Smart teaching

I'd like to talk briefly about good teaching. I fear doing this,knowing well how fine teachers differ as their characters and styles differ. Idiosyncrasy is a virtue to the extent that successful teaching rests on character - and I believe it heavily rests there. By describing a generalized view of good teaching, I may unintentionally signal to you an intolerance of idiosyncrasy. I do not wish to do so.

I am also concerned that I may give the impression that I think teaching per se is important. Of course, it isn't; what is only important is what the students learn. By speaking of teaching, I hope I won't muddy the truism that our actions as instructors are a means to an end -- a pupil's knowledge -- rather than an end in themselves.

However, with these reservations expressed, let me proceed. Brilliant teaching, in my view, at its heart reflects scholarship, personal integrity and the ability to communicate with the young.

Scholarship is both the grasp of a realm of knowledge and a habit of mind. An effective teacher provokes both from his students. But particularly the latter, as it is a habit of mind, rather than facts, which endure in a person over a lifetime. Scholarship is not only an affair of the classroom, but, at its best, is a way of life, one which is marked by respect for evidence and for logic, by inquisitiveness and the genius to find new meaning in familiar data, and by the ability to see things in context, to relate specificities to generalities, facts to theories, and theories to facts.

The second characteristic of great teaching is integrity, in at least two of its separate meanings. First there is probity: characteristics of honesty, principle and decent candor. These qualities are fundamental, of course, to the good life for anyone, but they play a special role in the behavior of those of us who inevitably, as we live together with them, influence younger people by our example.

Another, but equally important, kind of integrity is completeness or unity of character, the sense of self-confidence and personal identity a fine teacher exhibits. There is much pop jargon around to describe this, some of it useful: "knowing who you are," "getting it together," "not losing one's cool." Because they are teenagers, most of our students' most painful trials are in finding their own selves, in gaining proper self-confidence, and they look to us as people who have learned to control the ambiguities, pressures and restrictions of life rather than having them control us. A fine teacher is not particularly one who exudes self-confidence from every pore -- a superperson (more likely, a hypocrite!). Far from it. A fine teacher does have confidence, but the honest confidence that flows from a fair recognition of one's own frailties as well as talents and which accommodates both joyfully. The lack of assurance that typically marks adolescence and that takes observable form in pettiness, distortion, scapegoating, over-reacting, or withdrawl ideally is balanced in a school by the presence of adults who have grown to channel and control these sturdily persistent human traits. A teenager leans little from older folk, of whatever scholarly brilliance, who as people are themselves yet teenagers.

The ability to communicate with the young is the third basic characteristic of good teaching. It means, obviously, liking young people, enjoying their noisy exuberance and intense questioning, which is their process of growing up. It means the ability to empathize, to see a situation as the student sees it. A good teacher must be, obviously, a compulsive listener. It means the skill of provoking more out of a student than he believed possible, of knowing the tests to which to put a young scholar in order that he be convinced of his own learning and to lure him into further learning. It means a belief in the dignity of young people and in the stage of life at which they now find themselves. Great teachers neither mock nor underestimate the young.

I am intensely aware that the foregoing description sounds pretentious and begs specificity. I won't apologize for the pretension. I believe these goals are both achievable and proper for each of us as professional teachers to hold. Lesser goals, or more pragmatic goals demean us, I believe, and would suggest that the teacher's craft is less human and more mechanical than it properly should be. But I do recognize that lack of specificity, and respond to it by recounting some little incidents and practices I've observed among members of this assembled company. Acts which may appear trivial in themselves, but which, when added to the hundreds of similar acts, create a standard and a style from which young people can learn.

For example, here are some apparent minutiae:

• knowing student's names, and calling them by name
• greeting students and colleagues pleasantly
• going to see student friends on varied occasions (i.e., the House Counselor or teacher, attending a game or play because of a youngster who's playing)
• remembering something that had earlier worried a student, and asking about it ("Is your mother recovering from her operation?")
• resisting the sarcastic, if funny, bon mot that could be an amusing but hurtful rejoinder to a foolish comment a student has just made in class
• never tolerating ad hominem remarks among students and colleagues, such as apparently benign but really insulting jokes arising from one's sex or ethnic origin
• scrupulously following the dictum which all our parents taught us: "If you can't say anything good about someone, don't say anything at all."
• telling a student the unvarnished truth, privately (i.e., "Susan, I honestly suspect you...", "George, you're not working hard enough.", "Sam, you are an insult to the olfactory nerves; go take a shower.", "Joan, you're a bully.")

I could go on, but I trust the point is clear; such actions signal the importance a teacher feels for an individual, for his dignity and for his growth.

Some others; minutiae, of a different sort:

• always insisting on the reasons for things -- in class and out -- and always taking time, one's self, to give reasons. This takes patience, indeed stretches it often to Biblical extremes
• knowing the difference between asking students to listen to you and to hear you - and acting upon it
• "hearing" students, and questioning them thoroughly enough to know just how they see or are confused by an issue
• showing that you can change your mind, when evidence and logic suggest it
• being on the edge of your subject and interests; exhibiting the same questing in your field that you would have your students feel

The point here is obvious, the need to help students develop rational habits of mind and a sense of the joy of inquiry.

Some others, apparent trivia:

• never being late to class or cutting it for some personal convenience
• returning papers to students within twenty-four hours
• insisting on neat written work, delivered on schedule
• insisting on a formality of conduct in a classroom comparable to the formality of thought implicit in the subject being studied
• clearly signalling the imperative of scrupulous intellectual honesty
• insisting on clear thinking and fair-mindedness in the dormitory, on the playing field and elsewhere, as expected in the classroom
• perceiving the results of a class as "My students know XYZ," rather than "I covered XYZ in class" - and knowing the difference between the two

The message here unequivocally is the deep seriousness we have for intellectual values and for learning.

Some other minutiae; ones that help students to grow:

• always expect a bit more of a student than he expects of himself
• accentuate the positive; be careful always to praise good work. No one learns anything faster than when he feels he is successful
• exhibit the greatest possible friendliness that one can honestly exhibit to a student one doesn't like, and try to repress personal annoyances
• be friends with students, but not buddies; the obligations of the latter relationship limit one's freedom to teach well
• never give up on a student, or categorize or 'brand' him permanently

One can go on, and we should go on among ourselves all year. I admit that this definition of teaching -- a mix of scholarship, integrity and the gift of communicating with the young -- is in its generality often as difficult to categorize as it is to describe. It turns on a person's style, character. We mustn't be afraid to confront this fact, and deal with it.

I take heart in this situation by recalling the consternation of some university colleagues of mine when they discovered a persistently inconsistent hiccup in their masses of research data on students' school performance, a hiccup of excellence that could be explained by the fact that the teachers in a particular school gave a damn. The students in my colleagues' study shouldn't have performed well in this -- but they did. It's so much easier for social scientists to explain realities in terms of income level, or ethnic origin, or average ages. But "giving a damn"? Caring about kids? It made a difference, they -- but they were embarrassed to admit it. We shouldn't be embarrassed!

TEACHING TIPS FOR DIVERSE CLASSROOMS

For the majority of community-college professors, teaching is the most important part of their jobs. And it's not easy. Community-college students are a diverse bunch but often face a particular set of challenges. Many entering students are not prepared for college-level work. And while some students plan to transfer to competitive four-year colleges, others struggle to complete remedial courses. Some students commute long distances, and many have jobs or families. In one class, a teacher may face an 18-year-old who is fresh out of high school, a single mother who works part time, and a first-generation college student who doesn't speak English well.

Community-college students require teachers who are engaging, creative, responsive, and energetic - and who understand their students' needs. Professors have to be up on the latest teaching methods, know which of them work for their students, and be flexible enough to change when something isn't working. Here are a dozen tips - many from seasoned professors - for those just starting out, or for veterans who want fresh ideas.

