Lol...We really enjoyed this! Thanks.
That was priceless. Sad, but priceless.
Where does a custodian get off having such a strong oppion on this. It's not like he is a teacher himself. I find it funny.
Well...I think its sad all around. Sorry I dont get the humor. Seems to me the guy is sincerely concerned and misinformed and the NEA is the more likely the "real enemy."
))...Poor Mr. Arnold. I almost feel bad for exploiting his ignorance by republishing this. Almost.
Thank you so much for publishing it. It made my day.
What Andrea said.
~gah~
logic go boom
I would feel badly about picking on the poor man, but "ask and ye shall receive."
As I was reading Dominic's reply, I was thinking, "Most of this will probably go right over his head" I was shocked to find that he took the entire letter seriously... Wow. I don't think he has the capability to understand homeschooling AT ALL! Scary thought, too: I wonder how many of these "Dave Arnold"s there are out there?!! Creepy...
Peace,
Sang
Mr. Cancilla is my new hero. Thanks for sharing this.
Yes, I do feel a bit bad for this Mr. Arnold. He is not the enemy and he is so obviously uninformed. What I find funny - and so terribly sad - is that the NEA would publish an op-ed piece by someone who is completely uncredentialed in anyway and who gives no support for his arguments other than what he thinks is true. That is what is truly sad here. I hope the people at the NEA who made the decision to publish Mr. Arnold's opinion get to read Mr. Cancilla's letter and Mr. Arnold's reply. I think it really drives home the point that Mr. Arnold should never have been put in the position of homeschool authority.
The NEA should be ashamed of itself.
If ever I thought I was too, um, inelleligent to hs my kids, me think not no more.
The whole socialization thing...really? I mean, why doesn't someone just put an end to this RIGHT NOW. Get a dozen of these critics, put them in a room or on a playground with 200 random kids, and tell 'em (since it's so painfully obvious) to point out the homeschoolers. As if. I offer a hundred bucks to the guy who can do it.
As one mother recently pointed out, the kind of socialization my kids would get in a public school is so very NO THANK YOU. Parents who would never allow their child to watch an R-rated movie are sending their children to R-rated schools every day.
I remember that kind of socializing. And I remember getting lectured about it, too. "School is for learning, Young Lady. NOT for socializing!"
Ah, yeah. I guess being public school students really didn't equip us to be anything more than gullible, well-meaning amateurs.
You want to see the affects of socialization, go to any place where they frequently have school field trips and watch the kids socialize. Last time I was at the zoo, the public school kids were out of control monsters. My dd asked me why they acted like that way.
LOL, this is too funny for so many reasons. My father , believe it or not has been a school custodian for 20 years.I didn't know that qualified him to write articles for the NEA. Wait till I tell him! Maybe he can get a raise! This guy MUST have been a public school kid.
many here seem to imply that mr.arnold is not well educated, hence his stance and response. my bil, a well educated man, has exactly the same opinion. and THIS is fully frightening.
the folks at NEA probably thought 'wow', even a custodian thinks like us! LOL
...has anyone thought to link the dear misguided Mr. Arnold to this webpage?
Or maybe it would be kinder to leave him without a clue...
I'm speechless....glad you are not Natalie.
Hellaciously funny Natalie. I wonder if Dominick is or has been the parent of an infant, toddler or preschooler. If so, I'm curious to hear his gushing about accredited child care and early childhood education.
I'm sure Dominick is polishing that trophy from you right now
That is, if he was taught how to, in school.
Loved it, ESPECIALLY the reply....I'm just evil that way!
Oh my goodness, that was one of the funniest and saddest things I've seen in a while.
You'd think that somebody with Mr. Arnold's level of education would be able to read properly. I mean really, the thing about Gandhi didn't tip him off? That's the sign of a guy who only wants to hear people affirm what he already thinks.
Holy cow.
Good Lord -- Dave Arnold is certainly a "rebel without a clue" if he didn't catch the sarcastic tone of Dominick's letter.
