Book World
Posted on March 7th, 2006 by catalyst into the Politics category
Christine Rosen held an online chat
last Tusday for her new book, My Fundamentalist Education: A Memoir of a Divine Childhood. The chat was held on Washington Post.com. Sensing a wonderful opportunity, I disguised myself as a young City Christian student and posed the following question:
Portland Oregon: Do you feel Christian Schools can be beneficial? I know your parents pulled you out of school, but don’t you think it is still a safer experience than public schools?
To which Ms. Rosen responded:
Christine Rosen: I think for many parents Christian Schools are an appealing alternative to the public schools in their area. This was certainly the case with my parents. One major difference today is the rise of the home-schooling movement, which was not as widespread when I was growing up. As for whether or not Christian schools are safer than public schools, it really depends on the schools in question. But for parents who want a particular kind of education for their children, they are an excellent alternative (cost permitting) to public school.
Let’s be honest, her answer is boring and safe. She would make a good politician. And if I was a good reporter, I would have asked a couple of follow up questions. Questions like, "Don’t you think that homeschooling is really just prison, except your mother is the warden?"
And
"What do you mean, homeschooling was not as widespread when you were growing up? Homeschooling is not exactly rocket science. It really only requires one simple step. When your kids get up in the morning to go to school, you make them miss the buss. BAM!! Your kids are homeschooled. It’s really that simple."
RSS feed for posts
March 7th, 2006 at 8:50 am
heeheehee….make your kids miss the bus….good stuff.
You’re right, I wish she would’ve said more, and it’s pretty likely that anyone who’s both grown up in that environment and written a book on the subject has more to say than she actually said. But, she probably wants people who are sending their kids to Christian schools to read her book, and for that reason, she can’t afford to alienate them. Or, maybe she really does feel that way — and in a way, it’s pretty open-minded of her. It would probably be a pity to say that all Christian schools are terrible. I’ve personally never known anyone who had a fantastic experience at one, but I’m willing to believe that it could happen.
Similarly, I think that homeschooling has the potential to be a good experience for some people….I just think it’s really, REALLY risky and really, REALLY difficult to do well. I lucked out, really…homeschooling did the trick for me, and I’d be a different learner today without it. But, only having one or maybe two people’s heads going into someone’s entire education seems awfully scary to me when I think about it. I wouldn’t have the guts to homeschool my kids (despite the fact that I hold degrees and certifications in education), nor do I think most people are equipped to do it. Your comment about “rocket science” is funny because that’s the way so many people actually do treat it….like it’s just no big deal. And, when this is the approach that’s taken to someone’s education, we shouldn’t be surprised if things go really, really wrong.
Obviously, since I’m an educator myself, this is a big deal to me. In my mind, we’d all be a damn sight better off if we’d really invest in improving the public school system we have in place, see to it that teacher training programs equip teachers properly, volunteer to give struggling kids extra help, and model intellectual curiosity to the young people around us….as opposed to partitioning off children into closed little educational ghettos to protect them from the big, bad world. I know that’s not the intention behinc what a lot of people are doing, but that’s often the outcome. LarkNews.com has a very funny faux advertisement that sums up this idea nicely…..it’s a picture of a candle under an overturned basket with the slogan: “The Bushel: a safe school for Christian children.”
