I just heard about a book by an education professor name James Tooley (h.t. NRO). The book is titled The Beautiful Tree. It is about private education in the poorest neighborhoods of the poorest countries. I know that homeschool is not for everyone, but I have been at a loss as to what I should say when people ask what to do if they cannot homeschool. I have always said that I do not know what to tell anyone else about how to educate their children when I had to work so hard to figure it out for my own, especially since the results are not even in yet. The one thing about which I am most confident is that government schools and government participation in educational decision making are not the answer. I cannot wait to get the book. Here is the money quote from the Wikipedia article on the author:
The basic findings of the research show that in urban and peri-urban poor areas (slums and shanty towns) in India and the African countries studied, the majority of schoolchildren are in low cost private schools. After testing 24,000 children, it was found that children in the low cost private schools significantly outperform children in public schools, after controlling for background variables and the school choice process.
We had a great Thanksgiving down in Atlanta with a group of very good friends. The kids stayed up until all hours of the night, then suffered because one of the other kids was an early riser. They all had a super time. Of course we ate way too much. When I started the four-day weekend I was down eight pounds from my high. I am now only down three, but hopeful. The kids are in the midst of the big final push to finish their semester well. They did better than me last night in their schoolwork. I should have completed more work on GaugeCam, but could not seem to get off center.
Update: Christian found this very interesting fact. I though it was very worth noting. My brother Doug only missed this by a couple of months.