Activity!
For almost six months I’ve been trying to get a home school support group started. We belonged to one for a couple of years, but things happened and we parted ways. Thus, the White and Tippe County Homeschool Meetup was born. Months went by and no one came. People looked, but seldom left a message. Then, a month or so ago, things started to change! We got a couple of members and they got together! Soon there were a couple more. Now we have six families and around 15 kids in the group. I’m so excited!
We had our first “official” get together this past week at Pizza Hut, and while there was some mistaken location issues, we had fun. We’re meeting again in a week and a half for a library get together. I also resurrected the Yahoo mailing list, albeit with a new name – The White and Tippe County Homeschoolers. The mailing list is for parents only, but if we get enough kids that want to have a list we will create one for them.
I’ve added to the resource page of the Indiana Homeschool site, as well. There are some great geography links and I will soon be adding some links for homeschooling high school, along with some great record keeping sites.
I guess sometimes patience really does yield rewards!
I have been remiss…
I know. MIA for almost two months. Scandalous. Shameless. Inexcusable! So, in penance, I present to you a two-fold educational post. The two parts aren’t even related, but just topics I’ve been thinking about lately.
First – Ten Dollar Words.
These are words that are rather pretentious. Some obnoxious people use them to inveigle their way into what they may believe to be a more cerebral crowd. At times, however, the use of such words presents more of a velleity than a true desire for advancement, since the speaker often finds the company of such pseudo-intellectuals to be tedious. At other times, the magniloquence of the discourse is repellent and causes the assemblage to eschew the speaker . When taking place during an argument, ten dollar words tend toward the acerbic and stygian – leading the speaker to objurgate and castigate his co-combatant in redundant fashion. Obviously, many of these supererogatory words tend to mark the speaker as a balatron filled with hubris if used incorrectly – particularly when used in a situation when less formal confabulation is much more appropriate.
How many did you have to look up? I did a lot of looking up in writing that paragraph. So, on to topic two – World Geography. I know, totally unrelated. Still, these are the two things I’ve been thinking of recently.
World geography came up because my DS asked me where Saudi Arabia was in Iraq. Yeah, really. I know. Home schooled child and all. I have obviously missed an important topic. It came up because another son is about to be deployed to Kuwait, or Saudi Arabia, or the UAE, or someplace like that and the home schooled son was trying to picture where his brother is going. Luckily, I am prepared for this (the world geography part – not the son in the Middle East part). I have a set of links on Indiana Homeschool that are perfect. I didn’t even put them up tonight before posting this. Nope – they were already there a month ago. One of my favorites, while it WAS put on the list tonight, is Test Your Geographic Knowledge. It’s a very cool quiz on just about every region of the world.
A link that isn’t on my Indiana Homeschool site but should be (and will be soon) is World Map. You can view maps by hemisphere, continent, or country. You can even purchase maps from the site. For free maps, be sure to check out Free World Maps. To get really good copies, you have to purchase them, but you can download low res versions for free.
This is one of the low res maps. You can get them with far greater detail, this is just an overview type map.
For physical geography, I think the best site around is Geography for Kids. There are tutorials, games, maps, and links to other sites. The Geography Online link takes you to a page with a logical progression of exploration that will give you (and your kids) a geographic knowledge base with which you can build upon.
Happy exploring!
Summer Reading
Summer’s almost here, and it’s time for lazy days in the hammock with a good book. Although I read all year, all the time, summer really seems to be the optimal time for reading. You can read anywhere inside or out. If you have a book with you, no one cares how long you linger in an outdoor cafe, or sit in a park, or even hang out in your car in a parking lot. Even though homeschoolers read year around, there are extra incentives in the summer – clubs and contests.
This year, there are a few online, a few off-line, and the usual lineup at your local library.
Barnes and Noble is having a read 8 and get a free book promotion. Go to the link and download the Passport. Your kids read any 8 books and document the places in each book. You sign, bring the kid (and the Passport) into any Barnes and Noble store during the specific dates, and you get a voucher to choose a book from their list.
Borders Double Dog Dares you to read 10 books to get a free one. Download their form, document the books your child has read, and they’ll give you a free book. You can go to any Borders, Walden Books, or Borders Express.
