I will not live in a nanny state

[anniefee]

ETA: this was a gut reaction post, extreme perspective, explained in the comments. don't hate me.

I got this in my email this morning, from the local homeschool group:

ID State rep proposes financial benefits for parents that teach kindergarten at home.

Read more... )

Comments

[ly_tin_wheedle]

Eh. Mom and dad's neighbors aside, I could see this as being really quite a decent thing to at least try out for a while. It could encourage parents to stay at home with the kids, take an active role in education, and spend a little more time indoctrinating their offspring in the family belief system

[anniefee]

No, you're absolutely right

[ly_tin_wheedle]

I've heard it said that there is no American interest group more powerful and insidious than the educational-testing industry. People make up standards, build up tests around them, convince schools that those standards will make their kids better, and sell their tests, regardless of actual results. I've been reading this book on probability and statistics for a few days now, and this is one of his favorite examples to use when describing how statistical analysis can be twisted or misunderstood

[anniefee]

I believe it. The testing gets more and more ridiculous and it gets to the point where you're wondering if what they're testing is stuff that's even necessary anymore

Nanny state

[anonymous]

Hmmm....not to argue, but I think you're logic is flawed

Re: Nanny state

[anniefee]

i know, you're right. this was my off the cuff response and, like i told jim, mostly fueled by my reading of ultra-conservatives. i was reading it as money given to parents regardless of whether they enroll their kids in public school following kindergarten. homeschooling can be expensive and i could see how some parents would take it as 'free' money given to them for doing basically nothing. you're right about parents' seeming readiness to abdicate their responsibility as soon as it's legal (kindergarten and now pre-k with this vpk thing, which has its good sides and bad) and this would, hopefully keep them in the game longer. or it could serve as a handout to folks who want the extra money but don't want to put forth the effort and leave their kids with the babysitter as usual. and, not to be cynical or go looking for negatives, there are people who would look at this money and say hey we need it, we'll put our kids through public first grade so we can get an extra 2200 per kindergartener

Re: Nanny state

[anonymous]

My gosh, I hadn't read this in so long it's not funny. I'd completely forgotten about it, and was bored and there was nothing on TV. To tell you the truth, I didn't expect to find anything here ..... it's been years since I'd seen it.

But it's cool.