Arby's Archives - Mayeb They're Right, Mayeb They're Not

Dateline: Mar. 10, 2008

Mayeb They're Right, Mayeb They're Not

I’ve been perusing the web for comments on home schooling from both supporters and critics of our educational lifestyle. There are plenty of both. In light of a recent California Court of Appeals ruling that declared that home schooling in California is in violation of state law, and that parents possess no constitutional right to homeschool their children, one would assume that teaching should be a task left to certified, degreed professionals. It should be left to professionals like “Star,” who posted on the Democraticunderground.com:

“As a credentialled teacher, I had to go through a lot in order to qualify to teach. I had to show content area competence, knowledge of accepted teaching practices, and an understanding of the ways in which people learn. I'm also required to continue professional development in order to renew my credential. It bothers me that so many children are being taught by non-credentialled people, whether those people are their parents, or someone in a private/charter school. If federal and state laws require credentialling for people who are teaching in a public school, why should it be different for poeple who have a biolobical or marriage link to the child?”

(http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3213549&mesg_id=3213549)

There are so many different approaches to this comment that I’m not certain which one I should take first. It is interesting to note that Star needs to “continue professional development in order to renew [her] credential.” She only has one. While she is a “credentialled” teacher, I was a credentialed teacher. She writes “poeple,” I spell the word “people.” I’m highly amused at her concern over “poeple” with a “biolobical” link to the child, but it frightens me that a credentialed teacher has so many spelling errors in one posting. I understand that typos happen, but in the era of “Spell Check,” she is either lazy or clueless. Star’s credential must not be in Language Arts.

A writer named “Crimsonblue” caught my attention when he or she wrote:

“38. What are you smoking? Mayeb in your crazy part of the country, homeschooling works great, but here in my neck of the woods, homeschooled children consistently have lower ACT scores, lower college attendence, and they tend to be indoctrinated in some sort of radical christianity. Homeschooling is a bad thing. It is not good for children for them the be isolated from their peers and it opens them to ridicule. Also, there is no way in hell that the average home-"teacher" has the same level of knowledge that a college trained and state licensed teacher has. Children must be around other children (and god forbid, allowed to get into squabbles and chilhood fights) so that they can develop into effective and well adjusted people. Home school children too often are outcasts once they enter the real school system, be it in HS or college.”

(http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3213549&mesg_id=3213549)

“Mayeb” you’re correct, Crimsonblue, but in an era of “zero tolerance” policies regarding fighting, I’m not certain your average public school student will experience the benefits of being allowed to have a childhood fight. General Mayhem, a young man in his fourth year of home schooling, has been involved in two fights with neighborhood children, both of which he won due to his Karate studies. He has also been exposed to two bullies that he has successfully dealt with without fighting. It’s amazing what “attendance” in a “Christian” home school will do for a young man. My question for Crimsonblue is, “What are you smoking?” Don’t you see all the red squiggly lines underneath your spelling errors?

LulaMay wrote that, “It's about time. Children have a right to a good education with credentialed teachers.”

(http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3213549&mesg_id=3213549)

LulaMay might be correct. “Children have a right to a good education with credentialed teachers,” teachers like the 134 credentialed female teachers who have been “accused of or convicted of assaulting students” (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=39783). Maybe children have a right to a good education with credentialed teachers like “Butler High School athletic director Mitch Warmbrodt, 46,” who was busted for meth production (http://www.kctv5.com/news/15519883/detail.html). Production is one step away from selling meth to students on campus. LulaMay might have been referring to a child’s right to a good education with credentialed teachers like “Steven Thomas Rooney, assistant principal at Edwin Markham Middle School,” in California, who “was arrested Tuesday... accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl” (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,335098,00.html). Maybe LulaMay’s children have a right to an education with these people, but my children have a right to an education without being exposed to them.

“Selador” wants “homeschool teachers to pass basic competency tests.” Selador goes on to write, “of course, we would have to require those tests of "real" teachers. and every teachers union i know of has fought those tooth and nail. i do know that statistically speaking, homeschooled kids do better on average in objective measures of educational achievement than public schools do (and yes, i realize the sample groups aren't t he same, but i see no evidence there is a problem in this area).”

(http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3213549&mesg_id=3213549)

Selador needs to pass a competency test to prove a solid understanding of capital “I.”

Lastly, DavidMS wants schools, “To instill basic skills (reading, writing, math) and prepair them to be involved citizens,” much the way he was “prepared” to spell by his public school teachers. “Additionally, if the parents are dominists they have more opportunities to produce brain-washed clones of themselves.”

(http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3213549&mesg_id=3213549)

“Dominists?” David? Which one of your public school teachers taught you that it is acceptable to invent your own words? I can find that word all over the web, but it doesn’t appear in any unabridged dictionary that I checked.

Mayeb these poeple are write. Mayeb there not.

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