Attaboy, James.

An engineer friend tried for years to give their boys (now 10 & 12) an 
education publicly,
then finally gave up. His wife (a degreed real estate agent) teaches 
them, using textbooks and
a lesson plan provided by a Virginia company (small fee for each 
student).The state of Arizona
provides a yearly test so the parent knows whether they are ":keeping 
up". Each year, they ACE
the tests, scoring well above those who "just keep up"..

They are  "in class" about 2.5hrs/day.

--Bob A

James Newton wrote:
> My experience, in my area, in the schools that I and my older children have
> attended, is that school is basically a baby sitting service where education
> is the game they play and if the kids learned anything of use, it was at the
> price of the joy of learning it.
>
> If you "give up" on public education and think of that time as wasted, then
> your children's education depends entirely on what you and your family,
> friends, and the kids themselves are able to teach.
>
> That is homeschooling. It doesn't have to be instead of regular school, it
> should be in addition to regular school. My younger kids now attend a school
> a few hours a week where they take classes that require a group, such as
> acting, cultures, and art. The rest of the time, they work at home from
> computer based tutorials or from books and worksheets with assistance from
> my wife (primarily) and I.
>
> My daughter has been asked (at the age of 13) to take the PSAT based on her
> amazingly high scores on the standardized tests. This is a program to help
> bright young people to prepare for college, and college level tests, years
> before they go. She will be able to take the test again after high school
> and her scores this time will only help to make a reputation for her school.
> E.g. "our *middle school* students scored xxx on the PSAT". My son, who is
> dyslexic, has progressed 3 full grade levels in reading this past year. We
> expect him to be reading at grade level by the first of next year. In the
> mean time, he explains to people how to make a flip flop and other
> interesting things that I, with the assistance of the internet, have taught
> him.
>
> Public schools don't teach digital logic. Public schools, with few
> exceptions, do not have facilities or programs for working with exceptional
> or bright students. And they have few facilities for helping students with
> disabilities, while still teaching them in the areas where their abilities
> are above normal. 
>
> If my son was in public school, he would be forced to read "See Dick chase
> Jane" and he would hate it. In home school, he is *motivated* to read
> Digital Logic Circuits by Sol Libs because we found a simulator and let him
> hook things up:
> http://techref.massmind.org/techref/logic/tutorial.htm 
>
> If you realize that your children's education is YOUR responsibility, you
> will do what you can to make up for the time they waste in public school,
> even if you do not have the ability to use that time. Take the time you DO
> have and put it to use teaching them to love learning about the subjects
> they have an interest in.
>
> --
> James.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of
> Vitaliy
> Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 22:41
> To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
> Subject: Re: [OT] Using vouchers
> toimprovethequalityofschools(was:Educationreform)
>
> James Newton wrote:
>   
>> Vitaliy, is homeschooling not possible for you? Or homeschooling in 
>> addition
>> to the public waste of time...
>>     
>
> To be honest, I haven't really considered it. Do you mean staying at home 
> and teaching myself, or hiring a tutor? Neither one seems feasible at this 
> time. 
>
>   

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