Education

[Lil Red]

[quote name='Archaeology cat' date='13 September 2009 - 09:15 AM' timestamp='1252854958' post='1965762']
Mine didn't want to at first, either, but he's willing to consider it now. Marielapin sent me the info for what she's using - I'll have to find it.
[/quote]
+J.M.J.+
cool.

[MIKolbe]

my wife is mainly afraid she will not be able to do a good job.



i try to encourge her, but she just has her mind set.


I personally think she would be great at it!

[Sojourner]

My hubby and I have talked about it and agreed to wait a while to make a decision, but we are slightly leaning toward homeschooling. It depends on a lot of factors though.

Personally I really like classical programs I've seen and would really love my kid(s) to get that sort of background. Even a charter school would be an option.

[quote name='rachael' date='13 September 2009 - 07:56 AM' timestamp='1252842964' post='1965734']
One of my best friend's families just moved down to Costa Rica for the last few years of his sister's high school days so she go to an international school there.
[/quote]
I have friends who moved to Costa Rica a few years ago with their four kids, all elementary aged. They now live in Panama. They've done a combination of national schools and homeschooling in both countries.

[Era Might]

Before considering the method of schooling, I think that the modern conception of "childhood" needs to be questioned. We don't require infants to go to school, and we allow children to drop out of mandatory schooling at about 15 or 16 years of age. So modern schools are designed for young people approximately 7-14 years of age. These people are seen as "children" who need to be "taught." So we confine them to schools where they are taught what they supposedly need to know. We literally define them by their "need" to be taught in schools; we refer to them as "school-aged." Instead of treating them as young people with the ability to make decisions and the ability discover the world around them, we treat them as infants who need to be insulated from the real world before they can enter it. I think that allowing young people to work would teach them a lot more useful material than school does, and it would avoid the infantilizing process that school puts them through. I think that the role of adults should not be to manipulate young people as helpless robots who need to be "taught," much as robots are given data and commands. The role of adults should be to lead and guide the young on a self-directed journey of discovery (and that discovery is not limited to "academics"; it is a discovery of being human). If we got rid of schooling and teaching as they are understood in modern society, would some young people choose the wrong path in life? Yes, but many do that in school anyway. At least by recognizing young people's intellectual and moral agency, we may be be able to create a culture where young people would see that choices have consequences. As the saying goes, if you don't work, then you don't eat. But one of the problems with young people today is that they don't have to work, because they get a free lunch at school. They don't have to learn, because they are required to attend school whether they learn or not. This infantilizing mentality seeps into the home, where parents let their children do what the children want, because society has defined young people as helpless "children" who cannot be expected to exercise responsibility, at least not until the children graduate high school. Regardless of whether it is public schooling, private schooling, or homeschooling: I think it is questionable that children need "schooling" at all. There is a whole world to discover. Let's help them discover it, to live in it, rather than trying to cram it in their heads between the ages of 7-14.

That being said, in a society where a parent would probably lose custody of their child for not schooling them according to the government's standards, I would probably prefer to homeschool, so that I could oversee the process.

[Archaeology cat]

Era, sounds like you'd be a fan of unschooling. A friend of mine is doing that, actually. [url="http://www.unschooling.com/"]Here's a link[/url] on it, though I've not gone through it.

[missionseeker]

[quote name='Christie_M' date='12 September 2009 - 11:52 PM' timestamp='1252817569' post='1965671']
well, I kinda have to get married and have kids, AND move to Canada first


...
[/quote]


all in good time. All in good time.

[princessgianna]

If I ge married and If I have children (God willing)

Homeschool right now.

It depends if we (future husband?) can afford the Catholic schools and if they are worth it.

[homeschoolmom]

[quote name='Era Might' date='13 September 2009 - 03:00 PM' timestamp='1252868410' post='1965827']
Before considering the method of schooling, I think that the modern conception of "childhood" needs to be questioned. We don't require infants to go to school, and we allow children to drop out of mandatory schooling at about 15 or 16 years of age. So modern schools are designed for young people approximately 7-14 years of age. These people are seen as "children" who need to be "taught." So we confine them to schools where they are taught what they supposedly need to know. We literally define them by their "need" to be taught in schools; we refer to them as "school-aged." Instead of treating them as young people with the ability to make decisions and the ability discover the world around them, we treat them as infants who need to be insulated from the real world before they can enter it. I think that allowing young people to work would teach them a lot more useful material than school does, and it would avoid the infantilizing process that school puts them through. I think that the role of adults should not be to manipulate young people as helpless robots who need to be "taught," much as robots are given data and commands. The role of adults should be to lead and guide the young on a self-directed journey of discovery (and that discovery is not limited to "academics"; it is a discovery of being human). If we got rid of schooling and teaching as they are understood in modern society, would some young people choose the wrong path in life? Yes, but many do that in school anyway. At least by recognizing young people's intellectual and moral agency, we may be be able to create a culture where young people would see that choices have consequences. As the saying goes, if you don't work, then you don't eat. But one of the problems with young people today is that they don't have to work, because they get a free lunch at school. They don't have to learn, because they are required to attend school whether they learn or not. This infantilizing mentality seeps into the home, where parents let their children do what the children want, because society has defined young people as helpless "children" who cannot be expected to exercise responsibility, at least not until the children graduate high school. Regardless of whether it is public schooling, private schooling, or homeschooling: I think it is questionable that children need "schooling" at all. There is a whole world to discover. Let's help them discover it, to live in it, rather than trying to cram it in their heads between the ages of 7-14.

