I would like to know from a teacher...?

Question

If compulsory schooling is so great and works better than homeschooling, why are people dumber?

If you look at a fifth grade math book from the 1840s it's what we'd call like college level today. Books that were written for the common man are now considered deep and dense and tough. All of this consides rather conveniently with when we started forcing people to go through twelve years of Prussian style schooling which was never supposed to educate in the first place, have you read Horace Mann and his contemporaries?

If you can give me a decent refutation I will be incredibly grateful.

Also, why do you keep on acting like homeschoolers need to prove themselves? If anything you schoolers do. We're as old as humanity and you guys are only about 150 years old. So even if creationists are right -which I don't believe- we have about 5850 years on you.

I have gone to public school all my life.

I learned to read before I ever went in there and was always considered 'two grades ahead'. I'm not unusually smart. I have read Horace Mann and gone through history, and something isn't right.

I have spent all my time in high school with my Ipod going and am at the top of my class.

Something's not right. By your logic I should be a crack addict.

Answer 1

Fifth grade math in the 1840s was all about units of measure we no longer use, for situations we are no longer in (farming). College level math these days is calculus. We get everything else in HS. And books back then that are now considered "deep" are so, because the style of reading and writing has changed, not become more complicated. I suppose you would consider latin the ultimate language simply because it's difficult to understand! Furthermore, the few books out of the HUNDREDS that were written back then that we still read today, we read because they were good. We don't read the trash that was written back then, and yes, there were pornos back then too. The thing is, that there was a time when the population wasn't educated. You learned only what you needed to run the farm, and nothing more. They do this "home schooling" still in other countries, and by the age of 12 all the children know what they need to survive as adults, and marry. Mandatory public education:
1. Ensured free and available education for all
2. Taught people more than what they need to farm, and so they had other options

Just because you didn't pay attention in school and your HS level math was still basic algebra, doesn't mean the rest of us slacked off and got less than the most out of school. I don't know about you, but I was taking calculus in HS. Let's see a homeschooler smart enough to teach his kids that.

Answer 2

I am a teacher and I will answer this easily. Public/ school education only works better than homeschooling when the parents are not educated.

I am a teacher(previously public school) and I home school my children and tutor 3 other homeschooling children. Public school was not giving me the results I wanted, so I brought them home. Now I can tailor there education to their abilities, not to the slowest child in the class. And my children were thriving.

But homeschooling does not ALWAYS work for everyone. Many parents do not have the time, education, or commitment to homeschool their children. And those children deserve an education also. Take one of the children I tutor. If I did not tutor this child them the parents would not even consider homeschool. Though they have masters in their country of origin they are not English proficient. So their child would suffer. When I worked in public school there were all too many parents that could not even help their child with homework because they did not understand assignment, especialy math and language arts.

You are right that there is a stigma attached to homeschooling. but it is worth putting up with all that because you will have a better education. Just remember most of the people in history who are working hard to do the right thing are looked down on. People want to justify there in-ability to do what you are doing.

PS. If what you learn in school is social skills, why are parents always complaining of the bad habits their children learn in school?

Also Joe : My mom taught me to read. And yes, that makes her a teacher and she did not need a degree or a school to do it.

I guess Thomas Edison only knew enough to "run a farm" He went to a school for a short time but, his mother pulled him out because the teacher hitting him. From then she homeschooled him. And we see what home schooling got him.

Answer 3

As mentioned above, in the time periods you refer to there were no child labour laws. This meant that many children and teens spent their days working in factories and mines while their upper-class counterparts were the only ones using those fifth-grade-college-level books. As well, there was a time when education was borderline unnecessary, as it was designed to produce a "Renaissance Man" of sorts who could hold an intellectual conversation over afternoon tea and then follow in his father's footsteps by entering the family business.

Schools today have different objectives than the schools of days of yore. First and foremost, they are working with/for extremely diverse populations. Unlike in the 1840s it is common to find classrooms with students of different socio-economic status who are religiously and ethnically diverse and who may or may not consider themselves to be heterosexual. Teachers have to meet the needs of ALL the students in their classrooms. Additionally, schools today are responsible for teaching everything from sex ed to nutrition to career skills, which are things that used to be taught at home. Parents are increasingly shirking their responsibilities and passing those responsibilities on to their children's teachers.

Homeschooling may have been an excellent choice back in 1840 when people generally stuck to their own kind. However, in today's world it's essential for an individual to be able to work effectively and efficiently as part of a diverse team. That is probably the biggest benefit to "compulsory" education (your words, not mine) that homeschooling doesn't offer.

Answer 4

There's a lot to learn socially with going to compulsory schooling.

Back in the 1840's, a lot fewer people were going to school let alone college, mostly only the privileged elite. Child labor laws didn't protect kids back then; most kids had to work long hours in factories with their parents. Today, compulsory schooling has to teach hundreds of millions kids. As such, the textbooks try to cater to the lowest common denominator.

But that's not to say there's no room to excel, as always there's advanced placement classes for the most gifted top students to learn in.

Answer 5

Sir, you are an excellent example of your theory. If you can read this; thank a teacher. If you're reading this in English; thank an American Soldier.

Answer 6

Are you the essence of homeschooling or something..?

Answer 7

thats what you think