The following article is mostly ‘about’ homeschooling, but with an emphasis on co-ops. Starting a co-op can be a fun thing to do, but unfortunately (to a degree), with our current model of oversight of public activities, the proliferation of such groups might lead to the requirement that they be controlled. Think of the licensing of hairdressers, manicurists, and restaurants, activities that are unregulated when done in-family, but require certification and inspections when involving members of the public.
Cortez Journal, Cortez, Colorado, 5 January 2006, Youths learn ABCs at homeschool: Cooperative gives alternative education for families
The Pogue family belongs to a homeschool cooperative, which held its end-of-unit program Saturday, Dec. 16. About 10 families and 22 children participated in the speeches, overhead projector and tape recorder presentations, piano pieces and poetry recitings.
One mother who homeschools her kids decided it would be good for them to work with other students in the neighborhood to build teamworking skills. She contacted other families who homeschool, and they set up one day a week when everyone could get together and work on a mutually determined unit subject. Judging by the Saturday presentation, her theory was proving successful.
I’ll admit that years of reading homeschooling articles in which the reporter includes a variation on the warning that “there is no oversight of X” has given me somewhat of a wet-blanket outlook when it comes to the expansion of homeschooling. Consider this report from last August about a “PE program” for homeschooled kids: “Even though most states require home schooled kids to follow academic standards, many don’t have PE requirements.” I’ve turned into a bit of an Eeyore when it comes to squinting at news reports to divine what the words really mean.
Concerning co-ops, it isn’t so much that the new permutations of parents actively raising children with an eye to education and becoming inventive in how they structure this pursuit of knowledge are ‘wrong,’ as it is that we live in a society whose general outlook is that most things need regulating. The further we get from a family activity, the more reason there seems to be for some kind of oversight. Regulation — either official or unofficial — follows popular use and organization, not the other way around.
It is natural for people with common interests to get together to learn things. One has only to think of the lovely painting from the 1700s A Philosopher Giving a Lecture on the Orrery. Given the current climate for oversight of ‘education,’ I hope that the trend towards co-ops and other group activities doesn’t return the general perception of home education to ‘organized+oversight+regulation,’ such as is happening in Georgia.
The Link Homeschool Newspaper, Westlake Village, California, Guarding Our Birthright – the Question of Accreditation
Are we homeschoolers guilty of doing the same? Are we trading our birthright, the right to control and direct the education of our children, for a bowl of soup? How about for a computer, or some free curriculum, or some gambling money to send our kids to college? As I travel the country, in state after state I see the same thing happening, in slightly different guises. The older homeschoolers, those who fought for the freedoms we now enjoy, are starting to fade from the scene. The newer homeschoolers, in many cases, don’t fully understand the fight that was waged to secure their current freedoms. In some states, like California, they are being enticed by government programs, private school status, or charter schools. However, I’ll let someone from California discuss that some day. For now, I’d like to share with you the story of how the homeschoolers of Georgia (where I live) are giving away their freedom, one chunk at a time.
But back to the article from Colorado. Put aside my Eeyore-ness and give the article a look. It’s a happy one, and I’m glad the families are having a good time.
posted by Valerie
HEM
Helen
Tracy
mark
marynix
ann-lahrson-fisher
valerie
sandi
david
Learning clubs, learning clubs, learning clubs!
Sidestep regulation from the get-go!
Homeschooling groups should resist the temptation to model themselves after schools even in name. (been there learned that lesson) Avoid using the word school and the implications that are associated with the term you DO use should follow your group. For example, clubs are not regulated but schools are, so call your group a club, not a school.
Homeschooling groups would be wise to call themselves clubs – or societies or networks or whatever other term conjures up a bunch of citizens gathering for their own purposes, educational or recreational or whatever. Groups don’t have to do much to establish a track record as a club, and doing so puts them in the company of kindly folks with passionate hobbies, and that is a good place to be.
Stepping down.
Please, Ann, don’t step down. The ‘club’ thought crossed my mind, but didn’t quite make it out into public. I appreciate the follow-up, especially from someone who’s ‘been there and done that.’
My own model for … heck, I don’t know what to call it, ‘full living?’ ‘educational living?’ ‘fly, be free?’ … is what I saw in Europe with local community organizations. I was reminded of it yesterday when searching for a web reference to the Giants of Ath in Belgium to illustrate my impression of a Three Kings procession at church:
http://happy_as_kings.typepad.com/happy_as_kings/2007/01/three_kings_day_1.html
We lived close to Ath (pronounced ‘aht’) when we were in Belgium, and so yesterday when the “kings” paraded down down the nave, it was all I could do to stop from clapping and laughing at the resemblance to the Giants I’d seen years before.
While I was looking for a ‘good’ link to illustrate the Giants, I saw another YouTube clip featuring a Giant:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrZpL9PzvJY&mode=related&search=
Note the mix of ages in the drummers — kids to adults. These societies often include all ages, so that the adults mentor the children. In some organizations, participation in activities such as these are passed down from parent to child and are considered part of the family heritage.
I understand that the United States has a shorter history than Europe, so many of our activities aren’t as deeply rooted in ‘heritage,’ other than perhaps in the Native American, Spanish-American, or oldest European-American communities on the east coast. Instead, we seem to invest our energies in child-centered activities ‘sponsored’ by grownups. As we grow up, though — and for individuals– these things fade as we ‘age out’ of them, as if the activities are no longer worth our time and we have to change to ‘adult’ activities, mostly of the work or shopping variety.
So many U.S. child activities are school-centered, and are always touted as ‘educational’ as if ‘education’ is separate from living. The European model shows us that these activities can include all ages, and that they can enrich our life throughout the year. There is more to life than spectator sports and shopping.
Yes, there are many clubs in the U.S., it isn’t that we’re culturally void, but the activities seem to be divided into adult clubs or clubs for children. Either that or they’re businesses run by adults for kids. The children often don’t see the grownups _doing_ the activities that are said to be so ‘valuable’ for whatever skills are needed in doing the activity. Everything’s ‘training,’ and little is continued ‘doing.’ In the everyday scheme of things, I’ve come across only one mixed-group activity recently, and that was a ‘march’ for breast cancer which we spied one Sunday along a major thoroughfare. Otherwise, it seems that the school-model of age-separation for our group activities is continued.
Imagine something such as the ‘French club’ not being school-connected but rooted in the community, with continuing activities year after year, and led by people who know how to get things done, and have made the time for doing so out of a passion for doing things French. “The ‘Smithville’ French Club” could have regular meetings featuring a different small buffet each time from various areas of France (volunteers would sign up to do this for the refreshments). French holidays could be celebrated with the grownups working on their own materials and modeling behavior & instruction for the children. When the town of ‘Smithville’ had parades (4th of July?), members of the French Club would be ‘Lafayette and Friends’ and march in costume in the parade (costume-making being an ongoing activity through the year because of the labor involved). French Club members who were also members of the ‘Smithville’ Stamp Collector Consortium could occasionally display historic French stamps for both clubs, illustrating whatever it is that interests them.
‘Education’ doesn’t belong only to schools and isn’t only for children and young people, it belongs to everyone and can enrich our lives for a long time. ‘We’ can do this, but we have to be willing to use models other than that presented by the age-graded bureaucratic model with which we’re so familiar — and to take the time to do it.