Unschooling (boy, ten year old, drugs, graduating)
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Our school system does not teach science until third grade, and then only one semester of the year (social studies gets the other semester). Though the kindergarten teachers are wont to do the "bean in wet cotton" thing every other year, alternating with "keep a mealworm in a box until it becomes a beetle, dies, or escapes".
However, I'm perfectly willing to accept that our school system is hardly the creme de la creme, and perhaps in other, more enlightened parts of the country, young Herschel and Lilliana are studying classical unified field theory long before they hit puberty. Maybe in Cambridge?
From what I hear from parents with kids in schools out here, science is generally not taught in elementary school anymore. My niece is lucky because she goes to a school that has a science focus, so she does get a good amount of it. However, they also don't have social studies anymore. I guess some places still have those things, but it just isn't the case out here most of the time.
From what I hear from parents with kids in schools out here, science is generally not taught in elementary school anymore. My niece is lucky because she goes to a school that has a science focus, so she does get a good amount of it. However, they also don't have social studies anymore. I guess some places still have those things, but it just isn't the case out here most of the time.
I don't know where you got that from, but it's mandatory curriculum here in Connecticut. I just checked the Dept. of Education's website for elementary school; both physical sciences and social sciences are required for all *elementary school* grades.
I do remember when I was in High School, we had to complete "x" credits between grades 10-graduation, with a minimum of one course in each year, but not in each semester. So I loaded up on human psychology, history, chemistry, and electronics in grades 10 and 11, so in my last year I only had to take one class of the sciences. The entire rest of my senior year was all writing, literature, grammar, one math class (computer programming: BASIC), and gym.
I imagine the requirements aren't that much different now, though they've probably lowered the standards.
I can honestly say that I have reached my mid-fifties without that nursery rhyme ever coming up in conversation, casual or scholastic. I have, however, been in conversations in which people bring up any number of things I'm unfamiliar with or disinterested in, like who's playing in the Super Bowl, or what JLo wore to the Grammy Awards, or the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow. Either I make a vague but polite reply, keep my mouth shut and let others talk, or respond with a qualifying dissemblance: "African, or European?"
I daresay the same would serve some unlikely person who somehow managed to make it to adulthood without ever hearing of Christopher Columbus.
I would find it shocking to meet an adult who had not heard of Christopher Columbus. I'm not a big fan of "Core Knowledge", but I do agree with the principle that there are some facts that an educated person knows.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aconite
Why do we (for certain quantities of "we" which equal "those who write curricula for public schoolchildren") assume general science is something children are not ready for until third grade? Moreover, why do we classify the basic principles of physics, chemistry, or herpetology as "general science, fit for third graders" and not "basic principles of physics, chemistry, or herpetology"? Are we afraid eight year olds are too dim to understand that there are different kinds of science? They aren't, in my experience. Even the very youngest kids in our co-op understood that when Mr. Mike was teaching them "herpetology", he was bringing in his snakes, and not his fossils or his star maps, and the average nine year old can sling terms like species, family and taxonomy like nobody's business if they're interested enough-- whether or not they can read books about them (and often, a deeper interest is the trigger for gains in reading ability, no matter how old the child-- though I suspect you knew that).
Well, if you read nana's post, she said some of that is taught in kindergarten. I'm just going by memory of my own kids; my oldest turned 27 today, and my baby will soon be 24, so it's been a long time since I had a kid in elementary school. And it is not possible to learn that stuff at any kind of higher level, if you don't know how to read.
Last edited by Katarina Witt; 03-14-2011 at 08:57 PM..
Education varies tremendously across the country, which is unfortunate. For that matter, it can vary tremendously at two schools in the same district. I'm not sure any educational system that would "chew up a kid and spit him out" is one I'd find compatible with my family, but I'm sure it works well for others.
signed,
aconite, who went to boarding school in Massachusetts and was told by the house directors that the townies were skeery and we should avoid them
It is sad that education can be so different across the states. I was not implying that it was all the educational system that would spit them out, it's the kids too.
Your house directors were right, we are skeery. I am certainly not blind to the fact that there are way too many parents here are "over-zealous" shall we say? In the end though, my kids benefited from a good education because of the skeery people.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zimbochick
I know that this may come as a shock to some, but it is possible to supplement a traditional public school education. I know I am nowhere near qualified to teach core subjects, but I am more than capable of doing science experiments at home, going to the museum or planetarium, teaching a second language, doing sophisticated art projects, helping them grow a vegetable garden. Just because these things are not covered in public schools does not mean their education stops the minute they walk out the door. You know, like the best of both worlds?
