Re: [Goanet] Homeschooling in Goa
--- Peter D'Souza <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >Thanks for your feedback. From your response and >that of others who e-mailed me off-list, the very >idea of homeschooling in India seems quite different >from what it is in the USA. > India is indeed fortunate not to have an ideologically driven "home-schooling" movement of the type prevalent in the U.S. It is a good thing that the Hindutva zealots were defeated, and were not able to revise high school textbooks to include bogus revisionist history, and garbage such as vedic astrology, vedic mathematics and vedic science. Cheers, Santosh _ Do not post admin requests to the list. Goanet mailing list (Goanet@goanet.org) Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription: %(user_optionsurl)s This email sent to %(user_address)s
Re: [Goanet] Homeschooling in Goa
See http://dnaindia.com/sunReport.asp?NewsID=1017555&CatID=26 DNA Sunday Beyond books and syllabi Saturday, March 11, 2006 19:41 IST Several alternative schools offer innovative methods of education, and appraisal systems where the traditional exam is underplayed or absent: Tridha (Mumbai) is based on the principles of Waldorf Steiner, an education system that balances academic, artistic and practical activities. The emphasis is on overall development of the child, with a flexible curriculum where art and music are considered as important as reading, writing and arithmetic. Classes are currently conducted from nursery and kindergarten to class VI. Sloka (Hyderabad), affiliated to the ICSE board, was established by the Education Renaissance Trust, a non-profit organisation, to provide an alternative education programme. The school addresses the needs of students who have difficulties with reading, writing and maths, and those who suffer from lack of coordination or concentration. Textbooks are not used to teach these students. Rishi Valley (Andhra Pradesh), established by the J Krishnamurti Foundation, it follows the philosophy of exploring alternative visions of life while imparting a regular education. The curriculum of its junior- and middle-level school is flexible, and it eschews examinations. Students are involved in projects such as biodiversity conservation and watershed management. Some of the other schools run by the foundation are Rajghat Besant School (Varanasi), The School (Chennai), The Valley School (Bangalore) and Sahyadri (Pune). Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education (Pondicherry) has classes ranging from kindergarten to college level. The philosophy of the school is to provide an integral education by encouraging the development of mind, life, body, soul and spirit. The method of teaching is a combination of instruction by the teacher and a "free progress system" in which the student can pursue his own course of study. — Compiled by Swati Pujari -- Need a *Gmail* e-mail ID? Do write to me. Will send you an invitation to open a *Gmail* e-mail account. :-)
Re: [Goanet] Homeschooling in Goa
--- Peter D'Souza <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >I don't want to waste your time with personal trivia, >especially since your valuable work is subsidized by >the American taxpayer. > Ah, the taxpayer card! Isn't it always better to waste time on partisan political trivia rather than on personal trivia generated by a dishonest excuse and a self-inflicted embarrassment? But I am really glad that you have suddenly discovered the value of taxpayer-supported secular scientific research, which is dependent on a proper understanding of evolutionary biology. > >The "us" referred to everyone on this list who read >your post and didn't want to make the same leap of >logic that you did. > Are you sure they share your leap of logic and your political agenda? > >Thanks for sharing the factual BASIS of your >assumptions, but what are your assumptions? > The facts I provided are my assumptions. What are yours, and those of the people you referred to as "us"? > >When you say "Indians", do you mean all, some, most, >many, a minority, majority...what? > What I mean is that in India anti-evolutionism, creationism, opposition to Big Bang cosmology, opposition to the established geological record and opposition to Church-State separation have no popular appeal, and no political and/or legal significance, whatsoever. Cheers, Santosh
Re: [Goanet] Homeschooling in Goa
--- Peter D'Souza <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >I'm afraid you've made a leap of logic here, so >before we make any assumptions, please help us >understand what you mean. > Peter, First, some questions for you. Are you sure you have the time to engage in discussions in Goan forums? Don't you have to study or something? By the way, who are these "us" you are referring to? How many of you homeschoolers are there on this list? The assumptions I make are based on the following facts: 1. The statistical fact that 72% of homeschooled children in the U.S. are homeschooled for religious or "moral" reasons. 2. The fact that one of the foremost organizations of the homeschooling movement, the National Home Education Research Institute, endorses the recommendation that the homeschool curriculum be evaluated from a "biblical Christian world view". For example, this is what it endorses needs to be emphasized in the Science curriculum: "Science. God created everything in six days about six thousand years ago, and there was a catastrophic worldwide flood in Noah's time. These facts guide our understanding of what we see in nature. Our use of science must also respect the sanctity of human life and reflect good stewardship of God's gifts as well as compassion toward His creatures." You can see all their recommendations at: http://www.teachinghome.com/started/basics/evaluate.cfm > >Also, share with us your knowledge of the homeschool >movement--research data will be welcomed. > My knowledge about religious and ideological movements is limited. You might want to ask others in your "us" group. Ken Ham and other young earth creationists might be able to do that better for you. Cheers, Santosh
