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Home Education Magazine
November-December 2003 - Articles and Columns
Publisher's Note - Helen Hegener
Where Will That Leave Us?
In December of 1983 - almost 20 years ago as I write this - Mark and I sat at our kitchen table and collated twenty pages of typing paper into the first issue of this magazine. We were very proud of our little fledgling publication with typewritten pages and hand-drawn illustrations. Over the years we have been honored to publish some of the best writers and the best writing on homeschooling. Although it has not always been easy or pleasant, HEM has not shied away from the toughest issues facing homeschoolers. Most importantly, we are proud that HEM has contributed to the understanding and encouragement of countless homeschooling parents. It's a good feeling to be a part of a magazine that has touched so many people's lives. And publishing it has affected our own lives in many ways as well.
Our son Michael is younger than this magazine. The earliest photos of him show a smiling newborn with computers and layout tables and parts of the issue we were working on when he was born in the background. Our family photo albums are full of pictures taken while en route to oversee the printing being done in Spokane or Seattle, hiking or picnicking along the way, visiting friends and family, returning home with ever-larger cases of finished magazines.
As our family has grown so too has our magazine. We have witnessed, and to a large degree chronicled, the growth of the homeschooling movement. What started as a handful of parents resisting the state mandate of compulsory school attendance for their children has grown into an increasingly complex multitude of reasons and methods and approaches to learning beyond the school system. That is how it should be.
With this issue we're initiating a new feature which takes a look at where homeschooling has been as a movement, in hopes that understanding what has gone before might help us better decide where to go from here. Patrick Farenga, President of Holt Associates, a nationally recognized writer, speaker, and education consultant, and a homeschooling father, authored the first piece in this retrospective series (see page 58). The perspective Patrick offers should encourage every reader of this magazine to carefully consider how current public education policies are affecting homeschooling.
What's that you ask? What do policies written and developed for public schools have to do with homeschooling - a private effort which (wonderful field trips notwithstanding) takes place in the home amongst one's own family?
Education in this country, both public and private, is going through a period of unprecedented change, and repercussions of that change are finding their way into the home. Technology has affected the face of education in ways that are only beginning to become apparent: online reference tools, homework assistance web sites, online courses, cyber-schools; the list grows and education policymakers wrestle with increasingly tough challenges as a result. Computers and the Internet seem to be moving the building blocks of learning out of brick and mortar schools and right into the comfort of one's own home. And as the mandates of a public school education move into the home, so too will the attendant testing and assessment, accountability and tracking - that's just how it works.
But testing and tracking are not the only things that will come through our doors. In April, 2003 the Milken Institute Global Conference was held in Los Angeles to discuss "the engines of economic growth" (milkeninstitute.org/gc2003/). At the conference website the summary of a panel discussion titled "K-12 Education: The Cornerstone of Our Future," we find the following paragraph,
"Future success will include both reform in the schools and reform in the home. New programs are being developed and tested to harness parental involvement that has waned in recent years. Panelists agreed that the parent is the first and most critical teacher a child will ever have. [William] Bennett commented that parents are the greatest resource possible; they are like 'unpaid adjunct faculty' whose engagement is crucial to future success."
Public school programs like the Independent Study Programs in California; IDEA, Alyeska and similar programs in Alaska; and alternative education in Washington state are not new. Homeschoolers have used them and their children have thrived. But time doesn't stand still for anyone; those days of innocence are past. The entry of these new vested interests - coupled with the politics of the day - should make every family yell out, "Bar the door!" because here comes "education," dragging along behind it accountability, policies and procedures, the reform seekers and the profit takers.
But what about those children who are already in the home, happily learning what they need to know? If the kids who just left school for the home are to be tested and assessed to be sure they're learning, why not test and assess those homeschooled kids at the same time? Will we be able to keep our freedoms if we just don't take public monies? It stands to reason that if you don't enroll in a public school program you have a better chance of maintaining your autonomy and independence.
Yet the lines between homeschooling and public schooling are being blurred and confused to the benefit of a variety of groups, organizations, individuals and business interests. Some say this is a good thing, especially now that the schools are moving out of the classrooms and into the home. We're told that what we're seeing is just the "natural evolution" of things, and advocates state that homeschoolers should reintegrate with the schools.
Others - this writer included - are accused of being "divisive" for pointing out that public schooling and homeschooling are different. Regardless of all the different things homeschooling can mean for individual families, public schooling will bring ever-increasing measures of conformity and accountability into the home.
In removing their children from the public school system, parents are exercising the right to direct what their children are taught, and they are thereby reaffirming the central place of family in all our lives. Of primary concern is the very real possibility that homeschooling might now become the very conduit for entry into our homes and personal lives, and that is a concern about which every family should be alarmed. If parents can not be trusted to mold and shape their children's learning, their thinking, their values - where will that leave us?
© 2003 Helen Hegener
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