Talk:Homeschooling/Archive 1

message: Given that this is almost entirely about the US, would a move to Home schooling in the US or similar be a good idea?   jimfbleak 08:58 24 Jun 2003 (UTC)
:This isn't necessary. If the article starts including information on home schooling in other countries and becomes unweidly, we can split into seperate articles. The generally agreed upon correct Wiki approach is to leave it as is until a conflict arises. —Frecklefoot 15:56, 30 Jan 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Move to Home Schooling (US)?

message: I know this is going to ruffle a few feathers, but I deleted significant portions of text from the External Links section. There was a huge paragraph summarizing the first web site: information which can be found on the site itself. I trimmed all the entries to make them conform to Wikipedia guideline. The links are just that links—not propaganda sections for individual organizations. If you feel the need to discuss each links at length, do it in the article proper. Peace. :-) —Frecklefoot 15:56, 30 Jan 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: As you can see in the section below #External links, I'm the one who reorganized them, and I definitely intended that as a first step to weeding most of them out. The Wikipedia:External links policy isn't very clear, although it says there should be balance between different POVs. I can't find ANY sites which are specifically anti-homeschooling, however. —Wahoofive | Talk 21:16, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Cleaned up External Links

message: Just a reminder, if you're going to start a new topic here, use a title (like this section does) so user's can contribute to just that discussion instead of having to edit the entire Talk page. —Frecklefoot 15:56, 30 Jan 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Sections

message: I removed the addition by 128.172.208.126 of:
:Homeschooling was originally the primary form of education in the USA.  Many of our former presidents such as Jefferson and Lincoln were self-educated or had tutors growing up. Public schools were not created by our government to further the education of Americans. Actually the literacy rate in this country has never been as high as it was before they were created. The reason they were created was the “Melting Pot’ theory; to insure that the immigrant children coming into the country were assimilated into the existing culture rather then corrupting it with their own traditions. Because the school system was created not to educate but to indoctrinate students many parents today find that they can better instruct their children at home.
It is highly POV and sounds like a conspiracy theory. It is not backed up by any references whatsoever. The facts about Jefforson and Lincoln are fairly benign, but the rest is speculative. Unless someone can back it up with facts (not more speculation), I vote to leave it out. Actually, I'll re-add the first two sentences, but the rest will need some facts to back it up. —Frecklefoot 15:30, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: My understanding is that there is evidence of an extremely high literacy rate before compulsory education.  I agree the rest is conspiracy stuff, though, and needs to be left out or NPOV'd.  (Perhaps a separate article on conspiracy theories about the origin of public education in the U.S. would be in order?)  Unfortunately, the only reading I've done about the extremely high literacy rate is in the works of John Taylor Gatto, which are so replete with conspiratorial stuff as to be too suspect to prove the assertion.  (In other words, I'm not even fully persuaded myself and am looking for more evidence.) Jdavidb 17:07, 23 Feb 2004 (UTC)

text: The deleted paragraph is not "factual", hence its deletion. But it is an oft-expressed POV, so we might want to track down a home-schooling proponent and quote him on the matter. A lot of homeschooling, er, loudmouths, are Christians who feel that government-run schools in the US foist anti-Christian propaganda upon children. Perhaps we could write about WHY they feel that way. --Uncle Ed 15:38, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC)

text: Um, not quite the POV I've read. But I like your use of Some homeschoolers believe that as a way of attributing the POV. If you don't have time to research this, then I'll add it to my lengthy to-do list... :-) --Uncle Ed 16:06, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Removed Conspiracy

message: :(no homework, detentions, bells, bullies, or potentially bossy teachers)
The Robinson Curriculum is premised on the idea that ALL schoolwork can be homework. That is, after the kids are mature enough to keep going without adult supervision, learning just becomes another chore for them to do on their own.
This article needs a lot of work.... --Uncle Ed 16:11, 6 Feb 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: No more teachers, no more books

message: I removed the following comment: "Like any industry, the home education world suffers its own fashions," leaving it here if anyone wants it back.  IMO, this comment relegates unschooling to being a less-valuable "fashion" or "fad" that is currently taking the homeschooling world by storm by may fade away tomorrow to be replaced with the next best thing.  That's not NPOV.
It would be better to clean up the article and make a section on different approaches to homeschooling, including arguments for and against.  There's plenty of arguments for and against unschooling, as well as classical education, school-at-home, unit-study approaches, Montessori (why is there no link to Montessori in this article), and others I can't remember at the moment.  Each method deserves its own section in this article.
In case someone from outside the homeschool mindset reads this, be aware that in addition to the friction between "the homeschooling community" and the rest of the world, there is also friction within "the homeschooling community" between proponents of different methods.
Jdavidb 17:08, 23 Feb 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Criticism of forms of homeschooling 

message: I've placed an NPOV header, as I don't feel that this article follows Wikipedia:NPOV.  Someone more knowledgeable than I needs to fix it.  Best, Meelar (talk) 19:11, 20 Jun 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: NPOV dispute

message: The section titled "Homeschooling from a homeschooler's point of view" doesn't belong here, it's essentially an anonymous opinion. Rhobite 01:28, Jul 5, 2004 (UTC)
:I agree; I've deleted it. Rosemary Amey 16:14, 5 Jul 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  From a homeschooler's point of view