Home-schooling grows quickly in United States

[mzteris]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060302/us_nm/life_homeschool_dc;_ylt=AjcFKP

By Alan Elsner
Thu Mar 2, 8:04 AM ET

COLUMBIA, Maryland (Reuters) - Elizabeth and Teddy Dean are learning about the Italian scientist Galileo, so they troop into the kitchen, where their mother Lisa starts by reviewing some facts about the Renaissance.

Elizabeth, 11, and Teddy, 8, have never gone to school. Their teachers are primarily their parents, which puts them into what is believed to be the fast-growing sector of the U.S. education system -- the home-school movement.

For their science lesson, Teddy and Elizabeth are joined by three other home-schooled children and their mother, who live down the street in their suburb midway between Baltimore and Washington D.C.

Before the lesson starts, all five kids change into Renaissance costumes -- long dresses and bonnets for the girls, tunics and swords for the boys.

-MORE-

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060302/us_nm/life_homeschool_dc;_ylt=AjcFKP

[fight4my3sons]

1. Thank you for the link.

I was very surprised to find that we had to be put on a wait list for classes for the Fall for my son at the homeschool center in my area due to the large amount of people that have been coming and the lack of space is available.

I am so happy that the center is so succesful, they are a wonderful resource. I put a link in my thread about it from the other day. My kids are very young and they have always welcomed us and had something for us to do, even though I have only been to visit a few times.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

2. Only 30% homeschool for religious education...

"Even the cliche that the majority of home-schooled children are evangelical Christians is outdated, if it was ever true."


Of course, I have to wonder how many kids that 30% is teaching.
Are many of them like this family? http://www.jimbob.info/pictures.htm

[thinkingwoman]

3. the fact of the matter is...

that fundies will raise fundie kids regardless of where they go to school.

Happens all the time.

[mzteris]

4. and how many of them are in

"church schools"?

I think they're even more insidious.

[thinkingwoman]

5. I think freedom of choice

in education is absolutely necessary. If they don't have the freedom to do some thing I think is ridiculous, then my freedoms aren't protected.

To me, it is just like free speech. Bigots have to be free to speak as well, so that I have the freedom to say Bush sucks and Bigots have small genetalia. :evilgrin:

But back to the point...the vast majority of fundies send their kids to public schools. That doesn't keep them from growing up fundie. Why? Because school choice has nothing to do with it.

[unschooler]

7. They are far more insidious. Why aren't politicians up in arms about

fundy schools instead of assuming homeschoolers are all fundamentalists. When I went to visit my state rep a while back, he said he worried about homeschoolers because he thought children needed to learn about evolution. Aaack! My son could have told him more about the evolution of all kinds of species than he would ever want to know!

Actually, I grudgingly support the right of fundies to indoctrinate (I mean "educate") their children as they unfortunately see fit. And I insist on the right to set my own kids free to learn about the real world without spending their days in a dreary institution.

[unschooler]

6. Please tell me JimBob is not now in Congress....

:scared: