The Chicago Sun Times article Doing Harry proud (June 3, 2007) is all about a muggle named Emerson Spartz who attends Notre Dame University and in his spare time, is working towards a major in business.

Emerson is the founder, owner and webmaster of wildly popular MuggleNet. One has to ask if he should be teaching a business class or two?

Along with teaching him about Harry Potter, the site, which runs at a profit, has taught him about running a business.

“I learn a lot of new stuff everyday,” he says. “I have to play a lot of different roles. Manager, journalist, organizing events, Web design. It can be tough, running a volunteer staff of 120.

“I created a monster,” he adds with a laugh.

When Emerson started the site, he could work from the family home, but now management of the site radiates from his dorm room. He has this short biography on MuggleNet:

A Little About Me: MuggleNet was born a month after I began homeschooling as a 12-year-old in the fall of 1999. I had too much time on my hands and I thought it would be fun to make a website. I had no idea what I was getting in to.

As MuggleNet was a fantastic idea and project….(struggling to keep the laptop on my lap as my son wants a reunion with the site and Funny Excerpts)….there is also a very timely publication out now. Emerson and his fellow Muggle.net compadres, Ben Schoen, Andy Gordon, Gretchen Stull and Jamie Lawrence have developed a book based on the July 21st release of Book 7, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Spartz’s book: In What Will Happen in Harry Potter 7: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Falls in Love and How Will the Adventure Finally End might be difficult to get your hands on. (But it’s in stock right now). From the Sun Times:

“The book actually wasn’t our idea,” Spartz says. “The publisher e-mailed us, just out of the blue. It has been selling incredibly. The first print run was 9,000 copies, and now there are 300,000 in print. It’s been far beyond all expectations.”

Posted by Susan Ryan

Home school kids learn socialization, 10 May 2007, Roanoke Times, Roanoke, Virginia If not exactly mainstream, home schooling has definitely come out of the closet. First-generation home schoolers — those whose parents were in the vanguard of the home schooling movement — are beginning to turn up everywhere.

One home school alumnus, for example, is a member of the Campbell County Board of Supervisors. Another is on the faculty of William and Mary. And droves of home-schooled students can be found on the nation’s college campuses, including Virginia Tech, where a home-schooled student sadly was among the victims on April 16.

Home schooling has many benefits, including the flexible scheduling that allows me to enjoy weekly lunches with my grandchildren, so it’s no wonder more and more parents are opting to make the sacrifices necessary to home school their children. But one significant benefit to home schooling, and one of the reasons many parents make the choice, may surprise you. It’s the socialization.

posted by Valerie

Today’s broadcast (Tuesday, April 24, 2007) of The Story (American Public Media) revisits unschooling, allowing Kate Walsh, former teacher and critic of unschooling, an opportunity to address her concerns about not sending children to school, in response to The Story’s original broadcast on unschooling (February 21, 2007) . Host Dick Gordon also invites Valerie Fitzenreiter, who unschooled her daughter Laurie Chancey and appeared on the original broadcast, to return to answer Wash’s criticisms. (Unschooled Laurie is now pursuing her PhD in sociology, without the benefit of GED or high school diploma).

Walsh’s criticisms of unschooling will be familiar to all homeschoolers, who’ve heard it all before. The Story’s website notes that she “was less than enthusiastic about the idea of unschooling”:

“How charming, for people who don’t need, or dismiss the aspect of, general education.”

Whether you are an unschooler, unschool-ish, or a homeschooler of any other stripe, both broadcasts — the original “School? Not” and “Unschooling Revisited” — are well worth listening to online.

You’ll also want to follow the links to Chancey’s website and Fitzenreiter’s book, The Unprocessed Child: Living Without School.

posted by Jeanne Faulconer

Grammy-winner John Legend rolls together homechooling, pop culture, and the newly emerging mainstream recognition that black families homeschool, too.

