As is often the case, these people lack a sense of irony.
13 thoughts on ““Sugar Coding””
Sounds like a nice term for applying syntactic sugar aka refactoring. Not a bad example of a more logical (but less historical) English spelling either…
BTW isn’t mollycoddling the word the author is looking for?
The uniformity of the quoted responses suggests some degree of “preconditioning” has occurred. I wonder where these kids have been hearing about the dangers of home schooling. From their unionized public school teachers, perhaps?
The mythos of Deweyism is alive and well. Job #1 of collectivist schools is to…wait for it…teach collectivism!
The emphasis on “socialization” is interesting. Reading through the first 25 posts, I see 9 of them include the work “social”. Several more talk about friends and/or the “real world”. At a glance, I saw only three comments talk about education.
I have a nephew who was home schooled by a mother who devoted her life to it…keeping just ahead of him by intensely studying everything she next needed to teach him. He’s now in Harvard medical school, and is perfectly comfortable with other people. I don’t think he ever wrote as poorly as these unfortunate kids.
I think some of those were the parents?
I home schooled my eldest grandson in fifth grade, I did it to help him catch up. He liked it and he likes public school too. Other kids who have done both report it that way too.
I’ve got good friends that home school 6 of their 8 kids. The other two are pre-school age.
Those kids are as social, sociable and able to make their way in the world as any child I’ve ever met. Although they have required study hours for grade appropriate and req studies, they can pick another subject. Most of these kids chose music. But the oldest son has moved away from his piano and has fallen in love with engines.
One of the things they do weekly or more frequently is meet with other home school families from outside the family associations. The idea that home school kids NEVER leave home is one I’ve heard parroted by public school teachers as a ‘concern’. Yeah, because the kids in their classes are so well adjusted no doubt.
And the idea that you can’t teach different age kids I’ve heard a lot too. I’m guessing people who say that forget that we had one room school hoses until after WWII in many states.
After the oldest son from that family I know started school, his younger brother and ALL the rest have been able to read at a 2nd grade level, when starting 1st grade. If that doesn’t translate to a better learning curve than kids who read AT or below level in public schools, I don’t know what will.
One more small item.
Back when I drove a school bus and since, I have heard public school kids talk trash about home school kids often, just like those in the Comments. I’ve made a point of asking them IF they know any home school kids. Most did not, the ones who did were usually related and it was their ‘weird’ cousin Chuck or it was their ‘crazy’ next door neighbor. I know of one case where an ex-home school child was hounded out of middle-school by being called weird, queer and crazy Christian bitch.
Given the way public school teachers and most people talk about these kids and home schooling in general, how much of that talk FROM the kids comes from what the kids hear at from teachers at school or from their parents?
What struck me in the article was how the prison-mentality vibe those essays from the little public-school dears gave off. I mean there it is: the need to fit in, to find the right “gang,” the fear of always being alone and without “friends” in a cold world, the indifference to family (family life seen as unreal and strangely more confining that one’s cell block full of homies — because the family and home is a place full of responsibilities you have to take on and you have to be nice to people, but in the cellblock you have no real responsibilities, just the substitute ones of proving your macho cred to your homies and you can’t be nice because that will mean you’re the bitch), and the low evidence of any sort of education and stunted thinking skills.
Even back when I went to school it felt like a prison. I was a good student but deep down inside I hated school, and couldn’t wait to get home at the end of the day. My parents weren’t perfect, but I vastly preferred their company to the cliques in my school, or even my school friends. Home was where all my stuff was, where I could be myself, where I was truly free.
Andrea,
the other way to go is being alone after school. My mom was at home and I had two younger brothers and eventually a sister too while I was still in grade school. But I preferred my own company. I was never a ‘joiner’ and I’m still not. I used to ride my motorcycle alone for hours. Just me and the wind. (Hells Angels, MC gangs of any stripe stymie me)
I’ll go so far as to say, I love my wife, kids and grandkids. But several times over the years I’ve been here, or been traveling alone, for a few weeks. Happy as a clam. If I thought I’d never see them again I’d be bad off, but I’d survive it. As for seeing other people, phhhtttt!
So long as my glasses don’t break, I COULD be like Burgess Meredith. I’d probably try to find a DVD player that survived the EMP too though!
I’m the same way. I always preferred being alone. When I say I preferred the company of my family, I mean I preferred the company of people who knew me, and knew to leave me alone. (Except for my sister. She was a brat and a half. We did not get along, and she liked to bug me. But as she was much more sociable, she was usually out with friends.)
Anyway, I could never understand those science fiction stories where somebody was the sole survivor after a nuclear war or something or they were imprisoned on an asteroid all alone and that was supposed to be horrible. What was so horrible about finally being able to read a book without interruption?
Nothing, unless you broke your glasses. That wouldn’t be fair. That wouldn’t be fair at all. You had all the time in the world…
Well why didn’t he hold the book closer to his face? I didn’t get that either. I got progressive lenses about five years ago, but really need a new pair, as my vision has changed again and now the “reading” part of the glasses doesn’t “work” any more. (I can still see the computer screen and the road fine, so I’ve been putting this expense off.) If I want to read, but the print is too small, I just take off my glasses and hold the book closer to my face.
Besides, he could have found an optometrist’s place and tried on all the glasses until he found a pair that worked. Of course with blurry vision that wouldn’t have been easy, but it can be done as long as you aren’t completely blind. That episode was typical of the Twilight Zone: to get their “irony” points they sacrificed common sense. Did the writers and viewers really think that if you break your reading glasses, you lose the ability to read? Apparently so.
