‘A down-home country girl,’ 24 July 2008, Grand Forks Herald, Grand Forks, North Dakota

While most everyone in northwestern Minnesota knows about the Hewitt Sisters act — which also included Lacey and 23-year-old Katrice at one time — not many know them well.

One reason is that the family lives 19 miles east of Lancaster in what once was rural Caribou, until Caribou disappeared. The area is as rugged as the now-defunct town name implies.

Another reason is that Kelli and Jim Hewitt’s 13 children, ranging in age from 3 to 27, were home-schooled. So, the family didn’t have the interaction with other families that come with shared school activities. It’s a mixed-race clan as three of their 13 children were adopted from Haiti, all joining the family before their third birthdays.

Grads get advice, 3 May 2008, The Monroe Evening News, Monroe, Michigan

College graduates, take heed: don’t drop the ball.

And make it your goal to help the people around you feel loved, respected and secure.

These were nuggets of advice from two speakers – Jeffrey Kodysh and Judith Bert – who were among the 180 graduates at the 41st annual commencement exercise held at Monroe County Community College Friday night.

…

Mr. Kodysh recalled how scared he was the first day he enrolled at the Whitman Center in Temperance. Coming from a homeschooled background in Toledo, he feared he might not be able to keep up with his peers. But when he got there, he followed his motto – don’t drop the ball – to work hard, to enjoy learning for itself and to step out of his comfort zone.

…

Just Thursday, Mr. Kodysh learned that he had received a $8,000 scholarship to attend the University of Toledo to study geology, said Sandy Kosmyna, director of the Whitman Center who introduced him.

My home-school days, 28 April 2008, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, California

When I tell people that I was home schooled, I frequently encounter an amalgam of awe, pity and curiosity. I can see the false images materializing behind their eyes — a childhood spent idling in front of the TV in my pajamas, or spent subject to the fanciful whims of a flighty New Age mom, or spent imprisoned by my parents’ ignorance and severity.

…

Home schooling’s successes remain obscured by suspicions, so it is worth repeating the argument that many, many home schoolers have made before me and that I have had to make too many times to count: The common myths about home schooling don’t stand up to empirical scrutiny.

…

Further, if home schooling’s critics are so concerned about indoctrination, then why aren’t they also worried about denying an alternative to the state’s absolute control of children’s education?

…

The shadowy home-school myths draw their power from a lack of visibility and dialogue. And so, though I can speak only to my singular experience, I feel an irrepressible impulse to attest to what I would have lost had California’s dreadful home-schooling laws applied in Texas when I was a kid.

…

My parents, in home schooling me, showed me to my own freedom. Thankfully, unlike the parents of 166,000 children in California, they didn’t have to fear being prosecuted for it.

Stefan Merrill Block, the author of The Story of Forgetting, was home schooled in Plano, Texas.

Homeschooling an option, 29 April 2008, The Justice — The Independent Student Newspaper of Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts

There are many ways people homeschool and many types of homeschooling. While there are homeschooling environments that imitate regular schools with strict schedules, in which the parent teaches a set curriculum to his or her children, there also exists a homeschooling method, unschooling, in which children decide what to learn and when to learn it. Unschooling focuses on the learning and education of the individual rather than pushing a curriculum on the children.

…

Homeschooling is becoming more popular today due to bad experiences with traditional schools or just because parents think it’s an excellent option for learning. From my experiences I agree with this assessment and would not want to give my future child anything but the best education, which, in my opinion, is homeschooling.

The kids must be doing OK.  Colleges want them.

Colleges in Missouri are recruiting home-schooled students, 6 April 2008, Columbia Missourian, Columbia, Missouri

Home schooling in the U.S. has begun to catch the eye of universities nationwide. In the past 10 years, the number of children home schooled has increased from an estimated 850,000 to nearly 2 million.

Many are bright, well educated and well socialized, and universities are courting them more rigorously every year.

…

Columbia College hosts seminars to encourage home-schooled students to consider a university education and get a feel for what college life is like.

“I think the trend is growing to recruit this demographic,” said Kathy Monnig, admissions counselor and home-school liaison at Columbia College.

…

MU also actively recruits home-schooled students.

“Mizzou averages 10 home-schooled students a year,” said Adam Barklage, an admissions representative at MU. …

Home-schooled students typically come to college with the ability to be independent in their studies, and they’re motivated to learn, Monnig said. “They generally test above the national average on the ACT.”

…

“There are no home-schooled students at Columbia College that haven’t excelled,” Monnig said. “They are all really involved, and most are on the dean’s list.”

The article includes the Usual Sly Digs At Homeschoolers In The Name of Objectivity, but they don’t outweigh the positive comments from the ‘objective evaluators.’

