Consider Home-Schooling...

**Ross Macintosh** · 12 April 2009, 02:25 PM

Are kids better off being home schooled?

**Ross Macintosh** · 12 April 2009, 02:32 PM

By the way - here is what Snoops.com had to say about the letter: http://www.snopes.com/humor/letters/hilliker.asp

Even if the letter is a fake -- it is true that teachers often want students' blind obedience regardless of whether they are right or wrong.

**pauland** · 12 April 2009, 05:49 PM

Originally Posted by Ross Macintosh

it is true that teachers often want students' blind obedience regardless of whether they are right or wrong.

Where exactly can I find the evidence for this? I wouldn't say this was my experience and think it's way off base.

**Ross Macintosh** · 12 April 2009, 06:09 PM

Okay Paul -- Perhaps saying "often" was off-base. I should have said "sometimes".

Of course not all teachers are bad - but I think most people can tell stories of bad teachers from their own first-hand experience. Were you one of the lucky ones who only had great teachers?

Regards, Ross

**handrawn** · 12 April 2009, 06:27 PM

got to say I was a little bemused Ross, about where you were coming from, as the original post is so obviously firmly in the 'urban myth' category.....

any teacher who wrote a letter like that would not last 5mins in a state school, or any worth going to, even in 1994 - at least, not in the UK

**Ross Macintosh** · 12 April 2009, 06:34 PM

Well then your rejects can move to Norh America and find work in our school systems!

**pauland** · 12 April 2009, 06:33 PM

I think all teachers want obedience and respect and most would accept that they can be wrong and would be glad to have the debate and be corrected.

I think what they wouldn't want is a slanging match with a pupil during a class, even if the pupil had a valid point. As is often the case, it's not so much what you say, but how you say it.

I had some poor teachers and some really great ones.

I did Pure and Applied mathematics with one teacher and he was great. We had a tiny class of six pupils. If one of us started daydreaming he would gradually start talking nonsense then eventually ask some nonsense question of the daydreamer. He was great.

Our school had a Religious Education teacher who couldn't control their classes and inevitably there was always a lot of noise and shouting and eventually another teacher would restore order. You can say how terrible it is to have a bad teacher, but I suspect having to come in day after day and face the problems that that guy faced must have been truly awful.

**covoxer** · 12 April 2009, 02:35 PM

This is a sick school...
I don't know about home schooling, but I would keep my kinds away from this, so called "school".

**ankhor** · 13 April 2009, 08:06 AM

Originally Posted by Ross Macintosh

Are kids better off being home schooled?

This would have been a great joke letter to take home if
the letter would have had the date april 1st instead of the 20th.

**handrawn** · 13 April 2009, 09:11 AM

Ross I know you have this interest in matters educational [talent-skill-motivation etc]

Some parts of the UK educational system are dreadful - where I live at present is a case in point, but this is more the fault of the local authority [that runs it] rather than the teachers IMO

Teachers are human like the rest of us, and if you run a system a certain way, you will end up with a certain kind of person - it is no longer the vocational career it once was. Again IMO

A debate about such matters might be interesting, but the letter is a joke