Dr. Milgram, math professor at Stanford and member of the Common Core validation committee who refused to sign off on the standards
Dr. Stotsky, English professor at the University of Arkansas who also refused to sign off on Common Core
Charlotte Iserbyt, senior policy advisor at the Dept. of Education under President Reagan, who blew the whistle on the DOEd activities in her book “The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America.” Available for free online (www.deliberatedumbingdown.com)
Many of you probably wonder at Dr. Milgram’s comments if you are capable of homeschooling your children or if you will somehow hurt their education. Please recognize that damage is already being done in the school system. By teachers being the authority figures in your children’s lives, they are more likely to believe their “teacher” than their parent in some areas of education. How many of us have heard, “the teacher showed me the right way to do it”? Read this parent’s recent comment on another post:
I am not a teacher, but a parent of a 3rd grader, and I have to say Common Core stinks. If you are going to implement a new way of teaching then you need to teach the parents the techniques. I cannot help my child at all. She is so confused. Worksheets give little to no instruction and are missing information that is key to solving math problems. Math is not a guessing game. When she brought home the worksheet for graphs there were no identifiers. If I provided a graph like that in a business meeting I would be fired. I have yet to see a question about a reading assignment that isn’t completely vague. My daughters standard answer to ” why might this author have written this story”? Is ” to entertain us”. I thought she was being a smart alec, until I saw that the teacher graded her answer as correct. I now read all of the books and stories that are assigned and make up questions that will cause her to think about what she learned or why she liked/disliked the story. I want her to understand what she is reading.
The other thing I don’t like about this is that I no longer get graded assignments sent home. Apparently, the teacher needs to keep them so she can see how a child is progressing. Umm, I too would like to know how she is doing. Grades are one thing, but if I can’t see her work I can’t tell what she needs help with. Also, the teacher does not have the kids fix their mistakes. She does it for them, and moves in to the next lesson. Someone please tell me how anyone learns this way?
My child is being robbed of her education, and I feel helpless. I’ve always thought school was a necessary part of a child’s development, but I’m now seriously considering homeschool.
If you have thought about homeschooling but it frightens you and you wonder if you could do it, Kristen Chevrier, an excellent homeschool parent who blogs at http://homeschoolwise.com/, will be presenting at the upcoming Agency-Based Education conference on November 9th on the topic “I’ve thought about homeschooling but where the heck do I start?” Click here for details and to register. This is an excellent opportunity to get empowered in dealing with your child’s education.
Twenty years ago we were living in Colorado. Our youngest child was seven, and I couldn’t stop thinking about homeschooling her. I won’t go into all the reasons why I detested public school or how poorly she was doing, but I had been toying with the idea for 2 years, but too afraid to do it.
So one day I went to a homeschooling fair and bought great teaching materials, met new friends (mentors) and then pulled my daughter out of school. The eight years we homeschooled were life-changing, life-defining, and incredible years for us. Our daughter learned quickly and thrived. We got her in a demanding choir; she excelled in piano; became a math whiz, and loves to read. She did well in college and has become a beautiful, moral, CONSERVATIVE woman (and wife)!