SERIES, SERIES EVERYWHERE …
I didn’t realize when I blogged the Des Moines Register piece yesterday that it’s part of a series — and a very even-handed one at that. The only thing I’ve found to quibble with so far actually comes from a former homeschooler:
Abigail Frank was home-schooled for several years while she was elementary-school age, then enrolled in traditional school permanently in the fourth grade. She said it was important that she and her siblings went to public school as they got older.
Parents who decide to home-school their children through high school need to be concerned about its effect on the social development with peers, said the 18-year-old, now a freshman at Drake University.
While home-schooling children through high school “has worked very well for some people,” Abigail said, there is risk of isolation and lack of interaction with different kinds of people and cultures.
I don’t know that someone who’s been public-schooled since fourth grade is really the best source for impressions about homeschooling through high school. More to the point would have been someone who went back in, say, 10th or 11th grade, no?
In any case, you can find the whole shebang, including, I presume, tomorrow’s concluding segments, here.
Then there’s day two of the Daily Local series, whose main piece again manages to talk realistically about both the joys and the challenges of homeschooling without resorting to scare tactics. There’s also a sidebar that offers some comic relief:
Sheri White, an Exton psychologist, said children in public or private schools can experience negative interaction with their classmates. However, she said, traditional school settings also offer students an opportunity to work out social difficulties.
“Participation in the institutions does help prepare them for dealing with our social institutions as adults,” said White.
She also said classmates, who are at roughly the same development level as their peers, can serve as role models for each other.
One Response to “SERIES, SERIES EVERYWHERE …”
 Comment by Sam(antha) December 14th, 2004 at 9:33 am |
Children of the same age are rarely at the same developmental level. And children are the worst role models for children. |