WEBBTIDE 2001-2002 @ SHORELINE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Volume 37 No.15 May. 10 - May. 23, 2002 [ ARCHIVE ] [ FEEDBACK ] [ HELP ]
[Home] [Cover] [A & E] [Opinion] [Features] [News] [Sport]

Home schooling teaches life lessons

.
      I have never been so enthusiastic or so in support of anything as much as I am about the benefits and wonderful experience kids can receive from being home-schooled. It is a program that many people don't have much faith in. They feel the kids don't learn anything or that they end up being delinquents, and they don't learn how to socialize with their peers. I was actually one of those people, until our family experienced home-schooling first hand, then I found out that those ideas couldn't have been farther from the truth.
      Back in the late 80s, I started hearing about home schooling. "What in the world is home schooling, I wondered?" A family that we knew, who had six children, home schooled all six kids.
      My interest piqued, I had to find out exactly what home school consisted of. Their mom explained to me that she taught all of her children at home in a variety of subjects, such as: math, reading, physical education and history. You name it, she taught it to them. I thought she was out of her mind! I really didn't think about it after that, as I thought it was the most insane thing I had ever heard of. Why did people teach their children at home, when we had a perfectly good public school system?
      As my oldest daughter approached senior high school, she was very distraught about going to school and refused to go. This was totally out of the norm for her. As many times as we asked, all she would say was "I hate it there. I'm never going back." Her teachers were as much in the dark as we were.
      After a fashion, she finally told us that kids were making fun of her. She explained that she didn't have friends, and she was having trouble keeping up with all the homework from her classes. She was very frustrated and depressed. The conversation I had had previously with the mother of six appeared from the corners of my mind. Not wanting her to fall behind in school, and watching her swim in her misery, I withdrew her from school, and began my quest to find out more about home schooling
      I found out that if a child was home-schooled, their teacher or parent needed to be certified. At the time, both my husband and I had to bring in an income; there was no way I could go to the required classes to become certified. I am not sure what were the requirements for certification, but I know that part of it was to make sure you were capable of teaching required subjects, that you followed the outlined requirements for graduation, assigned appropriate homework, as well as keep detailed records of progress.
      There was also a private home schooling program called Chrysallis that charged a fee for the schooling, which we could not afford. Further investigation led me to the Northshore School District, who was just beginning a home school program due to the volume of children dropping out of school for exactly the same reasons as my daughter. Their program consisted of your child meeting with a certified teacher once a week who would teach them all the subjects the parents didn't feel comfortable in teaching their children and give them their assignments at a specified place and time that was agreeable by both parties. The parents were then responsible for teaching the elective classes. This would be perfect for our family.
      At the time, there were only a few teachers that were part of the newly formed program. You and your child would meet separately with the teachers to decide what teacher would be the best match. So it was decided that her teacher would be a gentlemen named Griffin.
      He was of an odd sort. He resembled a Confederate soldier from the South as he had a long black beard, hair pulled back into a pony tail, wore black stove pipe pants, white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a short waist-vest and he wore a confederate hat and jacket. I think the Civil War was a passion of his as he had a lot of memorabilia in his office. He was very intelligent and very intuitive and creative as to how best to teach his students.