But I'm curious -- would dave be equally opposed to private schools?
Thicket Dweller- a study such as you mention has already been done. Florida, I think, a Dr. Shyer, if I remember right. It was very interesting. They did have a large number of kids playing in a room, observed by researchers who were to note the children's social skills. There were homeschooled, private schooled, and public schooled children in the room.
They could tell the homeschooled kids apart, because they were the best socialized. They were the least likely to resort to physical aggression, the most likely to work things out, to try to include others in their games- the results astonished the researchers, who said they guessed that spending more time with grown ups than with age-mates was far more positive than they'd previously suspected.
Thank you for the best laugh I've had all week. That NEA article made my blood boil but your post more than made up for the rise in my blood pressure.
Out of everything I've posted on this blog, from shoes to schools, this is currently my favorite post.
Once a day, I come back and read it just for the instant mood booster. It makes me giggle out loud every time.
Thanks for all the comments, folks.
Concierge,
I think Mr. Arnold is not the only one who missed the irony of Dominick Cancilla's letter.
Maybe you might want to read the intro from Natalie and then read the letter one more time?
Z.
Oh my...hilarious! You know what the problem is? Mr. Arnold should have been homeschooled.
I wrote a blog post on this. I took apart Mr. Arnolds ridiculous article point by point.
http://ourhomeschool.blog-
city.c...ing_fisking.htm
Dominick's letter was wonderful! I'm so glad to see I wasn't the only one responding!
That's the best thing I've read all day! Sad at the same time though... *sigh* I was so angry when I read the letter on the NEA site, but this definitely makes me feel SO much better. I was completely SHOCKED that he took this letter to be positive... Poor guy. Like everyone else said, the Ghandi part really should've tipped him off.
He may not even know who Ghandi was.
UNBELIEVABLE! If there was a better argument for keeping kids out of the NEA's grasp, I don't know what it would be...
This is really funny and all, and I made fun of Mr. Arnold on my blog too, just like all the cool kids are doing. But you know the only way the NEA can win? If they can manage to portray us as a bunch of elitists who don't care about ordinary Americans. And we're handing them material.
Absolutely fantastic!
Hey Common Reader,
I know where you're coming from. Initially, I had misgivings about blogging it. However, the more I reread it the more convinced I am that we're not being unfair at all.
[Of course, I am an elitist and don't think that's a bad thing. At least we aspire to something more than adherence to gov't standards.]
This unsuspecting yay-hoo offered up his whiney, unsubstantiated opinion as fact to the masses via the largest, most influential educational organization in the US. THEN he was so blinded by it that he was either too stupid or too myopic to realize that Dominick's letter was a sham. Hence the reply (which is in fact real, btw. Someone asked me yesterday.). The fact that he happens to be a custodian is, in my opinion, gravy.
If we put something that ridiculous out there, our detractors would have a field day as well. And justifiably so. The moral: Don't get caught with egg on your face.
Natalie~who knows first hand that's not as easy as it sounds...
Woohoo! That is hilarious! I can't believe it. Yes, it is unbelievable! I just can't say antyhing more because I am laughing so hard......
Thanks for the jolly laugh today!
hs mom of many
Oh, mercy! I had not yet shown my husband the original column, but now I can't wait until he comes down stairs so I can show him the column and Mr. Cancilla's priceless reply.
That definitely goes on my list of "Top 10 Things I Wish I Had Written."
I wish Mr Arnold could meet my daughter. I hs'd her from 3rd grade all the way through high school. I have only a high school education myself. At age 18 she worked at Walmart and was told by her boss that she had great 'social skills'. She even went to college and worked her way through...Now, at age 26, she is a top selling real estate agent. (she made rookie of the year her first year). I wonder how that happened? 
AND I could go on...another daughter is a loan officer in a bank, another happily married with a home business, etc..........NONE are social misfits. If you ask them what they may have missed by not going to school, they answer, drugs, alcohol and sex.
