Life On The Planet

Three Words

We've been having a little fun over at Principled Discovery in Dana's comment section. Rather than completely hijack her blog with my silliness, I've decided to continue the fun here.

The question posed was, "What can public schools learn from homeschoolers?"

My response (not nearly as intellectual as the others) was,

"Three words...Edible School Lunches."

JJ Ross from Cocking a Snook chimed in with,

"Teaching isn't learning."

Truer words, JJ... My response was slightly less philosophical.

"Sleep until eight."

Well, I ask ya...?

Dana, undoubtedly tired of my goofiness in the midst of a serious conversation, but still a good sport brought up,

"Play outside. Lots."

I figured I'd better get while the getting was good, so I took my foolishness and boogied back on over to my own blog.

So how about it? Feel like giving the public school system a helping hand?

All it takes is three little words. 

 

 

Educational Anarchy...Better Than the Alternative

I am an anarchist. Deal with it. I'm not speeding. I'm not robbing grocery stores. I'm educating my children. According to the California chapter of the National Education Association, that makes me guilty of "educational anarchy." Sweet.

However, in my humble opinion, Educational Anarchy beats Educational Chaos any day. But what do I know? I'm just an anarchist.

No School on Mondays

A school district in Minnesota is going to a four day week next year to save money.

In a similar story, the proposed plan to eliminate the 2008-2009 school year here on The Planet has been vetoed by the resident dictator. Appeals are likely to be ignored.

I Learned Many Things From My Mother...

and I can assure you, how to beat the snot out of a teacher was not one of them.

It's Been Quite a Week

...in the public schools of the U.S.A. Police in New Jersey foiled a students plot to murder his teacher and classmates, a student in Alabama committed suicide in front of a gym full of other students and a four-year-old showed up at school drunk.

While I don't blame these events on the schools, I have to wonder at the double standard that exists in our media and government when it comes to tragedies of this nature. When there is even anecdotal evidence of poor parenting among the ranks of homeschoolers, then homeschooling must need to be under tighter governmental control. However, when the parents and teachers in the public school system behave poorly, it's never the system's fault. These tragedies are dealt with by utilizing existing laws. Imagine. There are never calls for increased monitoring of public school teachers and parents, or for the abolition of the system as there is when similar events happen and homeschoolers are involved.

Why is that?

Lessons Du Jour

Today my children got to experience a public school. We were setting up for Friday night's stage performance (which will be held at the local public high school's theater) when we had to evacuate the building. Thanks to a fire set in a trash can, we had the pleasure of standing out in the wind and rain for half an hour.

Tiger enjoyed the fire truck. Butterfly was not happy about the condition of her hair. Salamander listed various ways an incendiary device could be used to start a fire. That's the last Boy Scout camp out he's going on.

I spent my half hour of fun wondering if setting fires goes under the heading of science or socialization.