For lovers of alternative education for children

This thread fro 2013

Some of you know I homeschool. I've been a student and lover of alternative forms and methods for teaching children for years. Sugata Mitra is on the cutting edge of envisioning the learning methods for the next generation, through his work in India and all over the world with his experiments in self-guided learning for children. This is one of his TED talks: Sugata Mitra on building a School in the Cloud I love this guy, and have been following his work for a few years. Hope you enjoy it.

BTW, if you are stuck on traditional forms of education, that video may be dangerous to your health...it might rock your world!

Paul, I don't want to take this on a tangent, but I'm not sure that the question has been asked on the forum before:

If you lived in a good school district (figure top 3000 in the country, out of about 13,000), would you're family still be a home-schooled one? Would your answer be the same if this was the fact when your oldest was entering school?

mtn wrote: Paul, I don't want to take this on a tangent, but I'm not sure that the question has been asked on the forum before: If you lived in a good school district (figure top 3000 in the country, out of about 13,000), would you're family still be a home-schooled one? Would your answer be the same if this was the fact when your oldest was entering school?

I can't answer for Paul, but sometimes the school isn't the issue. My wife and I decided to home school one of our kids this year. She was enrolled (and the other two are) in the best school in the county, and usually rated the best in the state. Not best school district, but the best single school. But, it just didn't work for my daughter. We are going to home school for at least a few years for her to help her out.
We do plan on HSing for high school for all of them. There are curriculum's out there that award a 2-year degree along with the high school diploma for completing grades 9-12.

And trust me, I was quite anti-home school just 18 months ago. Ask Paul, we've had the discussion.
Paul, I still plan on calling you to discuss a few things. Last week was just too CRAZY!

Thanks Paul, I'll send this link to my wife as well.

Our 4-year old just started home school this week. My wife came home from the school supply store with all kinds of cool stuff. I'm not sure who was more excited, her or the kids!

mtn wrote: Paul, I don't want to take this on a tangent, but I'm not sure that the question has been asked on the forum before: If you lived in a good school district (figure top 3000 in the country, out of about 13,000), would you're family still be a home-schooled one? Would your answer be the same if this was the fact when your oldest was entering school?

That's a good question. I grew up in one of the top rated school districts in the country, and my father taught there. Trust me, I do wish we had other options.

So, to answer your question, I think if we had always had good schools available to us I would not have considered homeschooling. That's too bad, because I think we would have missed a lot.

Being around bad schools has given me a great opportunity to consider things carefully, try alternative methods, discover great creative approaches, be challenged, and meet hundreds of interesting people who have helped me and my family grow. It has worked well for us, and I am thankful for it.

I guess you could say that bad schools have made me a better father, and even a better man. It's an opportunity I would not have explored if I didn't have to, and now that I have discovered it (and reconsidered how narrow my thinking used to be), I like sharing it with others.

Thanks Paul, I'm passing this along to Colleen. Even though she's a "traditional" 3rd grade teacher now, she's always excited to learn about other methods.

Those of you who have met her will probably understand the use of quotes.

In reply to 16vCorey:

Love the quotes! Have you told Colleen lately that she's "traditional"?

I don't think the message in the TED talk has anything to do with homeschooling. I think ALL educators (and parents) of every flavor could learn quite a bit from it.

I wouldn't dare!

I hadn't watched it yet (being that I'm at work) so I didn't really know if it was home-school specific or not.

Not impressed at all. His justification is that he put a computer in a hole in a wall with a camera and children in the slums of India learned to use it. Oh boy please let this guy reform the education system. Well it cant be worse then no child left behind so go for it. I mean really though this is just silly.

xd wrote: Not impressed at all. His justification is that he put a computer in a hole in a wall with a camera and children in the slums of India learned to use it. Oh boy please let this guy reform the education system. Well it cant be worse then no child left behind so go for it. I mean really though this is just silly.

You haven't studied Common Core, I take it?

xd wrote: Not impressed at all. His justification is that he put a computer in a hole in a wall with a camera and children in the slums of India learned to use it. Oh boy please let this guy reform the education system. Well it cant be worse then no child left behind so go for it. I mean really though this is just silly.

I'm not the post perceptive dude around, so I could have missed the point here. I don't think he's saying we should just put computers in holes in walls. I think he's saying we don't NEED the structure we have today, with it's rigidity. Kids will learn, if we just allow them to.

Is alternative education where you teach with Pearl Jam?

xd wrote: His justification is that he put a _____ in a hole in a wall with a camera and children in the slums of India learned to _____ it.

It's a lot funnier if you do a Kimmel skit with that sentence.

Just shared this on my FB page. Got me thinking about the "big questions" as they apply to driver education. Driving being an experiential activity is hand-cuffed by bureaucratic ideals of KNOWING. The amount of alcohol in a standard beer, the right of way at a 4 way stop, the law, etc. Considering I have to spend thirty hours in class and only 6 in the car using SOLE will prove difficult. I will give it a go. Do you just leave a car in the parking lot with the keys in it and walk away?

In reply to xd:

Way to miss the point.

But that's OK. I am quite certain that the point wasn't to impress you at all.

Fortunately, you are not one of the judges of the TED Prize, who awarded him $1million to continue researching and developing his "silly" idea (the same group that debuted such "silly" ideas as the Apple Macintosh Computer).

logdog wrote: Is alternative education where you teach with Pearl Jam?

Pearl Jam would be mainstream education...

gamby wrote:

logdog wrote: Is alternative education where you teach with Pearl Jam?

Pearl Jam would be mainstream education...

Categories are defined by BMG/Columbia House CD club advertisements from 1994

In reply to Ffaiam :

Classes all taught in a very shiny canoe.

Term Paper spam deleted!

I find it amusing every once in a while to hear myself speak from the past. 

If anyone cares, 4 out of 5 were homeschooled all the way through the end of high school. #5 is currently in an exceptionally good public high school.

If I had it to do again (Even with the availability of a really good public school), I would homeschool. And if I could make the choice again, #5 would be in homeschool through the end of high school too- not public school. 

I admit that it doesn’t work for everyone.  (But I also feel that too many people fail to try it, and that it would work well for a LOT more people)

In reply to nderwater :

PM me if you want to chat about it. 

Forgive my ignorance but I know NOTHING about homeschooling.  I had never thought about homeschooling but it does intrigue me.  My wife majored in Elementary Education but no longer teaches and now works from home.

I'm not unhappy with my kids' school exactly, just unhappy with what is available.  I feel that I'm putting my kids at a disadvantage compared to kids in bigger/better funded schools.  They currently go to the best school in our county(according to standardized testing).  Do you have to follow a set curriculum from the state or are you able to change things?  An example of something I'm not happy with in public schools is waiting until high school to start foreign language classes.  Kids have a much better chance of catching on in grade school.  My oldest daughter is in 4th grade and already in Quest(gifted and talented).  I don't want her to be slowed down by her peers if she's willing and eager to learn.

Tell me more.

Give Paul (SVreX ) a call or PM. I talked with him a ton before we starting homeschooling. I still use what he told me as an example of what homeschool life is like: "Every pizza is a math lesson." And that pretty much lays it out. Learning happens all the time, you snatch it out of thin air, turn it into something teachable, and go on without skipping a beat. Of course we have structured school time and a dedicated homeschool room, so it isn't total anarchy.

But Paul knows a ton about it and he won't steer you wrong.

In reply to slefain :

Thank you for the vote of confidence.