Learning Never Stops!

Synopsis:

This book is a quick reference guide for anyone considering homeschool; it covers some of the misconceptions and common concerns about homeschooling. Being general and concise it is a text that gives the reader a simple idea about homeschool, both initiating it and continuing it through and up to college. If you are considering homeschooling make this part of your inventory for investigating this avenue. The book, as said before, is concise, it is merely 178 pages long, but continues with three very salutary appendices constituting a homeschooling resource guide, homeschooling support groups in each state and lastly, a brief summary of state laws for every state. This book will get you started, but it should supplement your desire to understand homeschooling.

Pros and/or Agreements:

The appendices are, by my opinion, the most valuable asset in the book. This material is something that will give you a relative idea of where begin and some local resources in understanding your rights and different options you may have.

This book does not portray homeschool as the salvation of the human race, but does place emphasis on how it strengthens family bonds-which it does emphatically-and it even identifies that homeschoolers do have flaws, such as math being “an area where homeschoolers aren’t knocking the ball out of the park” (79). This statement identifies that even though homeschool has statistically proven to outperform both public and private schooled children, it shows that they are not impregnable to some degree normality.

Praise must be given to them for their efforts of making the book somewhat secular. As it is known, we are a melting pot culture with a variety of spiritual and cultural paths, and even some are atheistic. Kochenderfer and Kanna do a very admirable job of relieving this book of Christian bias, which may disturb some fundamentalists, but it is a reflection that they realize that Christians are not the only culture who is attracted and interested in homeschool.

Cons and/or Disagreements:

Personally for me the context of the book is very murky, too concise and very general with a reading level for six years olds. This could be due to the brevity they take on each subject, and this possibly was intended to be the end result. To me this book does not make a convincing case for homeschooling your child which is why I said it should supplement your trek to understand homeschooling. Some other titles that should be considered as well are John Taylor Gatto’s “Dumbing Us Down” (actually, any of Gatto’s material is good, considering he was an exceptional public school teacher), Rick Boyer’s “The Socialization Trap” (good theme on the socialization misconception, but some tangent arguments I disagree with), Sheldon Richman’s “Separating School & State” (best book on the schooling theory that I have read) and Marlin Maddox’s “Public Education Against America” (good review of some politics affecting schools, but some tangent arguments I disagree with).

This book does not place enough of emphasis on college. I will be the first to champion the FACT that one can learn better on its own with a passion for literature and love of wisdom, but unfortunately the masses does not have these qualities. I support companies moving toward requiring college degrees, because there is still much to learn. When I left high school the bulk of my knowledge was acquired from independent research, desire to learn and the love of literature, but as a current college student the structured environment has aided me in its on regard. Anyone who contends with furthering an education has no ground for argument, but if your argument is based on the fact that you can get the same or better education independently I both agree and disagree. The masses of this country does not read, and the ones that do usually are biased to a particular genre or subject, so those of us that read extremely diverse and abundant genres and subjects are even rarer, to me that is the true essence of acquiring knowledge-abundance and diversity. Nonetheless, continuing education for the public is a necessity and I support the rising climate change for collegiate education. Through furthering our education we make the Universe more intelligent; we make our music more intelligent; we make our movies more intelligent; we make our business more intelligent; we make our science more intelligent; we make our art more intelligent; we make our politics more intelligent; we make the whole of humanity and all of its creative byproducts more intelligent. This cannot be compromised, because Novelty needs stimulation to come into Fruition. Why do you think book burnings have such powerful symbolic imagery?! – D.R.Thomas

Rating: 4 / 5

This book presented a very nice and not too overwhelming overview of homeschooling. Chapters featured a little something for everyone-from those homeschooling little ones to those removing their older children from school to homeschool them. Full of helpful resources, this book is a good start for anyone considering homeschooling.
Rating: 5 / 5