tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528470033811673980.post2458130537872898..comments2023-10-23T20:14:05.916-05:00Comments on Ruth's Rambles...: The Life of a Homeschool ParentHi from Ruth!http://www.blogger.com/profile/04696686601621200587noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528470033811673980.post-81621808493826441212015-11-22T11:31:30.475-06:002015-11-22T11:31:30.475-06:00Jackie, thank you thank you thank you! What a lov...Jackie, thank you thank you thank you! What a lovely series of comments!! And I'm so glad you're back here, too...I've missed you!<br /><br />OK, I have thoughts to put down, but give me a bit of time. I'm going to respond via blog post, I think, 'cause I think I'll have more than a comment's worth of thoughts! (kinda like you did!!!)<br /><br />Soon. RuthHi from Ruth!https://www.blogger.com/profile/04696686601621200587noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528470033811673980.post-88985774469292515672015-11-21T17:43:28.667-06:002015-11-21T17:43:28.667-06:00PART 3:
I think homeschooling plays a very import...PART 3:<br /><br />I think homeschooling plays a very important role in challenging these kinds of images of what schooling is for, and also in keeping a more open and broad understanding of and possibility for school and children circulating. I’d love it if you ask someone what they mean by socializing!! I doubt that they will say that children don’t get to learn to be friends, or how to get along with others, because of course it is obvious that homeschooled children get plenty of interaction with other children and adults and all kinds of people, maybe more than children in schools… I’m so curious to hear if their actual answer and fears, when it gets down deep, is actually about whether they worry that children won’t be ready to be ‘workers’ and that they won’t have a good ‘work ethic’. Because they haven’t been graded and standardized by a system, so how do you know where they belong? We all know where the cheap caged hens eggs are in the grocery store and where the expensive organic free range eggs are. They are easy to sort. Homeschooled children are unsortable and don’t fit in any category. This freaks people out. Your children are FREE RANGE CHICKENS and you are doing artisan schooling. Some people would argue that such things are priceless! <br /><br />Hear endeth my rant of the day. Thanks for getting me going!!!! I’m so happy to hear of Seth’s growing enjoyment of reading! <br /><br />Jackie<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528470033811673980.post-27962781185163575362015-11-21T17:42:16.301-06:002015-11-21T17:42:16.301-06:00PART 2:
Despite many efforts at reform, this mod...PART 2:<br /><br /> Despite many efforts at reform, this model of schools has really stuck in our cultural mind. So I think homeschooling somehow challenges this and therefore makes people uncomfortable. So I wonder when they say the children might not be socialized, if they are really terrified they might not be ready for WORK. You can hear this from the education ministries and in their curriculum language… when i first started teaching in the early 90s, the Alberta curriculum preamble said that the purpose of schools was to prepare young people to enact their role as citizens in a democratic society. But within the next 10 yrs with revisions, it said the purpose of schools was to prepare workers to compete in the global economy to enhance alberta’s economic advantage. This is how we want young people in society to be socialized? The new curriculum coming out in alberta is a lot better in this respect. It actually says that school is for creating “ethical citizens” (but also entrepreneurs!). Children are more than future workers, and I would argue that they are already ‘ethical citizens’ when they are 5 yrs old… there isn’t a magic age at when you become a citizen or ethical. In fact, young children are the most ethical and compassionate people I know….and schools might be educating some of them right out of this. They might be learning to be competitive and individualistic, as this is the model that schools are still fashioned after... each children is measured and compared and gets their own 'grades' and they are in a hierarchical system where some people are better than others, and some subjects are better than others etc. So despite all our efforts at reform (even the really wonderful ones) we are still stuck with this system and mindset that socializes young people in this way in schools. Until we can get rid of these culturally inherited structural elements of schools (like grades, both as in 'grading' for marks and having children divided into hierarchical grades by age) it's actually impossible to address things like bullying in schools, because the culture subtly enables it. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528470033811673980.post-8304071205706471122015-11-21T17:41:44.339-06:002015-11-21T17:41:44.339-06:00Hi Ruth,
I"m so happy you're back! I wr...Hi Ruth, <br /><br />I"m so happy you're back! I wrote such a long response, this box won't let me put it in. I'll paste it in installments! ha. This is part 1:<br /><br />I’m super interested in those comments you get about h/schooled children possibly not being ‘socialized’. Particularly, I’d be interested in what kind of ‘socializing’ those folks think school is doing, precisely. Have you ever asked? While it has some probably wonderful outcomes, like mass literacy for everyone which contributes strongly to democracy, compulsory public education actually has a very, very short history, but in that short time it developed powerful cultural roots that are difficult to challenge or undo. Public schools were really formed for the children of the poor, who were pouring into cities looking for work in factories. Schools also started to resemble factories, and indeed, as soon as these children got into their teens or younger, guess where they went to work? Then during the efficiency movement in the USA, mostly driven by Ford Motors trying to increase their productivity and decrease their costs, this guy Frederick Taylor first helped Ford increase their productivity through standardization… well, guess who then went into the schools and studied them and then implemented the efficiency and standardization stuff in schools? Yup… Taylor. Worked for factories, would work for schools because the type of socialization going on in schools was preparing factory workers. Therefore, the cheapest way to educate the greatest number of children to be efficient and obedient factory workers is to standardize their education… prior to this there wasn’t even such a thing as GRADES… those are less than 100 yrs old anywhere including in universities. But leveling students and grading them and dividing them into ability levels etc… is exactly like a productive factory with maximum efficiency. Cars, children, chickens. No difference according to Taylor. Anything can be standardized and made more efficient. So, gone were the beautiful sandstone schools that looked like castles… hideous schools with all the same blah design, all children using the same textbooks (great for publishing companies and they make even more profit now), exams at the end to make sure the product is standardized and then you have perfectly created your workforce. Of course wealthy children weren’t expected to go to such schools or be “socialized” in such a way. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528470033811673980.post-72633854779417451842015-11-21T07:11:33.684-06:002015-11-21T07:11:33.684-06:00Thanks Cindy. Trying. As I know you are.
Thank ...Thanks Cindy. Trying. As I know you are.<br /><br />Thank you. RuthHi from Ruth!https://www.blogger.com/profile/04696686601621200587noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2528470033811673980.post-55728517441087858102015-11-20T17:17:34.867-06:002015-11-20T17:17:34.867-06:002 words that you wouldn't write, but are there...2 words that you wouldn't write, but are there, woven throughout everything you wrote. Obedient and Faithful to what He has called you. Blessings on you. CindyAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com