      Griffin was a firm believer in kids learning at their own pace and in their individual learning style. He had one student who just hated American History. So, Griffin found out that he really liked animals, so he taught him history using animals and the student passed with an "A".
      My daughter was so happy with the program; her entire disposition had turned 180 degrees. Not to my surprise, her younger sisters soon followed in her footsteps.
      Their reading skills and comprehension soared contributed by the fact that they were given the opportunity to read the type of books they enjoyed within reason, however, Griffin did have them read biographies (author was their choice) and some novels. They were given writing assignments that often required visual aides, which challenged their creative side, but Griffin as well as my husband and I were there with encouragement that they could do it. Math, which was a struggle for them because public schools went at too fast a pace for them, became second nature as he let them go at their own pace and used a lot of visuals. They went from pre-algebra to trigonometry in what seemed no time at all.
      As far as electives went, physical education was an activity of their choice. It had to be done on a daily basis and documented by a parent. One of the girls played soccer, one worked out to exercise videos, and the other one used her dancing classes to fulfill this requirement. I taught them how to sew and cook. Each of the girls made full size quilts for their beds and we had some pretty interesting meals to say the least. Sewing and cooking were taught as required subjects when I was in school, but these life skills are no longer classes that kids have to take these days. They also learned how to open savings and checking accounts and how to keep track of their spending. I believe that these skills are very important to know when you venture out on your own.
      There were also supplementary classes at a nearby junior high school where they were able to take Spanish and art with other kids going to home school. They did some tutoring of other home-schooled children and learned office skills by helping out in the home school office.
      Our oldest daughter graduated six months early; our next daughter graduated a year early and the youngest graduated two years early.
      There is the fact that the home schooled kids don't get a lot of interaction with their peers like they would if they were in public schooling; however, if they are involved with outside activities, such as sports, scouting or volunteering, to name a few, they will be able to develop a normal social life.
      We have never regretted having the girls do home schooling. They gained self-confidence, self-motivation, life skills, learned much quicker and retained the information due to a learning pace that they could handle. They had one-on-one teaching. They studied all the required subjects but were able to do so according to their interests. Their self-esteem returned, and the teacher was willing to teach them in the learning style that was all their own. It also gave them the sense of their own individuality; they didn't have the pressure of not having the right clothes or the right hairdos, which so many kids are up against today in the public schools.
      Two of the girls went on to get full time jobs and the other started at Shoreline Community College. I will always be an advocate for home schooling over public schools. When the girls started with the program there were a few teachers and about 20 kids. When they finished, there were several teachers about one hundred and fifty kids enrolled and a huge waiting list.
      I truly believe that home schooling is the future of our educational system in the United States because so many kids are dropping out of school due to peer pressure or the fact that they get lost in the system, they can't keep up with the pace in the classroom and parents are starting to realize the true benefits their kids can receive from it.
      We are very proud of our girls' accomplishments!

