One teacher per pupil per class eliminates the redshirt

[Anonymous]

One teacher per student per class would solve the dilemma that vexes DCUM. Maybe if they paid more taxes this may be possible.

[Anonymous]

Or homeschooling.

[Anonymous]

Yeah. But if you have 3 children ages 7,8, and 9 years of age and choose to teach them as a group some here on DCUM may object because of the wide age spread in your bedroom classroom.

[Anonymous]

If, as anti-redshirters claim, the goal is to give your kid(s) an advantage over other kids, then homeschooling certainly doesn't offer a solution, LOL!

[Anonymous]

Homeschooling does offer a potential solution. It avoids the neurosis exhibited here by some parents focused so more on why other parents and pupils make the choices they make for kindergarten placement rather than the focus on their own children--when at least all children within a family 6,7, and 8 year-olds would be viewed as precious regardless of their ages and regardless of which child my have the fatest 50 free in swimming, quickest at arithematics facts or better reader.

[Anonymous]

The advantageges are shortlived at best and in only in your mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Homeschooling does offer a potential solution. It avoids the neurosis exhibited here by some parents focused so more on why other parents and pupils make the choices they make for kindergarten placement rather than the focus on their own children--when at least all children within a family 6,7, and 8 year-olds would be viewed as precious regardless of their ages and regardless of which child my have the fatest 50 free in swimming, quickest at arithematics facts or better reader.

Posts like this always make me wonder whether homeschoolers realize that kids who go to school also have homes where, in fact, their parents love them just as much as homeschooling parents love their kids. It's not as if a parent's love is contingent on grades and trophies earned (and if you were the sort of parent for whom that were the case, then stay home. keep your kids there too, and give your own grades and trophies would hardly be the solution).

Yes, I know homeschoolers get out and participate in sports, honor orchestras, etc. But that supports my point rather than undermines it. Allowing your kids to compete with other kids in a context where authority figures don't necessarily love them doesn't inherently change your relationship to your kids.

So the question becomes where and for whom is competition problematic and where is it useful. And, of course, even if the answer is competition undermines learning, that's not necessarily an argument against school. It could be an argument for choosing a particular type of school in preference to another (for a particular environment). That's what all the conversations about "fit" are about. It's also not inherently an argument for homeschooling. Ever heard of sibling rivalry?

[Anonymous]

I know some incredibly smart people who home-school. I was surprised at first, but apparently home-schooling isn't the "little house on the prarie" "keep my child away from atheists and sex ed" caricature that the stereotype suggests.

I personally don't think I have what it takes to home-school, but based on some of the families I've met I certainly no longer laugh at it! Believe it or not, it is also the choice of some genuinely intelligent, dedicated, involved, credentialed (as in Ivy League and professional degrees) parents!

[Anonymous]

I recently read a statistic that said that 8% of college educated parents are choosing to homeschool their children. While that is a small percentage it is higher than I had expected -- and the number is growing.