Semi Home Study Based Charter School vs. Regular School

by SonoftheTrinity 33 Replies latest social family

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  Oubliette

  JWD: Don't worry about your ability to help your son academically.

  With all do respect, that is really bad advice. A parent SHOULD worry about helping their child keep up academically. It is their job (among other things).

  The reality is: most parents are not capable of helping their children with their school work beyond about 6th grade. This is PARTICULARLY TRUE OF JW PARENTS. (Yes, I know that SotT is not a JW).

  Here are some 9th grade problems for y'all:

  ALGEBRA 1: Translate this word problem into a system of equations, then solve :
  Tickets for The Hunger Games at the Bijou Matinee cost $4.50 for adults and $2.00 for children under 17. If 45 people attended and the Bijou sold $162.50 in tickets:

  a) How many adults attended the show?
  b) How amy children attended the show?

  Earth Science: When methane combusts it produces carbon dioxide and water vapor. The chemical equation which expresses this is CH4 + O2 → CO2 + H2O. This equation is not balanced. Balance it and explain your answer.
  

  
  

  English: The following sentence has a dangling modifier, a modifier improperly modifies something. This particular sentence has a participial phrase followed by an Expletive Construction. Analyze the sentence and repair it by changing the participial phrase into a full-fledged clause with a subject and verb.
  

  • DM: Changing the oil every 3,000 miles, there is an easy way to keep your car running smoothly.
  • Repaired Sentence: _______________________________________________________________________

  Let me know when you're reading to tackle some chemistry, physics or pre-calculus. I'd love to get your views on Emerson's writings about the American Transcendentalist movement as a response to the European Enlightenment.
• 

  Oubliette

  There is a real problem among people in general and JWs in particular. It is that they mistakenly believe they are qualified to do things for which they are not.

  I believe a big part of this among JWs is the ingrained culture that constantly tells the R&F Witness that they are "qualified to be ministers" after studying a WTBTS publication or two and correctly answering a few questions.

  This is nonsense. Being qualified to do anything takes YEARS of rigorous study, work and self-reflection, often under the tutelage of a master teacher. There are no "master teachers" among JWs. There just aren't. The only thing they have mastered is parroting the party line du jour and never, ever questioning the leadership.
  
• 

  JWdaughter

  Oubillette, the reason I said for him to not worry about the the child academically was because the child has a TEACHER and there is a plan, not the parents plan, to educate the child according to school standards. The parent doesn't need to be a qualified teacher in this case, but rather, an involved parent. He isn't making the lesson plans or grading. Like any parents, they need to supervise, help and direct to a certain degree. The parent in this situation has a great opportunity to enrich the child's learning, but isn't responsible to teach them the basics. That is on the school and their program.

  With all due respect, I don't think that you're in any position to judge grammar. Or spelling. That's not an attack-we are not here to prove our worthiness to enter an English master's program and plenty of us are not doing our "best work" as we dash off our quick responses here. I really don't think that you were attacked and hope you don't take it that way, I don't think it was meant that way.

  I have edited and proofed scholarly engineering papers and really had no clue as to what I was reading-but I educated myself to do the job well enough that I still get freelance assignments referred by former students from across the globe (I love paypal!) I have helped people get into the graduate engineering programs in Europe and the US. I am no engineer, though. I'm barely an English teacher:)

  If this dad has trouble "helping", there are resources all over the web and through the school district to help with every problem foreseeable.

  The bit about the truancy-things slip. That doesnt make us incapable as parents. It makes us human. This is obviously a man who cares for his son and is doing the best for him. Please don't attack parental competence based on something like that. It't unfair. I've had a chronically ill child and if you just don't date the excuse slips properly, you won't know it till there is a problem reported.

  Do you have an issue with homeschooling in general? These programs are not the stereotypical kind of homeschooling plan.

  I wish someone IN the public schools had cared that I totally zoned out on maths and science. My GED dad could have taught me better!
• 

  GrreatTeacher

  I think supporting your child in the charter school program is going to be harder than you think. My son goes to an excellent public school and it takes a lot of effort to help with math homework, English papers and other long term projects. I can't imagine how much more effort it would take to also have to teach time management and project management and supervise schoolwork those extra days of the week, a lot of that being self-taught by necessity. And I'm a teacher! My son needs the structure of a daily school routine.

  That being said, if the child is extraordinarily organized and self-motivated and is not currently having academic difficulties, it could work.

  I just remember growing up JW that I was sooo thankful to be able to go to school every day, even with the occasional bully here and there.
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  GrreatTeacher

  Oubliette, your Algebra I problem is like one we work on as a bonus problem in the 4th grade! Of course, we just solve it without the algebraic equations, but it just goes to show the level of work that is now expected from younger and younger students.
• 

  Blackfalcon98

  marked
• 

  Oubliette

  JWDaughter, the reason I said for him to not worry about the the child academically was because the child has a TEACHER and there is a plan.
  

  Agreed. But remember that SotT expressed that the concern that he didn't believe only 2 days per week would be enough academically. He also said that he thought that his "associates degree with childhood development coursework" would qualify him to help his stepson with his homework. He later added that he "has contempt for the [school] system."
  

  My point is that his AA degree does not qualify him to do that.

  As you appropriately commented, "It is the keeping up with it that will be the challenge." This is in complete agreement with my previous comment to the OP:

  Think of yourself as his mentor and coach, part of a team with the teachers to assist his learning.

  What you describe sounds almost like an independent study program. The students that do well academically in these programs are generally disciplined, organized and self-motivated. If your stepson has these traits, even in a moderate amount, he can be very successful in this type of educational setting. If he has severe deficits in this area then he will almost certainly not be successful in an unstructured learning environment.