1. Remember that your students are freshmen and sophomores. One trap new faculty members fall into in their first jobs out of graduate school is to harbor inflated expectations, says Robin D. Jenkins, director of the Writers Institute at Georgia Perimeter College. "One new instructor in my department, for instance, asked students to write four lengthy essays during one 75-minute period," he says, "because that's the sort of thing she'd been expected to do in her graduate courses." Mr. Jenkins advises new teachers to look at what their more-experienced colleagues are assigning, and to check out their syllabi. Even better, take them to lunch, he says, and pick their brains. "We all want to have the appropriate amount of rigor in our classes," he says, but that doesn't mean piling on the work when students aren't ready for it.
2. While setting realistic expectations is important, you must also share them with your students. If you are a stickler for grammar, let it be known on Day 1, advises Delaney J. Kirk, a professor of management at the University of South Florida at Sarasota-Manatee. Tell students if you give grace periods for assignments or if you will not tolerate tardiness. "Have a rationale so the policy is seen as reasonable," says Ms. Kirk, the author of Taking Back the Classroom: Tips for the College Professor on Becoming a More Effective Teacher (Ti-berius Publications, 2005). After explaining your philosophy, take time to learn what students expect of you as well: Teaching is a two-way street.
3. Take advantage of the technology-training courses your college offers, but don't feel pressured to use technology for its own sake. Sample everything that interests you, find the applications that best fit your teaching style, and try to incorporate them into your teaching. Just because your college offers fancy technology with a big "wow" factor doesn't always mean it will help you. "Experiment with what works for you," says Georgia Perimeter's Mr. Jenkins. "Feel free to ignore the rest."
4. Look at the whole experience - including the syllabus, the textbook, and the classroomfrom your students' perspective. Are the books affordable or easy to find in the library? Is the classroom comfortable? Are assignments well spaced? It pays to think like your students, says Ellen J. Olmstead, an English professor at Montgomery College, in Rockville, Md., who was the 1999 Carnegie Foundation Community College Professor of the Year.
5. Consider keeping a teaching journal. Verna B. Robinson, a professor of English at Anne Arundel Community College in Maryland, says it's a great way to keep track of your experiences, including successes and failures, challenges, aspirations, inspirations, expectations, and, yes, complaints.
6. Be mindful of the pressures on students, some of whom have families, jobs, or long commutes. Use the Internet, for example, to make course material, assignments, and feedback available online, so students can log in any time from home.
7. Know what services are available at your college to help struggling students. It's great if your college offers tutoring, English-language help, or career counseling, but they're useful only if students actually use them. Distribute a handout at the start of the term and approach individual students if they seem to need a hand. Have a counselor come and introduce himself or herself to the class.
8. Make sure students understand why the subject matter of the course is worth learning, and how it relates to the real world. If you get students invested, they will put in more work, says Richard L. Faircloth, a biology professor at Anne Arundel. Mr. Faircloth, who teaches anatomy, asks students to find a topic in current events that relates to the week's assignment and write a short essay on why the topic is relevant in everyday life. "I've always found these aha's that occur outside of class, when we've learned something in class, help to reinforce it," says Mr. Faircloth. Expanding students' media diets, he says, helps them find those everyday connections. It also gives them fresh perspectives and "gets them out of their little circle of e-mail and their circle of cellphones and text messaging."
9. Encourage your students to give you feedback on your teaching. Anne Arundel's Ms. Robinson suggests passing out index cards midway through the semester and asking students what they would like to see more of and less of. Or ask students to grade you in one or two areas of your teaching. "Students appreciate being asked," she says. Listen to what they have to say and try to incorporate their reasonable responses.
10. If you are concerned about plagiarism, consider increasing the load of in-class work, such as problem sets and essays. You will learn quickly who is struggling, and it helps procrastinators and those who might otherwise turn work in late, says Tiina Lombard, an associate professor of English at Miami Dade College. It also teaches students to work better under pressure.
11. Develop at least one assignment that requires each student to meet with you, one on one, in your office. The meeting could be devoted to reviewing an essay or homework assignment. Then use that time to discuss the student's progress and answer any questions. "You will be amazed at how beneficial even a brief face-to-face meeting can be for you and the student," says Ms. Robinson.
12. Identify at least one quality you appreciate in each student, and keep it in mind every time you come in to class. "It'll make you smile when you walk in to the classroom and look around at everyone," says Ms. Olmstead, of the English department at Montgomery College.

to enhacing your effective teach

Accurately assessing your students' developmental state can direct your planning and impel your teaching. For instance, recognizing a 16-year-old's concern about his appearance and his standing among his peers may promote your rapport with him and eliminate learning barriers.

