Homeschooling/public schools on 20/20 tonight (Friday) US only I think [Archive]

booboo

01-13-2006, 10:38 AM

There's gonna be a story about the public school system, including homeschooling on 20/20. I believe it's on ABC and it's tonight (Friday). The lsg I'm involved with sent out an email about it so I thought I'd pass it on. Supposed to be a good story, pro homeschool! :tu

righteous mama

01-13-2006, 10:52 AM

Oh, I hope I remember to watch! Thank you for the heads up!

MagnoliaMommy

01-13-2006, 11:05 AM

Wow! That is exciting! :tu
We will definitely be watching. :-)

2sunshines

01-13-2006, 11:08 AM

Yea, I was interested in watching this.

Here's more info on it, though they only give a brief description: http://abcnews.go.com/2020/ It doesn't really look like it's talking directly about homeschooling, more about the faults with the public education system, but it's hard to tell from it's one-sentence description of the show. Have you heard any more specific details about what it is going to include?

Jilly

01-13-2006, 11:10 AM

Thanks for the heads up - I like to get as much motivation as possible!

Jilly

AttachedMamma

01-13-2006, 04:37 PM

I'm almost afraid to watch. If any of it is negative about HS, my non-HS "friends" will only have more ammunition. :rolleyes

cindi

Mamatoto

01-13-2006, 05:02 PM

Thanks for posting this! Something to watch while i have the flu...yeah! :shiver :tu

booboo

01-13-2006, 07:40 PM

John Stossel will be doing the report and talks about how he's amazed with homeschoolers and how they do academically. I wish I could post the email I got here but don't know how to. Sorry. As I'm typing this, it's on in a few minutes!

MagnoliaMommy

01-13-2006, 09:16 PM

I watched...it was very eye opening.

I was disappointed that homeschooling wasn't mentioned, but the show did help to solidify my decision to homeschool.

BluegrassMama

01-13-2006, 09:44 PM

I was still singing and rocking until 10:22 :rolleyes so I missed the first 20 minutes. I assumed they must have covered homeschooling then. Did they not even mention it after all?

Did NOT care for the teenage Belgian kids insulting America. :td I may agree that we have major problems with our educational system (duh, I homeschool) but I can NOT imagine going on television in someone else's country and insulting their children!!

Epieikeia

01-13-2006, 09:56 PM

I saw it and it wasn't about hs'ing at all...but rather the state of the public schools.

The slant was towards charter schools, vouchers, school choice and it displayed the teacher's union in a very bad light (which is fine by me, I don't like how that particular union operates).

The main question of the program was this: Is monopoly in education the best? Why do we allow incompetent teachers continue and what role is the union playing in allowing incompetent and sexually inappropriate teachers to remain in the system?

The interesting thing was that I learned what a "rubber" room was. Basically they are rooms in a building were teachers with *x* allegation go to sit all day and get paid because the union blocks the school district from firing that teacher. The US spends 20 million a year paying teachers so sit in *rubber rooms* and read magazines all day.

As for the Belgian kids....well...that's Europe for you and unfortunately it appears they have a reason to be smug (not condoning.....just not surprised :rolleyes ).

BluegrassMama

01-13-2006, 10:00 PM

I was scraping my jaw off the floor about the rubber rooms.

My dbil/dsil are missionaries in Belgium. They visited us when our oldest ds was 5, and were so confused about homeschooling. Couldn't understand a need for it, especially in a 'smart' or average child. I can understand their side a little better now.

(they are supportive of us for hs'ing, though! They see that it works great for us.)

booboo

01-14-2006, 03:44 AM

Did I miss something being said about hs'ing? It didn't seem to say much. I'm sorry. However, it did expose a lot about the public school system. I liked the fact they pointed out about how the schools complain more money will help them when in fact, the opposite is true.

Major *grrr* about NY and the firing process with that contract thing. Forgive me, I forgot what it was called.

It did make me realize one thing about my hs'ing: I need to make it more fun for the girls. Something I have forgotten, regrettably. Still I'm optimistic: It's not too late to start!

What's so ironic is the PG director at my church was trying to convince me on Friday that I should send my kids to public school, with all they have to offer! A lifetime of aggravation! grrr..

Mamatoto

01-14-2006, 06:43 AM

What struck me was the incredible discipline issues in the classrooms!!! :jawdrop And then how much the parents relied on the schools instead of realizing they could have a place in their child's education. The one mom was shocked that her child could not write her name in Kindergarten and that the mom herself had to teach her child (like that was so terrible). :no2

Epieikeia

01-14-2006, 08:16 AM

What struck me was the incredible discipline issues in the classrooms!!!

