SCL

So why hasn’t anyone called Brandon on his comment:
“Blogger Brandon Anderson said…

An addendum to the curriculum

Social Studes: How to Not Show People Educated in Public School that You’re Much Smarter When You Go to a Christian College.

September 15, 2008 4:37 AM”

Not to mention kinder and more humble . . . Oh never, mind, you won’t need that class —-

Good choices either way — and not enough love between “sides”.

As a public school using mom, I knew I’d “arrived” when one of my homeschooling friends admitted that I “enhanced” my kids’ education, as most good parents do — Because another commenter is right — in a way, we ALL homeschool our kids. The question we don’t ask often enough is: what are they learning?

If you ever open LifeHopeSweetBabyJesusXtremePrivateSchool316, can I please, please, please be the music teacher? In addition to the choir side-step dance and turning all the kiddos into That Dude With The Guitar, I’d also instruct them on such important matters as proper ribboned-tambourine etiquite or just when to bust out an african drum, and I’d arrange for guest speakers on satelite topics like ministry mime-ing or organ building. I’d even offer specials classes like “Pipe Organ: the Perfect Career for Pastor’s Wives” or “The Harp and You: A Head-Start on Heaven’s Music.” What do you think?

I am possibly the most reluctant homeschooler ever, but now I’m glad I’m doing it. One thing the process has taught me though is that when it comes to what we do with our kids, as Christians we need to give each other a whole lot more grace, and stop bashing each other’s choices. We’re too quick in so many areas of our lives to do a good/bad split – either homeschool’s all bad or it’s all good. Public school’s all bad or it’s all good. That’s ludicrous. Obviously God’s gifted and wired us all different ways, so let’s accept that and encourage each other in our choices.

And as for those who think that homeschoolers have so much more patience than the rest of the world, think again. I’ve got to be one of the most impatient people in the world. It’s called asking God to fill in where you leave off. We can’t learn patience without the opportunity to be impatient right?

When can I enroll? I’m learning how to be a public school teacher, but this sounds like a lot more fun!

“And as for those who think that homeschoolers have so much more patience than the rest of the world, think again. I’ve got to be one of the most impatient people in the world. It’s called asking God to fill in where you leave off. We can’t learn patience without the opportunity to be impatient right?”

Amen, Sista! I have prayed, and it has worked! I still need help, but I know He’s still willing to help when I ask!

We almost had to home school our kids for a short while. My son and daughter are 10 months apart. My daughter was born the day after the cut off date in the school district we were in. This meant that my daughter would have started kindergarten at 6 the same year my son started at 5.

Of course now that my kids are in school I kind of wish they never went to school. I appreciate what the teachers are teaching them, but I fear what the other kids are teaching them. Every day we have to correct some new behavior. My daughter is 5 and she told my wife (her mom) this weekend “if you are mean to me I’ll call the cops and they’ll take you away.” It wasn’t even when she was getting spanked or anything, she was told to pickup her room. Next time I’ll give her the phone and call her bluff.

oh goodness… what a can to open up. i applaud your courage… and hope that no heart rates elevated too greatly in this non-debatable, not-to-be-judged for others decision… wow.. funny comments, though.

I usually love reading the comments. Today I was let down. Jon very clearly avoided the homeschool debate, and yet both sides have to jump in. Can’t we just laugh sometimes?

I’m a homeschooled student who loves to hear jokes about it. I’m also probably socially handicapped too but whatever.

P.S
I was happy to see the Booty God Booty reference. For some reason that post always stuck in my memory. Maybe because it has the word booty in it?

“In addition to having a library with a rolling ladder that you could sing from the top of, (a personal dream of mine)”

I stopped right there and had a good laugh. Who knew that there were other people who longed to sing at the top of a rolling ladder in their own personal 3-story library??!

I guess that means your personal dream is to play Henry Higgins in the next stage production of “My Fair Lady.”

At least, that is the classic Broadway musical that comes to mind when you mention singing from the top of rolling ladders. I could be way off, and your dream might be to play Belle in “Beauty and the Beast” instead.