.

by Debbie Anderson

[Home] [Cover] [A & E] [Opinion] [Features] [News] [Sport]

wEbbtide Webmaster: Henry Lai

Home schooling teaches life lessons
.	I have never been so enthusiastic or so in support of anything as much as I am about the benefits and wonderful experience kids can receive from being home-schooled. It is a program that many people don't have much faith in. They feel the kids don't learn anything or that they end up being delinquents, and they don't learn how to socialize with their peers. I was actually one of those people, until our family experienced home-schooling first hand, then I found out that those ideas couldn't have been farther from the truth. Back in the late 80s, I started hearing about home schooling. "What in the world is home schooling, I wondered?" A family that we knew, who had six children, home schooled all six kids. My interest piqued, I had to find out exactly what home school consisted of. Their mom explained to me that she taught all of her children at home in a variety of subjects, such as: math, reading, physical education and history. You name it, she taught it to them. I thought she was out of her mind! I really didn't think about it after that, as I thought it was the most insane thing I had ever heard of. Why did people teach their children at home, when we had a perfectly good public school system? As my oldest daughter approached senior high school, she was very distraught about going to school and refused to go. This was totally out of the norm for her. As many times as we asked, all she would say was "I hate it there. I'm never going back." Her teachers were as much in the dark as we were. After a fashion, she finally told us that kids were making fun of her. She explained that she didn't have friends, and she was having trouble keeping up with all the homework from her classes. She was very frustrated and depressed. The conversation I had had previously with the mother of six appeared from the corners of my mind. Not wanting her to fall behind in school, and watching her swim in her misery, I withdrew her from school, and began my quest to find out more about home schooling I found out that if a child was home-schooled, their teacher or parent needed to be certified. At the time, both my husband and I had to bring in an income; there was no way I could go to the required classes to become certified. I am not sure what were the requirements for certification, but I know that part of it was to make sure you were capable of teaching required subjects, that you followed the outlined requirements for graduation, assigned appropriate homework, as well as keep detailed records of progress. There was also a private home schooling program called Chrysallis that charged a fee for the schooling, which we could not afford. Further investigation led me to the Northshore School District, who was just beginning a home school program due to the volume of children dropping out of school for exactly the same reasons as my daughter. Their program consisted of your child meeting with a certified teacher once a week who would teach them all the subjects the parents didn't feel comfortable in teaching their children and give them their assignments at a specified place and time that was agreeable by both parties. The parents were then responsible for teaching the elective classes. This would be perfect for our family. At the time, there were only a few teachers that were part of the newly formed program. You and your child would meet separately with the teachers to decide what teacher would be the best match. So it was decided that her teacher would be a gentlemen named Griffin. He was of an odd sort. He resembled a Confederate soldier from the South as he had a long black beard, hair pulled back into a pony tail, wore black stove pipe pants, white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a short waist-vest and he wore a confederate hat and jacket. I think the Civil War was a passion of his as he had a lot of memorabilia in his office. He was very intelligent and very intuitive and creative as to how best to teach his students. Griffin was a firm believer in kids learning at their own pace and in their individual learning style. He had one student who just hated American History. So, Griffin found out that he really liked animals, so he taught him history using animals and the student passed with an "A". My daughter was so happy with the program; her entire disposition had turned 180 degrees. Not to my surprise, her younger sisters soon followed in her footsteps. Their reading skills and comprehension soared contributed by the fact that they were given the opportunity to read the type of books they enjoyed within reason, however, Griffin did have them read biographies (author was their choice) and some novels. They were given writing assignments that often required visual aides, which challenged their creative side, but Griffin as well as my husband and I were there with encouragement that they could do it. Math, which was a struggle for them because public schools went at too fast a pace for them, became second nature as he let them go at their own pace and used a lot of visuals. They went from pre-algebra to trigonometry in what seemed no time at all. As far as electives went, physical education was an activity of their choice. It had to be done on a daily basis and documented by a parent. One of the girls played soccer, one worked out to exercise videos, and the other one used her dancing classes to fulfill this requirement. I taught them how to sew and cook. Each of the girls made full size quilts for their beds and we had some pretty interesting meals to say the least. Sewing and cooking were taught as required subjects when I was in school, but these life skills are no longer classes that kids have to take these days. They also learned how to open savings and checking accounts and how to keep track of their spending. I believe that these skills are very important to know when you venture out on your own. There were also supplementary classes at a nearby junior high school where they were able to take Spanish and art with other kids going to home school. They did some tutoring of other home-schooled children and learned office skills by helping out in the home school office. Our oldest daughter graduated six months early; our next daughter graduated a year early and the youngest graduated two years early. There is the fact that the home schooled kids don't get a lot of interaction with their peers like they would if they were in public schooling; however, if they are involved with outside activities, such as sports, scouting or volunteering, to name a few, they will be able to develop a normal social life. We have never regretted having the girls do home schooling. They gained self-confidence, self-motivation, life skills, learned much quicker and retained the information due to a learning pace that they could handle. They had one-on-one teaching. They studied all the required subjects but were able to do so according to their interests. Their self-esteem returned, and the teacher was willing to teach them in the learning style that was all their own. It also gave them the sense of their own individuality; they didn't have the pressure of not having the right clothes or the right hairdos, which so many kids are up against today in the public schools. Two of the girls went on to get full time jobs and the other started at Shoreline Community College. I will always be an advocate for home schooling over public schools. When the girls started with the program there were a few teachers and about 20 kids. When they finished, there were several teachers about one hundred and fifty kids enrolled and a huge waiting list. I truly believe that home schooling is the future of our educational system in the United States because so many kids are dropping out of school due to peer pressure or the fact that they get lost in the system, they can't keep up with the pace in the classroom and parents are starting to realize the true benefits their kids can receive from it. We are very proud of our girls' accomplishments!	.
by Debbie Anderson