Keebler reminded me of a funny thing that happened at his work last year. The other tech working the site with him was only an inch taller than he is. (Keebler is 5'3".) He said it was quite the visial, both of them looking into this hole in the wall trying to figure out a problem, looking nothing so much as gnomes with tools. Then he informed me that gnomes with tools is a terribly frightening thing, and after my blank stare of several seconds, he went on to explain.
It seems that (In the world of D&D), gnomes were, as a race, cursed by some deity or another to have eveything they build turn to crap. Gnomes are great builders and mechanics he tells me, but there is always a design flaw or some other problem that frags the project. Then I'm informed that one or two gnomes working on a thing isn't too bad, as long as there is a human engineer there as well to check for flaws and make repairs, but that one of the most terrifying things many realmdwellers can imagine is an entire tribe(?) of gnomes, with really good tools, and unlimited materials. DOOM and DESPAIR!!
So I remembered to write this, after learning that while some cities are nearly ignoring gender in the schools (letting the kids dress however they like and providing unisex bathrooms), the Springfield Public school system is considering segregrating students by gender (because boys are more self-confident but have shorter attention spans, and girls are more self-consious, but can think for longer periods of time). *gasp* As if the genitals you are born with have any danged thing to do with what kind of person you are or what your learning style is! *growl*
Then I read that in another local school district, the higher grades are being taught that skinny is beautiful with manditory body fat testing, added exercise, and consistent heart monitoring (to see how fast they are loosing weight). I feel really sorry for those poor kids with medical conditions (like diabetes or thyroid disorders) in situations like this. And it really is shocking (read the article) as part of the testing is an electrical shock administered to each student. *shudder*
And this is yet another great example of why I homeschool and fight for homeschool and educational freedoms for all people, but I wonder; for how long have gnomes been working in the policy offices of the public school systems, and how do we take their tools away?
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More by Kryistina ~*~ Frugal Diva Extraordinaire ~*~ |
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Comments: 28
I, too, believe that parents ought to homeschool. We pass on to children a world filled with chaos. Too bad public and private schools are both fertile soil for a lot of the damage young people must in endure.
Bravo for you in that you have realized what the true American dream is, and have used plain old common sense to act on that realization.
I would love to home school one day... Boys and girls DO learn differently, and adapting teaching to your child's learning style can be a great benefit to them.
I homeschooled 2 girls and they are doing wonderfully well as adults now.
Some girls learn much better this way - they don't feel they have to dumb down in order for boys to like them and can actually learn more.
I homeschooled my daughter for a year after she was held back in Kindergarden, and they wanted to hold her back a second time. (She was short and did not fit in with other kids which caused some other problems.) I schooled her for 1st grade, and then we moved to a different school district and I tried public school again. My daughter blossomed in 2nd grade with a wonderful teacher. 3rd grade she did great as well with her first male teacher. I still do alot of at home reading with her and my younger 3, and ask her about what is going on, and help her with things she does not understand. Basically I suppliment her work she is doing at school.
After all of this, I believe that there are hundreds of different "good ways" to teach kids, you just have to match them up with the right kids. I think the public school system would be 1000 times better if there was alot more parent involvement in the classroom in grades 1-5 to make sure their kids were doing what they need to and add more adult supervision to the kids learning for the first formulative years.
I had cupcakes in public school all the time but would have preferred an apple or kiwifruit. My eldest daughter couldn't have cupcakes when she was in public school. Not because of a school rule but because she is allergic to both blue and red.With veggie bites she would be allowed to have a treat. There is good and bad to everything I guess.
Here's the best advice I ever heard about homeschooling; "Homeschooling is exactly as hard as you make it."
I took that to mean that the cost, time, and work are all only as hard as you make them for yourself and your family. I got that advice when I first started this journey, and now, several years later, I have found both the words themselves, and my personal intrepretation(sp?) of them to be one of life's ultimate truths. *smile*
Personally I'd rather be the forefront of my kids' education and social engineering than be the sad little woman in the back row trying to correct problems that never needed to occur, but maybe that's just me?
My hubby is impressed with your L337n3$$ in that you knew which gnomes he was talking about, but now has begun to blame bank overdraft charges on a collaborative effort between the Gnomes of Mount Nevermind, and the Gnomes of Zurich!
It's logical anyway! *laugh*
As for the schools, well the education mafia in this country is always trying to come up with some new trend. This is because there are lots of government grants out there for the NEA to get its hands on. This wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that every few years programs are disgarded because they don't bring instantaneous results.
I'll save the weight issue for another day.
i liked the genome part :-)
as far as homeschooling is concerned , well i had time of my life at scholl and if were in homeschool, I would have felt like in prison , but may be things were not that bad at my home town ten years ago ... here nowadys schools interview parents and parents have to take tests before school admit their wards ..thats weird that if someone is uneducated he/she can't put their kids to a nice school.. education standrds are improving here in India and lot of healthy activities are encouraged , be it sports , civic behaviour or food ..but recently they have come up with a new rule "no public display of affection between girls and boys ..that means if you hold hand or hug a memeber of opposite sex in school , u wil be penalised " students all over India are in shock ...i donno what to say either ..
:-)