Re: Public, private or home schooling; parents do the best they can for their children

[Judi Hirsch <judih@OUSD.K12.CA.US>]

Dear Michael,
    I certainly understand your desire to protect and support your
child(ren) but I question the wisdom of isolating him/her/them from others;
doctors are now saying that allowing children to run around in the dirt and
have runny noses is good for them because they are getting germs which will
later make them more immune and less susceptible to colds and other
illnesss. Could the same thing be true of children and school? Do you think
that alowing your child(ren) to interact with peers now might prepare
him/her/them for dealing with peers as they age? rather than become afraid
of them and perhaps isolated?
    In a way it reminds me of those who want to give Ritalin to their
children so they'll learn their multiplication tables or spelling words.
Waht happens when these kids go of on their own? or will they need to stay
drugged forever?
    Judi
----- Original Message -----
From: Michael Hootstein <hoot1@MINDSPRING.COM>
To: <ARN-L@LISTS.CUA.EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 1999 9:33 AM
Subject: Re: Public, private or home schooling; parents do the best they can
for their children


> Gentle Man Leo,
>
> Although our 11 year old now attends public school, and we are and have
> always been passionate defenders of teachers and public education, she did
> spend some time in a private school when we felt she wasn't safe to attend
> school (in Asheville, NC) with kids who were friends with the kids who
shot
> her mother.  With our older daughter (now 23 years old), we sent her to
> private school for two years because she had some special needs that were
> not being met in the public school.
>
> In our case, the only reason we chose private school over home school is
> because we hadn't yet felt confident enough or qualified enough to perform
> such an important job.  There is nothing more important to us as parents
> than providing both our children with the "best education" we are able to
> provide.  Our youngest is now receiving the "best education" we are able
to
> provide in a public school, but next year we may find ourselves
considering
> private or, as we gain confidence and teaching skills, home schooling.
>
> Now that you got me thinking about successful homeschooled kids, I do
> believe that the kids I know have, and (as a result of a dear friend who
> died before her time) had, a parent who has/had professional
qualifications
> as a teacher.
>
> One of my friends (a teacher) who homeschools her three children is a
> committed Christian.  While it is true that her values are somewhat
> different than mine, and she probably votes mostly as a Christian
> Conservative, she is a loving and considerate person, friend, mother,
wife,
> daughter....What is most important is that her children are turning out to
> be wonderful people.  She clearly does not approve of a Gay lifestyle, but
> she is respectful and kind to acquaintances of hers who are Gay.
>
> I guess what I'm really trying to say Leo is that we parents are just
trying
> to do the best we can.  When we take our child out of a public school, it
is
> not meant to attack the public school system, rather it is to find safety
> away from a system in which we and our children feel devalued, neglected
and
> sometimes abused.
>
> Together Leo, we have the expertise and the heart to solve these
monumental
> problems facing us.  Perhaps, we'd all be wiser to assume the best of
> eachother.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> >On a more serious note, I think it is a mistake to repress disagreements
> over
> >issues, or to assume that we must walk on eggshells on certain topics. I
> >certainly don't mind if people have negative views about teacher unions;
I
> >would have to be an ostrich to think that they didn't exist in this
> society.
> >Express the views, but leave the personal attacks out of it.
> >
> >There is such a thing as healthy disagreement. And when one doesn't state
> >those disagreements, but pushes them under the carpet, they find their
way
> >out anyway. I just don't see myself as on the same side of the
educational
> >struggle as home schoolers. So I am not accused of taking the word of the
> >mass media blindly, let me quote out of the posting Quan sent to the
> listserv
> >to illustrate why I come to that conclusion. His correspondent wrote:
> > >> Most of the homeschooling folk are of two kinds: parents of disabled
> >children who are fed up with such nonsense from public schools and
> Christians
> >who are fed up with the unholy language and ideas of the other kids whose
> >parents may or may not be religious but who fail to pass on decent
> behaviors
> >and ideas to their children.  Neither group of homeschoolers should be
> mocked
> >for wanting a better quality of education or lifestyle for their
> children.<<
> >
> >Now I may be wrong, and I would be happy for someone to prove me so, but
> when
> >I read that passage I can't help but think that the "unholy" language and
> >ideas this person has in mind includes some of the very things I think
are
> >important in public schools, and that where I think it is absolutely
> >essential that public schools teach respect for all others, including
those
> >who have different sexualities, such as gay men and lesbians, and that it
> is
> >a good thing that young people will come into social contact with other
> >students and teachers who are gay and lesbian, so they can overcome
> prejudice
> >and intolerance, it is such is precisely part of what has led this person
> to
> >support home schooling. What for me is a positive value, part of what I
> think
> >public life and public schools should be, is for her the encouragement of
> >sin. That is precisely why she is choosing to withdraw from public life
and
> >public schools.
> >
> >Leo Casey
> >United Federation of Teachers
> >260 Park Avenue South
> >New York, New York 10010 (212-598-6869)
> >
> >Power concedes nothing without a demand.
> >It never has, and it never will.
> >If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
> >Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men
who
> >want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and
> >lightening. They want the ocean without the roar of its waters.
> >-- Frederick Douglass --
> >
>
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