[HPFGU-OTChatter] Re: Unsure About Home schooling

[Rose Woofenden]

Suzanne wrote:
> >Often these kids were very bright and creative, with many great
>qualities, but I felt that in almost every case they had big, big
>problems which I felt came right out of the homeschooling process.
>Big bald patches in their knowledge, little exposure to different
>ways of life or new ideas, poor social skills.


I see what you mean about that. And I know it can be a problem. But I think 
that it would happen to some extent regardless of the child's schooling. 
There are big holes in public schoolers knowledge too, IMO.


> >The big problem that I saw again and again (and had to labor hard to
>fix)was simply a lack of intellectual independence. They were
>accustomed to the constant attention and guidance of their often very
>anxious parents ("Let me show you how to do that Merlin! Here's how
>we hold the brush... And here's the paper...") and were helpless to
>work on their own and figure things out for themselves.


I see how that could happen, but I think the majority of home schoolers are 
not that way. My family is *very* learn it yourself centered. If I don't 
know about something, my dad tells me to look it up. If I'm interested in 
doing something, *I* am the one who makes the phone calls and does the work 
to make it happen.  Sometimes it frustrates me, I get fed up with having to 
do everything myself. *But* I know that if I have to work to learn 
something, it is going to be more valuable, and I learn how to make things 
like that happen myself, without a parent doing anything for me.



> >I thought the parents meant well and had very strong convictions, but
>they effectively did TOO MUCH for their poor kids, and overwhelmed
>them with excessive direction. It took me forever to teach little
>Merlin how to look up a word in the dictionary without me keeping him
>company while he did it. It wasn't his fault-- that's just what his
>mother always did. She guided him through EVERYTHING.

Parents like that bother me... :-) It's just like "You are going to have to 
let your kid grow up sometime..."


> >One good thing about going to school is that it gives kids a chnace
>to get away from their parents and slowly learn how to function on
>their own.

Very true. I think it is good for kids to get a different point of view on 
life. I know people who home school who are VERY sheltered, and some who 
are not at all. But like I said before, I don't think it necessarily has to 
do with weather they home school or not.

Off to finish up the 250 pages of reading that I need to get done for my 
Lit class tomorrow.... (I can't even complain to my parents about it, 
because it was 100% my decision to take the class... :-))





-Rose


Current book:  The Iliad- by Homer
Current Song playing:  Eric Clapton- Layla
Last Words Spoken by me: Nothing worth mentioning









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