Frost Illustrated, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 17 April 2007, John Legend launches own version of ‘Home School’

Legend, who said his friend Will.I.Am has been in the lab with Estelle, adds that the name of his imprint is a tribute to a part of his childhood. “I was homeschooled as a kidmy parents taught me and my brothers at home for a while,” he explained. “The idea is having this home factory of making music, where there’s attention to detail and an authenticity, a soulfulness, to it. There’s an independent spirit to it. That’s the reason for the name.”

posted by Valerie

CSTV.com, New York, New York, 5 April 2007, NCAA rules delay important decisions

Another men’s tennis player, freshman Jack Seider, from Austin, has had to sit out this year as well in his first season at TCU because of a nuance about home schooling.

NCAA states a student must finish his or her high school education in eight semesters, with the exception of extenuating circumstances such as home schooling or finishing high school in good standing.

In Seider’s case, he transferred from a public school to home school for academic reasons and finished in good standing, Borelli said.

Borelli said Seider’s situation is an exception to the rule but appealing hasn’t been easy.

“One person made the decision he was ineligible, then we went to a NCAA committee and waited three weeks for them to reinforce that person’s decision – that was a waste of time,” Borelli said.

posted by Valerie

The Friar at Reason and Revelation caught my critique of one of his blog posts and appears to object to my neglect of fully fisking his original post, my conclusion, and my anti-defamation league comment*.

I guess I can rectify all that.

*(as to my seriousness, sir, the pajamas-with-feet that I proposed should be on the league crest ought to give you insight into that)

Reason and Revelation, Homeschooling 3

My statement was qualified stating that some were dissatisfied with the lackadaisical nature of the homeschool community in a certain town. The fact that they were does not decrease the value of homeschool. It only criticizes a certain aspect of homeschooling that exists in a particular place. The blogger does not even note this fact.

So noted.

What you may not have taken into account is that participation or non-participation in communal activities is not what makes homeschooling, and isn’t even a defining feature. Some families homeschool while sailing a boat around the world. Having a little help from your friends is useful, of course, but it isn’t something that can be guaranteed to anyone. It is not the obligation of one homeschooling family to provide whatever another family lacks any more that it is incumbent upon one neighbor to finance the house, raise the children, or mow the lawn of another, although if there is a need, neighbors often help out. But one doesn’t move into a neighborhood for those reasons. If one does, it is usually a commune. Much of the point of homeschooling is independence of action.

Also, over-organization can (but doesn’t always) badly affect a family’s homeschooling. The energy given to the group, especially a high-needs group with dues, meetings, committees, and co-operative teaching is subtracted from the energy available to the family in their daily lives. The entity’s needs becomes the focus instead of the family’s individual needs.

The kind of support to supply to group members is one of the key decisions the people who want to form a support group must hammer out at the beginning of the process.

• Is the group meant to be one that is informal, or formal?
• Will the group be a playgroup?
• Is a main focus field-trips?
• Will the group be mainly a social group — for the parents or for the kids?
• Does the group have forming a co-op as a goal?

Your writing leads me to the conclusion that you presume that only groups that are formal and supply significant support are worthwhile, something that the group in the Raleigh area apparently did not do. I presume that, because of this, you use the word “lackadaisical,” which is not generally known for its positive implications.

I homeschooled my children, usually without any local support. When I first started I was the only homeschooling parent I knew, and that condition persisted for almost four years. My only supports were two magazines, and many catalogs. At this time we were also living in the infamous Germany, which had yet to fully enter the public cyber-age, but our Commodore 64 wouldn’t have been able to do anything with an Internet connection even if we’d had one. Because of this, I had no online support although I read in my magazines about these mysterious things called “bulletin boards.” I could only imagine what they were. Finally, a group came together, but after two years or so, we moved (to the also-infamous Belgium). For the final two years of my children’s homeschooling I was again a loner. I was also of the unschoolish persuasion, so I used no prepared curriculum, and rarely asked for guidance.

By what I infer from your writing, our homeschooling would have been ineffective because of the lack of ‘support.’

Further the blogger does not address the critique (or vices) I raised, which was the point of my post.

