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> having decided to have all four of my children involved in competitive, organized team sports through local "travel" soccer programs There's a reason that "s

by ameoba 13y ago

> having decided to have all four of my children involved in competitive, organized team sports through local "travel" soccer programs There's a reason that "soccer mom" has become synonymous with out of touch, privileged, upper-middle-class, stay at home mothers. Being able to afford this shit, especially for four separate children, puts you well to the right side of the socioeconomic bell curve. If these things are important to your children, aren't they equally important, if not more so, to the children of a single mom working for minimum wage that have no other way of gaining access to sports outside of the public school system?

tokenadult 13y ago
I can tell you are new here. My reputation in this community as involved DAD who homeschools[1] his four children (my wife and I have adjusted our careers to trade off time for our children's education) is well established here. But I empathize with your point that families even poorer than mine (my family was quite poor when my dad was slowly dying after a catastrophic injury that left him a quadriplegic for the last six years of his life) should have opportunity to learn everything that is useful for good development. One of my children received a "scholarship" (fee waiver) based on financial need from our local travel soccer program. I return the favor by being an active volunteer (team manager) in the program. But I'm going to put it to you that you are criticizing the wrong person if you think I don't care about good education for poor people. The FINE SUBMITTED ARTICLE talks about a poor neighborhood in Texas where academic achievement rose, and thus future opportunity for the students rose, after the high school recalibrated from an emphasis on sports to an emphasize on care school academic subjects. My big-time pet issue on HN, as is easily verifiable by looking at my user profile and my submission history and comment history, is better quality K-12 education for all learners all around the world. Children in poor neighborhoods in the United States ought to enjoy better instruction in reading, in mathematics, in writing, in history, in science, and in all academic subjects in school. I've posted numerous links to authoritative publications about that crucial issue. Along the way, if all young people can also learn a competitive team sport if they like, I will be glad about that. But I will be especially glad if all high school students in the United States grow up to be numerate, literate, and able to support themselves in the changing economy of the twenty-first century. [1] Oddly, even though I am a dyed-in-the-wool, take-no-prisoners advocate of homeschooling, my three children who are still at home (my oldest son has grown up and is supporting himself) are this week all in their third week of full-time enrollment in public schools--the first time in twenty-one years of parenting that I've ever had all my children at home in public school. My second son plays JV soccer and runs track on the teams of our friendly local high school.

by ameoba 13y ago

tokenadult 13y ago

I can tell you are new here. My reputation in this community as involved DAD who homeschools[1] his four children (my wife and I have adjusted our careers to trade off time for our children's education) is well established here. But I empathize with your point that families even poorer than mine (my family was quite poor when my dad was slowly dying after a catastrophic injury that left him a quadriplegic for the last six years of his life) should have opportunity to learn everything that is useful for good development. One of my children received a "scholarship" (fee waiver) based on financial need from our local travel soccer program. I return the favor by being an active volunteer (team manager) in the program. But I'm going to put it to you that you are criticizing the wrong person if you think I don't care about good education for poor people. The FINE SUBMITTED ARTICLE talks about a poor neighborhood in Texas where academic achievement rose, and thus future opportunity for the students rose, after the high school recalibrated from an emphasis on sports to an emphasize on care school academic subjects. My big-time pet issue on HN, as is easily verifiable by looking at my user profile and my submission history and comment history, is better quality K-12 education for all learners all around the world. Children in poor neighborhoods in the United States ought to enjoy better instruction in reading, in mathematics, in writing, in history, in science, and in all academic subjects in school. I've posted numerous links to authoritative publications about that crucial issue. Along the way, if all young people can also learn a competitive team sport if they like, I will be glad about that. But I will be especially glad if all high school students in the United States grow up to be numerate, literate, and able to support themselves in the changing economy of the twenty-first century. [1] Oddly, even though I am a dyed-in-the-wool, take-no-prisoners advocate of homeschooling, my three children who are still at home (my oldest son has grown up and is supporting himself) are this week all in their third week of full-time enrollment in public schools--the first time in twenty-one years of parenting that I've ever had all my children at home in public school. My second son plays JV soccer and runs track on the teams of our friendly local high school.