Josh Powell thrived under his mother’s instruction early on. At 4, he was already reading chapter books. Andrea Powell, a University of Virginia graduate who has managed most of her children’s education over the years, let her husband speak for the family. As the family grew, Josh Powell said, things deteriorated. He learned from a mishmash of textbooks his parents assembled, with more and more self-instruction because there were so many other children to raise and teach. As subjects got increasingly complex, he had more trouble figuring them out on his own.
Josh Powell is clearly unhappy with his upbringing/ education and is terrified for his siblings. As mentioned at Happy Elf Homeschooling, his parents probably didn't suck as much as he thinks. After all, he is a self starter, who was able to get himself into Georgetown University, even if it did take 3 years of community college. But heck, I had a hard time in college, at the beginning after being an A student in high school, so who's to say that with tables turned, there wouldn't be a similar story about homeschooling.
Still, the prospect of such an event where my kids would think I'd done them a disservice by homeschooling kept me on the straight and narrow. I taught, I tested, I found teachers who could teach things I could not, which by the way negates many of the comments attached to this article.
MarkDavidovich
7/29/2013 12:00 AM EDT
I have yet to meet an individual or couple competent to home-school any child from kindergarten through high school. I doubt such a broad person exists in society at large, let alone among those parents who would deny their children professionally-done education based upon their religion....
Pompass Ass!
I hate how some people wait in hiding for a one in a million story to come out so they can pounce all over homeschooling again, and the comments section of this story is chock full of them.
3 comments:
I totally agree with you! I feel like if the parent has a college education themselves there is no reason they can't homeschool their children, or even a well applied high school diploma. After all K-12 is really just basic education. It's common sense really. Whoever posted the above comment must have thought high school was just too hard.
I think Mr. Powell needs to spend some time in a "real" school if that's the way he feels. Let him go ahead and be a teacher. Let him see the kids that have been passed on into his high school math class, and let HIM try to teach them trigonometry.
It will be sooo sweet if WashPo ever makes a balanced follow-up article in 10 years.
I don't doubt his mom slacked a bit toward the end of his homeschool years, though. ELEVEN kids, some infants and toddlers? You cannot do a great job all on your own with no help with that number, sorry, no way. I "only" have six and I can see that.
pshhht! Me too Happy. I only have 2 kids and towards the end, I lost a bit of resolve to stay on top of them. I pushed through and finished, but 11 kids. That's a handful.
Post a Comment