Homeschool parents...?

Question

Is it your desire to replace "credentialed" teachers?
I just read a comment by a question poster that pointed out that homeschool parents will never be able to replace "credentialed" teachers, so I want to hear your viewpoint on that.
Did it ever cross your mind at all to replace teachers of any type when you made the decision to exercise your freedom to educate your children?
I've heard a lot of strange comments about homeschooling, but this was new and I was wondering if anyone felt that way.

Answer 1

Well, I *am* a credentialed teacher... I'm not sure how to answer. Did I replace myself? ;)

I can't say I've ever met someone who felt they were homeschooling to replace credentialed teachers. They may not have been happy with certain teachers, but it wasn't in view of forcing teachers out of their jobs or anything.

ADDED: I just saw the original comment. I think it was supposed to mean that parents can't be as good of teachers as "credentialed" teachers. If that's the intent, well, sorry, but it's simply not true. I've known some pretty awful credentialed teachers, and heard horror stories of others, and I know some very fine non-credentialed parents (they don't have credentials to be parents and are great parents, too; can you believe it???) who are great homeschooling teachers.

As for my own credentialed teachers growing up, the worst ones were in high school, which so many people seem to think is the time to need the best teachers because the material is so complicated. If that's the case, then college professors should have even more teaching credentials than public school teachers, yet most professors don't have teaching credentials at all. The bulk of my high school experience was having a teacher basically tell us about what we were supposed to have already read for homework or write out examples from the book on the board. Oh, and copying notes from the blackboard. Those could have easily been given out as sheets and we could have read them for homework. I did well in high school not because I had great teachers but because I worked well independently and learned from the texts. Which is, incidentally, what good homeschooling students do.

Answer 2

The person who said this is confused about two things:

1) that having teaching credentials means that a person will be an effective teacher

and

2) that not having teaching credentials means a person cannot teach, or help someone learn.

Not all people with teaching credentials are effective teachers-- I know this, as I was a teacher. There are teachers are really good at getting through to many kids, at getting kids to think and inspiring them to work, and some just weren't as good as this. They knew some things about planning and classroom management, working within a schools bureaucracy, and how to follow a curriculum. While they had all the necessary information they needed to work in a school, this by no means made them exceptional at teaching.

As for my second point, consider this: studies show that peer tutoring is very effective. This is because one-on-one learning at a students own pace outweighs the need for teaching credentials and subject matter expertise.

A person does not need teaching credentials unless they plan to teach in schools... if a person has time and patience to work with a child, fosters a child's interests and can inspire them to learn, provides a rich learning environment and various learning opportunities, and is willing and able to find the resources they need, they can be effective teachers to a child. They just don't have the credentials to teach in public schools.

Answer 3

I have no desire to replace "credentialed" teachers. We probably need a credentialed teacher to handle a class of 25 to 30 kids, all with a different background and educational history, most of which is unknown to the teacher when the kids come into the classroom for the first time.

I don't need to be a credentialed teacher to teach my children, whom I've known since birth, and know exactly what their strengths and weaknesses are. I don't need credentials to see that my son is tired and its not a good time for a spelling test, I don't need credentials to to notice that my daughter doesn't understand an algebra problem and we need to work through it together. I don't need credentials to learn along side my kids.

I would need them if I was dealing with a classroom full of kids I had no clue about personally.

I don't want to replace credentialed teachers, I just choose not to use them right now. I think many teachers deserve better pay, more respect, and better benefits. (There are also some who don't deserve anything but to lose their job and their credentials.) On the whole, I think teachers are doing a great job in a difficult situation, and given the conditions of and environment in many schools its amazing that they can teach anyone anything at all. My hat goes off to those teachers! Great Job!

Now I have my own students to attend to.

Answer 4

Replacement is such a loaded word, but I've gotten a good giggle out of some of the responses.

