For those of you who live in the southeast, you’ll understand. It’s inevitable that nearly everything is covered in a layer of yellow dust, including cars, streets, buildings, everything. It also does wonders for allergies!
Okay, so the title is a little tongue-in-cheek, but it does get the point across. I’ve been asked to share my opinion on what I think about homeschooling, so here is how I feel about homeschooling.
As a starting point, it’s hard to say what I have to say without a bias. I only have the experience of being home schooled aside from private school from K4-2nd grade, and my current experiences at a private college. I can not accurately compare my experience to that of one I might have received with a public/private school education.
As far as homeschooling is concerned, I did enjoy it. There are specific advantages to homeschooling that aren’t provided at your typical school. With homeschooling, you’re free to move at your on pace (be it slower, or faster) while not limited to the learning pace of other students in the class. Many times, I could be finished with the days work before noon, and have the rest of the afternoon to spend as I please. There were also some other local advantages that not every family may have, such as trips away from home. My dad for what he does, is required to travel a lot across the United States, and us being home schooled allowed us the distinct advantage to go with him where ever he went.
That’s not to say that there aren’t disadvantages of home schooling, I think there are actually quite a few. For starters, one does not gain the experience of being able to network with peers and friends, and out in the real world that’s exactly what you have to do. You need to learn how to get along with others, even those who you may not see eye-to-eye with, and if you’re home schooled for all of your schooling years, you may be in for quite a culture shock once you reach the college level. In short, there might be a lack of social interaction with others in your day-to-day activities. You also may miss out in some of the various activities that are provided at schools such as band, sports, clubs, and any other events that may normally happen at schools. I am aware that such opportunities do exist, where there are home school sports teams and home school bands, but the availability of such really depends on where you live and if there are enough people interested.
So what is my overall view of homeschooling? I am not a proponent of “pure” homeschooling. I believe that there should be a mixture of both schooling at a private/public school along with home schooling. At what points do you determine which they should attend? It really honestly depends on the child. The bible tells us,
Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it. — Proverbs 22:6
At a young age children are easily influenced, and will listen to correction and guidance. I think home schooling at a young age is important, you can instill in them Godly qualities for when the time does come that you feel they are ready for a public/private education. At that point if you have trained them up to seek God first above all you should have nothing to worry about.
In a nutshell, that is how I feel about homeschooling vs a public/private education. I do not think that either one is better than the other, it really depends on the situation that you are in, and the key is if God is leading you to home school in the first place. If so, I strongly believe that a mixture of both will help to further that child’s education.
A picture is worth 1000 words, and the following comic describes it all:
I’ve been kind of busy lately, I guess its the usual. Projects, classes, homework, same old, same old… But a lot of other things are going on in the background too that are keeping me occupied as well. So I could use a little prayer if you wouldn’t mind.
In other news, my iPod has finally returned after almost 6 weeks of being “fixed” by BestBuy. I can finally listen to something else in the car other than my radio. Yay!
I was originally going to make this long intricate post about things. But Calvin describes it so well. It’s amazing how so many people aspire to do great things, or achieve a specific goal. Not that either one is a bad thing in it’s own right, but the majority of the time it’s the simple things that really make an impact on your life. I guess I’ve had plenty of time this summer to consider my future and what kind of things I would like to happen, but I’ve come to the reality that there’s honestly not that much I want in life to be happy. I honestly don’t care if I have a high paying job, I just want to do something where I can be happy. I would love to have a wife and a family someday as well, someone that I enjoy spending time with. Kids that I can watch grow up and play with them. I don’t think that’s too much to ask for, is it?
It’s like the Peanuts comics, “Happyness is…” It’s the simple things that really make life special. Spending time with friends. Enjoying a hot (humid if you’re in Alabama) summer day outside. Exploring some place new that you’ve never been before. Sometimes I wish I could go back to being 10 when life felt so much simpler than it did now.
Yes, it’s that time of year folks. I hope you got your tax returns in! Even though I got mine in especially early, the above image generally describes how I feel about taxes. Oh well, at least I’ll get most of it back say… a few months from now… with no interest.
In other news, I beat my brother (again) in golf this time by 10 strokes. He has yet to beat me in a game of golf… no, putt-putt doesn’t count either. Anyways, I went over to my grandparent’s house in Georgia and played a round of golf with my Uncle Kevin, my cousin Ryan and of course, my brother. Always nice to get away from home and do something like that.
I think the image below accurately describes the current situation with the election for governor in 2006:
We have Lucy Baxley… who hasn’t really done anything so no one really knows who she is. Then there’s Don Siegelman who attempted a failed lottery proposal and who is suspected to be indicted by a federal grand jury in the upcoming future. However, on the republican side of the election Roy Moore recently announced plans to run for governor as well. Finally we have Bob Riley who failed an education proposal early on in his first term as governor announcing his plans for re-election as well. All I have to say, is this will prove to be a rather interesting election this next year.
