This can't possibly be good...

[tshade]

Are they though? My children were educated unconventionaly before it was popular. It gives them a competitive edge that very few people can match. Most were self employed before they were 20. The one that wasn't was in school to be a veterinarian. She paid for her school with money she saved and earned through investments and trading. She had a calculated roi she expected immediately upon graduation with her own facility.
Maybe people are deciding that conventional education no longer works for todays world.

True---people have a choice. Remember that "conventional" ed. still works for many students, however. We just need to keep developing the choices.
I have witnessed in public schools that those who show up wanting to learn almost always do. The problem often comes from something OUTSIDE of school.

 

[post]

99 percent of people are within a couple of iq points of each other. Stupid be relative.

I knew I had more "company" than in your description... a feeling of loneliness was my initial reaction to your post.

IQ Bell Curve & IQ Distributions | IQ Test Prep

iqtestprep.com

"The further out you go you will find fewer and fewer people, as only 4.2% of IQ scores fall between 55-70 and 130-145..."

 

[Loulit01]

Iam not going out my way to hunt down charts for your whim. That's on you.

You know that's not the way this forum works. The poster making the claim is responsible for backing up that claim. You know this.

Your post isn't true and has zero credibility.

 

[Loulit01]

Are they though? My children were educated unconventionaly before it was popular. It gives them a competitive edge that very few people can match. Most were self employed before they were 20. The one that wasn't was in school to be a veterinarian. She paid for her school with money she saved and earned through investments and trading. She had a calculated roi she expected immediately upon graduation with her own facility.
Maybe people are deciding that conventional education no longer works for todays world.

Of course home schooling can be a good thing in specific cases. And of course all parents have the right to home school their children. What troubles me is the sharp, sudden rise in the number of home schooled children.

Again, home schooling can be a very good thing—the sudden huge increase troubles me.

 

[PirateMk1]

You know that's not the way this forum works. The poster making the claim is responsible for backing up that claim. You know this.

Your post isn't true and has zero credibility.

I ve been on the forum way longer than you. I know how it works. First you send me scurrying for sources. Then.... Yea no. Believe or not don't care.

 

[PirateMk1]

True---people have a choice. Remember that "conventional" ed. still works for many students, however. We just need to keep developing the choices.
I have witnessed in public schools that those who show up wanting to learn almost always do. The problem often comes from something OUTSIDE of school.

True for the most part.

 

[TU Curmudgeon]

So no source. I thought not.

Using a bell curve distribution (which is [almost] what the distribution actually is) that means that 68% of the population will have an IQ of between 85 and 115. That means that 16% will have an IQ lower than 85 and 16% will have an IQ higher than 115. However 95% of the population has IQ scores between 70 and 130 so that means that 2.5% have IQs lower than 70, 18.5% have IQs between 70 and 85, 68% have IQs between 85 and 115, 18.5% have IQs between 115 and 130, and 2.5% have IQs greater than 130. <SARC>When you add that 70 and that 85 together, you get 165 and that is more than 100, so, yes, most people have IQs lower than 100.</SARC>

 

[TU Curmudgeon]

That's for damn sure. It generally takes five full-time years at university to obtain a K-12 teaching credential. According to the American Institutes for Research, 26 percent of parents of homeschooled children had bachelor's degrees, 23 percent had a high school education or the equivalent, 18 percent had graduate or professional degrees. So probably over 75% of the time it's the ignorant leading the ignorant. Brilliant, Americans!

Those are interesting statistics. I am incredibly impressed that (100 - (26+23+18)) 33% of the parents who were home schooling their kids didn't even have a "high school education". ( I emphasized the term "high school education" because that term is normally used to indicate that the person has obtained a "certificate" saying that they have a "high school education" (or the equivalent thereof) and NOT to indicate that the person is at least as literate and/or numerate as the average Grade 9 student in 1960 was.)

I was also incredibly impressed that you also knew that 23% + 33% = 75%

 

[TU Curmudgeon]

Are they though? My children were educated unconventionaly before it was popular. It gives them a competitive edge that very few people can match. Most were self employed before they were 20. The one that wasn't was in school to be a veterinarian. She paid for her school with money she saved and earned through investments and trading. She had a calculated roi she expected immediately upon graduation with her own facility.
Maybe people are deciding that conventional education no longer works for todays world.