Scholastic Books invites kids to break world records. WordGirl is also inviting kids to read four or more books this summer. Both promotions involve a reading game show with prizes and recognition. Details and book lists are available on the Scholastic website.
Pizza Hut is continuing their reading campaign with their SummerBreak program. Reading five or more books will give kids an opportunity to win swim gear, book, games, and gift cards.
Reading Rockets has a website encouraging kids to improve their reading skills. While not strictly a summer program, they do have games, book lists, activities, and suggestions for parents to help engage kids who might be less than enthusiastic where reading is concerned.
Don’t forget your own public library. Most libraries offer some sort of summer program, even if it’s just a story time. Most offer summer programs complete with activities and prizes.
Lastly, here are some links for finding reading lists that are age appropriate. Have a happy and leisure-filled summer of reading!
Historical Inaccuracies and Insufficiencies
The difference between being called a mass murdered or a military hero depends, largely upon which side the historian is on. But not always.
That’s the thought that came into my mind on my way home from work one day last week. I was driving out North 9th street, and my mind wandered just as I got to the intersection where I need to turn to get to Highway 43. Instead, I ended up driving through Battleground. As I was passing the battlefield memorial I reflected on a series of historical fiction books I just finished. After winning a decisive battle in November 7, 1811, the victorious US forces burned the village and all the food, thereby dooming the surviving women and children to starvation. Had this happened today in a third world country, the leader of the offensive as well as the political leader of the country would be vilified, but in the context of the time, William Henry Harrison was a hero.
My point in this narrative is to show how subjective history is. I had to do some serious searching to find a reputable website that stated the true aftermath of the battle, rather than the usual “the demoralized survivors fled the village.” However, since Harrison is seen as the hero of the day, history remembers his actions in that context – regardless of how brutal they were.
I have struggled over the past couple of years over just what to teach my son about anything other than the basics. Teaching English and Math – that’s a given for me. Those are absolutely necessary for his future success in life. He needs to be able to speak, read, write, and do math to get by in the world. Even Social Studies is a reasonable addition, as is Geography. Knowing how people structure their societies, how cultures differ, and where things are located are also very important. History, however, has been particularly problematic to me.
On a purely feminist level, history has not treated women well or equally. There are many more important women in history than anyone will ever learn about in traditional texts. Just the fact that we need Women’s Studies in colleges speaks to how little the feminine contribution to human continuity (not only the biological) is valued. Too many young women know nothing of Mary Wollstonecraft, Clara Barton, Susan B Anthony, and Marie Curie – and they’re the famous ones. How many know about Rear Admiral Grace Hopper – the “Mother of Cobol,” a programming language upon which one could argue that our entire computing world of today was built upon. There’s also Susan McKinney Steward, the first African-American female doctor.
On a human level, there’s the bias that is inherent in writing a history text. What to include, who to leave out, what events were important – even the definition of what “important” is in this context – all of that has to be considered. Beyond that, there’s the overall slant of the text. In most history texts, I find that one group is almost universally portrayed as being “good,” while others who may actually do the same things, are portrayed as being either “bad” or at least the “them.”
I found a history book that I can actually give to the Moo with a reasonably clear conscious. Howard Zinn has written a history of the United States that takes care to not portray us as the benevolent benefactor. I don’t believe his goal is to vilify, either, but he does – to borrow a sports phrase – call ‘em as he sees ‘em. He has done a great deal of painstaking research to get the most truth that a person can find where history is concerned. Remember, history is often written by the victorious.
Mr. Zinn has written “A People’s History of the United States: 1492 – Present,” with an honest and refreshing voice. It’s not a dry, date-laden tome that you have to struggle to get through. Rather, it is an engaging and well researched book of our successes and failures as a nation. He quotes from the letters and journals of the historical figures in support of his prose, such as the writings of Christopher Columbus as he wrote in his journal about taking prisoners immediately upon his arrival in the New World (pg. 2). His chapter titles are often tongue-in-cheek, as evidenced by the title of Chapter 8 – “We take nothing by conquest, thank God.” What follows in this chapter is a retelling of the conquest of the western territories, and the vanquishing of many native American people as well as the Spanish and Mexicans.