That being said, in a society where a parent would probably lose custody of their child for not schooling them according to the government's standards, I would probably prefer to homeschool, so that I could oversee the process.
[/quote]
^ future unschooler.

[Starets]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' date='12 September 2009 - 11:41 PM' timestamp='1252816895' post='1965662']
In Alberta we have publicly funded Catholic schools. Ba-zing!
[/quote]

That's no guarantee that the school is going to be any good, unfortunately. I learned more about morality, the Bible, Christian doctrine and history, and related matters in six months of 1 hour a week sunday school in a pentecostal church than I did in 2 years of 3 hours a week of watered down, relativistic, wishy-washy mush called "Christian Ethics" in a Catholic high school.

[Vincent Vega]

I would definitely consider Catholic schooling for primary and middle school; however, I would be certain that they had the opportunity to be in an IB Diploma school when they were of high school age.

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='Staretz' date='13 September 2009 - 04:11 PM' timestamp='1252876278' post='1965868']
That's no guarantee that the school is going to be any good, unfortunately. I learned more about morality, the Bible, Christian doctrine and history, and related matters in six months of 1 hour a week sunday school in a pentecostal church than I did in 2 years of 3 hours a week of watered down, relativistic, wishy-washy mush called "Christian Ethics" in a Catholic high school.
[/quote]
Oh yea, you're quite right. The religion curriculum, by and large, is garbage. It's really up to the teacher to salvage a bare-bones curriculum to make it actually Catholic. That's what happens when the Separate School District answers to the provincial government and not the bishop. A good religion teacher can easily make the experience genuinely Catholic, while at the same time a mediocre or poor religion teacher (which I've certainly experienced) turn Catholicism into mainstream liberal Christianity.
Still, there are good things that even poor teachers can't take away. There are regular liturgical functions... in elementary and junior high this was a bi-annual school Mass, and somewhat regular Liturgies of the Word. In high school we replaced the Liturgies of the Word with real Masses, which was good, and our school was blessed enough to have a weekly Mass celebrated by a local priest.
Another good thing was that the bishop had the moral authority (if not the legal authority) to decide which charities we could and could not donate to. Luckily the school board actually decided to listen to him in that particular case. It meant that we were saved from donating to charities that support abortion and artificial contraception Many many people didn't understand the prohibition and whined about it all the time... too bad.

[Archaeology cat]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' date='13 September 2009 - 10:37 PM' timestamp='1252877842' post='1965878']
Still, there are good things that even poor teachers can't take away. There are regular liturgical functions... in elementary and junior high this was a bi-annual school Mass, and somewhat regular Liturgies of the Word. In high school we replaced the Liturgies of the Word with real Masses, which was good, and our school was blessed enough to have a weekly Mass celebrated by a local priest.
[/quote]
At the closest Catholic school there's a weekly school Mass, with a different grade each week, so I guess it ends up being once every 6 weeks. But I would plan to take our children to daily Mass if/when we homeschool (I try to go now whenever possible).

[Resurrexi]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' date='13 September 2009 - 04:37 PM' timestamp='1252877842' post='1965878']
Oh yea, you're quite right. The religion curriculum, by and large, is garbage. It's really up to the teacher to salvage a bare-bones curriculum to make it actually Catholic. That's what happens when the Separate School District answers to the provincial government and not the bishop. A good religion teacher can easily make the experience genuinely Catholic, while at the same time a mediocre or poor religion teacher (which I've certainly experienced) turn Catholicism into mainstream liberal Christianity.
Still, there are good things that even poor teachers can't take away. There are regular liturgical functions... in elementary and junior high this was a bi-annual school Mass, and somewhat regular Liturgies of the Word. In high school we replaced the Liturgies of the Word with real Masses, which was good, and our school was blessed enough to have a weekly Mass celebrated by a local priest.
Another good thing was that the bishop had the moral authority (if not the legal authority) to decide which charities we could and could not donate to. Luckily the school board actually decided to listen to him in that particular case. It meant that we were saved from donating to charities that support abortion and artificial contraception Many many people didn't understand the prohibition and whined about it all the time... too bad.
[/quote]

Honestly, I don't think I would want to send my kid to a Canadian Catholic school...

[Nihil Obstat]

[quote name='Resurrexi' date='14 September 2009 - 02:19 AM' timestamp='1252912773' post='1966145']
Honestly, I don't think I would want to send my kid to a Canadian Catholic school...
[/quote]
This is just Alberta. There are also private ones, just like you have.
Also, remember the alternative. Homeschooling is far rarer here than in the US. For the vast majority of people, it's public of separate systems.

[StColette]

As it stands Micah and I can't afford to homeschool our kiddos, though I would like to. And it would really depend upon the Catholic school, private school, or public school. I've come across a few public schools that are better than some Catholic schools, so it really depends. Not really afraid of cost since what we are paying in daycare a year is the same as tuition at most Catholic schools and private schools lol