Re: [Goanet] Homeschooling in Goa
--- Peter D'Souza <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >...I'm keen to know if it is catching on in >Goa and other parts of India. Thanks in advance for >your feedback... > Why would anyone want to home-school their children in Goa or India? Indians have no issues with evolutionary biology, genetics and reproductive biology, geology, the Big Bang cosmology, secularism, the separation of Church and State, and multi-religious and multi-cultural traditions. Cheers, Santosh
[Goanet] Homeschooling in Goa
A couple of years ago there was a discussion on homeschooling on this list. At the time I received a couple of off-list e-mails about it, including one from a lady who was considering homeschooling her kids in Goa. I was wondering about how much things have changed. The movement is growing rapidly in the USA, and I'm keen to know if it is catching on in Goa and other parts of India. Thanks in advance for your feedback. Peter - Homeschooling grows quickly in United States COLUMBIA, Maryland (Reuters) -- Elizabeth and Teddy Dean are learning about the Italian scientist Galileo, so they troop into the kitchen, where their mother Lisa starts by reviewing some facts about the Renaissance. Elizabeth, 11, and Teddy, 8, have never gone to school. Their teachers are primarily their parents, which puts them into what is believed to be the fastest-growing sector of the U.S. education system -- the homeschool movement. For their science lesson, Teddy and Elizabeth are joined by three other homeschooled children and their mother, who live down the street in their suburb midway between Baltimore and Washington, D.C. Before the lesson starts, all five kids change into Renaissance costumes -- long dresses and bonnets for the girls, tunics and swords for the boys. "We definitely have a lot more fun than kids who go to school," Elizabeth said. Nobody is quite sure exactly how many American children are being taught at home. The National Center for Education Statistics, in a 2003 survey, put the number that year at 1.1 million. The Home School Legal Defense Association, which represents some 80,000 member families, says the figure now is quite a bit higher -- between 1.7 and 2.1 million. But there is no disagreement about the explosive growth of the movement -- 29 percent from 1999 to 2003 according to the NCES study, or 7 to 15 percent a year according to HSLDA. This growth has spawned an estimated $750 million a year market supplying parents with teaching aids and lesson plans to fit every religious and political philosophy. Homeschooled children regularly show up in the finals of national spelling competitions, generating publicity for the movement. Parents cite many reasons for deciding to opt out of formal education and teach their children at home. In the NCES study, 31 percent said they were concerned about drugs, safety or negative peer pressure in schools; 30 percent wanted to provide religious or moral instruction while 16 percent said they were dissatisfied with academic standards in their local schools. "I wasn't sold on the idea of institutionalized education. It's a factory approach -- one size fits all," said Isabel Lyman, author of "The Homeschooling Revolution," who taught both of her now-grown sons at home. "The schools take all the joy out of learning. They don't take account of a particular child's interests, needs and development. The whole system is anti-child," she said. Regulation, instruction vary Different states take widely varying approaches to homeschooling. Some, like New York and Pennsylvania, require that the parents submit lesson plans four times a year and regularly test the children. Others, like Texas, basically leave them alone. So there is little reliable data on how they are doing, said University of Colorado education professor Kevin Welner. "There are popular myths that homeschooled children are socially inept, cloistered kids and that they are either illiterate or academic wunderkinds. Anecdotes aside, we simply don't have the data to make such generalizations," he said. "Some children will get top-notch instruction. Others will get poor or minimal instruction. Obviously it will vary by parent," he said. Even the cliche that the majority of homeschooled children are evangelical Christians is outdated, if it was ever true. The movement remains overwhelmingly white and middle class but it is growing fast among black and Hispanic families and becoming more politically and religiously diverse as well. Some parents follow an educational philosophy known as "unschooling," where the children are encouraged to follow their own interests rather than adhering to a fixed curriculum. Laura Derrick, president of the National Home Education Network, has followed this philosophy with her 14-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter. "My son learned to read before he was 3 and I realized then we were working better than any school program ever designed," she said. "Children are born wanting to learn." Lisa Dean, who was a lawyer before she became a mother, said homeschooling her children was tremendously rewarding but also very exhausting. "It's a long day with the kids. I look forward to when my husband comes home," she said. She also has backup from a local group of 70 homeschooling families who organize group field trips and extracurricular activities. Her children both take lessons in
