Let's hear it for this week's round of speech buddy videos.
Lisa's blip on breast cancer was pretty short, but what I did notice was that she was doing a pretty good job relating the topic to the audience. Bring it on home, honey.
Brandi on not feeding the wildlife: While I thought her narrative was alright, I thought it was a little long to be a part of the introduction. At least it seemed to be the introduction. I thought it was kind of like pulling out the big guns a little too early. Also, I found her voice to be rather flat, and she breezed through everything really quickly, making me feel as though she was more reciting information instead of being an "expert" on the topic.
Hans gave me the impression that he himself needed to cut back on the sugar. Settle down there Hans. I found his speaking approach to be a little too contrived, and it made me feel like I was being patronized. I feel like his speaking style would have been appropriate had he been presenting on Sesame Street, but not to a group of adults. I couldn't focus on the technicalities of his speech because I was too focused on how much I didn't like his speech pattern. Which was actually good food for thought. Though I have to say that I am not in the habit of talking to small children like they are small children, much less adults.
I thought Dixie did alright with her pro homeschooling speech. She outlined her points well enough, everything had a nice flow, she seemed well-researched. Her voice was a little boring, but that's just me being picky. I thought she made her point quite well.
In contrast, I didn't care for Robert's cons of homeschooling speech at all. His whole speech felt vague and put together with a generic formula, rather than organized and professional. I also completely disagreed with him, and I thought that he could have gone a hundred different routes to make a better argument against homeschooling than, "We just can't expect parents to do their job and raise their kids, that's what teachers are for." I do think, however, that Robert's points did an excellent job of highlighting how skewed our perception is of how education "should" work. Education starts in the home, and while I don't expect every parent to be able to teach Advanced Placement Chemistry to their kids, they should be able to handle teaching their kids the basics of our society. And I have a huge problem with the whole "Should parent's be expected to give up their careers just so they can teach their kids?" mentality. It is not okay to just dump your kids off at school and expect the teachers to do all the hard work for you. If you are a parent, you damn well better be taking an active role in your kids life as it is. And that's what I think about that.
And hooray for having one more speech done. Only one left to go! Wahoo!
You always give me a different perspective than how I interpret things. I watched the speech buddy videos discussing home schooling in a completely different light. I have to admit as a parent my views on homeschooling have changed somewhat. I used to be really into it, but now my son is in Kindergarten and is thriving. In fact I just got home from helping in his class, which maybe why I had a snarly reaction to Dixie's public school bashing. I feel that for me to teach him in my home would be far less stimulating and effective than his colorful, full of life classroom, which was one point Robert made. I also feel that our relationship, stubborn son and easily frustrated to the point of giving up and/or yelling mom would not be condusive to a learning environment. I do agree that Roberts excuse of do you expect a parent to quit his/her job...is weak, because for most parents their child should be their first priority. However you must also realize some parents absolutely have to work to feed their children and giving up their job is not in the cards. He could have used better word choice there. Its funny to read your reactions, because while I am not for or against homeschooling (I am comepletly for it depending on the situation and child), I have to admit for some reason I went into Dixie's speech not agreeing with her. I guess her examples of kids hiding under desks and not being sure if they are going to make it home took me off guard. I know things like that happen, but in my safe little Auburn bubble they are rare if ever (hopefully never). I thought she could have found more examples of how our school system has failed us that apply to all people in all areas of the US. Guess they were both pretty effective debates given that they made me think of both sides!
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