Thoughts on education
I'm part of the Toastmasters chapter here at work. Toastmasters is an organization who's objective is to help strengthen and improve people's public speaking skills. You exercise your impromptu speech abilities during table topics discussions and also give rehearsed longer speeches. It's sort of like Academic Decathlon's speech category for those of you who were involved in that. Today, one of my coworkers gave a speech on why he and his wife home-schooled their children.
This speech and this video posted in castorsd's LJ got me thinking about what I would do when I have children.
Home-schooling would be a very hard option. Living in California is quite expensive and in order to meet both Dan's and my financial requirements (mortgage, loans, utilities, car payments, etc), both of us would have to work or one of us would have to be making at least $150K. However, the benefits would be great. You would have some, if not all, control over your children's curriculum. It's more time spent bonding with them as well. You could move them along at a pace comfortable with them, a pace that would most likely be faster than what they would be dealing with in a public school. To make up for lost interaction with their peers, I would, of course, enroll them in extracurricular activities: sports, music, dance, martial arts, etc., things that would exercise both their creativity and their bodies while given them exposure to others in their age group. But unfortunately, the financial burden is far greater than it seems.
The next option would be private school. There's a common belief that private schools are better than public schools. I don't know how true that is but my oldest sister who has her daughter enrolled at a private Catholic school seems to believe it. It's often claimed that their curriculums are more advanced and the students are encouraged to excel. Rather than hold the rest of the class back to accommodate the lowest, the lowest are expected to work harder to keep up. In a way, that's not a bad idea. This whole "Heaven forbid we injure a child's ego by having them fail so we'll just lower our standards" mentality that more and more public school systems are taking on is hurting our children. However, despite having higher standards and performance, the religious slant puts me off (let my mother start the yelling :silly:). I don't mind my child growing up learning about religion but I'd rather they be taught all sides of the story vs. just one interpretation. Of course, you could offset this at home but I'm wary about the backlash my children would suffer should they bring this alternate view into the classroom. And there's also the cost. Since private schools are run off donations and tuition, they're not inexpensive, though I don't think they require a whole parent's income (depending on the job).
Public school....there are good ones and bad ones. A school placed in a well-to-do suburban neighborhood will, of course, be better than an inner-city school. I would have control over which school my child would go to based on where I choose to live but of course, there's a higher cost of living in a better school district. But schools these days are suffering, no matter where you go. Classrooms are getting bigger. Programs that are considered frivolous like music and the arts are disappearing due to lack of funding. And teachers....there seems to be less and less of the type of teachers I was blessed with having. What a lot of people don't realize is that a teacher is very much like a parent. While that child is in your classroom, you are responsible with shaping their knowledge as well as ensuring their safety. And as a figure of authority, you serve as an example to them of what an adult should be. More and more teachers take on a vague cookie-cutter persona with their students. There's no longer a desire to know the children on a one-on-one basis nor is there a desire to push them to strive to do better. I had teachers that I got to know on a more personal level who not only helped me achieve a higher level in my educational performance but also helped me grow as a person. In a way, I wish I had the ability to choose my children's teacher. I would want them to have educators like my 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Sako who made our lessons fun and also took time to introduce aspects of the Japanese culture to us, like Children's Day and the Peach Blossom festival. People like Connie Cutler and Brian May who weren't just my english and math teachers, but mentors who encouraged me to reach beyond because they saw that I had more potential that I realized. If I could choose, I would put my children in a classroom with Sarah, who I see as following in Mrs. Sako, Connie and Brian's footsteps. The personal relationships she creates with her students are the kind that children need, especially in their teen years when they are "rebelling" against their parents but yet are still in need of an authority figure. The provocative questions she poses to her students to get them to think outside the box, to think for themselves, that is something vital to our children's education that the public school system is losing by trying to make things more standardized.
Education for my children is not a light subject with me. I'm not sure what I'll do but hopefully, whatever it is, it'll be the right one for them. And if there's something they're lacking, hopefully, I'll be able to find an option to balance it out.