“I apologize, I should have said that with my personal experience and from what i've seen with other's that the public school system around here IMO is a failure. I know of two kid's that was home schooled until high school age and they enrolled into a public school. They graduated, both in their early twenties now and both with problem's. The boy is a big time drug user/dealer and the girl is loose as a goose and all over the place with a ton of issues. Chalk it up to bad influences I guess.”
Thanks for clarifying but I didn’t want you to apologize. I am sorry you have had a bad experience with your local public school system. However, I am not sure that the two home schooled children you are talking about necessarily became bad people because they went to public schools. It could be that they were going to turn out bad anyway, we just don’t know. Did the public school cause them to be bad? Maybe and maybe not.
“Nowhere did i even hint around that anyone in or that has been in a public school is a loser. I think it is just the opposite. I think that people think of home schooled kids that way. The crap that people say about home schooled kids like "they are'nt getting the social interaction that they need". Heck I guess i should be a murderer or a rapist because i'm not socially adjusted. Or "They won't have the career opportunities that a educated kid will have". Heck I guess I have a good reason to be on welfare huh? The only reason I mentioned how much money I make is to show that even a kid that only had 5 grade school year's of education from a professional public teacher can make a good life for himself. By no mean's was I gloating.”
No I wasn’t necessarily referring to you on this one just the general attitude that I see. I was mainly talking about the attitude towards public education that exists. It is often perpetrated by those who don’t necessarily know much of anything about education but they sure like to air out their opinions on the matter. The problem is that when you push these people on the issue you find that most of the time they don’t have any real solutions with how to fix our education system. Again I was not directly referring to you but the attitude I see all the time. When I went back and looked at this sentence it looks as though I may have edited and deleted something that explained the reference better, but I don’t remember what now.
As for home schooled kids not being social adjusted that is not something I said. We have very few home schooled kids in my area. Many of them are simply staying home and the teachers are coming to them. That means in many cases they have to physically visit the home and teach these students because the parents either cannot or will not. There is only one private school in this region and quite frankly I wouldn’t send my dog to it.
I also never said you should be on welfare. Nor did I doubt that you could make that kind of money with only a fifth grade education. I knew a man who had only a third grade education and could not read or write. However, he owned numerous businesses and by the time he died was quite wealthy. Yet he understood how important education was and his children and grandchildren.
“Why would you expect me to pass? Again, I was only in the public school system from K-5th grade. Don't you think it's odd that with that little bit of schooling that I passed the GED with above average score's?”
I would expect you to pass because one of the first things I learned as a teacher is that a test doesn’t always tell you what a child knows one way or the other. GED is like the SOL’s, which we were always taught to call multiple guess, meaning that it is fairly easy to guess your way through the test. I’m not saying you did that Chris but when you have four answers to choose from and you can eliminate two than you have at least a 50% chance of getting the right answer, and the odds are in your favor. You were also older and doing it for your own benefit which is different than those who are doing something because they feel they must.
“Listen guy's, I'm not here to put down public school's or anyone that attends/attended a public school. I just don't agree with what public school's are doing. Taking god out of school, teaching our grade schoolers about sex, etc,etc,etc. Maybe not everywhere not yet but it's coming. The government is teaching OUR kid's what they want. PARENT'S CAN'T BE PARENT'S ANYMORE. We don't have the right to teach our kid's what WE THINK they should be taught. We can't discipline our kid's anymore. I was'nt lucky enough to get to sit in time out. I was lucky if I could even sit. If some of you guy's think that proper schooling is more important then raising your own childeren then by all mean's do what you got to do. I promise you I won't look down upon you or your family or disrespect any of you for it because that's your choice. To each his own. I'm not saying my views are right and your's are wrong but you can't tell me there is'nt something in a public school that you don't agree with.”
I agree with you about the “to each his own” statement. I know what you mean and I do my best when it comes to the discussions of private vs. public vs. home school on this forum to not take a side. I think all have a place in our society and it is easy to point fingers at the schools and teachers and say it is somebody else’s fault and not our own.
“And about my career, It's not to personal at all. My occupation has been on my profile since I joined here. I'm a Tow Boat Pilot. Alot of people have no clue what a tow boat is or what it does. If you would be willing to watch this video I found on youtube it will give you a good idea. I don't know the guy that made this video but he seem's to have a little bit of knowledge about the river industry. I "drive" boat's like this one, some smaller some bigger but you'll get the general idea. I hope alot of you will take the time to watch the video. The river industry is a big part of all our live's and many people are'nt even aware of it.”
Actually Chris I just hadn’t thought to look under your profile to find out what your occupation is. Thanks for the video.
To bad you don’t conduct a train because my son is train crazy. I actually ask because we live in the mountains as well so I guess my curiosity got the best of me. Most of the people I know don’t do that well, not because they don’t try but because our area is considered economically depressed.
