301–310 of 371 posts
I don't expect the public school system to teach my children anything. Hence why they won't be attending. Most of the schools I attended growing up were completely useless. Filthy, full of drugs and gangs. Sadly I even listened to some of my teachers more than I did my own parents (indoctrination) which I now see lead me down the wrong path. I don't expect the public school to teach my kids any kind of career skills…
You seem to prematurely optimizing your kid's lives. It can backfire very bad. Programming or any profession in general is way lower in priority before learning Math and other stuff.
Career returns are always non linear, getting to greedy at the start can cost a lot in the long term.
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> As a publicly educated kid who started working when he was 15-1/2 (the legal minimum age in CA for a work permit at the time), I'd encourage you to rethink the importance of child-like innocence. Only adults think that any such thing as child-like innocence actually exists. Children see and hear everything .
That's the point, their innocence is lost too early.
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Why do you think farmers used to have a dozen kids? Extra labor to help around the farm. If your parent is a minister, you'll be helping around the church as a teenager. Or how about the common last name 'Smith', as in 'that family of blacksmiths'? Parents teaching their kids the family trade is as old as history. Maybe there are other ways, but to 'shock and disgust' seems a bit extreme.
That is a horrible defense of a horrible sounding parent. Other comments have made the required comparisons to other idiotic appeals to antiquity, but there's another thing. It seems almost barbaric when we're past the time when people had almost no say in their career path to limit your children's exposure to add many ideas and experiences as you can. A farmer in the 1600's didn't have much choice, but we do now.
Let's lay it out simply: As a [whatever I am] I have the ability to teach [X]. Therefore, I will teach [X] to my children to help them be a useful member of society.
In my particular case, for example, I have the ability to teach my child about math, logic, critical thinking, problem solving, general computing, and rudimentary electrical engineering. I'll also teach them about hiking, backpacking, a love of nature, fine art, an appreciation of music and storytelling... but as far as "making a wage" skills?
I just can't teach them skills I don't have.
I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to teach my child how to be an extrovert, an athlete, a politician, an actor, a doctor, a singer, an agriculturist, a CEO of a major corporation... but... those are not in my skillset.
And to call this guy "a horrible-sounding parent" for doing what he should be doing just means you're not a parent.
I don't expect the public school system to teach my children anything. Hence why they won't be attending. Most of the schools I attended growing up were completely useless. Filthy, full of drugs and gangs. Sadly I even listened to some of my teachers more than I did my own parents (indoctrination) which I now see lead me down the wrong path. I don't expect the public school to teach my kids any kind of career skills…
I'm glad that in my country there are laws that prohibit homeschooling to replace regular education. Also I see what problem they solve, to prevent people like you ruining a child's mental health. The public school system is more about socializing than gaining knowledge. But how could a person like you understand that, when you think that: " I think having them make $60 an hour while their friends make nothing will b…
Strange comment. I'm thinking of all the girls I knew in public high school that would cut themselves. The boys did other kinds of self harm; severe drug use, and if they couldn't get drugs, they'd go huff gasoline.
What I expect from my children is that they do a few hours of work in the morning, a few chores after lunch, and then they can do what ever they want the rest of the day (like help me at work if they want since I work from home). Is that such mental anguish?
Of course none of my kids are over 5, so this is all my pipe dream. Might work, might not.
As far as socialization, that is a human trait. Some have more of it, and some have less. Environment does play a small factor. But thinking your child will get great social skills by hanging out with teenagers is...unfortunate.
The purpose of school is to equip students on how to teach themselves, not to spoon feed them facts. For that reason, philosophy, rhetoric, logic, music, literature, and mathematics should be the priorities. Students who are well-versed in those areas WILL figure out the rest of it a million times faster than some kid who drilled on history, science, or other facts. Teach the kids how to study history, don't feed the…
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Rather than this conclusion, perhaps, look at what other countries are doing? Are they leaving children behind? or do they have better techniques for making sure everyone does well?
Germany, in fact, does leave people behind. But it doesn't leave them without perspective. The tiered school model of Germany sorts you into one of three tiers based on your abilities with the age of 10, which gets even more specific over the years after that. Only people finishing from the highest tier can go to a theoretical university, people from the tier below can at maximum go to a university of applied science…
the sorting after the age of 10 is simply a recommendation. It is simply an estimation of the Teacher if the Student will get accepted by a school of certain tier. For example, I recieved a mid-tier (Realschule) recommendation, but was accepted by a highesthtier (Gymnasium) school due to musical skill and passing some kind of intelligence test.
Skills taught by the scools vary by tier. A friend wo went to a lower tier school tended to have more practical subjects such as "mechanics" or "crafting". They learned how to assemble a solar array, how a transmission or factory line works etc.
You can get to any tier of education if you want. If you want to become a baker and are on a highest tier school you can drop out after getting your low-tier certificate in 9th grade and go to a trade school, and that's totally fine. If you are in a low-tier school you can either have grades good enough to get accepted by a mid-tier school and then by a high-tier school. You can also go to school in the evening if you want a better certificate, but have a job.
I don't expect the public school system to teach my children anything. Hence why they won't be attending. Most of the schools I attended growing up were completely useless. Filthy, full of drugs and gangs. Sadly I even listened to some of my teachers more than I did my own parents (indoctrination) which I now see lead me down the wrong path. I don't expect the public school to teach my kids any kind of career skills…
I'm glad that in my country there are laws that prohibit homeschooling to replace regular education. Also I see what problem they solve, to prevent people like you ruining a child's mental health. The public school system is more about socializing than gaining knowledge. But how could a person like you understand that, when you think that: " I think having them make $60 an hour while their friends make nothing will b…
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What the hell? "My kids are gonna be web devs by 13 and they're gonna like it!" Is this considered normal with you stylish, American, Silicon Valley types? Do you think children are like Pokemons or Sims or RPG characters who you control from a 3rd person perspective?
I suspect that the op is not a normal SV resident I suspect that they come from a culture where child labor is stil Dickensian.
They paid for my college which I wasted by going to vocational schools. I eventually paid my own way through university for a CS degree. Then I moved back closer to home and "work from home" mostly.
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What the hell? "My kids are gonna be web devs by 13 and they're gonna like it!" Is this considered normal with you stylish, American, Silicon Valley types? Do you think children are like Pokemons or Sims or RPG characters who you control from a 3rd person perspective?
They (as parents) are probably looking at it as other parents do when are asking for menial house work that should be good for the family and for the child's readiness for the life ahead. I would rather prefer something like "you can do this dumb thing each day or I can teach you how to program something to do it for you" approach.