Is Home Schooling a possibility for the kids? Nope, not in this house.
I am the dish washer in the family. Tonight, as I was washing the dinner plates, something i cleaned up reminded me in an off-hand, round-about way of a conversation my friend and I had.
This friend of mine, who I've known since I was five, told me that he was going to put his kid into a private kindergarten next year. The neighborhood they live in is very nice but it is in the middle of a larger part of town that is not-so-nice; the school district has a bad reputation and he has decided that it would be worth spending the extra money on a private school.
My mind started reeling at the idea of spending big money on my kid's school. Of course I would pay, if it came down to it. My children seem pretty smart so far - I sure do want to give them every advantage. But how do you afford it?
Then there is always the "alternative" method of schooling your kids: home schooling. If you home school your children, you don't have to send them to those "poorly staffed" schools with those "bad influence" kids. In fact you might even get a break on your property tax since you have opted out of an expensive part of your county's services. All that aside, I still don't think I could handle the responsibility of teaching the kids everything they need to know -- how could I possibly handle it.
Then it occurred to me... I could at least teach them chemistry.
You know how every bit of matter in it's natural state exists in either a gas, a solid or a liquid? Introducing energy in some way to that matter can change the state -- exciting the molecules or slowing them down. For example, Carbon Dioxide exists at room temperature as a gas -- but if you cool it down it becomes a solid (dry ice). Even water is another great example -- cool it down and it freezes into a solid, but heat it up and it becomes a gas.
With this knowledge I have discovered that I may already have the tools, or at least the "classroom" to teach a chemistry class: my kitchen. Did you know (and it is a bit of a shock to me as well) that milk demonstrates this principle very well? Cooled in the refrigerator or warmed in the body of your neighborhood cow, milk will act like a liquid. But, lo and behold, if you leave that milk out all night so it can return to room temperature it becomes a solid, it's natural state!
Amazing. I have found my calling as a science teacher after all this time. And all because I am the dish washer.
5 comments:
my wife tells me that this story was a "long-ass way to get to your point about the milk."
Ok, Ok, it was long-winded, but one thing made me think of another and, well...
Fine. It's just a long-ass well to tell you that milk turned to a solid in my kitchen.
LOL! You definitely left out the best part of the story. Thank goodness for Elise!
Anyway, cousins of mine with 4, and the 5th on the way, are home schooling their kids right now. I don't know how my cousin's wife does it. The kids range from 3-9 and one is autistic.
In the early years perhaps we could all handle the easy stuff, reading, writing, simple math, but I almost think we do them a disservice to teach them stuff that we are just learning or re-learning ourselves. I mean don't we always joke about the public school teachers who are one-day ahead of their students? Isn't that what happens with hometeachers at some point? I know there is a place for that kind of teaching depending on the circumstances, but I know I'm not cut out for it.
I have noticed that around here many speculate the "real" reason some people choose to homeschool. Several that I have heard of are looked upon with some disdain as religious fanatics. I wouldn't know though... this was just discussed in the form of gossip and rumor. Pure conjecture.
Well I think your hunch is right in many cases. When I worked at the Navy Museum, we gave tours to some groups of Christian homeschoolers, and learned that the reason for their schooling decisions was religiously-based. Also know of another case where one of my former roommate's cousins decided to homeschool their kids b/c the local Catholic schools weren't "Catholic enough." No kiddin? Maybe Mel Gibson's kids are homeschooled too.
My husband was homeschooled for high school, because he had dyslexia which was detected very late in his schooling. The local public schools in his small TX town were crappy and didn't have special help, so his mom taught him at home. But the curriculum she used was "Christian-based."
I didn't know it, but there are curricula out there for homeschooling parents to buy and follow that are steeped in evangelical Christian thought. I wonder if there were more physcial "Christian" schools, like Catholic schools if there would be as many homeschoolers. Don't know, but it is an interesting subculture!
My wife's friend was telling us about her daughter's preschool (she's four). It is a program run by a local christian (i don't know which sect) church, and it has a decent reputation.
Anyway, she came home from school one day and asked her mother, "Mommy, what is a lie?"
Her mother told her, "A lie is when you don't tell the truth."
She proceeded to ask, "Mommy, do you know what the truth is?"
Her mom answered in a circle, avoiding a tougher answer, "the truth is not telling a lie."
That's when her kid jumped up out of her chair with one hand in the air stating firmly, "NO MOMMY! THE TRUTH IS JESUS' WORD FROM THE BIBLE!"
Woah... maybe that kid needs some more recess.
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