Well, I've never had the privelege of an Orwellian education. Big Brother must've been too busy spying on you guys.

Would you mind sharing with us how and where government has taken over education?

And why send your kids to school if it's that bad? Why not provide them with private tutors or homeschool them yourself?

Taike

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Bo pen nyang.

[This message has been edited by Taike (edited 07-28-2010).]

That's exactly what my sisters have done. Their kids are not in public school, and their standardized test scores show that they're much better for it. My 13 year old niece will be studying 9th grade material this year. And no, she's not sheltered and completely anti-social. She has a facebook page and sends I don't know how many text messages per day. My 5-year-old nethew can read stories about puppies and tell you what he's reading about. Most 5 year olds in public school are finally learning that there is such a thing as an alphabet.

I have to say Rory, your Sister's experience with home schooling success jives with those situations near Troy...on average very successful.

To my understanding, as long as you can prove that the child is being given instruction and they can pass competency exams, all parents are free to handle their children's education. The local schools help provide materials, tutoring services and even laptops to facilitate the educational objectives. Some families I know wanted to home school, but their jobs prevented them from doing it.

I've never heard heard anything about the school (ie- the Gov't.) trying to prevent any families from home schooling. If anything, they encourage it in this part of Ohio.

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Bill in Dayton

in the UK Home schooling is neither encouraged or discouraged. But it is getting harder to do because of the child protection policies.Parents by and large have to source their own teaching materials . My sister also home schools my nieces and nephew. It was because of the bullies at school who made their lives miserable. However the children have very much been better off as a result and are doing exceptionally well. All of the children are doing material well beyond their ages in terms of the core subjects.

But most importantly they now have a much more leisurely and wholesome family life. Because they dont have the daily hassle of rushing too and from school they have a 4 day week instead of 5 and the 5th day is spent pursuing the childrens interests separate and distinct from the core subjects.

If i could do it again i would seriously consider home schooling.

Bullying is an issue around here as well. I don't know if its happening more or whether we just hear about it more, but its pretty awful for some kids. When suicide becomes an appealing option, that's a huge sign that something is out of control. The local schools have all put new zero tolerance policies into effect but our daughters say its still happens.

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Bill in Dayton