{"id":2247,"date":"2008-03-11T06:03:10","date_gmt":"2008-03-11T11:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2247"},"modified":"2008-03-11T09:01:42","modified_gmt":"2008-03-11T14:01:42","slug":"from-bad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=2247","title":{"rendered":"From Bad…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rew at Powerliberal read my post the other day, about the California ruling that, at the moment, looks likely to ban homeschooling in California…<\/p>\n

…and she took exception.<\/p>\n

Or disagreed.<\/p>\n

Or…something.<\/p>\n

Oh, she thinks <\/em>she made a point<\/a>…:<\/p>\n

Mitch says<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Whenever a profession sets up \u201ccredendials\u201d, especially credentials administered by the government, the purpose is very rarely to promote a better professional service; it\u2019s to constrict the supply of those professionals.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mitch –<\/p>\n

When you go to court, do you look for a lawyer who has passed the bar, or do you just grab that guy from down the street because he seems to talk real good?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Actually, the former is the only option I have. But I look for someone who talks real good, and knows something about representing whatever sort of case I’m involved in because – this may be shocking – merely passing the bar doesn’t make someone a good, or even a competent, lawyer. It merely means that someone has passed the bare minimum that the state licensing body says is necessary to be a lawyer.<\/p>\n

Once you’ve found someone who’s passed the bar exam, that’s really just the beginning.<\/p>\n

Stay with us, liberal kidz. The fun is just beginning:<\/p>\n

When your children need surgery or break a bone, do you take them to the hospital, or just grab the knife or try to set it yourself?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Check out the statistics for people doing their own surgery, or representing themselves in court. Not good, right?<\/p>\n

Check out the stats for homeschoolers<\/a>. To continue with Robin’s comparision, it’s almost as if do-it-yourself surgeons achieved 30% lower mortality than board-certified physicians!<\/p>\n

Of course, teaching kids is not <\/em>surgery. One is teaching them, for the most part, to do and be things that one already is and does. You don’t need a piece of paper from the state to do that, for the most part. .<\/p>\n

Some parents are smart and qualified enough to school their children at home.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And the state teachers’ union is the last <\/em>body that should try to decide which ones they are.<\/p>\n

A test is just to ensure those parents are the ones who do the teaching, not just any person who picks up a book and says “I’m teaching now.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s only two sentences. And yet there are so many possible responses:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The only difference between a schmuck who picks up a book and says “I’m teaching now” and a “Certified Teacher” is a piece of paper that says “I passed Theory of the Eraser 352 at UW Stout”.<\/li>\n
  2. Like with lawyers, the piece of paper is meaningless…<\/li>\n
  3. …only moreso, since there’s very little about a teaching certificate that implies any actual ability to “teach”things to “children”. And if you disagree, don’t come yapping to me; take it up with my dad, who taught for 40 years, and still teaches the occasional class at his town’s college Education program. It’s his opinion. Some people got it, and some people ain’t, and a state certificate has very little to do with telling the difference.<\/li>\n
  4. Indeed, a teaching certificate’s main purpose isn’t teaching people how to teach. It certifies one can teach a big room full of kids<\/em>. If you can’t see the difference between that and homeschooling, the sassy snarks pretty much write themselves.<\/li>\n
  5. Would that the whole crew at MNMon – who took on the role of “journalist” with, if anything, vastly less preparation and qualification than the typical homeschool parent takes on their responsibility, and whose results are dismally less impressive, would apply the same logic to their own efforts.<\/li>\n
  6. For that matter, where does this “official is better” “logic” stop? I mean, Rew and Smartie – shouldn’t you have your baby in a licensed daycare, right now<\/em>? After a.., a test is just to ensure the right <\/em>people do the child-rearing, not just any person who can create a zygote. Right? Where do <\/em>you stop with this “logic”? (Hint: If the DFL absorbs the “Daycare Providers’ Union”, watch out).<\/li>\n
  7. More seriously, who does <\/em>Rew think is better at getting through to kids than their own parents? And if she thinks she knows all the answers now, give it about six to twelve years, and wait until the first know-it-all teacher tells her otherwise.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Let’s put it this way; if you engage any <\/em>professional purely on the basis of a piece of paperwork, you probably deserve the results you get.<\/p>\n

    The problem, of course, is that with doctors and lawyers, you can pick and choose; in the public school system, what they give you is what you get.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Rew at Powerliberal read my post the other day, about the California ruling that, at the moment, looks likely to ban homeschooling in California… …and she took exception. Or disagreed. Or…something. Oh, she thinks she made a point…: Mitch says: Whenever a profession sets up \u201ccredendials\u201d, especially credentials administered by the government, the purpose is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}