Brandon, I’m a public school kid, but since I went to Harvard and not a Christian college, I guess I won’t have to audit “How to Not Show People Educated in Public School That You’re Much Smarter When You Go to Christian College.”

Let me check with my best friends at MIT and Yale, both products of public schools as well…nope, they won’t be attending that class either.

I have never taken so long to read a post, just because I had to follow the links to the other posts. Ah! Anyway, on to my Spanish paper.

Stacy…YOU need a blog!

If we shouldn’t send our children to public school because *anyone* can get a teachers certificate, should we also not be worried because just *anyone* can homeschool?

With reasonable parameters, my kids are not your business, Anonymous. So your argument is not well thought out. Ours is not a communist state state. Yet.

I know that homeschooling is good for some people and not for others. I was homeschooled all the way from pre-k to high school, and for my family, it worked. My parents both have teaching degrees, and my mom is very organized, so for them it worked. I’m glad for my homeschool experience, and am not “socially inept”, as some people fear their kids will be. I know families for whom it didn’t go so well, so I never try to sell homeschooling, just present it as it is: if the parents are truly dedicated and willing to pour themselves into every subject that your kid(s) need to be versed in, go for it. If they really don’t know what they are doing, and end up sending their kid off to various classes or one day school and still say that they are the ones providingeducation for their child, don’t bother.
It’s not for everyone, but I deeply respect those who do take on the daunting task of being a teacher in every subject, every day, as my parents, more accurately my mom, did, and still do for my younger siblings.

No gym curriculum should be without Badger in a Bad

Can’t we all just get along?

Seriously – as a children’s pastor in a church with kids who are homeschooled, kids who go to Christian schools, and kids who go to public school, I grow weary of the tension…bordering on hostility…between the different groups.

Everyone “knows” that what they are doing is the absolute best thing that they can do for their kids. And they are probably all right. Every kid is different, and their parents know best what type of schooling will be the most beneficial to them.

But then again, I don’t have kids of my own yet, and HEY…here’s a great SCL post idea:

Christians really like prefacing obvious statements to the children’s pastor with “as a parent.” Examples: “As a parent, I just want to remind you that serving fruit as a snack is a much healthier choice than serving Twinkies,”

or “I’m asking you as a parent if my child falls and splits his lip open at kids’ camp, to please bring him to the camp nurse.”

Back to the topic at hand: Yay for homeschoolers!!!

Yeah, I was in a homeschool sandwich, considering I went to elementary for 3 years, then I went to public school for all of high school, so I’ve seen it all (well, most of it). Homeschooling = some of the best years of my life. There’s really not an issue of anti-socialism if you do it right….just saying, since that seems to be what people usually think.

I would have loved to have your curriculum….not saying that mine wasn’t already similar

so i have to make this observation… blogger brandon wrote: Social Studes: How to Not Show People Educated in Public School that You’re Much Smarter When You Go to a Christian College.

wow… does he know he misspelled studies? ha… yikes.

We have tried all three options
homeschool, public school and Christain school. So far Christians school(thanks to financial aid)has worked best for us. It is a sacrifice but my teenaged daughter has two good solid friends, essential for teen survival, she and my other two have chapel everyday and people treat us like they are glad to see us and after a day of not trying to cram knowledge into her chilrden’s heads my wife glad to see her kids not wanting a break from them. There is no right answer to this one. It’s what works for you

We didn’t, we did, we dual enrolled and our last two get a start to finish at home (well, much of life’s education takes place downtown, in the van, out in the yard, at ballet……) so “at home” isn’t completely true.

Either way, where God leads is the best place. He leads each differently for a purpose, so who is to say for another.

Except of course where Stacey from Louisville is concerned… therapy does cost a bundle, so perhaps in a moment of sanity she saw the light!!! (Stacey, I just found you blog and it is hilarious)

What’s the big deal? Why can’t people homeschool their kids w/o people freaking out? If we lay out everybody’s choices they make on a day to day basis, who are we to judge? Good Lord. I hope we don’t all make the same decisions…God didn’t make us that way. We are all unique and we need to stop freaking caring so much about what the hey others are doing and start worrying about ourselves.

