Cohousing-L Mailing List: RE: Cohousing / Homeschooling

[Julie Ellen Boleyn (ellen]

I think we've ended up talking about two separate but related issues 
here. There's the 'Television Effect' and the 'Public School Effect'. 
Both interact, children who attend public schools tend to watch a lot of 
TV, and conversly (though I'm not as confident about saying this) 
children who are home schooled tend not to watch TV.

The TV effect imho is perhaps the issue which causes more problems. In 
the Sunday school classes I have tought over the last 5 years, the 
children who watch TV are more rough in their play, display less 
imagination, and are slower to pick up on concepts. I believe there is 
research to back this up.

However, I do think Public schools are causing problems as well. But, I
don't think the exposure to TV values is the biggest one. I think the
biggest problem is related to the fact children spend all their time with
other children their own age. They create a whole social structure around
that age grouping, and their social learning becomes focused on making
that structure work better. However, that social grouping is not concerned
with interacting with other groups. So, you end up with kids whose values
and communication skills are targetted at their own age level. I call it a
feedback loop. For example, my 14 year old sister spends all her time with
other 14 year-olds. She cannot communicate with people older than her, 1,
because of a lack of experience, and 2, because it won't get her anywhere
with the 14 year olds. Her values are based on what is important to
survive in a world of teenagers. Needless to say, she's not very concerned
about future goals and directions. 

So, as far as homeschooling goes, my preference would be to do that and 
make sure my kid were exposed to a wide range of ages, or send them to a 
school like the one Debra talked about in Santa Clara (we have one in 
Portland too), where groupings are not based on age. The importance of 
intergenerational communication and being is perhaps one of the biggest 
reasons I chose cohousing.

- Julie



On Mon, 7 Apr 1997, Ann Barbarow wrote:

> At 09:36 AM 4/5/97 -0600, Rob Sandelin wrote:
> >
> >What is very different I notice is values. Since my kids are home, they get 
> >much less exposure to "TV values", and thus don't seem to be influenced by 
> >them. There is a consumerist competitive culture that permeates the state 
> >sponsered schools. It's not delibrate, its not a plot, it just happens, 
> >because that is the dominate value set of the rest of the kids, who are 
> >raised 
> >on TV without questioning.  
> >
> >Its hard for me to explain this clearly so I'll leave it for another day. 
> >
> >Rob Sandelin
> >
> >
> This is all very warm and fuzzy, but doesn't bear up under much scrutiny. At
> Muir Commons, the one family that homeschools also has the TV on a lot. In
> fact, the parents of at least one child who goes to the "state school" (that
> term sounds much more sinister that the correct term of "city school")
> discourage him from going to the homeschooler's house because the TV is on
> so much. When the homeschooled family daughter was 3-1/2 she was in a snotty
> mood and when I asked her where she got her crabby mood she piped up with
> "Toys-R-Us". Sounds pretty consumeristic to me.
> 
>