  I'm not sure why you wrote: "Do you have an issue with homeschooling in general? These programs are not the stereotypical kind of homeschooling plan."

  Perhaps you did not read my first post on this thread where I said, "Alternative education programs are filling an increasing need in our society."

  I'm a huge proponent of alternative education. It is in fact what I do. Without giving away too many details, I teach high school as an alternative education setting in the United States. I am fully licensed and credentialed in the state in which I work, with multiple credentials and certifications appropriate to the subjects I teach and the student population with which I work. I meet weekly with my students on an individualized basis teaching them: English, math, history and science. In addition I conduct regular group sessions which focus on collaborative, Inquiry-Based Learning.
  

  It's what I do. I see students that this works well for and those that it doesn't. From what SotT is describing about his conception of the charter school he is considering and his abilities to help his stepson, it seemed prudent to give him a dose of reality.

  Oubliette
  
• 

  Oubliette

  GrreatTeacher: I think supporting your child in the charter school program is going to be harder than you think. ... I can't imagine how much more effort it would take to also have to teach time management and project management and supervise schoolwork those extra days of the week, a lot of that being self-taught by necessity. ... My son needs the structure of a daily school routine.

  Thank you for adding your insight and experience on this point. These are exactly the issues I was trying to get SotT to consider in my posts. Many people UNDERESTIMATE the difficulties in independent study while at the same time OVERESTIMATING their abilities to "tutor" their child. It's a recipe for disaster.

  Again, I'm a huge advocate of alternative education. But it's not for everyone and it most certainly is not easy.
  

  I really appreciated your comment that, "If the child is extraordinarily organized and self-motivated and is not currently having academic difficulties, it could work." This is in a nutshell the essential qualities that a successful independent learner needs to have. I've been doing this for years and I know of what I speak.

  Thanks for sharing your opinion!
• 

  Oubliette

  GrreatTeacher: your Algebra I problem is like one we work on as a bonus problem in the 4th grade! Of course, we just solve it without the algebraic equations, but it just goes to show the level of work that is now expected from younger and younger students.

  Just to clarify, I took this problem straight out of our Algebra I textbook. In our school, this is a class that 9th and 10th graders would take, depending on their math proficiency.

  In response to your comment that 4th graders could solve this I would say this: there are often multiple ways to solve a problem. I'm not sure how you might have 4th graders solve it, but I can imagine it would be an elementary method to have them make a table of arithmetic, adults 1-45 @ $4.50 each and children 45-1 @ $2.00 each. The kids could relatively easily multiply each pair of problems and add the sums to get a subtotal. It would be time consuming, but would certainly work.

  But it would not be algebra. The whole idea of building an algebraic system of equations and understanding how to do the necessary substitutions is far more sophisticated than most 4th graders could accomplish. It is also a much higher level of thinking.

  The point I was trying to make, and apparently did not, is that most parents would not know how to do this and would not be able to help their children solve this problem, which incidently is from the middle of the first semester in our Algebra I course.

  To reiterate, this was in response to SotT's comment that because he has an "associates degree with childhood development coursework" he felt qualified him to help his stepson with his homework.

  I'm glad he has some higher education. Hopefully it helps him understand what is and what is not developmentally appropriate for his children. It does not however prepare or qualify him to teach math, science or English.

  Oubliette
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  JWdaughter

  I have homeschooled and worked with teachers in the PS system. I was hired to teach first grade in a private school and was just smart enough to back out before I damaged anyones critical early years of education. I have taught at the college level (and was kind of awesome, thank you) and IELTS. I am pretty conversant with the education system. In grammar school, teachers deal with a wide variety of subjects but their expertise is teaching and managing a classroom rather than their claim to fame having been that they know the ABCs or how to do simple math. There is more knowledge required in the upper levels, but the things that are being taught are the same things that most parents forgot around the time the midnight feedings started after parenthood. Teachers go to college and learn techniques to deal with different educational styles, how to manage a classroom and sometimes focus on a particular academic subject-but they don't know everything.

  I think that a reasonably intelligent person should be able to help a child in a structured educational program when they know the child well if they have any kind of personal discipline. Keeping kids on task is the biggest challenge of teaching, IMO. Or my biggest challenge, anyway. One is a lot easier than 23 or 40.

  I did not read everything you wrote, but I just picked up a strong opinion about those without college working with a semi-home schooled student. I wasn't sure where it was coming from. It definitely takes more work and time to assist a home schooled student, but parents work with their children in the PS system all the time and many of these parents do not have the same degrees that teachers do.

  Neither one of my parents had the level of schooling that I did by the 9th grade, but the way they failed me was not that they couldn't help me with my homework but that they didn't make sure I was DOING it. They were simply uninvolved (Dad was too busy, mom was too much a JW to care). I think the most critical thing that the son has going for him at this point is not the kind of school that he attends, but that he has a father who gives a damn. How many of us would give our eye teeth for a parent who cared as much as this guy?

  My biggest worry is not about the semi home school itself, or the teacher, or the dad-but if mom is going to be dragging this boy off to FS, then he would be better off in the PS system altogether. She will keep him from other kids and he might well be extremely isolated in the congregation. THAT would be a lot more tragic than any minor academic consequences. For a normal family with a child who would grow in that kind of system, I would LOVE the semi home school system. In a JW family, I find it problematic and am conditionally enthusiastic. You or another poster brought up the personality/needs of the child. That is important to consider. And playing at being teacher is NOT what any child needs a parent to do. It takes a lot of committment to home school.