| bhutocracy |
11-14-2013 05:39 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jel
(Post 19868427)
nice post, and I think 90% of people here would agree with it. Just wanted to comment on the above section though;
predominantly religious nutballs? source?
I guess what I can't understand is why anyone wants to do away with something because not 100% of people in it/doing it/using it/whatever fit *their* own perception and preference of how 'it should be'. Whether that's homeschooling, public schooling, being involved in porn, or using guns. Or anything else.
Here's how utopia seems to be for some (generalising now, not directly in relation to the quote) on this board:
no guns
no 'dangerous' dogs
no homeschooling
no fill_in_the_blank
I think it was already mentioned in this thread about intolerance - how is it that the hardcore anti-homeschooling mob (to keep to this thread topic) can't see that they want the same utopia religious nutjobs want, just in a different form? The OP is no different from the religious nuts he is so enraged by, let alone the fact he starts a bunch of anti-religion crap on a board where I bet about 0.01% are even religious to start with...
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Most stats I've seen have it around 70%. In Jesus Camp it was 75%. But I'll admit it's not a peer reviewed meta study.
Personally I'm not so much against homeschooling as I am fragmenting education along religious and class lines. Even though I have serious issues with public education I believe there should really only be public schools and selective schools for the seriously bright or people that learn a particular way. When I grew up there was really only the local public school and everyone went there. It was pretty good all things considered, rich kids, poor kids, smart kids, not so smart kids. We had a marine biology class with boats and fish tanks, we had aviation with the local airport, things even a lot of private schools in other places don't have. You found your natural friends of roughly the same intelligence and background and roughly people did as well as you were going to do. Maybe if you were bad and started tanking you'd get sent to a boys only boarding school. It's like in Finland where there is only "the local school" and they have amazing educational results.
Now 3 private religious schools have sprung up around my old high school and have siphoned off all the upper middle class kids. My old school used to be 1200 kids now it's 700 kids and the kids that are left basically have a higher concentration of bad kids pulling them all down. I of course can't send my daughter to this school and will now have to send her to the elite private school where I have to pay exorbitant sums to have Jesus shoved down her throat just so there is only one class clown not three disrupting things.
But at the same time I'm manifestly aware of the deficiencies in the school system. I'm sure I would have had the same problem at this elite private school as I would have had at my public school, the only real thing happening there is social stratification, it's not like the curriculum is manifestly different besides the inclusion of religion it's just removing the kids that come from homes where education isn't valued and have poor role models (ie the poor kids) from the class equation.
I just had a problem with authority, irrationality and was bored senseless. At 15 I scored highest in my large year of 220 kids in a national maths competition and made the female dux of the year cry because I beat her without any effort at all in class. At 17 I dropped to the second dumbest math level so I didn't have to do any study at all to pass and cut class to hang out with the music guys. If I got up to leave class the teacher didn't ask me what I was doing, they just let me do my own thing. I needed more stimulation or to be taught differently. I HATED being a rote learning monkey. When I had the opportunity to refuse to do the work in class (fucking Jane Austen in the top English class) and self study I actually did ok. So I understand there is some kind of need for self righteous know it alls like me and probably many people in many different types of learning situations.. ie Autistic kids. I didn't fit in well with any traditional schooling. But I went on to become a good freelance programming lecturer. People stayed back late after school (I was only available after work to a private tertiary institution) just to take my class because I taught the way I would have preferred to be taught.
I will be homeschooling my daughter in programming, in fact i'm thinking of giving her pocket money for learning code instead of household chores in order to get her into a work-with-your-brain-reward mindset. I just hope she's at least a little bit smart.. she's too young to know yet.
I just resent being forced to pay private tuition to keep her away from the detritus of our society and have her exposed to the friends she would have if they hadn't been siphoned off and Finland seems to be doing pretty well which is some kind of proof of concept. If somehow I've made enough money not to have to work at all and she's the exact same as I was (which I doubt highly) I would consider homeschooling her but would worry a lot about socialisation given we wouldn't be part of any church or anything but really I'd probably try and send her to some weird selective private school. Girls are slightly different though, they tend to be less self righteous jackasses. |