March 8th, 2006 at 8:29 am
Interesting. Catalyst, I agree that Rosen’s response was safe and boring. I haven’t read her book yet: what is her main tenet? Is she a believer now? She is right about the increasing numbers of homeschools; even here in “liberal Oregon” the numbers increase nearly exponentially on an annual basis. The reasons also increase; whereas religion and conservative morals used to be the predominant reasons, now safety, growing class sizes of local schools, crime, and pedagogical differences (particularly objection to standardized state assessments, which all states now have) are also major reasons. Most parents are not equipped to go beyond elementary-level math, science and history, so many homeschoolers enter the public system at middle or high school…and depending on how cloistered they were, they often bust out the side in droves, going to the opposite extreme, hanging out with the sketchy kids, doing immoral and sometimes even criminal things. In addition to knowledge and teaching abilities, homeschooling requires a commitment to facilitating regular interactions with childrens’ peers in order to ensure they develop relationally and socially. Some homeschooling parents are adept at this, some are not. I’ve met many home-schooled students and young adults who were homeschooled; some are amazing and some are completely backwards. I am always impressed with parents who actually do it well (which often involves co-oping with other parents for certain classes/subjects, and much hands-on/applied learning out in the world, NOT spending all day every day at home alone together)
Jiminy, like you, while I have advanced education degrees and certifications, I would be reluctant to homeschool my own kids. I ponder this often and wonder if I’m just selfish, not wanting to share my professional abilities with my own kids, or, even worse, having them in the public schools for political reasons, since I am a public educator. How warped is THAT? I think my real rationale is that I truly believe in the public education system in America. Also like you, I vehemently believe that we need to change it. Effective change can occur only from inside the system (those who declare war on it with the hope of killing it/privatizing set themselves up for a losing battle every time). So, I think I will want my kids in the public school system, but it all depends on the quality of the local schools in my neighborhood at the time. My preference would be Oregon Episcopal School because of its stellar academics, but I doubt my budget can handle that one. One thing I’m fairly certain of: I will not be sending my kids to Christian school. Having taught in some and having met countless byproducts of them, I am skeptical that I could ever find one that does both academics and Christianity in ways that are consistent with my own beliefs (spiritually and professionally/academically). I know there isn’t one in Portland I would send my kids to. Most are one-dimensional, memorization of facts only (both academic and Biblical), without any analysis, critical thinking, application, etc.
Anyway, I won’t turn this into a treatise.
FFTM
March 8th, 2006 at 10:22 am
I think the reason so many home-schooled kids are successful is for one simple reason: the parent has the ability to directly hold the child accountable for his/her progress. I wasn’t homeschooled - but nearly so, I was part of an ACE school. We pretty much learned everything by reading the curriculum and I was smarter than any of my so-called teachers. What made it work is that they actively tracked my progress through the system and I couldn’t graduate unless I completed all of the requirements with good grades. Too many kids today are just allowed to pass through as long as they don’t skew the curve too badly. I just read
an article on Yahoo today about how education reform could benefit from actually holding students accountable for their poor grades.
Rather than pushing students through the system, maybe we should actually hold up the standards of education. Want a high school diploma? Then do the work!
March 8th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
FICM, I absolutely agree with you that accountability is critical to success. I believe that grades and credits should be proficiency (not time)-based. There are some small-scale efforts in that direction throughout the country. Unfortunately, as long as the school funding system remains time-based, true proficiency-based education and education reform will not happen. In order to have true individual (student and teacher) and systemic accountability, we also must find ways to accurately measure student academic progress (and the standardized state assessments, which are the measuring stick the government uses, really fall short of that. If we could change these two things (the funding mechanism and measures of accountability), we could completely transform the public education system.
I’m glad you that seem happy with your K-12 education experience and/or outcomes. However, I have to say that ACE programs precisely fit my previous comment about most Christian schools:
“Most are one-dimensional, memorization of facts only (both academic and Biblical), without any analysis, critical thinking, application, etc.”
Being “smart” is not just about knowledge of information. It’s much more complex than that. It involves cognitive, intellectual, emotional, and relational “intelligences.” So, no offense, FICM, but while you may have felt smarter than your teachers or had more factoids easily accessible in the forefront of your mind, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you were “smarter” than they were (of course, depending on who your teachers were, you may very well have been smarter than they).
FFTM
March 8th, 2006 at 3:38 pm
FFTM and FICM,
I totally echo FFTM’s sentiments about the ACE system…not to bash you or your education, FICM, but I do think there are a LOT of problems implicit in any system where a student can effectively never interact with an actual person and finish grade after grade of school. Once a professor of mine in college commented to me that school isn’t just a place to gain information, it’s the place where people become enculturated, it all made so much more sense. We aren’t just transmitting factual knowledge, we’re giving young humans the means to become adult humans in adult human society.
