Homeschool Associates - Education

Pg 136: Game warden

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 11:28:35 -0500

Education

The game warden knew that John Jones was shooting ducks when it was still dark, while the ducks slept. Totally illegal.

The warden hadn't been able to catch him in the act, but devised a plan. It was a cold November in Maine, but the warden decided to do a stakeout through the night from the bushes. He fought off the cold and shivered all night.

About 4 am, the ca

Pg 123: Tourette's Syndrome

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 08:46:12 -0500

Education

I worked with a family whose son had Tourette’s Syndrome. He was easily agitated and had significant excess energy. During middle school, his teachers allowed him to go outside and run the track a few times; he became less aggressive and did better on his work. This worked well for three years.

But at the high school, sports are the reward for conformity, not a treatment for a disease. So, when he became aggressive or agitated in class, he was denied the opportunity to run the track, the resulting behavior kept him from being on the track team.

Pg 122: High school spoirts

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 08:44:19 -0500

Education

In my opinion, it does NOT make sense to suppress athletic excellence because of an academic problem.

But, public high schools hold out athletics as a “holy grail” -- available to only those who make a certain academic achievement, leaving many good athletes OFF the team, bitter and resentful toward school.

In other fully developed countries, high school athletic teams are sp

Pg 119: Motorcyle parking spaces

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 08:26:39 -0500

Education

It seems to me that we learn as individuals. But it takes teamwork sometimes to get the jobs done that we cannot do alone.

Back in the 1970’s, before the big box stores and malls, Main Street was the real shopping center. Thursday night the stores were open until 9pm and it was an important day for the merchants.

One city in Western Massachusetts decided that those pesky motorcycles were avoiding parking meters by putting four motorcycles in one parking space. They passed an ordinance that allowed only one motorcycle per space.

The bikers were so upset, they banded together and all went into town about 3:30 Thursday afternoon, parked one motorcycle per parking space, and fed the meters until 9.

Pg 117: Bureaucrats' opinions

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 08:21:20 -0500

Education

In most states, when you are a legal, official homeschooler, you’ll be dealing with institutions or some kind of bureaucracy.

When dealing with the bureaucracy, opinions DO NOT matter.

For example: I walk into the town hall hand-in-hand with my fiance, stroll into the town clerk’s office, and apply for our marriage license. We give the clerk the fee, the completed paperwork, and everything that’s required.

What is the town clerk’s responsibility? To give us our marriage license.

Pg 116: San Diego school system

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 08:19:54 -0500

Homeschooling

In 1991, I was a featured speaker at the homeschool convention in Washington State. At that event, two men approached me and said, “Mr. Moitozo, we wondered if you knew about our program?"

They told me they were recruiters for the San Diego school district. Recruiters? Yes, they recruited families to encourage them to begin homeschooling. They did the work to set up families as homeschoolers, part of their “d

Pg 115: Follow the money

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 08:16:17 -0500

Education

Average per pupil cost for public education in America hovers around $7,000 per student.

That’s about what each school district receives for every pupil enrolled in their public schools. When a student goes to a private school, they lose the money for that student. When a student is homeschooled, they lose the money for that student, too, because that student is not on the public school roster, not counted in their “invento

Pg 114: The public schools lose money.

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 08:11:07 -0500

Homeschooling

In my naive early days of dealing with the Maine bureaucrats, I could not understand their resistance to me teaching my own child.

If my wife and I wanted to help out by doing our own job ourselves, why would they object? At first I reasoned that they must be offended -- that we should think we could teach our own children without any formal education. How dare we think we can do it better than they can!

Then I learned about the money. I learned how school districts got their money -- how they got paid. School districts receive a certain amount for every pupil enrolled in their public schools. When a student goes to a private school, the public school loses the money for that student. When a student is homeschooled, they lose the money for that student, too.

Pg 110: Artificial guidelines

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 07:56:11 -0500

Education

Parents express anxiety over their child’s learning when it is not exactly where they are told it “should” be. Panicked parents report, “2nd grade and can’t do subtraction!” “He’s 8 and struggles to spell two-syllable words!"

Some parents have actually quit homeschooling because they could not get past these artificial timetables they’d heard about.

Education

I was amused when my son ran into the house to report, “Dad, you’ll never believe the new watches we saw at the mall! They don’t have batteries, they don’t run on solar. They have a little stem on the side -- and all you have to do is wind it up! And it works!!!"

Sometimes it is NOT the latest and greatest that does the job. Sometimes it is

Pg 093: People learn what they need

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 06:23:40 -0500

Education

“People learn what they need to know when they need to know it."

Below is the same sentence with three different emphases. Try reading each sentence out loud, putting emphasis on the bold word, and hearing the differences you discover about learning.

1. “People learn what they need to know
when they need to know it."

2. “People learn what they need to know

Pg 087: Exactly the right question

Sun, 12 Feb 2006 17:51:52 -0500

Education

When dealing with the bureaucracy, you must ask exactly the right question to get exactly the right answer.

I witnessed this in relation to our farm. Each year, the Dept. of Agriculture takes fly-over photos of the agricultural land in the state. One of the contractors working on our project went to Augusta to get copies of the photos of our land for the past five years.

He returned to report that there were no photos of the project site. Three days later, one of the other contractors returned from the same Dept.

Pg 079: Mayonnaise jar

Sun, 12 Feb 2006 14:00:22 -0500

Education

In an extended exchange with a 20-year-old, I was specific about how we make decisions. “Okay, Charlotte, you’re grocery shopping and you get to the mayonnaise section --6 feet high, 6 feet wide, and 2 feet deep. You have to make a decision on which mayonnaise to buy. So which one do you buy?"

She said, “The cheapest one."

Pg 077: 25% discount coupons

Sun, 12 Feb 2006 13:56:22 -0500

Education

Let me assure the reader this account is absolutely true.

Four of us were eating in a restaurant. Each of us had 25-percent-off coupons. When we finished the meal, our waiter told us that he had all of the coupons, so our bill was taken care of.

“What do you mean our bill is taken care of?” I asked. He explained th

Pg 072: 24 students

Sun, 12 Feb 2006 13:43:33 -0500

Education

Teachers are great people. Teachers are not the problem with the traditional classroom. Teachers are not the bad guys.

The problem with the classroom is the classroom -- its structure, its requirements, its restrictions, its rules. Teachers are professionals, no question. But they are barely able to monitor the variables in the classroom.

So many variables: