Educational Choices--Part B

Thanks to those of you who responded with comments on the blog or on facebook.  I don't know why, but it feels good to know that we're not alone in this.

 

I don't believe we are a state where our kids can get public school services if we are traditionally homeschooling.  If I'm not mistaken, there is legislation to make this happen, but it hasn't passed yet.  Oklahoma is one of the most lenient states with regard to homeschooling, for which I'm thankful.

 

An acquaintance of mine shared an info-graphic she created speaking about Finland's educational system.  I thought it was so great, I wanted to share with you as well.  It's HERE.  The information presented talks about how Finland is a leading nation in education, and hypothesizes about why that may be.  Reasons include the much lower student teacher ratios; much more recess per day; no homework until the teen years; and only ONE standardized test in a child's education (when they are 16 years old) compared to the 10 that are more common here in the states.  The info-graphic compares Finland and the U.S. in several ways.

 

Although I'm sure the person didn't send me the link to the graphic because of anything I posted here recently (she sent it to me before I posted), it served to remind me of some of the reasons we chose to homeschool in the first place.  It was good to see a nation succeeding that has many of the same educational convictions as I do.  Although I'm not a Master's level educator (as all of Finland's teachers must be), maybe I can serve my children in a similar capacity.

 

Finally, I want to say that I'm thankful our current school is out there.  It provides a valuable service to many families.  I think the concept of parents being able to use the tax money we pay for education to purchase materials to educate our kids in our home is an excellent one. [Horrible sentence--sorry.]  Epic is filling a gap for parents who don't want to send their kids to public school, but also can't traditionally homeschool.  I'm just not sure it's going to be the right choice for us in the future.

 

Anita