Sounds like a nice term for applying syntactic sugar aka refactoring. Not a bad example of a more logical (but less historical) English spelling either…
BTW isn’t mollycoddling the word the author is looking for?
The uniformity of the quoted responses suggests some degree of “preconditioning” has occurred. I wonder where these kids have been hearing about the dangers of home schooling. From their unionized public school teachers, perhaps?
The mythos of Deweyism is alive and well. Job #1 of collectivist schools is to…wait for it…teach collectivism!
The emphasis on “socialization” is interesting. Reading through the first 25 posts, I see 9 of them include the work “social”. Several more talk about friends and/or the “real world”. At a glance, I saw only three comments talk about education.
I have a nephew who was home schooled by a mother who devoted her life to it…keeping just ahead of him by intensely studying everything she next needed to teach him. He’s now in Harvard medical school, and is perfectly comfortable with other people. I don’t think he ever wrote as poorly as these unfortunate kids.
I think some of those were the parents?
I home schooled my eldest grandson in fifth grade, I did it to help him catch up. He liked it and he likes public school too. Other kids who have done both report it that way too.
I’ve got good friends that home school 6 of their 8 kids. The other two are pre-school age.
Those kids are as social, sociable and able to make their way in the world as any child I’ve ever met. Although they have required study hours for grade appropriate and req studies, they can pick another subject. Most of these kids chose music. But the oldest son has moved away from his piano and has fallen in love with engines.
One of the things they do weekly or more frequently is meet with other home school families from outside the family associations. The idea that home school kids NEVER leave home is one I’ve heard parroted by public school teachers as a ‘concern’. Yeah, because the kids in their classes are so well adjusted no doubt.
And the idea that you can’t teach different age kids I’ve heard a lot too. I’m guessing people who say that forget that we had one room school hoses until after WWII in many states.
After the oldest son from that family I know started school, his younger brother and ALL the rest have been able to read at a 2nd grade level, when starting 1st grade. If that doesn’t translate to a better learning curve than kids who read AT or below level in public schools, I don’t know what will.
One more small item.
Back when I drove a school bus and since, I have heard public school kids talk trash about home school kids often, just like those in the Comments. I’ve made a point of asking them IF they know any home school kids. Most did not, the ones who did were usually related and it was their ‘weird’ cousin Chuck or it was their ‘crazy’ next door neighbor. I know of one case where an ex-home school child was hounded out of middle-school by being called weird, queer and crazy Christian bitch.
Given the way public school teachers and most people talk about these kids and home schooling in general, how much of that talk FROM the kids comes from what the kids hear at from teachers at school or from their parents?
What struck me in the article was how the prison-mentality vibe those essays from the little public-school dears gave off. I mean there it is: the need to fit in, to find the right “gang,” the fear of always being alone and without “friends” in a cold world, the indifference to family (family life seen as unreal and strangely more confining that one’s cell block full of homies — because the family and home is a place full of responsibilities you have to take on and you have to be nice to people, but in the cellblock you have no real responsibilities, just the substitute ones of proving your macho cred to your homies and you can’t be nice because that will mean you’re the bitch), and the low evidence of any sort of education and stunted thinking skills.
Even back when I went to school it felt like a prison. I was a good student but deep down inside I hated school, and couldn’t wait to get home at the end of the day. My parents weren’t perfect, but I vastly preferred their company to the cliques in my school, or even my school friends. Home was where all my stuff was, where I could be myself, where I was truly free.
Andrea,
the other way to go is being alone after school. My mom was at home and I had two younger brothers and eventually a sister too while I was still in grade school. But I preferred my own company. I was never a ‘joiner’ and I’m still not. I used to ride my motorcycle alone for hours. Just me and the wind. (Hells Angels, MC gangs of any stripe stymie me)
I’ll go so far as to say, I love my wife, kids and grandkids. But several times over the years I’ve been here, or been traveling alone, for a few weeks. Happy as a clam. If I thought I’d never see them again I’d be bad off, but I’d survive it. As for seeing other people, phhhtttt!
So long as my glasses don’t break, I COULD be like Burgess Meredith. I’d probably try to find a DVD player that survived the EMP too though!
I’m the same way. I always preferred being alone. When I say I preferred the company of my family, I mean I preferred the company of people who knew me, and knew to leave me alone. (Except for my sister. She was a brat and a half. We did not get along, and she liked to bug me. But as she was much more sociable, she was usually out with friends.)
Anyway, I could never understand those science fiction stories where somebody was the sole survivor after a nuclear war or something or they were imprisoned on an asteroid all alone and that was supposed to be horrible. What was so horrible about finally being able to read a book without interruption?
Nothing, unless you broke your glasses. That wouldn’t be fair. That wouldn’t be fair at all. You had all the time in the world…
Well why didn’t he hold the book closer to his face? I didn’t get that either. I got progressive lenses about five years ago, but really need a new pair, as my vision has changed again and now the “reading” part of the glasses doesn’t “work” any more. (I can still see the computer screen and the road fine, so I’ve been putting this expense off.) If I want to read, but the print is too small, I just take off my glasses and hold the book closer to my face.
Besides, he could have found an optometrist’s place and tried on all the glasses until he found a pair that worked. Of course with blurry vision that wouldn’t have been easy, but it can be done as long as you aren’t completely blind. That episode was typical of the Twilight Zone: to get their “irony” points they sacrificed common sense. Did the writers and viewers really think that if you break your reading glasses, you lose the ability to read? Apparently so.