 
skills.   However, since 
          you brought it up, it could be a simple matter of statistics.

BTW, how do you come to the conclusion that homeschoolers, unschoolers in 
particular I suppose, don't think we are connected one to another in our 
society?
          Simply a reference to the often anarchic comments I have read on 
this list over the 
          past 5 years.   Don't many of you try to separate yourselves from 
society in various and sundry
          ways, or am I merely deluded, and we are all happy people who love 
everyone?   Kum Ba Ya?

    
    Ray
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