Top Concerns of Public School – Part 1

June 3, 2007 Homeschooling, Parenting, Raising Leaders No Comments

Socialization

What a shock! Most people think that socialization is a
top reason to send your child to the schools run by the
government. They believe that the public school helps
socialize your children. What do you have when you
get a roomful of 10 year old boys? A room of fools!
Let’s face it, just having your child with a bunch of other
kids does not socialize your children properly. Oh, it
socializes them, but not with morals, character,
integrity, honor, courage. The only place a child
learns those attributes is from those who have
walked before him, adults who have developed
character in their own lives.

When your child attends public school, at any age,
he learns to socialize by developing a new vocabulary
(swear words), wearing new clothes (immodest at
best), showing little or no respect for authority,
developing a low work ethic, and so forth. If you
want your child to mature in these ways, the public
school is for you. My guess is you want to protect
your children from this type of socializing.

Narrow-minded Education

Those that attend public schools receive a limited
education, similar to a conveyor-belt. Everyone in
first grade is taught the exact same concepts,
pouring facts into the child-container. As your child
moves along the conveyor belt, he receives the same
education as everyone else. He studies from the
same textbooks as everyone else, is tested the same
as all other students, is graded based upon the same
scale, regardless of individual talents, interests, goals
and personal missions in life. Moving down the
factory line, the product (your child) is assembled
with certain parts (curriculum). All products (children)
are fitted with the same parts (education) as everyone
else. When the product completes station 12, he is
stamped (diploma) as a finished product and sold to
the job market. There is no room for educating your
child at his own rate or spending more time on certain
subject areas because he is talented in that area.
Each child in the public school must follow the same
plan even if that plan does not pursue his own goals
and missions in life. This may seem “normal” to you,
but that is because you are probably a product of the
conveyor- belt education system of the public schools.

On another note: the factory does provide much
training in math & science, leaving literature & history
(the subjects that develop “how to think”) behind. Its
scope of education is very limited.

Inferior Academics

If you look at the exit test for eighth graders at the end
of the nineteenth century, you would be amazed. Could
you answer any of the following questions from the
1895 Final Exam for Eighth Grade?

- Define Case, Illustrate each Case.
- Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided.
- What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic orthography, etymology, syllabication?
- Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fermandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco.

These questions are beyond the scope of most adults
today. The expectations in academics have been drastically
lowered over the past one hundred years.

Although our children may be encouraged to memorize
many facts about a subject, they are not able to “think”
about the subject areas. The study of a particular subject
area is limited.

Harvey Bluedorn, author of Teaching the Trivium, sums
up the danger of depending on public schools for
academic education: “Classroom teaching has the
inevitable long-term effect of dumbing down the
curriculum, reducing the method to minimums, and
lowering the quality of results. So, specialized programs
must be introduced.”

After studying the public school system, I was surprised
to find out that most Americans receive an education
historically set for the poor. That’s right, our American
government’s public school provides an education that
prepares people for a job. Historically, superior
academics and thinking was available to the rich and
middle-class. The poor received a public education
so they could be productive in society and be
prepared for a job as an adult. When your child
attends public school today, he will receive just
enough education to prepare him for a job.
Remember, education is much more than job training.

Secular Priorities & Values

The curriculum of the public school follows the idea
of relativism - there is no truth. Morals and character
can not be taught because what is right for me may
not be right for you. Although the school is not
allowed to teach or encourage values, morals and
priorities, it will definitely “teach” values to your
children. Values & priorities will be encouraged by
your child’s teacher and the school environment,
even in a subtle manner. Will your child’s teacher
have the same convictions and moral values that
you as a parent have? When your child spends
over seven hours a day with a stranger as John
Gatto calls teachers, your child will absorb the
stranger’s values.

Rigid & Inflexible with Family Time

The public school environment does not prepare
children for real life situations; it prepares them to
spend most of their waking hours away from home
at a job. The public school models time away from
family in their daily & annual schedule. Most public
schools are rigid in their expectations of children’s
attendance. In fact, the schools believe they know
better than parents what your child needs. They do
not believe that parents are experts about their own
children, but strangers (teachers & administrators)
are the experts. So, time with family is really not
necessary. Schools have contributed to the break
down of the family as much as other institutions in
our society.

(c)Kerry Beck, 2007

Want to share this free report on Public Schools?
Feel free to forward it as long as you do not alter the article
in any way and you include the bio below:

———————————
Kerry Beck, author of Raising Leaders, Not Followers, encourages parents
to think outside the box as they raise their children to lead wisely.
She wants to give you a Free Report, “How to Get It All Done” at
Christian Homeschool Curriculum