Journey To The Center Of... Homeschooling
Show Notes with Time Codes
Segment I

01:00 Discussed the question posed in the last show. Last week we decided that we both hate standardized tests.
02:10 Talk of the Nation discussed the failure of education last night.
03:00 There's no long term incentive to improve education.
05:00 What's the deal with Home Schooling?
05:50 It's not the role of the government to school my children. It's the parent's responsibility.
06:20 Doesn't the PTA handle the school curriculum problem?
07:00 If we agree on parents role in education. They should guide their children and do not have enough control and input in public school.
08:20 Study from about 15 years ago, one of the leading indicators of future economic success, was the presense of books in the home.
09:30 All education is self-education. If we can't teach someone to self educate themselves, we really haven't accomplished anything. Which points to the problem with standardized testing.
10:45 It is the parent that helps inculcate a child's ability to self educate, but that doesn't negate public education.
11:10 Steve's education really happened at home since his public school sucked (almost like home schooling).
11:40 Brant: the presence of books is important. The brightest people he knows were heavy book reader.
12:20 Kenneth Anger: "Television is the vampire of time"
13:50 The parent who are willing to home school, are already the parents who will raise smart kids. As opposed to Randy Weaver living in isolation in Ruby Ridge.
14:45 Steve: Parents would almost be as involved in public school as if home-school.
15:10 A guy in Massachusetts was arrested when he went to preschool, to prevent his child from being exposed to a topic being discussed, for trespassing on school grounds.
16:30 Public and home schooling problems are indicitive of a lack of control of the curriculum.
16:40 Brant: it's impossible to separate ideology from education. No matter what, in public school you'll end up with and an ideology that is not the parent's ideology being taught to the children.
18:00 Things to discuss in the next segment: collectivization of resources, economies of scale, efficiency. Applying industrial models to public education is fraught with danger. Centrifugal and centripetal forces in education.

Segment II

21:40 John Taylor Gatto talks about the 6 functions of public education, integrative being one of those.
22:10 Steve: How do home schooled kids not end up being social freaks? Social misfits?
23:30 Brant: Of course there's no social misfits in public school.
24:05 R.C. Sproul, Jr. If the goal of education is the socialization by locking my 10 year old in a room with a bunch of other kids just like him.
25:50 The goal of home schooling is to shelter the kids
26:30 You don't need to be an expert to instruct kids, you can hire a tutor.
29:40 Importance of public education helps to bring this nation of immigrants together.
31:40 Founding fathers had a real fear or someone seizing the reins of governance.
34:00 Public education has become a form of ideology.
36:50 Want children to idenify first with the family. Which is why home schooling is necessary.
37:30 If the American experiment is about the idea of freedom and the rule of law (and not of people) then an American identity will emerge from the home schooling experience.
38:00 Kids are not as susceptible to the entertainment complex if they are raise by strong parents.
39:00 People are more susceptible to advertising and media when they can't think well.

Segment III

42:00 Cladistic forces at work.
44:50 In light of how many crazy people that are out there, it's scary to think that these people might home school their children.
47:50 If the Christian community has their own church and home schooling, they will not attempt to force their ideology on others absent of the current state mandated controls.
50:00 Total home schooling would become chaos.
50:40 Broad scale social experiments usually fail.
51:30 You can't just shut down the public school system and switch to home schooling.
52:00 John Mark Reynolds says that 99% of new things fail and go bad this is why we know about the 1% of classical music.
53:00 If we leave the responsibility of home schooling to the parents, it can be a gradual sort of change. Which is why Brants kids will not be a part of the public school system.
53:40 If I'm willing to home school my kids, the state should be willing to step out of the way and allow it to happen.
54:40 How well does home schooling prepare kids for the work force?
55:20 Homeschooling allows for much more freedom in curriculum.
56:00 Worst way to prepare kids for the work force is to send them to college. It's unfortunate that so many employers have come to rely so heavily on diplomas when deciding employment.
58:00 Conclusions: Mega schools don't work. Standardized testing doesn't work. Smaller and more nimble schools will teach children better. Home schooling is taylor made for this.

Fin

Music played in this show is entirely available from the Podsafe Music Network. These numbers included:

• Cold Cloth and an Ice pack Derek K Miller (Penmachine podcast)
• Ecstatic (Radio Edit) Lovespirals
• Mos Isley Maximum Angel
• Boy Seventeen Delphinium Blue
• White Hotel Torchomatic