It's that time of year....

[Piotr]

Public schools suck. There's too many idiots teaching in our school systems.

One idiot is enough, unfortunately. You can have the greatest ever swimming teacher but if the teacher of your natural-strength-skill sucks, you're screwed.

[cltrn81]

I have a 60 page business plan due for my capstone course in graduate school.  My other class is just a regular final exam.....it's a quality in business class....pretty easy....that is why I saved it to go with the capstone course.  Here in two weeks I can put MBA after my name

[Kaleo42]

As they say, cool story bro

Seriously though, would you tell me that you knew those kids better than their parents in every important skill set? Like, maths, physics or economics? How old are we talking?

The ones im referring to were ages 7-14 and i may not have known wht they did on every vacation they'd had, but what i did know was how they felt about all aspects of life in the time I knew/ know them. Unfortunately many of the kids I end up working with for extended periods have parents with busy lives dont set aside the time to put all their focus on their child, their always on the job, always answering the phone.

As for other aspects, yes. I teach through understanding. I encorperate physics, mathmatics, self-help, time budgeting, biology, and in some cases history and communication skills into my lessons. I dont believe one can truly learn a single topic, it has to be tied into other aspects of their knowledge in order to stick in their memory and for them to be able to think and grow on their own. I know many things i say to them are only half understood in their tre depth, but i also know every time i referance a past statement of mine i am instilling that memory and understanding that can eventually be reflected upon on their own time.

Now that i am really thinking about this i'm remembering how often i get 3yr olds in my classes that i understand how to cummunicate with better than their parents. Few parents seem to uderstand learning styles outside of their own and react to their child's actions in counter productive ways just because they dont know any better. Something simple as never using the word "but" or similar mood killers during construcive criticism. No matter wht you say to a child, the moment they hear but, however, or a deep breathed pause they internailze that the previous statement didnt really matter. I explained that to a group of parents in a parent child class i subbed for and later that month i checked back in and they had made leaps and bounds in and out of the pool and thanked me, i could only thank them cause i knew this was one group i wouldnt have to worry about when they come to the pool deck.

It is true ill (hopefully) never know their past better than the parents, but all to often i know their present far better than the parents. To be fair however my first statement is only about like 2% of the kids ive worked with, but thats still to much in my eyes.

[Piotr]

To be fair however my first statement is only about like 2% of the kids ive worked with, but thats still to much in my eyes.

This. IMHO, homeschooling is simply better system, statistics-wise. I'm not arguing that you can find plenty examples which would turn into disasters if normal homeschooling was done instead of school. Mind you, my particular case has nothing to do with your examples, I can bet good part of my limb on it

[Kaleo42]

To be fair however my first statement is only about like 2% of the kids ive worked with, but thats still to much in my eyes.

This. IMHO, homeschooling is simply better system, statistics-wise. I'm not arguing that you can find plenty examples which would turn into disasters if normal homeschooling was done instead of school. Mind you, my particular case has nothing to do with your examples, I can bet good part of my limb on it

Never argued against it, just wanted to shed light on what tends to cause that drastic difference between successfully and unsuccessfully homeschooled children. Of what little i know of you, i have no doubt in your ability to do it right, i just doubt most people here know much on the subject beyond what they've seen in their own experience.

[Rass]

The only thing about home school I can say. I suggest you get them into activities or play dates with other children their age. I met a kid who was home schooled in high school and he had problems dealing with others.

[Jroch314]

I was never homeschooled and didn't know many people that were homeschooled. I did however have a blast in high school. Went to a very small school so there really wasn't a lot of bullying or anything. In fact EVERY person in my playgroup I went to high school with lol. Still friends, and still hang out a couple times a week, still watch wwe raw every monday followed by magic until the wee hours of the morning. 6 years out of high school and still going strong. They've helped me thru everything imaginable and some things unimaginable. Wouldn't trade that for the world. But to each his own.

[Piotr]

The smaller the school the better.