As the mother of an MU alumna, I must add MizzouRah!

Learning away from home:  Home-schoolers adjust to UT, 14 April 2008, UT The Daily Texan, Austin, Texas

As a home-schooled student, Thomas enjoyed the flexibility that came with learning. Early on, school was more like a field trip with visits to museums. As Thomas progressed in her studies, reading, writing and math assignments came from workbooks that could be adjusted if the material was too easy or too difficult. Vacations to destinations like Italy, Spain, Mexico and Australia complemented conventional curriculum as well. …

“The main problem [with being home-schooled] introduced for me is because my background is more open and flexible, I’m not desensitized to having to deal with bureaucratic aspects of a school like this,” she said.

Large science classes for non-majors are not made to entice students to learn, but rather taught as a requirement, Halpin said.

“High school students think of teachers as the enemy, and they carry that over,” Thomas said. “They were never forced upon me.”

Thomas said she has learned from students that they are bored with the typical high school experience, and that is something she notices now during her classes as well.

“I’m looking down the sea of computers at people playing games on MySpace while the teacher is talking, and I can’t fathom that. High school sets people up wrong,” she said. …

Did home schooling, 31 March 2008, The Times of Trenton, Trenton, New Jersey

As a home-schooled student, Buckley, my guess is, had lots of practice answering and asking questions. That is the hallmark of good tutoring. Most teachers acknowledge that good tutors can take a student farther, faster and provide a greater depth of knowledge than can the traditional classroom. That is why many of the best schools try to offer some tutoring or individual attention when needed. Tutoring may be part of regular instruction or may occur at special times during the day or be fore and after school.

The kind of home-school education Buckley received was likely dynamic and interactive. Classrooms, such as science labs, initially pair or group students so that equipment could be shared. Test results show that students benefit from this interaction. Buckley’s home education was broad as well as deep, creating a person of many interests. Besides his superb communication and people skills, he became a popular mystery writer and a self-taught navigator who sailed across two oceans with his son.

   

Homeschooling: A senior’s perspective, 25 March 2008, Cary News, Cary, North Carolina

Ten years ago I joined the ranks of those who are educated at home. Rather than walking to the bus stop each morning my commute involves taking a few steps from one room in my house to the room designated the “school room.” I am now a senior in my last few months of homeschooling.

Homeschooling has allowed me to be taught by teachers from all over the country.

…

The flexibility of homeschooling provides students to pursue opportunities for unconventional learning. Take, for example, the way in which I studied business. When Mountain Aires, a traditional music band of which I am a member, decided to produce an album, I diverged from my usual schooling to research what we needed to legally sell our product.

Through research we learned that to sell our product we had to form a business. After this discovery I met with a business consultant, a copyright lawyer and an accountant. When we had learned the pros and cons of each type of business, the band finally voted to form a limited liability corporation.

…

Many people have asked me what it will be like graduating from a homeschool. My graduation experience will not differ much from that of other seniors. In a cap-and-gown ceremony hosted by a local homeschool group, I will graduate with about 20 other students from our area who have also been educated at home.

  

Innovative teaching using puppies and chewing gum, 20 November 2007, Tuscaloosa News, Tuscaloosa, Alabama

It may be that Rook’s unconventional methods and her approach to learning came from her experience as a student, growing up in a home school environment. With the exception of one year in high school, her mother schooled the now public schoolteacher at home.

Home schooling methods vary but by and large they tend to incorporate holistic practices that bring several different disciplines together in one lesson or project. They also tend to incorporate the unconventional methods not readily found in the classroom. Perhaps the best example of this is The Wren Project.

Wren is the puppy that will eventually be trained to become a guide dog for a blind person. Rook had conceived of the project last year when she worked for another school district. That district wasn’t interested in allowing her to bring a dog into the classroom so when she moved on to Chowan, the project was a good fit with the school’s desire to broaden its approach to education.

posted by Valerie

Harvard for the Home-Schooled, Christian crowd, 17 November 2007, National Public Radio (NPR)

Hanna Rosin, a journalist who has covered religion and politics for The Washington Post and written for The New Republic, GQ and The New York Times got to know Patrick Henry’s students even housing some of them who were on internships. Her new book, God’s Harvard: A Christian College on a Mission to Save America, follows the lives of students as they cope with college life.

Scott Simon spoke with Rosin and Daniel Noa, a Patrick Henry alum, about how home schooling and Patrick Henry shapes students.

The interview proceeds in typical fashion, with an untypical (if you don’t know homeschoolers) result.

Other blog posts about Hanna Rosin’s book are at:

• Another interview with author of ‘God’s Harvard’
• Political Fundamentals
• Homeschooling, the New Yorker, and The Daily Show

posted by Valerie