BTW…kindergarten was started in order to get your kids out from your care as early as possible in order to indoctrinate them. If they are out of your care, they are more susceptible. Public school may be a mission field, but if you kid is sucked into the junk that goes on there, what good is it? How many rock solid, I mean REALLY rock solid 6 graders do you know?

To anonymous at 5:01 –

I have no problem with people who homeschool.

On the flip side, why can’t people NOT homeschool their kids without other people freaking out? In my church, there is a lot of pressure to homeschool, and parents who are unable to do so (i.e. single moms, households like my own that require two incomes at this point in our lives, etc) are made to feel horrible, unspiritual, and like bad parents if they send their kids to public or private school.

So yes, there is hostility, but it comes from both sides of the issue.

That being said, I would SO enroll my kids in Jon’s school, lol!!!!!

Anon. 7:31, that’s my point. If you want to feed your kids pop rocks and coke three meals a day, I don’t care unless I have to pay the doctor bills. That is YOUR business. Home school parents putting pressure on you to home school your kids? They should shut it as well. If you want your kids in the public school system, that’s between you and your family.

I said “Never”. We’re on our 5th year of homeschooling. I would LOVE to follow your course of study. It sure beats the heck out of math and all that other junk the state says we have to teach!

oh my. my, my, my. well, i’d say i know a bit about this topic. i was homeschooled from grades k-12. we primarily spoke latin, wore bonnets, and discussed the best tactics for assailing people with the Gospel when we left home. and then i went to a non-christian college (gasp) where i learned all about drugs, sex, and alcohol.

oh wait, actually, none of that is true, except for how long i was homeschooled and that i went to a non-christian college afterward. looking back, i don’t regret anything about being homeschooled, but i do agree that it’s not for everyone. in fact, my family is a perfect example. while all of my siblings were homeschooled at one point, i’m the only one who went straight through high school. my brothers went to school at various points (some starting in elementary school, some starting in junior high), and found that it benefited them. one of them was almost appallingly lazy at home, but graduated top of his class when he went to school… turns out he just needed a little competitive motivation.

really, i’m prime example that the effectiveness of homeschooling is totally dependent on a) the parents and b) the child. my parents were equally good at homeschooling all of us, but it turns out that i was the only independent, self-motivated learner in the brood. i did my work without having to be asked. my brothers, however, had to be ridden, which just wore my parents down after a while. and when i got too old to teach, they found lots of people in the area and online who specialize in teaching only homeschoolers… anything, really… history, science, sociology, literature. sure, they’re not credentialed, but when they have master’s degrees in the topics they’re teaching, it’s not like they don’t know what they’re talking about! they actually gave me the option of going to school, and i declined it because so many of my friends were homeschooled, i got to play the piano as much as i liked, i liked my teachers, and i didn’t have to deal with cliques. actually, cliques still give me anxiety.

that’s not to say that there aren’t downsides. there are plenty of people who didn’t fare too well when homeschooling was over and they were faced with the “real world.” and there were plenty of strange people in that homeschool mix, let me tell you. socially awkward, fashionably handicapped, or completely out of touch with reality. though… as far as homeschoolers went, we were kind of on the fringe… i was allowed to date, wear tank tops and shorts, stay out at night, play sports with the “public school” kids, watch pg-13 (and r) movies, and be alone with the opposite sex.

when it comes down to it, there’s no denying that everything depends on who’s doing the schooling, who’s being homeschooled, what your resources are, and whether or not you strike a balance with other interests… even those including public schoolers.

in the grand scheme of things, i don’t think i turned out less developed or less-prepared than my public-schooled friends. most of them said they couldn’t even tell until i’d told them my background. and given that you couldn’t pay most of them enough to revisit high school, i don’t think i missed that much, either. but then again, my brothers might say differently… they didn’t like it as much as i did.

i like thursday’s curriculum…

Disclaimer: As per candid chatter Heidi, I am super gifted and patient enough to teach my own children at home (gasp!!!), so I must be considered super sanctified while reading the following comment.

