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Post by Deleted on Oct 2, 2010 14:50:18 GMT
One of the things about home schooling in France is that there is a national curriculum which must be respected. You can go to public, private, religious school or be home schooled but there are certain national tests that must be taken. If it becomes obvious that the curriculum is not being taught, one loses the right to teach.
It is also interesting to note that there are almost no Islamic schools in France, so Muslim parents who want private schooling almost always send their children to Catholic school (75% of the students in Catholic schools in Marseille) or sometimes to Jewish schools. No religious courses may be part of the curriculum in France -- that is only after normal classes or on the weekend. Muslim girls may wear headscarves in Catholic and Jewish schools, which is an added attraction.
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Post by onlymark on Oct 2, 2010 15:35:06 GMT
tod2, I didn't take offence at all, no problem. You were just giving an opinion and I was answering that in effect I shared it, and maybe more so because I was emphasising that we had no realistic alternative otherwise we wouldn't have done it.
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Post by lola on Oct 2, 2010 16:29:09 GMT
I heard the "What about socialization?" question for years from well-meaning people. Once at coffee with two old friends, educators, they had spent 20 minutes talking about the social horrors at their schools when one turned to me earnestly and without irony asking when I was going to send my girls to school. The pathology in some of these schools runs very deep. My husband taught for awhile at a local middle school, and they'd have attended there pretty much over his dead body.
Sure we could have tried to improve things there a tiny bit if we were lucky. In my role in our group I was able to do big and creative things for a good number of children and teenagers, using my own intuition and talents.
Leave aside for a moment the fact that mass education is a fairly new notion, and that besides the children of the wealthy most young people a couple of centuries ago did most of their learning in a more integrated way. (How much time did for instance Abe Lincoln, Ben Franklin, Beatrix Potter or Jane Austen spend sitting in high school classes and wondering when the bell would ring or listening to lectures about drugs? Did their parents agonize over socialization?)
I'd agree that true "home" schooling, where the child is cooped up with a parent all day every day, would be stifling. I have a list of kids over the years I'd thought would be better off in school.
For a long term, you do need a social group. We were fortunate to have a great network with no particular religious bent, including Jews, Muslims, Catholics, and some talented and committed parents to teach coop classes, and I treasure the friendships formed there. My drama club especially I find it hard to give up.
My girls, two years apart, developed deep friendships with a lovely group of kids over their 14 years with the group. One of their friend's parents made her attend a Catholic girls' high school (at least $18,000/year tuition), but the entire time she preferred to socialize with the home school crowd. She's now at a state university that she hasn't been too fond of so far.
I don't advocate home schooling in general. I can only say that it worked beautifully for us, and I am glad we were able to make the sacrifices that allowed it.
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