The entire book is a refreshing and riveting telling of our history. Given the political climate of today, with the vitriol being directed at President Obama (for wanting everyone to have health care and pushing us into a socialist state), the on-going wars in the Middle East, and our economic situation I think we need a little reminder that we are not the saviors of the world. We are no better, and no worse, than any other aggressive nation in the history of the world.
This is a book that the Moo is going to have to read, and I’ll be right there re-reading it with him.
Netbooks and Homeschool Techies
Homeschooling can be a very expensive endeavor, or cost nothing at all. At a minimum, however, I think all homeschoolers need a computer or a laptop. For portability, nothing beats the new netbooks. They fit in a tote bag along with all my library books and my knitting, and I don’t need to have a standing appointment with the chiropractor after carrying it around. You can get a netbook for under $400, and some for under $200. The problem with them is that they almost all have Windows and a trial version of Office, which means you have to plunk out more cash. Here’s a possible solution for the cost conscious homeschooler, or anyone else that’s looking for a deal.
I have several computers – a couple desktops, a MacBook Pro, a Sony laptop, and a Dell 2100 netbook. I use them for different purposes and tend to experiment on them. For example, I recently installed Parallels on my MacBook because I use it at work and needed the Windows capabilities. The install went very well, although not intuitively, and I’m happy with the results. There is a learning curve, but I’m getting there. I’ve installed Windows 7 on one of the desktops (more on that later), and Ubuntu has resided on my Sony for a couple of years. I really like the Ubuntu, almost more than the Mac, and so I decided to try out their new distribution made for netbooks – Ubuntu Netbook Remix.
The first step was installation, which went really well. From downloading the distro to burning a CD (you can make a bootable USB drive and install that way as well) to the actual installation, it took 25 minutes.
Then I was logging in. I needed to add a network driver, but Ubuntu did the heavy lifting on that and it only took a couple more minutes. Ubuntu also found some updates that were necessary and installed those for me. I was up and running with all my productivity software already in place. It was much faster than Windows and with far fewer decisions to make.
Ubuntu comes with a lot of features out of the box that you don’t get with Windows. Open Office, an office productivity suite that includes a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation program (like PowerPoint). It also comes with integrated email and calendaring, an IM client, and even a note taking program called Tomboy. You can also sign up for a free Ubuntu One Cloud account.
Ubuntu One lets you store your files online and share them with anyone you wish. This is a great tool for homeschoolers, as they can work anywhere and still have access to their documents. Combine all this with a bookmark synchronizing software like Xmarks or BookmarkSync and you have everything you need to learn or work on the run.
Other Linux distributions for netbooks include Moblin 2.0, Crunchee, SLAX, Debian, Mandriva, and Puppy. There is also a new one called Jolicloud, which looks awesome, but is currently still in limited testing, but keep an eye out because I think this is going to be a great addition.
In the end, I’m very happy with by Ubuntu Remix Netbook setup. I did lose a little functionality, such as the touchpad gestures, but that’s not a big deal for me so I’m keeping Ubuntu.
Unschooling = Unparenting? Not.
Unschooling = Unparenting?
Good Morning America recently aired a segment on homeschooling with a focus on unschooling. I would have been embarrassed to put that out there, given the inaccuracies of the information provided. The show presented a family of unschoolers and seemed to focus on what they don’t do, rather than what they actually do. They have created a maelstrom of controversy that is now left to the homeschooling community to tamp down. The show presented unschooling, and by association homeschooling in general, in a very negative light. I hope I can ameliorate at least some of the misrepresented facts.
In order to understand unschooling, you need a grasp of the ways homeschoolers learn. For any group of homeschoolers, you’ll find just that many ways to educate your children at home. There are traditional school-at-home families, eclectic families who take their learning as it comes, and unschoolering families who see life as a learning tool. All homeschoolers, at some point, join homeschool groups to supplement individual efforts with group classes and outings, and provide social activities.
Traditional homeschooling is often viewed as school at home. A parent, usually Mom, sits her children down each morning for a couple of hours of textbooks and worksheets. Often a pre-packaged curriculum is used such as Laurel Springs or Connections Academy. Other times a parent will choose unit studies or choose individual components to create a custom curriculum. Some school districts allow homeschool students to take classes in the public schools or participate in school-sponsored sports. Most do not. The traditional homeschool family uses textbooks, tests, and portfolios to monitor and illustrate learning.