Keep in mind that chronologic age and developmental stage are not always related. Throughout life, people move sequentially through developmental stages, but most people also fluctuate somewhat among stages, often in response to outside stressors. These stressors can cause a person to regress temporarily to an earlier stage. Sometimes a person may not achieve the task expected of his chronologic age. So you will need to address your students at their current developmental stages, not at the stages at which you would expect them to be because of their chronological ages.

In some situations, hopefully most, you will have time to sit down and develop a formal teaching plan. In others, you will be confronted with a "teachable moment" when the student is ready to learn and is asking pointed questions. Invariably, these moments seem to come at the most inopportune times. At times like these, you face the dilemma: to teach or not to teach. Having a knowledge of basic learning principles will help you take best advantage of these moments. Here are some principles proven to enhance teaching and learning.

Seize the moment

Teaching is most effective when it occurs in quick response to a need the learner feels. So even though you are elbow deep in something else, you should make every effort to teach the student when he or she asks. The student is ready to learn. Satisfy that immediate need for information now, and augment your teaching with more information later.

Involve the student in planning

Just presenting information to the student does not ensure learning. For learning to occur, you will need to get the student involved in identifying his learning needs and outcomes. Help him to develop attainable objectives. As the teaching process continues, you can further engage him or her by selecting teaching strategies and materials that require the student's direct involvement, such as role playing and return demonstration. Regardless of the teaching strategy you choose, giving the student the chance to test his or her ideas, to take risks, and to be creative will promote learning.

Begin with what the student knows

You will find that learning moves faster when it builds on what the student already knows. Teaching that begins by comparing the old, known information or process and the new, unknown one allows the student to grasp new information more quickly.

Move from simple to complex

The student will find learning more rewarding if he has the opportunity to master simple concepts first and then apply these concepts to more complex ones. Remember, however, that what one student finds simple, another may find complex. A careful assessment takes these differences into account and helps you plan the teaching starting point.

Accommodate the student's preferred learning style

How quickly and well a student learns depends not only on his or her intelligence and prior education, but also on the student's learning style preference. Visual learners gain knowledge best by seeing or reading what you are trying to teach; auditory learners, by listening;and tactile or psychomotor learners, by doing.

You can improve your chances for teaching success if you assess your patient's preferred learning style, then plan teaching activities and use teaching tools appropriate to that style. To assess a student's learning style, observe the student, administer a learning style inventory, or simply ask the student how he or she learns best.

You can also experiment with different teaching tools, such as printed material, illustrations, videotapes, and actual equipment, to assess learning style. Never assume, though, that your student can read well -- or even read at all.

Sort goals by learning domain

You can combine your knowledge of the student's preferred learning style with your knowledge of learning domains. Categorizing what the students need to learn into proper domains helps identify and evaluate the behaviors you expect them to show.

Learning behaviors fall in three domains: cognitive, psychomotor, and affective. The cognitive domain deals with intellectual abilities. The psychomotor domain includes physical or motor skills. The affective domain involves expression of feeling about attitudes, interests, and values. Most learning involves all three domains.

Make material meaningful

Another way to facilitate learning is to relate material to the student's lifestyle -- and to recognize incompatibilities. The more meaningful material is to a student, the quicker and easier it will be learned.

Allow immediate application of knowledge

Giving the student the opportunity to apply his or her new knowledge and skills reinforces learning and builds confidence. This immediate application translates learning to the "real world" and provides an opportunity for problem solving, feedback, and emotional support.