This is spot on. Unschooling sounds like parenting, I don't get it. Homeschooling I completely get, unschooling is an extension of parenting. Maybe some far out there parenting but parenting nonetheless.
It is sad that education can be so different across the states. I was not implying that it was all the educational system that would spit them out, it's the kids too.
Your house directors were right, we are skeery. I am certainly not blind to the fact that there are way too many parents here are "over-zealous" shall we say? In the end though, my kids benefited from a good education because of the skeery people.
This is spot on. Unschooling sounds like parenting, I don't get it. Homeschooling I completely get, unschooling is an extension of parenting. Maybe some far out there parenting but parenting nonetheless.
What we have found since we move quite a bit with my husbands job, is that it is not only different from state to state but betweens districts in a state it can be different.
Instead of working on "No Child Left Behind", I think we need to work on having the same requirements in every state for education. It has been very eye opening the differences we have observed with the different districts as well as different states.
Last edited by ajzjmsmom; 03-15-2011 at 09:01 AM..
What we have found since we move quite a bit with my husbands job, is that it is not only different from state to state but betweens districts in a state is can be different.
Instead of working on "No Child Left Behind", I think we need to work on having the same requirements in every state for education. It has been very eye opening the differences we have observed with the different districts as well as different states.
There is some work being done on national standards.
I've heard other people say that. I have a friend who said that every time they moved, it was the year to study state history in the new state, therefore, she got Tennessee history, Mississippi history, and several others states' history. Nevertheless, she got a good education.
I know that this may come as a shock to some, but it is possible to supplement a traditional public school education. I know I am nowhere near qualified to teach core subjects, but I am more than capable of doing science experiments at home, going to the museum or planetarium, teaching a second language, doing sophisticated art projects, helping them grow a vegetable garden. Just because these things are not covered in public schools does not mean their education stops the minute they walk out the door. You know, like the best of both worlds?
In the best case scenarios, that's true. Absolutely. Probably even in moderate-to-good scenarios. In fact, I think I said that earlier, though phrased somewhat differently, when I was talking about combining different educational approaches.
But I have to wonder: if we're going to teach sex ed, money management, "character education" and a thousand other things on the rationale that [some] parents simply aren't teaching them at home, then why aren't we, as taxpayers and stakeholders in the school system, placing the same emphasis on science and social studies? (Besides the obvious answer in my state, which has to do with Rick Scott, Michelle Rhee, and their animosity toward education in general.)
By the way our school district science curriculum begins in K.
Here too my kids were learning both science and history starting in Kindergarten (well actually preschool but that was private not public).
Yes they did the old stanbys i.e. planting a seed in a paper cup and observing caterpillars change into butterflies. But just because the teacher doesn't say "OK kids now we're learning science" doesn't mean it's not happening. Just last week my first grader's reading comprehenson work was about minerals. In the last few weeks alone he's read about the atmosphere, fungus, spiders and tides. Yes it was part of reading but it's also science. History lessons are intergrated the same way. I would venture to guess most schools out there teach this way. I've never had a test where I had to regurgitate dates and I don't see my kids doing that either.
I agree that unschooling to me seems more like parenting than schooling. Part of parenting is helping your children learn about the world around them using all of the resources at your disposal. It reminds me of the old Chris Rock routine where people brag that they take care of their kids. His response is "you're SUPPOSED to take care of your kids!"
I don't know where you got that from, but it's mandatory curriculum here in Connecticut. I just checked the Dept. of Education's website for elementary school; both physical sciences and social sciences are required for all *elementary school* grades.
I do remember when I was in High School, we had to complete "x" credits between grades 10-graduation, with a minimum of one course in each year, but not in each semester. So I loaded up on human psychology, history, chemistry, and electronics in grades 10 and 11, so in my last year I only had to take one class of the sciences. The entire rest of my senior year was all writing, literature, grammar, one math class (computer programming: BASIC), and gym.
I imagine the requirements aren't that much different now, though they've probably lowered the standards.
Requirements are considerably different now than when I was in high school-- they're different from when my eldest children were in high school, AAMOF. The biggest changes that I've seen, though, from eldest children to youngest, are at the elementary and middle school levels. The emphasis on teaching for testing has contributed toward making elementary school one of the most dreary, joyless places I've seen in ages. If I had to teach public school third grade I'd be eying the cutlery on a daily basis.
Last edited by Aconite; 03-15-2011 at 08:47 AM..
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