Eroica

It was a lot like regular school. We had a normal 5-day school week, and we did about 5 hours a day...sometimes more, sometimes less depending on how quickly she worked that day. The schedule was also adjustable so on days when she had swim practice, etc. we could have a lighter workload and make up for it on other days. It was just like a typical schoolyear, Sept. to June. The cool thing about this particular program is that it was free. It's technically a "charter school" (I don't know all the technicalities, but I think it's different from a private school) and somehow it got funded by a grant or something. The girl's mother was the one who found the school and enrolled her daughter so I was never really familiar with all the details. But it was entirely free. The school even shipped a computer, printer, and all the textbooks and materials. The only things we had to buy were little stuff like paper and printer ink. They even reimbursed us for the internet. And it's like that for all students, it's not based on need or anything. They just somehow got really good funding from the state, I guess. So far it goes up to 8th grade, I think, but it's still kind of new and will eventually go up through 12th grade (so they say, anyway). As I understand it now, the full program that we participated in is only available in certain states but I might be wrong. The website is www.k12.com, and the program I did was the "Virtual Academy." So maybe you can find some good info there. There's other homeschools that cost about the same as a private school. My friend was homeschooled before k12 existed, and his parents just bit the bullet and paid for an online homeschool curriculum. In the place where I live, the money is definitely worth it.

Hi...I just sort of stumbled onto this discussion, and wanted to contribute my experiences with homeschool. I personally was not homeschooled...I attended public school all the way up until I graduated high school. I learned approximately the same things you did. I never really thought there was an alternative though, until I wound up with a job homeschooling an elementary school aged-girl who had never even been to public school. To make a long story short, I wasn't sure I was qualified (I haven't even finished college yet, let alone my Masters, haha) but I found a really good online program that provides instruction for the student and the parent/tutor, so I wasn't on my own to make up an entire curriculum from scratch. And of course, being homeschool, there's the flexibility to introduce her to topics that aren't in the standard curriculum. But the best thing is, there's no violent classmates, no drugs, no apathetic teachers...Maybe things have changed from when I was a kid, but in today's world I don't think I could ever send a kid of my own to a public school. Anyway, just my experiences here to be considered. It's kind of a long way off anyway, if your girl is only 1!

While what you say is true, I don't know that it necessarily goes against the basic principles of objectivism and rationality. One of these principles seems to be that without living or being conscious, there is no possible way to value anything. And that the values of a rational person are those things which help him to go on living. Though it may not be true for the average person, an alcoholic or other addict is in a unique situation wherein the prescribed program of recovery including dependence upon a "god" of some kind is the only thing which will save his life. Since the fundamental desire to preserve his own life is usually the primary reason an addict will make the attempt to recover using AA or another one of these programs, it seems that it can't be that far out of line with objective values. Furthermore, while dependence on a god may be abhorrent to some, the results of this dependence can't go unrecognized. Dependence on a higher power has enabled many people not only to survive, but also to genuinely deal with various psychological problems of which alcoholism or addiction are only symptoms. Of course I am only speaking from my own experience, and perhaps I'm just being irrational in a way I'm not aware of yet. However, I've been a recovered alcoholic for years, and I haven't found an instance of true incompatibility between the two sets of principles (objectivism and my recovery program). Well, there's my food for thought.