Plan for periodic rests

While you may want the students to push ahead until they have learned everything on the teaching plan, remember that periodic plateaus occur normally in learning. When your instructions are especially complex or lengthy, your students may feel overwhelmed and appear unreceptive to your teaching. Be sure to recognize these signs of mental fatigue and let the students relax. (You too can use these periods - to review your teaching plan and make any necessary adjustments.)

Tell your students how they are progressing

Learning is made easier when the students are aware of their progress. Positive feedback can motivate them to greater effort because it makes their goal seem attainable. Also, ask your students how they feel they are doing. They probably want to take part in assessing their own progress toward learning goals, and their input can guide your feedback. You will find their reactions are usually based on what "feels right."

Reward desired learning with praise

Praising desired learning outcomes or behavior improves the chances that the students will retain the material or repeat the behavior. Praising your students' successes associates the desired learning goal with a sense of growing and accepted competence. Reassuring them that they have learned the desired material or technique can help them retain and refine it.

to en h

case study

A case study of learning is an in-depth look at teaching and how learners respond. It typically includes a description of the activities that provide the context for learning. A case may be defined in a variety of ways, e.g., related to an academic course, to an individual’s experiences, or a particular activity. It is an entity, a bounded system with interdependent parts. I think of a case as similar to .

Definition and boundaries

A key question for case study researchers is to define the case and its boundaries. For example, is a school a case or individual classes held in the school? if a case is defined as a classroom learning activity, how much does it include events immediately before and after, which may shape its meaning? Although we focus on the case, the boundaries are crucial. They’re perceived by different people in different ways and they change as events occur. One consequence of this is that the researcher and other participants may conceive the case differently.

Issues

Many people argue that case studies should be driven by issues. These are ideas related to the case, which have a potential tension, or a trade-off between two ways of treating the case. Stories included in a case report address the issues defined for the case, providing pathways to reach a deeper understanding. Issues thus represent the Ask of an . They manifest the indeterminacy in Dewey’s concept of a situation that evokes inquiry.

The story of the case

One or more incidents that provide insights into what learners were thinking, feeling, or able to do. Some would argue that we cannot infer thoughts or feelings of others, even though that is often our underlying goal. Different approaches to case studies are thus characterized by different assumptions about interpretation. Can we say that someone is happy? or just that they smiled? or only that their lips changed shape in a particular way? Of course, the choice to report any of that is itself the product of an interpretation about the meanings of the event for participants.

Stories are often presented as patches or vignettes. Describe them using dialogue, including intonation and descriptions of facial expressions, or what they were actually doing at the time, as well as you can remember it. A reader should be able to create a mental image of the events from the description that you write. happenings, events instead of feelings and thoughts. Contradictory or dissonant stories on the same happening provide multiple perspectives and voices to readers, and are often most revealing of what’s going on.

One possible strucure

A case study report may be organized in whatever way seems most appropriate to the study, but often includes the following elements:

1. Ask: Issues
2. Investigate:
   • Your own inquiry: What you did to learn more about the content or processes that learners were investigating, and what you learned about these.
   • Curricular goals: How did you or others want learners to develop as a consequence of their engagement with some activities, for example,
     • to be able to use a communication technology effectively
     • to learn how the first parliamentary system arose or how the Spanish language evolved
     • to learn about the adaptation of animals to their environments,
     • to be able to articulate their theories about why some things float and others sink, and to propose ways to test those theories,
     • to learn how to discuss their ideas with others,
     • to learn how to assess and address community needs.
   • The plan: A discussion of the strategies and materials designed to help learners.
3. Create: The story
4. Discuss: Interpretation: Insights from this experience that might help you or others understand why learners acted as they did, including what they said and produced.
5. Reflect: Action: What might be done differently?:
   • How did you feel about the unit of activities and the extent to which the goals were achieved?
   • How did you determine this?
   • How well did it support ?
   • What might you do to improve the activity?
   • What new issues emerge?

The emergence of new issues implies the continuation of the inquiry. The Reflect leads to a new Ask as one case study generates another. When the reflection also leads to action, this version of case study becomes action research.