Unschooling is based on the belief that life is a learning experience. We begin learning as children, and will continue throughout our lives. Learning doesn’t just happen when a text book is open, or a worksheet is being completed. It happens when we cook, or shop, or play a game. It happens in the garden, the park, or the museum. It also happens when we take an evening walk and find a cool bug or plant to talk about and perhaps look up.
Let’s look at a typical day for a homeschooled child. This one uses an online curriculum. She doesn’t have to wait for the teacher and her peers to get ready to start. She just logs on and is ready to go. She tests out of a math unit and is automatically moved on to the next level. For English she researches a topic of her choosing, and writes out an essay. Along the way she comes across some difficult words, which she copies to her online notebook along with definitions. After spending another hour on some science and history, she logs off. It’s 10am. In the 1 ½ to 2 hours she’s spent on her school work, she has accomplished more than the traditionally schooled child accomplishes in two days. She goes outside to work in her vegetable garden, not that she considers it work. The garden is her source of income, since she sells the produce at the Farmer’s Market. There she learns market economics, bartering, and many life skills our traditionally schooled boy will probably not learn until he gets a job in high school.
The unschooled child’s life is not that different. The unschooler lives a somewhat less structured life, but still spends a great deal of time learning. Our unschooler gets up in the morning and has the usual chores to do – cleaning his room, personal hygiene, unloading the dishwasher, etc. Then it’s on to whatever the interest of the day is. In this case, it’s ancient civilizations. After spending time playing World of Warcraft, he developed an interest in mythology and ancient warfare. Reading books, blogs, magazines, and doing research both online and in the public library has given him a firm grasp not only on daily life in ancient times but an understanding of political systems that far outpaces his peers. The level of reading and comprehension required for the research is college level. Geometry was required for the construction of a trebuchet and a catapult. He’s participated in sometimes heated discussions on political ideologies with other kids his age as well as university professors and grad students. Our unschooler has, in the past two weeks of studying ancient civilizations and warfare, covered Ancient History, English, Reading Comprehension, Algebra, Geometry, Political Science, and some Sociology. He’s also spent a lot of time with his friends – both on- and off-line, gaming, bowling with the homeschool group, and visiting family.
This is hardly the picture of youth gone wild or parents declining to parent their children, as GMA has suggested.
Of course, these are fictional children. I have based these children on homeschoolers I know personally. Most of the homeschooled kids I know are very similar. Most do not use a pre-packaged curriculum. Almost all of them are eclectic homeschoolers who use whatever they find to learn. My son, who is unschooled, is very close to the child I reference above. His interest in WoW has piqued his imagination in ways I would never have foreseen. During the past presidential elections, for example, he and his guild friends spend at least as much time discussing the merits of each candidate as they did battle strategies. He was the one who informed me of election results as they came in – as the entire guild was watching and discussing the election returns as they happened. He knows more about the Electoral College than any adult I know. Far from having carte blanche on chores and personal hygiene, as the GMA segment implied, my son has as many, if not more, chores than the average child his age. He is more self-regulating than any of my other children (there are 5 others – all traditionally schooled), and I rarely have to ask him to turn off the TV or video games. I’m as likely to find him reading a book as gaming.
In all fairness, I know from personal experience that there are parents who don’t put limits on their children and call it radical unschooling. They would never tell their children what to do, or read, or assign chores. These are the minority. I don’t subscribe to the belief that children will do what is right and necessary all the time. They simply won’t. Not because they’re children, but because they’re human. Adults often fail to do what is necessary or correct, merely because no one asked them to or they were sure they wouldn’t be caught. Kids are not angels – they want what they want. I don’t agree that children shouldn’t be given chores to help around the house because “they didn’t ask to be born,” as one radical parenting proponent once explained to me. I don’t believe I should be a slave to my children. Every family member has an inherent responsibility to contribute to the greater good of that family. I also believe that many of the radical parents/unschoolers will change their minds on a lot of these ideas as their children get older. Most of them have young children. We’ve all made absolute statements either pre-child or when our children were very young. Most of us have revised those statements.
