GilfordGrok

This past Saturday, we had Dr. DiMinico and Ken Wiswell on Meet The New Press (I'll be posting up the video soon) talking about NCLB.  I suppose that if I rewatched the video, I'd remember how we got on the topic of vouchers.

I am in favor of vouchers - we allow for free market competition in almost all other markets except for elementary / high school education.  I do not believe it unreasonable that EVERY child deserves a publicly funded education - after all, we do that now!  Dr. D certainly is behind the "Follow the Child" philosophy; I just want to preface that with "Let the Money" too!

Well, Dr. DiMinco immediately brought up John Dewey (guess we'll have to look into his philosophy of education) and one other person who I cannot remember in defense of public education when I brought up home schooling.

Then he immediately came up with the example of a home school parent that would take the money and spend it on themselves instead of educating their child as the antithesis of public education.  Well, I should have ID'd right then and there as the silly outlier example it is (possible, yes....probable?).

Instead, let me go to the OTHER extreme and show what a home schooler parent has done that is probably WAY beyond what most school systems would do (once again, H/T: Joanne Jacobs emphasis mine):

Learning starts at home

Home-schooling has spread far beyond religious or counterculture families, writes Gregory Millman, a home-schooling father of six, in the Washington Post.

We joined a Shakespeare troupe founded by a single mother who was a college professor of literature. She taught the children to find the characters through the language, and they staged a complete Shakespeare play every year. Other members of that troupe founded a home-schooled robotics team, building robots to compete in regional, national and international events. We founded a debate and speech team that continues to compete at the middle school and high school levels.

The results? Studies have shown that home-schooled children outperform the conventionally schooled not only on standardized academic tests but also on tests of social skills.

Home-schooled students outperform conventionally schooled students on college admissions tests, and earn higher grades in college, according to admissions officers at Indiana University-Purdue and at Georgia’s Kennesaw State University.

Associate Dean Joyce Reed of Brown University has called home-schoolers “the epitome of Brown students,” telling the university’s alumni magazine that “they are self-directed, they take risks, and they don’t back off.”

Home-schooling parents are, by definition, highly motivated, education-first people so it’s not surprising their children tend to do well.

Hmmm, I wonder how home schoolers compare to the IB students that Dr. DiMinico is gushing about lately...standardized tests might tell us more...