Considering that much of today's economy is "computer dependent" and also considering that the software that is running those computers is being designed by people who will never actually use it and is being modified in response to the demands of people who either don't have a clue about what they are doing or simply didn't bother to read the manual, you may well have a point. Possibly "education" would be improved if

• the smart kids were taught to "think stupid" and
• the not-so-smart kids were taught to "do what the machine tells you to do, the way that the machine tells you to do it, when the machine tells you to do it and don't ask questions"

it would be more "relevant".

 

[DCCougar]

DCCougar said:
...According to the American Institutes for Research, 26 percent of parents of homeschooled children had bachelor's degrees, 23 percent had a high school education or the equivalent, 18 percent had graduate or professional degrees. So probably over 75% of the time it's the ignorant leading the ignorant. Brilliant, Americans!

Those are interesting statistics. I am incredibly impressed that (100 - (26+23+18)) 33% of the parents who were home schooling their kids didn't even have a "high school education". ( I emphasized the term "high school education" because that term is normally used to indicate that the person has obtained a "certificate" saying that they have a "high school education" (or the equivalent thereof) and NOT to indicate that the person is at least as literate and/or numerate as the average Grade 9 student in 1960 was.)
I was also incredibly impressed that you also knew that 23% + 33% = 75%

Well, you're right -- the way the stats were presented is kind of screwy. If just 18% had graduate or "professional" degrees and 26% had bachelor's degrees... it's like, wait -- doesn't someone with a graduate degree also have a bachelor's? That would be a yes.

Anyway, I'll correct myself and say that 26+18%=44% have at least a 4-year university degree and are qualified to homeschool at the K-12 level. That means 56% are not. I'm talking about being an educator, not a babysitter.

 

[TU Curmudgeon]

Well, you're right -- the way the stats were presented is kind of screwy. If just 18% had graduate or "professional" degrees and 26% had bachelor's degrees... it's like, wait -- doesn't someone with a graduate degree also have a bachelor's? That would be a yes.

Anyway, I'll correct myself and say that 26+18%=44% have at least a 4-year university degree and are qualified to homeschool at the K-12 level. That means 56% are not. I'm talking about being an educator, not a babysitter.

Make that "..26+18%=44% have at least a 4-year university degree and are theoretically qualified to homeschool at the K-12 level. Whether they have the actual skills required to do so and whether their university degree is in anything even remotely relevant to the education of K-12 level kids is a whole different matter." and I'll agree with you.

PS - It is as possible for someone who does NOT have a 4-year university degree to be a successful teacher IF they have a talent for teaching AND IF they put in the work needed to keep at least two lessons ahead of the students as it is possible for someone who has a PhD Ed. to make a crappy teacher who shouldn't be allowed within a country mile of kids who want to learn simply because they have absolutely no talent for teaching kids (regardless of how much talent they have for writing obscure academic papers on subjects that affect less than 0.1% of the school age population or on why discredited theories of education should be adopted and made mandatory because they "should have" worked).

 

[PirateMk1]

Considering that much of today's economy is "computer dependent" and also considering that the software that is running those computers is being designed by people who will never actually use it and is being modified in response to the demands of people who either don't have a clue about what they are doing or simply didn't bother to read the manual, you may well have a point. Possibly "education" would be improved if

• the smart kids were taught to "think stupid" and
• the not-so-smart kids were taught to "do what the machine tells you to do, the way that the machine tells you to do it, when the machine tells you to do it and don't ask questions"

it would be more "relevant".

Well that's how it's currently done in most educational institutions. Not working well in my opinion. Hey people have a choice, it's up to them.

 

[TU Curmudgeon]

Well that's how it's currently done in most educational institutions. Not working well in my opinion. Hey people have a choice, it's up to them.

Don't forget the strong push to get rid of all the "eggheads" and "so-called 'experts'" who are currently "dominating the country and forcing their 'theories' down the throats of the "honest working men" (and "stay at home, child raising, women") who made America great".

You can't have both a "Republican electorate" and an "educated population" at the same time.