I strongly disagree with what your saying. Just because teachers are getting paid for their job doesn't mean that us as parents do any less of a job than teachers. Because of the fact that we love our children and want the best for them is why we choose to homeschool, not for any amount of money. I know many children that are homeschooled along with my own. Everyone has their own opinion but there are not worries about drugs, sex, and lots of lies at school. I remember going to school. Kids are so very abusive by words in school. Kids don't need that. Kids can learn to survive at home. That do not need a public school to learn that at.
Out there to support all homeschooling families!
See my Blog and Make Money at Home!
I am writing a paper for my college English class. I was told to argue a point. After looking at a paper that had random topics to argue about I chose to write on homeschooling. At first I didn't really agree with homeschooling because of children not getting to interact with each other as much as public school students. Now I see that homeschooled children have the option of joining community sports or clubs so they will be able to socialize almost as much as public school students. Now I am arguing FOR homeschooling. The thing that really got to me was that some parents that homeschool their children think that children that go to public schools are all druggies with problems. While there are public school teenagers that have tried drugs or gone to crazy parties, not all of them are crack whores. The fact is that even though parents that homeschool are trying to protect their children from the "dangers" of public schools, they can't. If their child is determined to they will, homeschooling won't necessarily deter them. Keeping your children out of public schools isn't going to keep them away from drugs, sex, etc. Some children are also verbally abusive, but so are adults that you come across in a store or just on the street. Keeping children out of public schools does not "protect" them as much as some parents believe.
I'm new to homeschooling. I too once believed that kids needed to be in school with proper teachers who knew things I didn't. I gave the school all authority during school hours. When my child came home crying every day, saying the kids are picking on him, I did very little, but inform the school and let the "experts" handle it. When my child began refusing to attend school because of the bullying, I informed the "experts" at the school, and they had meetings with the bullies and my child, together, to work out a solution. Then I got phone calls from other parents telling me that their kids were informing them that my child was being regularly picked on BY THE TEACHER. I thought my child had been over-reacting when he told me that the teacher said he was stupid, that he wasn't smart enough for his grade level, that he was being humilliated by her on a daily basis. Not only that, but the bullying also got worse. I guess the bullies were learning a thing or two from the "Expert-Bully". I continued to choose to allow my child to stay in school till the last day of that year, because I thought it would be wrong to teach him that quitting was ok.
What he did learn was that his safety wasn't important to the adults in his life. He learned that if you are getting picked on, the last thing you do is tell anyone about it, because it will get worse. Worse of all, he learned very little classwork, because he spent all his mental energy coping with the daily abuse.
I'm glad I stopped listening to the "Experts" and started to listen to my child and my own heart. He no longer wants to kill himself. He smiles now (he rarely did while in public school). Without the abuse, there seems to be more room in his mind and heart to learn.
This "snarky" letter was interstingly laughable, to say the least. But it was also unfortunately, quite true of some people's opinions. I've been hearing them since I began homeschooling 2 months ago. Thank you to the person who posted it. The Ghandi thing, sheesh! I hope that by posting this, it gives encouragement to those of us who've had experience with the "experts" (public school teachers - though, I am by no means painting ALL teachers with the same brush). Take heart, you, the parent, are the best EXPERT where your CHILD is concerned.
Oh, and we also learned something about quitting. Sometimes it is better to quit something before you've finished it, if things just aren't working the way they ought to. You wouldn't keep driving on a flat tire, right? It's a waste of time to keep doing something that isn't working. Stop, regroup, move forward in a new direction.
Laughing so hard my belly hurts!!
I linked to this blog entry on my blog. I want to help spread the cheer.
Oh, my cheeks hurt!
I literally could NOT believe his response to your letter.
I mean.
WHAT?
He thought you were for REAL? yikes, double yikes.
But I don't fault him. He's just lockstep with the NEA
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