It's not by choice.  The girl (almost 17 now) wants to go to school.
Her mother won't let her.

She's been out three years. The first year, I can't remember what
sort of instruction she was getting.  Not much.  In 9th grade, she
had four classes that I can think of: a math (taught her at home by a
high school student), a class that passed for history (taught her at
home by one of the moms in the church), a class that passed for
English (taught at the house of the tutor), and a bible study (taught
her at home by her mom).  Sample assignment for the history class
(called "universal history," because god created the universe): to
write out what she thought god's plan for her was.  In the "English"
class, she read one book all year (a book on chaste dating), and
after several months of very inferior and unenlightened grammar
instruction -- nothing illuminating or insightful, nothing complete
for that matter -- she was assigned to rewrite Aesop's Fables so as
to "improve" the writing.  She did that for the next several months,
learning how to lard her prose.

In this last year, she began also taking a couple of classes at the
local JC (two comp classes and Spanish), but she's not doing all that
well in them.  She hasn't got the discipline to study steadfastly on
her own, and she hasn't been taught how to construct an argument that
doesn't begin and end with scripture.  Before this year, any writing
assignments she'd been given had a foregone conclusion: she had only
to learn which passages to cite where.  Now, given some of the
writing assignments she's been asked to do in this last class, she's
being yanked from these classes as well.  The online program is the
new plan.

I can't see how any of this is legal, and it's particularly sticky
because the teen is my niece.  The situation now is that her mom
cannot afford the fees for a Christian school, and public school has
never, as you can imagine, been an option.  In fact, she's already
been told that her mother will not help her out with college unless
she goes to a Christian college.

It's barbaric.  I'd like to help her as much as I can with college,
but at this rate, she won't be ready for college for years.  She's
not learning anything that she ought to be learning, and she's
reading virtually nothing.

I'd been hoping to convince her mother of the value of the classroom,
of learning in a group with other students -- hence my original
question -- but I gather now that her mind is set and that's that.

Pardon my rant.  It's painful beyond belief.


Odile




>Odile,
>
>Thought I would let you know that I'm taking a graduate program in Education
>via on-line learning from Walden University.  It's perfect for me because
>I'm a single mom with four young children.  However, I have no idea why high
>schools would use this method.  I am a bit familiar with the Abeka Home
>School materials, and can see the benefits of  this type of education if a
>parent is available and knowledgeable enough to supervise the instruction.
>My own kids prefer going to school.  I just can't imagine them sitting at
>the computer each day taking classes.  What about music, art, gym, and shop
>classes?
>
>Teresa Francis
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Odile Sullivan-Tarazi" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Thursday, May 06, 2004 12:52 PM
>Subject: The value of the classroom environment
>
>
>  > This is actually not a grammar question, not even a language
>  > question, but one having to do with education itself.
>  >
>  > I'm wondering whether any of you can point me to any information --
>  > discussion, studies -- on the value of the classroom experience over
>  > "distance learning," particularly for the high school student.
>  >
>  > It's my feeling that learning within a classroom, with other students
>  > participating in discussion, with a teacher who responds as needed to
>  > each individual and to the class as a whole, is a completely
>  > different enterprise from that of the individual attempting to learn
>  > a subject on his/her own, in front of a computer at home, through
>  > guided lessons and video lectures.
>  >
>  > I believe that this is the case for any of us -- that classroom
>  > interaction contributes to the richness of the experience, that
>  > education engages the whole person, not simply the intellect, and
>  > that even the intellect is driven by the excitement of discovery
>  > shared with others, discovery in part shaped by others -- but I think
>  > it is even more crucial for the younger student, for whom so much of
>  > this learning will be at the core of who he (or she) will turn out to
>  > be.
>  >
>  > I have perhaps an idealistic view, and I know that not every
>  > classroom functions at this level all the time.  But I do fear that
>  > the teenager who misses out on the classroom experience altogether
>  > misses out on a great deal.
>  >
>  > This is not what is often called a "purely academic" question (though
>  > I happen to like academic questions myself).  Anything you can point
>  > me to, any websites, any books, anything, would be helpful and might
>  > make a difference.
>  >
>  >
>  > Odile
>

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