What Small Kids Need

[Martin Radwin]

The most important skills needed for college or for alternatives to college are competence in reading, writing, and math. It is certainly not necessary to attend school for 12 years to acquire these skills. The best way develop skill at reading is to read lots of great books. Access to a good library or bookstore should more than suffice. The best way to develop skill at writing is to do lots of writing, as well as reading the works of great writers. None of this requires classroom instruction. Basic math skills can also be learned outside of a classroom setting, as Brant pointed out. With the availability of internet classes, options for alternatives to the classroom continue to develop.

Martin

What does one do in training youngsters in chemistry and physics. How many homes have the makings of a proper laboratory?

Reading, writing and mathematics is basically ink on paper material. But a work-shop or laboratory is a different matter

Ba'al Chatzaf

That's true. College prep education in the physical sciences, especially involving lab work, is probably best done in a classroom setting, by good teachers with advanced degrees in the physical sciences they are teaching. Unfortunately, most high school students in American schools take very few (if any) classes in the physical sciences. And, due to the severe shortage of qualified high school science and math teachers, the high schools sometimes have teachers in these subjects who do not have degrees in the areas they are teaching and are not really qualified to teach these subjects. The shortage of qualified science and math teachers could be at least partially alleviated by raising their pay relative to teachers in other fields, but this is forbidden by the teachers unions, which have a stranglehold over the public schools. The teachers unions have imposed contracts with forbid merit pay for superior teachers or extra pay for teachers in subjects such as math and science where a shortage exists.

In any event, none of this precludes home schooling as a main alternative. Home schoolers could still attend specialized classes in the physical sciences and other specialized subjects for which a more formal classroom setting is considered to be a superior alternative.

Martin

[bmacwilliam]

That's the difference between there and here. This is simply not the case here and I guess that means I'm discussing this issue from a different perspective.

. . .

Hmm... If you entered University level science here without a few years background, especially in Chemistry and Physics, I think you'd be sunk.

Where is "here"?

I know two couples who homeschool their kids. In one instance, the oldest went to college last year. The kids all seem to be doing very well indeed! They speak coherently in complete sentences, they're polite and can hold conversations with adults, and they seem happy and well-adjusted.

Wolf mentioned envy and bullying. Those are things I'd rather kids learn about from history books than by first-hand experience. I don't see any useful lessons in being thrown to the wolves at a tender age; at a later age, one is better able to understand it and deal with it without being traumatized, and most of the problem disappears when one interacts with fully-socialized grown-ups anyway.

Judith

'Here' is a wealthy suburban Canadian community.

I believe the complete polar opposite of your second paragraph above. I don't know if there's much sense in continuing or explaining why. I think it's an agree to disagree situation.

Bob