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Author Topic: Covid, the "lockdowns" etc.  (Read 341670 times)

Spinachcat

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Re: Covid, the "lockdowns" etc.
« Reply #630 on: October 06, 2020, 04:33:52 PM »
There's been a big surge in interest in home schooling. I don't have any direct experience, but from what I've heard, the tools for home schooling have really improved in the last few years.

This is correct. Home schooling is NEVER going to be easy. To truly succeed (doubly so if the child has special needs), it requires active and consistent parent involvement, parent discipline of themselves and their children and continuous research by the parent into the learning process.

Beyond the obvious tools like online classes and educational videos, the most interesting and powerful "new" tool is local homeschooling parents uniting in collectives where they share best practices, volunteer tutoring using their prime skills and group activities and field trips. My friend's son is in a "homeschool" soccer league! They play against other homeschool leagues and charter schools.

As much as I loathe social media, I must admit it's been a positive for this growth in homeschool collectives might not have happened without Farcebook.

HappyDaze

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Re: Covid, the "lockdowns" etc.
« Reply #631 on: October 06, 2020, 07:15:01 PM »
There's been a big surge in interest in home schooling. I don't have any direct experience, but from what I've heard, the tools for home schooling have really improved in the last few years.

This is correct. Home schooling is NEVER going to be easy. To truly succeed (doubly so if the child has special needs), it requires active and consistent parent involvement, parent discipline of themselves and their children and continuous research by the parent into the learning process.

Beyond the obvious tools like online classes and educational videos, the most interesting and powerful "new" tool is local homeschooling parents uniting in collectives where they share best practices, volunteer tutoring using their prime skills and group activities and field trips. My friend's son is in a "homeschool" soccer league! They play against other homeschool leagues and charter schools.

As much as I loathe social media, I must admit it's been a positive for this growth in homeschool collectives might not have happened without Farcebook.
Collectives, comrade?

moonsweeper

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Re: Covid, the "lockdowns" etc.
« Reply #632 on: October 06, 2020, 08:33:45 PM »

Collectives, comrade?

Is there some sort of problem with 'voluntary' collectives??  Sounds like freedom of association to me.
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Ghostmaker

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Re: Covid, the "lockdowns" etc.
« Reply #633 on: October 07, 2020, 08:57:30 AM »

Collectives, comrade?

Is there some sort of problem with 'voluntary' collectives??  Sounds like freedom of association to me.
One of the most functional and stable forms of collective is purely voluntary.

Of course, most leftists get their panties in a twist when you point out it's a monastery or convent.


Pat
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Re: Covid, the "lockdowns" etc.
« Reply #634 on: October 07, 2020, 09:26:37 AM »
Another example of a voluntary collective is the kibbutzim of Israel. Unlike state-driven top-down socialism which always leads to horrors, voluntary communal associations have a long and modestly successful history, at least at the small- and mid-scale. The largest historical examples are the Free Territory of the Ukraine after the October Revolution, and revolutionary Catalonia in the 1930s, but they didn't last long; you can make a good argument they don't work at large scales. Kropotkin is probably the most important theoretician on the topic, and there's a fairly fleshed-out example of a kropotkinesque society in Ursula K. LeGuin's science fiction novel, The Dispossessed. She's sympathetic, but honest about the sacrifices required, leading to the book's subtitle "An Ambiguous Utopia".

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/petr-kropotkin-the-conquest-of-bread/
https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/0-06-105488-7.html (review of The Dispossessed)

« Last Edit: October 07, 2020, 10:13:52 AM by Pat »

Steven Mitchell

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Re: Covid, the "lockdowns" etc.
« Reply #635 on: October 07, 2020, 10:10:49 AM »
There's been a big surge in interest in home schooling. I don't have any direct experience, but from what I've heard, the tools for home schooling have really improved in the last few years.

This is correct. Home schooling is NEVER going to be easy. To truly succeed (doubly so if the child has special needs), it requires active and consistent parent involvement, parent discipline of themselves and their children and continuous research by the parent into the learning process.

Beyond the obvious tools like online classes and educational videos, the most interesting and powerful "new" tool is local homeschooling parents uniting in collectives where they share best practices, volunteer tutoring using their prime skills and group activities and field trips. My friend's son is in a "homeschool" soccer league! They play against other homeschool leagues and charter schools.

As much as I loathe social media, I must admit it's been a positive for this growth in homeschool collectives might not have happened without Farcebook.

Useful education of any kind is not easy.  Home schooling is not unique in that respect.  There always questions scale with education.  Student/Teacher ratios are barely starting that discussion.  Obviously, home schooling has a ceiling for scale that means those issues are always there. 

