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Re: [seul-edu] Home schooling question
If I might jump back into this discussion, one of the most important
pieces of software that we used in our own homeschooling efforts was
reading comprehension software. If you check the
internet, you can see several examples. We used a early Windows
product produced for home schoolers by Jostens (I believe Jostens still
produces a "Learning Lab" product for public schools).
Basically, the software presented 1-2 pages of text which were read by
the student at their own pace. After reading the text, the student
was presented with several questions designed to test the student's
understanding of the concepts covered in the text. In terms of
repetition, the student was required to achieve nearly a perfect score
(e.g., 95%) before moving on to the next set. Early grades had a
strong phonics base (less comprehension - later grades
(junior-senior high school) required increasing abilities
in critical analysis of the texts.
The system worked - all of my students scored over 30 in the ACT
reading test.
I have often thought that a similar Open Source application would be
a wonderful addition to any curriculum, regardless of whether it was
used in a formal classroom setting or home school. Any ideas or does
anyone know of similar Linux-based software?
John
On Thu, Jun 26, 2003 at 08:22:18PM -0400, Petr R. Vicherek wrote:
>
> Thank you for correction, Dave.
>
> Since I started homeschooling, I gained a great respect for teachers.
>
> All I would like to have is homeschooling Linux software
> and I would present every reason to support the importance of this idea.
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Petr
>
> On Thu, 26 Jun 2003, Dave Prentice wrote:
>
> > Guys,
> > I am a classroom teacher who is all for home schooling. However, I
> > think the seul-edu list is supposed to be focused on Linux. This
> > thread might be better placed on school-discuss.
> > Dave Prentice
> > prentice@instruction.com
> > http://www.originsresource.org
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Don Christensen <djc@cisco.com>
> > To: seul-edu@seul.org <seul-edu@seul.org>
> > Cc: Brm0411@aol.com <Brm0411@aol.com>
> > Date: Thursday, June 26, 2003 3:44 PM
> > Subject: Re: [seul-edu] Home schooling question
> >
> >
> > >Petr R. Vicherek wrote:
> > >...
> > >> If you look at your arguments, then you'll see that either the
> > students
> > >> enjoy internet, smaller classes and personal attention because they
> > are
> > >> homeschooled, or that they are homeschooled because of lower income
> > or
> > >> attention defficiencies.
> > >
> > >Please don't make suppositions and then treat them as though they
> > were
> > >facts. You are entitled to your opinions, but you should properly
> > regard
> > >them as such and not use them to back your arguments. If you have
> > >pointers to applicable studies that you have derived your information
> > >from, then please share them.
> > >
> > >> Also, few parents would load their children with junk subject
> > such
> > >> as "Social Sciences" or "cultural diversity" classes and would
> > spend
> > >> the saved time on solid academics.
> > >
> > >I hope this is intended to be sarcastic, but I don't see how it
> > supports
> > >your point if it is.
> > >
> > >> Most of your factors are thus related to homeschooling situation.
> > >> So, there is some truth in the statistics, afterall.
> > >>
> > >> From my experience with homeschooling:
> > >> Not knowing how to teach is the third biggest problem, and takes
> > a year
> > >> for the parents to learn. Of course, the oldest child suffers the
> > most.
> > >> The first and second problem is lack of competitivenes among peers
> > for
> > >> the students that need it and lack of authority equal to that of
> > school
> > >> teacher.
> > >
> > >School teacher and authority in the same sentence? You must not be
> > >in the U.S. (Is the sarcasm in this statement apparent?)
> > >
> > >> No one has such an interest in a child as his own parent. Just
> > that
> > >> might make the parents better teachers, because they have the best
> > >> motivation.
> > >
> > >There are lots of children that are not their parent's number one
> > concern,
> > >as sad as that is. I would guess that (just my opinion here, I am
> > not
> > >aware of any studies to back it up) very few, if any, of those
> > children
> > >are homeschooled. Which only supports Mr. Downes' argument (which by
> > my
> > >interpretation is not that homeschooling is not better, but that the
> > >statistics cited earlier cannot be used to draw a conclusion as to
> > why
> > >homeschooled children do better on standardized tests).
> > >
> > >-Don
> > >
> > >--
> > >Don Christensen Senior Software Development Engineer
> > >djc@cisco.com Cisco Systems, Santa Cruz, CA
> > > "It was a new day yesterday, but it's an old day now."
> >
>
> --
>
>