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Education from the Heart
By Ursula B.G. Kilner, Salisbury
Ever since a federal Department of Education (not to mention the Departments of Commerce and Energy) was established in Washington, DC to "overlook" the national education system (trying to make every local school system the same?), education in the U.S. has gone down in quality, results with students have generally deteriorated, and scholarship has become a laughing matter. There is a saying, "If you want to degrade anything, get the U.S. government involved." I fear this has the ring of truth.
I've long thought that if I had children I would teach them at home. Not having children, I have two godchildren to work with and, thankfully, they have both excelled in their fields of study. Their excellence is not due so much to my teaching as my encouragement and appreciation of their work in (1) botany and.(2) occupational therapy. One holds a doctorate in botany and teaches as well as does research in mycology (fungi). The other holds two degrees in occupational therapy and now heads an Alzheimer’s clinic in Houston, Texas. They were not completely home-schooled, but what they got of home-schooling here did help. It has been said over and over, "Home-schooled students consistently test higher than any other group of students."
For some obscure reason many persons and educators (they are really not the same) hold the view that the more money spent on education the better the student results. Unfortunately, the fanciest, most up-to-date school buildings teach nothing. The late Albert Shanker said, "The best school is the one-room schoolhouse." I agreed with Albert Shanker about almost nothing, but I do agree wholeheartedly with that assessment.
What kinds of student results come from home schooling (or the one-room school house)? Here are a few well known persons who were home schooled: author Mark Twain, minister John Newton, composer Amadeus Mozart, minister Dwight Moody, author Charles Dickens, General Douglas MacArthur, educator Booker T. Washington, President Abraham Lincoln, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and President George Washington. The list could go on and on and we may well ask: What did fancy school buildings do for them? It’s something to think about as school budgets appear on the voting horizon.
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