(and now we revert to the post that caught my eye)

• But homeschooling is not a panacea. Not every student out of a homeschool environment is better off it seems to me. One private school, located in Raleigh, was founded because some homeschoolers were dissatisfied with the lackadaisical nature of many homeschools.

See my original reply, and above.

By the way, I have an aversion to referring to young people and children as “students.” That seems to place their entire lives solely in the context of schooling.

• The support system among homeschools was also lacking discipline.

See above.

• 1. Expectation: Some homeschool students that I have had the pleasure of teaching believe, upon arrival to a college (secular or otherwise) they deserve high grades, and when I mean high, I mean “A.” A “B” is like an “F” to them. They have usually gotten wonderful grades in their homeschool and they expect the same results. The reason for this is my next point.

Grades? Sorry, I didn’t ‘do’ grades, or assignments, or testing. John Holt was my guru, and GWS was my magazine (along with HEM).

• 2. Achievement/Smarts: Homeschool students usually believe they deserve all “A”s because they have been told (usually by their mother) for years that they are special, bright, smart, and will be successful. While well meaning, this is probably not the wisest thing mothers do for their children. It actually hampers them when they get out into the real world and have to deal with people who are not their mother.

Hmmm, just as I didn’t take into consideration that you were writing about a local lazy league of learners, so, too, you do not take into consideration that what you’ve written is meaningless in the context of unschooling.

The closest I can get to giving you an idea of our outlook is to quote some signs that I hand-lettered (I liked calligraphy), and that were hanging around for a while.

If you can’t be a good example, you’ll just have to be a horrible warning.

If you think you can, you can. If you think you can’t, you’re probably right.

Richard Maybury‘s Two Laws as enumerated in his book Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? (and others):

Do all you have agreed to do.

Do not encroach on others or their property.

Floss [under hand-drawn picture of the Cheshire Cat's grin]

As for the ‘real world,’ what world do you think we live in? Do you think the world of school is ‘real?’

• 3. Narcissism: Homeschool students who go to college find it unnerving when their professors do not lavish attention on them the way their homeschool teacher did. In fact, some are downright offended when a prof does not lavishly praise them, spend time with them, etc., as they are accustomed. After all–and I have heard this from numerous students: “my parents told me I am special, and thus, you should pay more attention to me.” This is reflective of a bit of narcissism, and it’s unhealthy.

The kids you know say, “and thus?” My.

[calling out in a fluting voice to daughter, who commented on the last blog post] Rose, darling! What was it that Sue-J. said to you at college? (arch aside to readers: Sue-J. was the professor urging her to go to grad school) Wasn’t it something along the line of she was glad you were homeschooled because she didn’t have to coddle you? And who was the teacher you student-taught with?

[I'll have to shout louder for the other daughter, as she doesn't look around much online] Cindy, dear! What was it your chemistry grad-student-teacher said about your homework? Wasn’t it how it was so much more fun to grade because of the (copyrighted-by-my-daughter) King Monkey cartoons explaining your work? Mummy got that right, didn’t she, dear?

The boys don’t read me, so it’s no use yelling for them.

I’m assuming, sir, that we are at an impasse as I can see your experiences-with-homeschoolers-in-college, and raise you two grads-with-honors, and one doctor. Our publicly-schooled son also graduated with honors, so either I did as well as the public school teachers, or they did as well as I.

• There is one thing I have seen from homeschool students in the college setting that does not bespeak of narcissism–the penchant for some to want to show up to class in their pajamas–so careless are they with their appearance.

Guilty as charged, she sez as she sits blogging in her pajamas. (t-shirt that says “Front” and “Bach” — with appropriate image –, orange, pink and green-striped britches from WalMart, and black-patent leather Birkenstock sandals) I’m formal today.

