Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Homeschooling and educational effects

This is from Ruf's levels. I'm starting a new spinoff topic!


I envy you homeschoolers in so many ways. Sometimes I wonder how much my kids could learn if they could move at their own pace every day for 3 or 4 hours, instead of just twice a week for an hour or so. But homeschooling just isn't an option for us. That said, I have high hopes for the new ability-grouped school this fall and for the local gifted school that starts at grade 6.

Lately I've been wondering if homeschooling and programs like the DYS and the talent searches will have a societal effect in the future.

I'm not sure of exact numbers (is anyone?), but the estimates I've seen indicate that there are a lot of very bright kids being homeschooled now, especially compared to the 70s and the 80s when at least a lot of us were growing up. Plus, there are the online programs, the DYS, and other things.

Obviously, the bright kids would be just as bright regardless, but I'm wondering if there will be an overall positive effect on their experiences in college and the workplace, mostly due to increased knowledge and better study skills.

I ask adult GT types I know if they had trouble developing study skills when they got older and coursework became more demanding. Many say yes; I had it but forced myself to get past it. This is one of the reasons why I present challenging work to my kids.

I don't remember a lot of talent-search-type things when I was growing up, past the National Merit Scholars. I don't really think that many kids were homeschooled in the 70s and the 80s when I was a kid. Parental involvement in education was also very different then where I lived.

I remember going through a lot of stuff that I read about here, namely the teachers never really knew what to do with me. Some of them tried and some of them didn't, and, well, that was it.

Anyway, I know that schools and education philosophies are a huge source of frustration for many of us, but I also wonder if homeschooling and afterschooling and all these programs will create a large positive effect down the road, for reasons that aren't fully apparent right now. Just the very existence of all these things, and the fact that they're starting to bring bright people out of the closet, may have effects that we can't predict.

Thoughts?

Val

I hope so.

I think at least there will be a group of kids who are more likely to be self-starters and thinkers, less likely to be mere "doers"--as in "just do the assignment and get the A" (which is what I think I was). I don't think I came into my own intellectually until after I had my kids--my mid-30s, I'd say. Before that, I'd say I was too much driven by external motivations: getting the nod from the teacher or boss, not embarrassing myself by being unprepared, etc.

But then, when I was a kid in the late 70s and early 80s my mom was very involved in my education, even starting a support group for GT kids and their parents. That's much more "now" than "then," I think. So maybe I'm just a late bloomer?

Anyway, I'd like to think that my son will be more about learning for more significant purposes than simply the grade or impressing others. It's one of my goals for his education.

I think so Val, I hope so. I think a lot of parents of bright kids are pulling them and I think NCLB was the tipping point.
And I also think the schools are starting to realize it and the implications of it.

I've never actually thought of any overall positive effects down the road for society, I'm pretty much just trying to get my kids the education they need and deserve, when they need it.

Kriston's mom was a SYSTEM BUSTER!

Yahoo!!!!!!

Now I have a friend crush and a mom crush!!!!!

hee hee hee

Awww!

My mom and I had a heart-to-heart about it actually, because she felt like my homeschooling DS7 was an indictment of how she did with me.

My response: "I can't imagine what more you could have done for me at the time! I mean, you got me subject-accelerated 2 grades in reading from the day I set foot in K, and I was the only kid I knew in that situation. And you started a support group for GT kids. Who does THAT?!? Especially at the time!?! No, Mom, you did all that I could have asked for and more!"

We started getting along a whole lot better after that.

Well tell her I strive to emulate her hardcore awesomeness!

I will! She'll like that!

ohh, yours too! not overshadowing your hardcore awesomeness! You too are a system buster in your own right!

You're making me smirk at you, dear friend. No need for such foolishness on my behalf!

No, I'm not a system-buster; I'm a system-escaper. Remember, I don't play well with others. My mom does, though. She's an extrovert, so she did what she does best, and I did what I do best. <shrug>

We're all just doing what we can.

You, too! I'm really eager to hear how the half-time homeschooling thing goes. Talk about creative problem-solving and making your own path...

Or kids who are stuck in school 8 hours a day with no chance and no outlet. The school becomes THE obstacle. And then they go home and learn on their own. Or they just quit.

In reading Silverman's essays. I am struck by the incidence of GT'ness across all socioeconomic groups. The highly educated, highly motivated people who inhabit the white upper middle class made it up - and they innately have a "gut check" when they see the pain in their kids. The rest are stuck - or left adrift.

There has to be a way to ID these kids A LOT earlier and across all classes.