So, if the most important stuff of life is about learning to interact effectively with others, then necessarily, we should teach interaction by interaction, yes? Absolutely, I believe that we should have realistic, concrete markers for promotion from grade level to grade level….we need to make sure that people know what they need to know. However, I think it’s a huge mistake to think that forcing people to accomplish scholastic tasks is the only way or even the most important way to prepare them for the rest of their lives as productive members of society. I like to think of myself as a productive member of society, but I’d definitely say that my K-12 education has some major holes as a result of the way it came about. That’s ok. Everyone’s does.
The people who come out of K-12 with 1. good basic skills, 2. curiosity and a love for learning, and 3. the know-how to deal with other people are the ones who are going to be ok. I think we can do better than just this, it’s true, but this is the bare minimum. I think an ACE program might provide the first of those three (I can’t say definitively…though I have GRAVE doubts about the approach to teaching literature, science, languages, and history in all Christian textbooks I’ve been exposed to because they’re so scared to put anything controversial in front of kids, and from what I know, ACE is right up there with the most conservative), and there’s a chance that someone could come out of it with curiosity and love for learning if they were lucky. But, there’s a total strike-out on the third criterion, and it’s not something to be ignored.
March 8th, 2006 at 6:12 pm
Yeah, I can feel the love! haha Actually, my comments were not intended to be an endorsement of the ACE system. I really hated it and felt it stunted my social skills, among other things. I wonder how much better I would have done in college had I gone to a public school where I had more opportunities. And there were plenty of kids who didn’t finish ACE, for various reasons, and I was an exception. I’ll be the first to agree with you that there’s no substitute for a really good teacher. I wasn’t saying we don’t need good teachers, so please don’t take my comments as a personal attack against your honored profession. I only used myself as an example to show that student motivation and accountability are just as important factors as good teachers. My point was that we can throw a lot of money and good teachers at the situation, but until Americans teach their children a good work/study ethic, it’s a losing battle.
March 18th, 2007 at 9:22 am
ALCON - (All concerned)
If and when local school districts are empowered to educate free from the social experimentation requirements of the Fourth Reich Geheim Statz Politzei (U.S. Federal and State Education Departments) I may take a second look at the benefits of a Public School education.
Take a look for example at the State of California where 67% of all state legislation annually gravitates towards the force feeding of Homosexual, Transsexual, and Bisexual matters, gender elimination, all the typical “kill the children but save the trees” stuff such as authority to take our daughters without our knowledge or consent to abort her child at taxpayer expense. There is almost no bottom to the moral bankruptcy and decadent filth they can dream up to indoctrinate our children with at taxpayer expense. And when they have a couple minutes left in the school day for real instruction they base it on the lowest/slowest at the expense of other children. There are no standards. No one has the guts to hold anyone accountable anymore. If I’m talking to someone who is the exception to this rule, you are all alone in your school. What is most disturbing is that everyone looks to California as the trendsetter. What goes in California goes for the rest of the nation in time. The BORG will assimilate. Resistance is futile. This is most unfortunate.
Coupled with that is the last vestige of freedom from the flashing strobe light of brainwashing in the classroom. Recess. There is a sad but apparent obliviousness to modern schoolyard culture and the subtleties of the bully/nerd subculture. It happens completely under their noses and if it doesn’t they do not have the empowerment or the tools to stop it.
So if you want to change things forget it. You either have the temporary benefit of living in a family friendly State, or better yet, you keep them at home with caring parents or in a privately controlled school and co-op like was suggested above. Why are you wasting time fighting with the failed and bloated US Dept of Education? Your energies are best spent at the local level creating your own schools with your own agendas.
March 20th, 2007 at 10:13 pm
Wow, praise the Lord and pass the kool-aid.