Just as homeschooling was judged in the early 1980s as a radical movement by religious fundamentalists, now unschooling is being judged as a similarly radical movement by parents who are opting out of society at large. According to the critics, our children will be social misfits and deviants, and will swell the welfare lines beyond hope. They’ll be illiterate and will never get into college.
Actually*, 50% of homeschoolers attend college; an equal percentage with public school graduated. They are similarly achieving equal scores on college entrance exams. Some studies show homeschoolers as exceeding public school educated students in entrance exams. Most studies show that homeschooled college students fair as well or slightly better than their public school counterparts. According to Michael Farris and Scott Woodruff in their article in the Peabody Journal of Education, homeschoolers have significantly better social skills than public or private schooled children. They also state that benefits of homeschooling are greater the longer a child is homeschooled.
Homeschooling is not just a fad that is undermining the educational welfare of our youth. It is an alternative to the inadequate public education system in this country. Homeschoolers are growing in numbers and have been shown to be at least equal, and often superior to public educated students. Unschooling is merely one method of educating our children, and one that is, in my opinion, much more compatible with life-long learning that any state sponsored option available to use today.
For a list of homeschooling resources and specific links for homeschool subjects, visit Indiana Homeschooling.
Click here to download the Farris/Woodruff article.
*Used specifically for my cousin, Chris, due to his love of the word!
Secular Thursdays
Yeah, I know. This blog is already all about secular. So it the website that goes with the blog. But in the never ending quest to bring secular enlightenment to the masses, I have joined the Secular Thursdays effort.
It’s an effort to educate people on the existence of secular homeschoolers, the need for sharing secular home school material, and a wish for more community among secular homeschoolers.
There are some sites devoted to secular homeschooling.
- http://www.secularhomeschool.com/content/1-the-front-page
- http://www.secular-homeschooling.com/
- http://www.letshomeschool.com/articles15.html
- http://www.atheistview.com/secular_homeschool.htm
These are just a few. Curriculum, at least for us, has been a pot-luck of sources. Check out my homeschool site for links to many of the places I use. I also use the public library, the Department of Parks and Rec, the local art museum, local civic theater groups, and – of course- the internet.
Send me your questions on secular homeschooling and I’ll be very happy to share what I’ve learned. Happy Thursday!
Library Days
When I was growing up, one of the rites of passage was getting my first library card. This was a Big Deal. I could check out my own books and was responsible for taking care of them. It was my job to make sure they got returned on time. I had to pay fines out of my own money if they were late. Even when we lived in a small town, there was a library available. I would wander up and down the stacks, touching the spines of the books. Each one had a whole life in it waiting to be discovered. If the author was good, and many were, I could live in that book as long as I was reading it. That world became my world. Putting a good book down was never an option. Many nights, I would wait until the house was dark and then out came the flashlight so I could go back to living on the farm with Black Beauty or be in the channel with Misty of Chincoteague. I could be on the island with Anne or sit in the parlor with Meg, Joe, Beth, and Amy as they presented “The Pilgrim’s Progress.”
The card catalog was my guide in those days. For some time, I was determined to read my way through to the end. I started at A. I don’t remember how far I got. My next attempt at Reading the Library was to pick a row and start reading the books from left to right, top to bottom. That, alas, didn’t work either. I’m a rather picky reader. I moved on to reading as much about a subject as I could. That make me something of an expert on many eclectic topics, and did nothing to ease my geek status at school. I discovered Harriet the Spy when I was in 5th grade. That book led me to rethink my “Living Through Literature” lifestyle. Don’t emulate fictional characters. It can go badly for you on the playground.
My own children received library cards as soon as they could sign their names. Most of the kids they knew never set foot in a library except on school field trips. Quite a few times I found myself helping a neighbor kid get a library card. Our weekly trips to the library were an outing to look forward to, and not just for the side trip to the park or the ice cream store. It was an hour of intense searching, gathering, and negotiating. The kids always knew (sort of) what they were looking for. I knew what I wanted them to get. The negotiations centered around a compromise on subject matter and the number of books they were allowed to take home. We rarely left the library with fewer than 30 books.