But, on a serious note, these type of comments are often said to those of us who do homeschool. I wonder at the motive. To me it feels like a pat on the head to us simpleton homeschoolers. “Oh, I could neeevver homeschool my kids!!! You must have sooooo much patience.” Yeah, I am super sanctified. Just wait til you become like me and then you can homeschool too.

The reasons that people homeschool are myriad. But *generally* they are backed up with convictions. I personally have never met a homeschooling mom who has looked at her patience level and said, “Yep, I have arrived. The epitome of Christian patience is found in me. Lucky kids.” Quite the opposite. I am daily convicted of my unescapable lack of patience and sanctification while teaching my kids. I see in them my own sin reflected back. Thankfully it is Christ who is lifted up and not me or else we would all be doomed.

To echo those that said they would never HS, except the opposite: Personally, I would never put my kids in public school, except for when I did, which is why I homeschool.

Karin mentioned her poor SIL who is made to feel bad by those who homeschool. Believe me when I say that it goes both ways.

I agreed with Kathryn’s post except for the end, when she said that HS is more than just teaching your kids about Christianity. Everything in life is ultimately about Christianity. There is no area of life that Christ does not lay claim to. Everything we say or do, every decision we make is either pointing our children towards or away from Him. That is why it is necessary to think and consider the way in which we educate our children. What those considerations are, I believe, are between you and God but they still need to be made.

Thankfully, I think that we have finally found a church that walks a fine balance of PS’s, Pr.S’s, and HS’s. Although I do have strong convictions about HS, I want to avoid a church that is only HS’s. There is an elitism that can be formed on either end of the equation and it is dangerous no matter which side you are on. As Christian’s, we are called to be charitable even when people hold different standards then ourselves.

If my grammar sucks, or I have misspelled a word, please remember that part about charity. After all, I have been HS my 6 kids all day. (Okay really only 3 of them are actually doing school. But, it sounds like I am much more patient, gifted and sanctified when I put it like that.)

PS-Jon, you have provided my husband and me many late night laughs. We love your writing.

I was researching funding assistance for a family with hospital bills and needed to confirm the existence of their children in an officially way, and I reviewed the accepted options with the parents, who assured me that they understood. For their home-schooled child, instead of a birth certificate or baptism registry, I got a sheet torn roughly from a home-school coloring book that showed two cartoony kids happily walking down a flower-lined street and the caption was "My Unsaved Friend and I are walking down a ____(fill in the blank, I guess with…street?) The page was not colored, nor signed, or dated, and I truly forget if the blank was filled in, but it had lots of brown and black crayon squiggles over the picture. I know there are people who are doing beautiful things with home-schooling, but this was just odd. I do remember not being able to tell which of the two cartoony kids was supposed to be the Unsaved Friend, which just spun the oddness out some more. That page made it into our anonymous ephemera file, along with a vintage photo of a baby in a bathtub that an adult supplied for their ID verification. "But it's ME!" I am posting way too much on this site…

I was, for the most part, home schooled up to 7th grade when I skipped 8th and went to a "real high school." I'm so glad I was home schooled, and will definitely be doing it for my own children someday.

"Don't get me started on the idea that public school is a mission field. So is the Sudan, but in their youth is not a time for my children to be *there* without a parent, either."

hahahah. Dang right. I am a college graduate, schooled at home until 16 (then I began community college and then transferred to a four year school). I work in a public high school now. Dang right it's a mission field and the more Christian adults that work in it, the better.

My kids will, God willing, not go to a public high school, but I don't disagree with the fact that strong Christian families/influences can counter the negative influences of private/public education.

Meh, I think I'd homeschool. I'm getting a degree as a teacher anyway. Plus, with me for a mother I'm sure my kids won't have social skills anyway. But for me, the best part of this post was this:
"In addition to having a library with a rolling ladder that you could sing from the top of, (a personal dream of mine)"
I've had that dream ever since I was a little girl, watching Beauty and the Beast.