While I have no 'beef' with a person who has earned the right to be called Teacher, I DO take offense to people saying that I am in no way, shape or form qualified to teach my own child.
My family claims pride in having produced 5 'old school' Teachers and 12 'new school' Teachers (in other words the parents were teachers and now their children have become teachers). I personally hold a CDA in Early Childhood Education, but I stopped 'teaching' for pay about 4yrs ago.
I homeschool my daughter who is now 9 yrs old and in 3rd grade (we homeschool year round). It is not done in an effort to 'replace' anyone, but because she is incapable of being in a large classroom setting and I got tired of dealing with the BS the school kept giving me about her meds. To be a little more specific my daughter suffers from ALL (acute lymphoblastic lukemia), Asthma and Venom Anaphalaxia (allergic to bees,ants, spiders).
While I do not claim to be a know-it-all, I DO know how to use the brain I was given and find the answer---yes I am even cruel enough to make my own child search for the answer instead of just giving it to her---that's why its called LEARNING. While the advent of the internet is a wonderful thing, I am witnessing a rise in the number of people who expect someone to GIVE them the answer.
So NO I am not trying to replace anyone, but until the Goverment and School System regain their sanity (which may not be in our lifetime) I will be in charge of my child's learning.
BTW call me when the Teachers of today can OUT TEACH the Teachers of 100yrs ago AND NOT complain about so called 'lousy' pay (most of these Teachers had only an 8th grade education, taught ALL grades in ONE room and still kept order, got paid a measly $15-$25 every 3 months with a 25 cent raise AFTER 5 yrs IF the board approved it, taught from 7 AM-4PM and still had to do lesson plans,gradeing and all the other things that come with running a classroom).

Answer 5

Yes - it's all part of my evil plot to take over the world. First, I brainwash my children. Then I brainwash their children. Then their children's children and soon enough, the whole world will be mine! AH HA HA HA HA HA!

OK, seriously, when I started homeschooling my older son, my sole thought was to give him a better education than the public school could. When you consider that only about 1% of the US population is homeschooling, I don't think "credentialed" teachers have much to worry about.

That and the fact that 100 years ago, there was no such thing as a "credentialed" teacher.

Yeesh, some people... (not you, Terri; the one who posed this silly notion)

Answer 6

I am shocked and amazed at some of the comments that people make in their answers.
No ma'am, I never ever thought that I would replace a credentialed teacher. My brother has been a credentialed teacher for 28 years. He needs his money to send his 5 kids through college. I work at the school in cafeteria and drive a school bus. The hours are great for home schooling. If we overthrow the school, I would have to get a real job.
The notion that we would want to overthrow the schools and demand that all parents teach and train their own children sounds like a good idea for a propaganda film. They could show all children sitting in dark, boarded up rooms at little 1950 style one piece desks. The only outside contact the parents would have would be when we would have our 'overthrow the school' meetings around a bon-fire where we burn public school textbooks and copies of lunch menus.
Yes, that comment rates somewhere around the answers that 'home school kids won't be accepted in college' and 'they are deprived of social contact'.
Sorry to be so touchy, but it just gets old after awhile.

Answer 7

LOL "credentialed" teachers? My children went to a school where someone "credentialed" as a music teacher was teaching a reading class and someone that hadn't even been to college was teaching my daughter's reading class! So who is more enabled to teach my daughter reading, someone who isn't a reading teacher or her mother who is her best teacher! Teachers have too many students of different learning styles and at different levels to be able to best assist my daughter in how she learns. How can you teach everyone the same when you have a learning disabled child and a gifted child in the same class? It's either going to be too easy for the gifted child or too hard for the other. It's not easy being a teacher in the school systems.

Answer 8

No, never crossed my mind. With so many anti-homeschoolers out there it won't happen anyway. I do know of a couple credentialed teachers that want credentialed teachers to replace parents though. This is however, only a couple out of the 70 or more that I know.

Answer 9

No desire to replace teachers, just a desire to educate my children. I am not against teachers, I was one for a while (taught at the college level). I do feel there is no way one teacher can provide 30+ students with one on one time, cater to their specific style of learning, and deal with classroom interruptions appropriately all at the same time. I admire teachers for making such a sacrifice but I definitely feel I can do a better job teaching my own children, not because our teachers are bad but because our school system fails its teachers. They are underpaid, are expected to teach every child the same way when each child is different. They often have limited funding, few supplies, and are bound by countless rules and regulations that I, as a parent, am not.

Answer 10

I do not believe that any homeschooling parent has the desire to replace credentialed teachers. However, a neighbor did ask me to homeschool his son, because he saw that my son's behavior, school work, manners, etc. were on a much higher level than his son's (who was being schooled at the neighborhood public school.)

I have heard so many ludicrous comments/statements regarding homeschooling that it astounds me. I am a newbie homeschooler and all I want to do is to make sure my child is educated properly--spiritually, academically, socially, etc.