These days, there’s just one left at home – and he’s 15. Firmly entrenched in the grasp of the ever-entertaining world of the Internet, reading actual books is not one of his favorite pasttimes. When he does, it’s animé, game guides, or graphic novels (we used to call them comic books – but I digress). The few books he reads that are of substance are purchased, since the time it takes him to get through them would bankrupt us in late fees. At least he reads. I tried to interest my grandchildren in going to the library and reading, but not with good results to date. I have a plan, though. I am planning on changing my library day to Sunday afternoons, and taking them with me. We can do something after the library, as I did with their aunts and uncles. I’ll let you know how it works out. I’m cautiously optimistic.
Right now, I go to the library alone. I have uninterrupted time to wander the stacks. No longer can I linger over the card catalog, since it’s been replaced by an online catalog, but the stack are still there. I have the Internet to search out books to read. I can find “author’s similar to” whoever I like at the moment. I still find the experience calming and enriching, but it lacks some of the tactile pleasure of leafing through index cards. There was always some fortunate discovery to be made when I opened the wrong drawer and discovered something I never would have looked for otherwise. The library smells different, too. Probably due to the loss of the card catalog. It’s not so crowded, either. The only books I have to wait for are new releases, and then no more than a couple of weeks. I can reserve those through the online catalog, without even going to the library until it’s time to pick them up.
The only thing I dislike about the library now is the exclusivity. By this I mean the rule that you have to be a resident of the library district in order to borrow books. Over the years, so many libraries have closed that not every town even has a library. Towns without a library, such as the town I live in, are not eligible for the free lending of books. For a price a non-library district resident can purchase a library card, but that just seems wrong. That, to me, is putting a price on learning. If you wish to borrow materials from a library and you don’t have a library close by, the libraries will tell you to get a public library access card, or PLAC, which can be as much as $65 per year. While that may not seem like much to most of you reading this, for someone on a fixed income or a low income family, that is out of reach. Not only that, but many libraries in the state require you to be in good standing with your “home library.” If there is no library in your town or township, they won’t issue you a card. There are thousands of small, rural towns that are not served by a public library. In these times of economic hardship and educational unrest, that is criminal. The children (and adults) in the small towns across the US without a public library are inherently disadvantaged. We are looking for ways to address the inadequacies of the education system, and there already exists a proven solution. Now we need to give everyone access.
Short of consolidating all individual libraries into one large library district, an option which failed miserably due to politics and the usual looking-out-for-number-one mindset, making it possible for people to access at least some libraries is the next best alternative. Indiana has one such alternative, although its a voluntary participation endeavor. Individual libraries are not required to take part. That initiative is called Evergreen. Indiana residents can obtain a state issued library card and borrow materials from participating libraries. There are currently 58 libraries and institutions participating. While not a perfect solution, it’s a start. When all libraries in the state participate, and at least 50% of children have (and use) library cards regularly, I’ll call it a success.
I‘ve traveled the world twice over,
Met the famous; saints and sinners,
Poets and artists, kings and queens,
Old stars and hopeful beginners,
I’ve been where no-one’s been before,
Learned secrets from writers and cooks
All with one library ticket
To the wonderful world of books.
~ Anonymous ~
Democracy and Homeschooling
In my morning browse across the Internet, I was looking at Home school Buzz to see what was new in the world (of home schooling). The site features a changing set of daily links to interesting sites, articles, and blogs. Today, Home school Buzz had a link to an article on True/Slant by Michael Salmonowicz entitled "Why home schooling may harm our democracy." Mr. Salmonowicz is has been a teacher and is now an author writing on educational topics. He posits that home schooling will flood our colleges and public forums with people who have narrow and naive outlooks. He bases this partly on an article in the Washington Post describing the increase in Muslim home schooling families. His take on the article is that home schooled children are not exposed to "values, beliefs and world views different from their own." He goes on to say that he had an experience with a Christian homeshooler who wrote a sub-standard essay and wanted to drop the English class. There’s a lot to it, so read the article. Suffice it to say, he is lumping all homeschoolers into one basket and warns us that our democratic way of life is being threatened by home schooling.
Sadly, the situation he relies upon for his premise is – in itself – faulty. While many people home school for religious reasons, the number of secular homeschoolers is rising. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 38.4% of homeschoolers do so for religious reasons. 48.9% do so for a better education. The report was published in 2003, and has a wealth of data including motivations for home schooling, home schooling methods, and much more. The event Mr. Salmonowicz cites is more of an example of faulty home schooling than a failure to expose a child to multiple values and cultures.