Working in pajamas, by the way, is ecologically sound. If there is no need to dirty a second set of clothing there is a decreased need for laundering (which, to my credit, I’m doing concurrently with blogging) and that saves on the Seventh Generation laundry detergent, the wear and tear on the machines, and provides a decrease in the use of electricity and water. If the ‘good clothes’ do not wear out as fast, they don’t need to be replaced as often, and, as mentioned in … Zoolander, was it?? where the reporter is chastised for asking questions-of-little-substance and then goes for the jugular, …. the textile industry is a source of significant environmental pollution.

• And I should add that my experience is anecdotal–that is I should state that the 3 vices above are not generalizable.

Ditto on my replies.

Now to return to the current post:

However, many parents do share resources and some in my example found that wanting. THAT was the motive for some to start a private school. Where’s the illogic in that account?

In itself, that is not illogical, but your argument drifts away from homeschooling and into alt.ed. This is the source of a lot of online discussion where ‘ideas from all over’ butt into each other: where does homeschooling stop and ‘something else’ begin?

Again, is it really that difficult to understand that some people try homeschool, and find it is not for them in one way or another? And then, resolve not to put their kids into public school, but put them into a private school. Sounds reasonable to me and other homeschool supporters who responded to the original post.

Founding a private school isn’t at all unreasonable, but it isn’t about homeschooling. It is about the personalities and needs of people who decided that homeschooling, with its inherent independence, didn’t fit them. This lack-of-fit isn’t a failing of homeschooling any more than not having a bat with which to hit the ball is a failing of football.

You are ascribing the founding of a school to a failure of homeschooling to meet the needs of these people who apparently ‘aren’t homeschoolers’ — which isn’t to blame them. I am not a rock-climber, or an airplane-flyer, or a person who enjoys buildings of over … say … 4-stories in height, so is this a failure of rock-climbing, flying, or skyscrapers? No. They haven’t failed. What’s more, I haven’t failed. I am just an ocean-swimmer, train-rider and ranch-house-liver, which leaves more room on the cliffs, in the airport waiting lines and in penthouses. Win-win, we’re all happy.

The school in Raleigh was founded because that is the framework these people needed. Founding a school is fine, maybe even wonderful. But you don’t have to blame homeschooling because independent home education didn’t meet their needs.

And that is where the illogic comes in: one thing doesn’t have anything to do with the other in the context you gave it: ie, the founding of a school by people who are ‘not homeschoolers’ (at their core — it’s just ‘not them’), because of homeschoolers whom you find to be insecure, narcissistic, and slovenly.

The blogger also does not mention the many positive statements I made about homeschooling (which I support–mine was not an attack on homeschooling).

Uh-huh.

Homeschooling is a viable and worthy alternative, but we ought to be aware of some of the natural(?) and potential pitfalls of such an endeavor. With the continued failure of many K-12 public schools, homeschooling should be considered. However, to avoid some of these pitfalls, it might be worthwhile to check out the private arena.

I think that’s called ‘damning with faint praise.’

posted by Valerie

Hagerstown Morning Herald, Hagerstown, Maryland, 23 December 2006, ‘The office stuff gets old’: Glaze would be first woman on department’s career staff

One of 10 cadets participating in the Hagerstown Fire Department’s training academy will be the first woman to join the department’s career staff.

Deanna Glaze, 23, was the first woman to pass the department’s physical agility test administered during the hiring process.

…

The former home-schooler still volunteers with the Maugansville department, where she encourages the 18- to 20-year-old female volunteers to pursue a career in fire service.

Monroe Courier, Monroe, Connecticut, 28 December 2006, Jason Meade knows the value of hard work

The 21-year-old Monroe native recently was invited into the “Who’s Who of American Universities and Colleges,” a listing of only the top 10 percent of all college graduates.

Meade, one of four seniors at Fairleigh Dickinson included in this year’s edition, is studying biology and chemistry at the New Jersey college, where he has a 3.86-grade-point average. In addition to serving as president of the school’s biology and chemistry clubs, he is an editor of “The Metro,” the school’s newspaper.

…

At school, Meade is an active brother of the Tau Kappa Epsilon (TKE) fraternity. He said that for him, the balance between school and social has always been easy. Being home schooled is the reason why, he said.