If we think of the case as a Deweyan situation, then the cycle of reflective action can be seen as the transformation of an indeterminate situation into a more unified whole, through both substantive improvement and better understanding of its “constituent distinctions and relations.”

See also:–how ordinary people find information they need to address everyday problems, such as health care, finding a place to live, or educating children

Learn from Indonesia

Upon the invitation from the Egyptian Government, the State Minister of Cooperatives and Small and Medium Enterprises of Indonesia, Mr. Suryadharma Ali, visited Egypt on 1-3 July 2007. The visit was a follow up of the talks between Minister Suryadharma Ali and Dr. Fayza Aboulnaga, Minister of International Cooperation of Egypt, during the Fifth Indonesia-Egypt Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) held in last April in Jakarta.

The talks were mainly on strengthening bilateral relations through cooperation in the utilization of water hyacinth (popularly known in Indonesia as “eceng gondok”) as a means to boost people’s income by way of SMEs empowerment.

In Egypt, water hyacinth is considered as a nuisance because it contributes to shallow the river and the decrease of water quality, and it poses as hindrance to irrigation and water transportation. For that reason, the Egyptian Government has long been treating water hyacinth as any other waste that needs to be removed. On the other side, the Indonesian people are able to utilize water hyacinth to manufacture quality products such as furniture, footwear, bags and hats. Being aware of this Indonesian experience, the Egyptian Government is eager to learn from Indonesia how to turn the nuisance into a commodity with high economic potentials.

In the visit, Minister Suryadharma Ali met in separate occasions with Minister Fayza Aboul Naga, Dr. Mahmoud Mohieldin, Minister of Investment, and Dr. Mahmoud Abou Zeid, Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation, to discuss ways to realize the cooperation. The three Egyptian Ministers were instructed by the Prime Minister of Egypt, Dr. Ahmed Nazif, to follow up the report given by Minister Fayza Aboulnaga after her return from the JCM.

Among the things agreed upon during the visit, the most important of all is the setting up of a task force that is responsible to discuss in details technical requirements needed to be taken in order for the cooperation to materialize. The first assignment of the task force will be to discuss a concept of agreement for the cooperation.

Minister Suryadharma Ali hopes that the cooperation will not only cover production of manufacturing aspects, but also the aspects of marketing and labor. He also suggested that the first meeting of the task force could be held in Jakarta so as to provide the chance for officials of the Egyptian Government to experience first hand the production process of water hyacinth in Indonesia.

Number and percentage of homeschooled students

Number and percentage of homeschooled students, by reason for homeschooling: 1999, National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)

Reason for homeschooling	Number of homeschooled students	Percent	s.e.
Can give child better education at home	415,000	48.9	3.79
Religious reason	327,000	38.4	4.44
Poor learning environment at school	218,000	25.6	3.44
Family reasons	143,000	16.8	2.79
To develop character/morality	128,000	15.1	3.39
Object to what school teaches	103,000	12.1	2.11
School does not challenge child	98,000	11.6	2.39
Other problems with available schools	76,000	9.0	2.40
Child has special needs/disability	69,000	8.2	1.89
Transportation/convenience	23,000	2.7	1.48
Child not old enough to enter school	15,000	1.8	1.13
Parent's career	12,000	1.5	0.80
Could not get into desired school	12,000	1.5	0.99
Other reasons*	189,000	22.2	2.90

Home Schooling

For much of history and in many cultures, enlisting professional teachers (whether as tutors or in a formal academic setting) was an option available only to a small elite. Thus, until relatively recently, the vast majority of people were educated by parents (especially during early childhood) and in the context of a specific type labor that they would pursue in adult life, such as working in the fields or learning a trade.

The earliest in began in the late 17th century and early 18th century in the German states of . However, even in the 18th century, the vast majority of people in Europe lacked formal schooling, which means they were homeschooled or received no education at all. The same was also true for colonial America and for the United States until the 1850s.Formal schooling in a classroom setting has been the most common means of schooling throughout the world, especially in developed countries, since the early and mid 19th century. Native Americans, who traditionally used homeschooling and apprenticeship, strenuously resisted compulsory education in the United States.