However, there are also problems with scale on the other end.  There are problems with institutionalized anything.  Obviously, there are questions of motivations for all involved.  Thus there are times when home schooling is less trouble than the other available alternatives.  You can "buy back" a lot of lost ground from the difficulties of home schooling simply from the fact that home schooling means the kids typically get more sleep and have less of their time wasted during the day. 

RandyB

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Re: Covid, the "lockdowns" etc.
« Reply #636 on: October 07, 2020, 10:55:37 AM »

Collectives, comrade?

Is there some sort of problem with 'voluntary' collectives??  Sounds like freedom of association to me.
One of the most functional and stable forms of collective is purely voluntary.

Of course, most leftists get their panties in a twist when you point out it's a monastery or convent.



Voluntary collectives are the *only* functional and stable ones.

And monasteries and convents are the most functional and stable of them all.

Hawkwing7423

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Re: Covid, the "lockdowns" etc.
« Reply #637 on: October 07, 2020, 01:14:45 PM »
Has anyone seen the Great Barrington Declaration from a few days ago?

https://gbdeclaration.org/

The epidemologists (not bureaucrats like Fauci) saying all along we should have not done the lockdowns. Just like Sweden, Belarus, and now Netherlands are doing.

Further protections for the oldest with this disease was the sensible path.

I don't know all the motivations or the weightings of those in our insane mainstream media but this has to be the biggest and most successful hysteria in world history.

Ghostmaker

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Re: Covid, the "lockdowns" etc.
« Reply #638 on: October 08, 2020, 08:27:54 AM »
Don't worry Hawkwing, those doctors will be shortly flagged as evil Trump supporting white supremacists in 3, 2...

Brad

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Re: Covid, the "lockdowns" etc.
« Reply #639 on: October 08, 2020, 09:30:53 AM »
Useful education of any kind is not easy.  Home schooling is not unique in that respect.  There always questions scale with education.  Student/Teacher ratios are barely starting that discussion.  Obviously, home schooling has a ceiling for scale that means those issues are always there. 

However, there are also problems with scale on the other end.  There are problems with institutionalized anything.  Obviously, there are questions of motivations for all involved.  Thus there are times when home schooling is less trouble than the other available alternatives.  You can "buy back" a lot of lost ground from the difficulties of home schooling simply from the fact that home schooling means the kids typically get more sleep and have less of their time wasted during the day.

My wife and I are currently homeschooling our 5 year old daughter. It's been a royal pain in the ass, but 100% worth it. Had she gone to kindergarten like she was supposed to, she'd be learning about shapes and ABCs and other normal crap, instead she's reading on around a 3rd grade level and can do 1st grade math without issue, I figure she'll be 3rd grade math by the end of next May and who knows how good her reading will be. Also learning real history, gets religious education, does a lot of science, etc. Just a classical education instead of some bullshit indoctrination.


I realize I'm in a more unique position than a lot of other people in that my wife and I are both qualified to teach school and have a lot of education ourselves, but my buddy's wife (who is not well educated at all) asked us for materials and help and she's homeschooling her kids just fine. In my opinion, most people are just lazy as fuck and use school as some sort of daycare system and just cross their fingers their kids will learn stuff.
It takes considerable knowledge just to realize the extent of your own ignorance.

Steven Mitchell

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Re: Covid, the "lockdowns" etc.
« Reply #640 on: October 08, 2020, 11:06:41 AM »
Brad,

I had two kids that went home school K-12.  If you ever want to discuss anything about it in particular, feel free to PM.  Glad to hear it is working out great for you.

Brad

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Re: Covid, the "lockdowns" etc.
« Reply #641 on: October 08, 2020, 11:49:34 AM »
Brad,

I had two kids that went home school K-12.  If you ever want to discuss anything about it in particular, feel free to PM.  Glad to hear it is working out great for you.

Thanks, I appreciate the offer.
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Koltar

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Re: Covid, the "lockdowns" etc.
« Reply #642 on: October 12, 2020, 02:37:36 AM »
The Lockdowns and limited retail hours in Ohio contributed to the permanent shutdown and closing of the store where I have worked for 17 years.

No more Gaming store in the nearby mall for me to go work in.

-Edmund C
The return of 'You can't take the Sky From me!'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUn-eN8mkDw&feature=rec-fresh+div

This is what a really cool FANTASY RPG should be like :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-WnjVUBDbs

Still here, still alive, at least Seven years now...

dkabq

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KingCheops

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Re: Covid, the "lockdowns" etc.
« Reply #644 on: October 12, 2020, 11:55:42 AM »
The Lockdowns and limited retail hours in Ohio contributed to the permanent shutdown and closing of the store where I have worked for 17 years.

No more Gaming store in the nearby mall for me to go work in.

-Edmund C

Condolences dude.  That's terrible.

So far my FLGS in my area have stayed open but I can't imagine they're doing too hot.  Not being able to host Magic releases is a death sentence.