I would ask the question, how does exposure to other values, beliefs, and world views differ between home schooled children and their peers in private schools? What about those in public schools? I wasn’t able to find any studies on that topic, but my experience has been that children in private, religious schools have very narrow views of any values and beliefs that are not espoused by their parents and teachers. In my part of the country, while the schools give a nod to separation of Church and State, the reality is that Christianity has permeated the school culture in ways that are too deep to expunge at this point. But that is a topic for a future article.
The question I raise is what is it we want? Do we want a nation of homogenous values and beliefs? I want my children to think for themselves. I don’t want them to accept, without question, the doctrine espoused by every politician out there. Politics are all about getting re-elected. Values are what we live by. Our beliefs are just that – our beliefs. Not the neighbors’, or the Mayor’s, or even the President’s. I am not Christian. I am not Republican. I believe that every human being has value, not just the ones who agree with me. I also have no need to listen to viewpoints that I find distressing or confrontational. I still believe in democracy. I don’t believe we’re doing that in the best possible way, but I still believe in it.
A school is a group of fish. Schooling is learning what we need to know to live productive lives. I certainly don’t want a public institution dictating the values my children should have. Faith is not an educational subject, and values are what we get from our parents. As adults, we (hopefully) hone and fine tune the values and beliefs we have, and grow as people.
In conclusion, let’s refresh the old memory on the definition of democracy. According to Merriam-Webster, democracy is a government by the people and the absence of hereditary or arbitrary class distinctions. Wikipedia goes into much more depth, defining and explaining democracy in depth. The basic premise, however, is that a democracy is a method of government that is accountable to those people being governed. Homeschoolers, while a great group of people, are probably not going to undermine that any time soon.
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Every Child Left Behind
One of the legacies of the Bush regime is the No Child Left Behind law. Bush touted it as being just the thing to get our kids educated and ready for life in the 21st century. What it has really done is made many kids really great at taking tests, and turned the schools into glorified testing centers. Kids spend most of their time learning only the items that are being tested, with no room for innovation or expansion on the topics at hand. According to a report at Great Schools web site, even advocates of the law say that “..it is a “one-size-fits-all” approach to education that overemphasizes testing and doesn’t provide enough money to schools to achieve success.” Everyone must learn the same thing in the same way at the same time in order to take the same test and make a minimum grade. Failure to do so results in penalties to the school, many of which are already strapped for funding.
Special needs children are guaranteed, under a separate law, an education that meets their needs. Schools are often forced to make a choice between meeting state standards overall, or complying with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act. Even kids who need only a minimum of assistance are frequently overlooked, or worse. My family’s own personal experience has been that a child who needs additional assistance is often denied it, or it is delayed as long as possible. My daughter was recently told by her son’s third-grade teacher that if she didn’t put him on meds so that he could concentrate without being reminded, he would fail third grade and the ISTEP test. Not acceptable.
It appears that President Obama may take on some of the issues with NCLB. While it is unlikely that he will eliminate the law, it appears that he will be making some significant changes to it. Obama is advocating additional funding to improve testing to include more than just basic skills. Math and reading are critical, but being able to use modern technology, find information when they need it, engage in problem solving, and debate ideas intelligently are also vital skills that are neglected under the current system. He also wants to change testing so that all students, including those with any special needs, are appropriately assessed.
So, how does this fit into my life? Aside from my grandchildren being in public school, which makes it personal for me, it illustrates to me the futility of public education. Even when the system is broken beyond hope of repair, the people involved in the system still try to fix it. Kids aren’t learning? Test them more. Not doing well on tests? Change the tests. Kid can’t sit still while doing really boring stuff for the twentieth time? Put him on meds.
I’m not the only one who has noticed this, as is evidenced by the millions of homeschooled kids in this country. One year ago, USA Today reported that 1.5 million kids were homeschooled in 2007. Those stats were already two years old. According to the HSLDA (Homeschool Legal Defense Association), there are an estimated 2.1 million homeschoolers today. Homeschoolers exceed the achievements of their traditionally schooled counterparts.
To be continued…
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