In 1964, , published a book entitled How Children Fail which criticized traditional schools. The book was based on a theory he had developed as a teacher – that the academic failure of schoolchildren was caused by pressure placed on children in schools. Holt began making appearances on majorand writing book reviews for . In his follow-up work, How Children Learn, 1967, he tried to demonstrate the learning process of children and why he believed school short-circuits this process.

In these books, Holt had not suggested any alternative to institutional schooling; he had hoped to initiate a profound rethinking of education to make schools friendlier toward children. As the years passed he became convinced that the way schools were was what society wanted, and that a serious re-examination was not going to happen in his lifetime.

During this time, the American educational professionals began to research the academic validity of the rapidly growing movement. This research included independent studies by other researchers and a review of over 8,000 studies bearing on Early Childhood Education and the physical and mental development of children.

They asserted that formal schooling before ages 8–12 not only lacked the anticipated effectiveness, but was actually harmful to children. The Moores began to publish their view that formal schooling was damaging young children academically, socially, mentally, and even physiologically. They presented evidence that childhood problems such as juvenile delinquency, nearsightedness, increased enrollment of students in classes, and behavioral problems were the result of increasingly earlier enrollment of students. The Moores cited studies demonstrating that who were given were measurably more intelligent, with superior long term effects – even though the mothers were mentally retarded teenagers – and that illiterate tribal mothers in Africa produced children who were socially and emotionally more advanced than typical western children, by western standards of measurement.

Their primary assertion was that the bonds and emotional development made at home with parents during these years produced critical long term results that were cut short by enrollment in schools, and could neither be replaced nor afterward corrected in an institutional setting. Recognizing a necessity for early out-of-home care for some children – particularly and starkly impoverished children, and children from exceptionally inferior homes– they maintained that the vast majority of children are far better situated at home, even with mediocre parents, than with the most gifted and motivated teachers in a school setting (assuming that the child has a gifted and motivated teacher). They described the difference as follows: "This is like saying, if you can help a child by taking him off the cold street and housing him in a warm tent, then warm tents should be provided for all children – when obviously most children already have even more secure housing."

Similar to Holt, the Moores embraced homeschooling after the publication of their first work, Better Late Than Early, 1975, and went on to become important homeschool advocates and consultants with the publication of books like Home Grown Kids, 1981, Home School Burnout, and others.

At the time, other authors published books questioning the premises and efficacy of compulsory schooling, including Deschooling Society by , 1970 and No More Public School by , 1972.

In 1976, Holt published Instead of Education; Ways to Help People Do Things Better. In its conclusion he called for a "Children's " to help children escape compulsory schooling. In response, Holt was contacted by families from around the U.S. to tell him that they were educating their children at home. In 1977, after corresponding with a number of these families, Holt began producing a magazine dedicated to home education: .

In 1980, Holt said, "I want to make it clear that I don’t see homeschooling as some kind of answer to badness of schools. I think that the home is the proper base for the exploration of the world which we call learning or education. Home would be the best base no matter how good the schools were."

Holt later wrote a book about homeschooling, Teach Your Own, in 1981.

One common theme in the homeschool philosophies of both Holt and the Moores is that home education should not be an attempt to bring the school construct into the home, or a view of education as an academic preliminary to life. They viewed it as a natural, experiential aspect of life that occurs as the members of the family are involved with one another in daily living.

Kids earning their spending money

With these economic times, it's hard to keep up with the kid's expenses and spending money. My young neighbor raises all her own money to be in musical performances at Biola University, which is quite an expense. She has built up quite a business taking people's trash cans out to the street every week.

As , kids learn valuable life lessons. It's a good way to build strong work ethics to give them a strong foundation to take into their adult lives. will give you some ideas for your kids.

Do you already have an eager entrepreneur on your hands? and give other homeschool students ideas for starting up their own little businesses. Eventually, we'll have a nice little library of ideas for kids to choose from.