Well...my mil would say that if they instituted corporol punishment all would be well (she truly believed that CP in the classroom is a *new* idea and that it is ALWAYS done in an "orderly fashion"...whatever that means :banghead :hissyfit). Oh and btw...she was a ps teacher...she taught in the Dallas, TX area and the Los Angeles are. :rolleyes

Mamatoto

01-14-2006, 09:18 AM

My dad would say the same thing. Some of those kids are hard kids (meaning inner city hard)...they need firm discipline and they need to have very strong authority figures that won't let them mess with them. So many adults are afraid of teens and doing something wrong so they let them be disrespectful.

For example, there were a bunch of teens at our live nativity who were shepherds and they were hitting each other with the staffs and fooling around while young children watched them. With all the leaders and parents around no one confronted these teens on their behavior. So, I did. I told them that there were young kids watching them and to stop.

Some of those teachers needed to be that bold and get control back.

2sunshines

01-14-2006, 09:44 AM

I thought it was excellent. It addressed ALL public schools, not just the "bad" ones. I mean, we all know that there are plenty of bad schools in the US who are not teaching our children, but those of us who live in nice suburb areas like to think that our schools are not like that. And this program addressed that very well. The entire public school system is messed up, not just the "problem" schools. I thought that was fascinating.

And I was very surprised about the school choice thing. The only place I've lived in America is Michigan and here we have school choice where you can send your child to any public school, I guess I didn't know that we are in the minority. Does anyone know how many states have school choice?

Epieikeia

01-14-2006, 09:50 AM

Here is a link on school choice states: http://www.heritage.org/Research/Education/SchoolChoice/schoolchoice.cfm#map

Michigan is not listed as a school choice state because there are limitations in Michigan in regards to school choice and is not available to every child in MI.

2sunshines

01-14-2006, 09:59 AM

Michigan is not listed as a school choice state because there are limitations in Michigan in regards to school choice and is not available to every child in MI.

I was not aware of this. When I look at the website you listed it lists Michigan as:

Public school choice: Interdistrict/voluntary

So, it sounds like school districts within MIchigan can choice whether or not to participate in school choice. Very interesting... :think

Epieikeia

01-14-2006, 10:04 AM

Public school choice: Interdistrict/voluntary
So, it sounds like school districts within MIchigan can choice whether or not to participate in school choice. Very interesting...

Yeah that is how I understood it....it's only as good as where you live in MI.

Roma

01-15-2006, 10:20 AM

i wanted to watch the show but fell asleep...........i do think our schools are pitiful and plan on HS but i also wanted to offer that in other modern countries they weed out the kids that wouldn't succeed starting in the 5th grade. my family lived in Western Europe for 2 years. My brother was in the public school system there and at the end of 5th grade had 2 days of exams to be able to move on to sixth grade. This happens again before high school. If we did that too we'd be ranked higher. No excuse for sure, but it isn't fair to compare us to the rest of the world when we let everyone stay

threecubs

01-15-2006, 10:38 AM

Roma

01-15-2006, 10:41 AM

i'll ask my brother......... :popcorn

2sunshines

01-15-2006, 02:39 PM

Wow, that is a very interesting fact that I had no clue about. I'd love to hear what happens to the kids that don't pass those tests.

Another thing that I found interesting was when they showed that chart with the US ranking near the bottom and all those countries ranking higher in education, I saw (although they didn't specifically mention) that Canada was no. 7. I grew up in Canada and I had no clue that education was really that much different here. I'd love to understand what makes Canadian kids rank higher than American kids and what precisely they are doing differently in the school system, because some of the bigger differences, such as Roma pointed out, do not happen in Canada, kwim?

hsgbdmama

01-16-2006, 10:35 AM

Since the voucher program in Milwaukee was mentioned, and WI's gov has vetoed expanding the program THREE times, here is something from today's Opinion Journal, entitled "He's Throwing Away My Dream" by John Fund. http://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/ The commentary shows that WI's teacher's union has a similar mindset to many other unions: spend more. :td

Roma

01-16-2006, 05:26 PM

ok talked to my bro and stepmom

their recollection was you don't pass and had to repeat. i asked what happened if you kept not passing. bro wasn't sure. stepmom said she was grateful she never had to ask (bro passed despite taking it in a language he'd only been speaking for 9 months :) but her guess was vocational type schoo. bro also said starting in 9th grade they were already separated by interest: science school, arts, etc....i guess kind of like magnets here. also the unemployment rate was something like 20% and people there live with their parents until almost 30 because the economy is so bad so i think maybe it is just accepted that some people don't go on. also brother said that the reason countries like Italy and Germany can pay for everyone to go to college is because not as many people go like in the states.

doesn't explain why we're so bad but gives a different perspective.