Skewed Math, Bias, and Censorship
As I continued to read the messages regarding Dr. Phil's Great School Debate, I stumbled across a poll: Which style of schooling do you think is best? I voted, then read the results. Imagine my surprise, not at the specific numbers, but at the calculations. If you do the math yourself, you can see that the poll is skewed in favor of public school results.
RESULTS - STYLE OF SCHOOLING
Thank you for taking our poll! We want to hear more. Share your thoughts on the
Which style of schooling do you think is best?
16% 456 Public school
10% 358 Private school
55% 1814 Homeschooling
19% 642 Unschooling
Total Votes: 3270
Hmmm.
If I use my own calculator, I get 456/3270 = 13.94% in favor of Public School, not 16%. Private schools comes out to be 10.94%, not 10%, Homeschooling is 55.47%, and Unschooling gets 19.63%.
The responses for public school get rounded way UP, while the other choices are rounded DOWN. Interesting.
When I tried to post something similar on the Great School Debate Message Boards, the moderators chose not to post the information.
Bias? You decide.
RESULTS - STYLE OF SCHOOLING
Thank you for taking our poll! We want to hear more. Share your thoughts on the
Which style of schooling do you think is best?
16% 456 Public school
10% 358 Private school
55% 1814 Homeschooling
19% 642 Unschooling
Total Votes: 3270
Hmmm.
If I use my own calculator, I get 456/3270 = 13.94% in favor of Public School, not 16%. Private schools comes out to be 10.94%, not 10%, Homeschooling is 55.47%, and Unschooling gets 19.63%.
The responses for public school get rounded way UP, while the other choices are rounded DOWN. Interesting.
When I tried to post something similar on the Great School Debate Message Boards, the moderators chose not to post the information.
Bias? You decide.
posted by Zany Mom at 10:50 AM
9 Comments:
I am so glad I found your blog. Besides writing, I am in the PhD program at UH. MY research topic is home schooling (focusing on liveaboards and cruisers).
Because of the difficulty doing lessons on the passages many of these people unschool ala Holt.
As a former public school teacher, I see huge benefits for children who are unschooled.
Also - Ever notice when you punch in "home school" you get all the religious right curriculum?
There is a reason for that! They hone in on "Home School."
Those who just type in curriculum get the whole gamut of secular resources.
If more parents took charge of their children's education - we would not have this NCLB morass.
Good for you!
Re: your question on Miss Snark-
You can look on Publishers Marketplace (for $20 a month an invaluable resource) and see the titles that agents have sold and see where your book fits in.
You can also check out recent sales or the number of sales.
My daughter would love to hang out on your boat someday, LOL. She was laughing at the comment you made about kneeling on the urchin trying to get a photo of a frogfish. She loves all things aquatic and I'm sure she'd prefer to live aboard a boat rather than an RV. But alas, mom isn't a boater :(. She keeps me on my toes. The other day she asked me how to spell narwhal, and I had no idea what she was talking about, LOL. Thank goodness for Google!
Have her look me up if she is ever in Hawaii- I used to teach Marine Science in High school.
I plan on keeping my blog diverse with photos, boating, horses and writing...
Thanks for stopping by.
She rides horses, too. :)
Actually we have friends in Hawaii that we were contemplating visiting in the not-too-distant future.
Last year we hit CA, PA, and KY. Who knows what next year will bring?
Thanks!
Cool-
Just let me know!
Please, what is your dog in the picture? It is so cute!
And I am very interested in how your children are learning - do you think this only works with bright children? What would work for a learning disability in this setting?
Great blog!
Kate
Kate, that's a smooth-coated Brussels Griffon. We call him Monkey Man, for obvious reasons. We have his half-sister, too, but he's overshadowed by her so he won the blog spot.
I don't have learning disabled kids (I would guess it would depend on the disability) but its advantage is a child can choose his/her own pace, follows their passions, and can shine as who they are without being labeled. I do know of several families with kids on the autistic spectrum that are thriving; I do know a few families with dyslexic kids who it worked well for. ADHD is not usually an issue with unschooling as a kid can burn off that excess energy without retribution.
What disabilities specifically? Maybe I can blog about it rather than try to squeak a short answer in the comments.
Thank you so much for answering!
(And I love that doggie!)
I was thinking primarily of dyslexia - as you know some families in this situation, maybe a blog article could be forthcoming? Thanks so much for all your hard work, too - love the blog!
Kate
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