“You just have to know when to bite the bullet and do work,” he said. “You have to know your own strengths and weaknesses.”

Lisa Meade echoed these sentiments, explaining that her son has always been a self-starter. As his teacher, she said they had a strong bond built on trust and responsibility.

Although home schooling seemed daunting at first, Lisa Meade said it gave Jason the opportunity to really focus on the subjects he loved. She said it taught him to be organized and well balanced, both of which have helped him reach such a high academic standard in college.

posted by Valerie

Home Educator’s Family Times, Gray, Maine, 4 October 2006, What If YOU Had Been Homeschooled?

We are now seeing a new generation of homeschooling parents that were, themselves, homeschooled. This is certainly refreshing. For these, the path of home education is a natural, logical and thus, comfortable choice for them. Now embarking on the adventure with their own young children, they come prepared with valuable experience and are sometimes envied by their traditionally schooled peers.  But does walking the “homeschool experience” automatically guarantee immunity from the doubts that plague every parent? No.   …

Of course, it is still up to each of us to make the best choices we can, given life and its circumstances and to work steadily towards those dreams.  Your children will have to make choices, explore opportunities and work hard for their dreams.

She’s not news, and the homeschooling of their children ended some time ago, but while I was working on the previous post, I ‘spontaneously’ thought about Penny Barker while mulling over the time that has passed since the signing of the Convention of the Rights of the Child.  Penny was one of the first Home Education Magazine columnists who influenced me.

Just for a lark, I searched for her name, and voila.

The Country School Farm

An Ohio Resident Farm Summer Camp for Children Who Love Animals

Britt, the oldest Barker offspring, from the beginning took a lead in every aspect of the life of the farm. While the horses were her special interest, her knowledge of all things domestic made her Penny’s valued colleague in the kitchen and garden. Britt’s vocations, when not at the farm, are writing, painting and piano performance. She is married to Shaun, who apprenticed at the farm for four years.

Maggie has a lifetime of experience in working on the farm and with children. As a young child she began with a small flock of sheep. She trained Border Collies as sheepdogs which sparked an interest in dogsledding. During the ’90s she raced her Alaskan Huskies along the US-Canadian border. Simultaneously, she and her brothers became wilderness guides and for eight years ran canoe and mountaineering expeditions in the northern and western states. Maggie sold her kennel in 1998 and took up naturalist sculpting. She spent two years at the Florence Academy of Art and in Carrara, Italy studying marble sculpture. Her work with animals is currently with service and stock dogs. She and her husband, Fabricio, a chemist, currently reside at the farm.

Dan, at age nine, cared for the poultry, raising bantams and layers. Along the way he developed an interest in the cello and, ran dog teams and was a wilderness guide in the 90s. He is a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory of Music and has a Masters Degree in Cello Performance from Sacramento State University. When Dan is not assisting with the summer farm program, he lives in Sacramento, has a cello studio in Davis, and performs with various California and Nevada orchestras.

Jonah, the youngest Barker, is very much a child-of-the-summer-farm-experience and, in fact, was literally carried around by visitors as a baby. Jonah became skilled in every aspect of the farm and program. His technical know-how in the workshop as well as at the computer makes him the one to whom everyone turns for answers. When not at the farm, Jonah resides in Columbus.

What a beautiful picture at the web site.

After reading so many ‘thou shalt not’ admonitions in articles about homeschooling, just looking at the Barkers’ web site refreshes me.  I’ve ended my workday on a positive note.

Thanks again, Penny.

The following link is to an article giving an overview of homeschooling from a ‘civilian’ perspective complete with statistics, test scores and socialization.  Grown homeschoolers are mentioned, but ‘homeschooling’ is the article’s subject.

• The Bulletin, Bend, Oregon, 30 April 2006, Leaving home schooled [sic]: Living life after being home-schooled    

  There is no such thing as a typical homeschool experience. In fact, if there’s one thing that homeschoolers have in common, it’s their individuality. Parents approach home education in ways that are as unique as their reasons for opting to homeschool.