A military homeschooler’s viewpoint was published in northern Virginia’s Belvoir Eagle. Rebecka McDowell of Belvoir Home Educators Group began with a worthwhile reminder .

Home School viable option for parents, students

They are out there.

If you see a child out of school on Fort Belvoir, they may not be new to the community or on their way to a doctor’s appointment. They may simply be schooled at home.

Sometimes folks spot homeschooled kids out and about during the day and the thought is they should be in school.  Homeschoolers might not be “in school”, but they are getting a dandy education in their community via libraries, museums, mentors, jobs, parks or just plain socializing in their neighborhood.

Rebecka went on to explain the usefulness of homeschooling for military families.  

A desire for constants, during permanent change of station season, deployments, and other various upheavals, tops the list of motivating factors. Having the same teacher, same curriculum, and the familiarity of certain creature comforts only home can provide is a major advantage to the demographic.

Our military families have enough to worry about, so it’s wonderful they can take advantage.

You might also be interested in a useful military resource – Military Homeschoolers. It was painstakingly created by Valerie Bonham Moon.

The Air Force Times features an article on homeschooling by staff writer Jon R. Anderson, titled the ABCs of Home Schooling:

Experts estimate there are 2 million home-schoolers, with their numbers growing as much as 12 percent annually in recent years. And there is data to indicate that military families are home schooling at perhaps twice the national average.

That doesn’t surprise the Rexfords, who have been home schooling for 10 years. “Home schooling fits the military lifestyle very well,” James Rexford says. “When you move, the school goes with you. When you have time off, the kids can take time off with you.”

Former News & Commentary editor and Home Education Magazine columnist Valerie Moon, who runs the website The Military Homeschooler, remembers when the brass in Europe tried to forbid homeschooling, but adds, “That’s all gone now, the military has become very supportive.”

A sidebar highlights support resources for military homeschooling families, and explains how writer Jon R. Anderson’s family got into homeschooling: “My gut tightened when my wife first floated the idea of home schooling six months ago.”

The Military Times Media Group has been the premiere source for military news and information for the military and government sectors for over 60 years.

Summer breaks are different for home school families The News-Enterprise

By KELLY R. CANTRALL

Ingalls began home schooling her children because of her husband’s job in the military, which necessitated several moves for the family, she said. The accommodating nature of home schooling made the moves easier, including this past school year, when the Ingalls thought they would be moving again.

Because of the planned move, they started school early — at the end of July — to prepare for the break in school the family would have while moving. Because the move, and subsequent break, did not happen, school for them finished at the end of May, Ingalls said.

Other families follow the local public school schedule:

Marsha Elliott and her two daughters, Mary Kate and Abi, follow the Hardin County Schools’ schedule fairly closely, because the Allegro Dance Theatre, of which Mary Kate and Abi are a part, follows it in its scheduling.

But like the Graveses, their summer break isn’t completely school-free. Both girls continue studying math throughout the summer, as that is the hardest subject for them and they need more time to grasp the concepts, Elliott said.

“I like that both of my children can work at their own pace,” she said.

Many homeschoolers are on the watch for back door legislation or other attempts to limit our families’ freedoms. “Universal” anything often gives us a heads up. Politicians discuss the potential advantages. Interested lobbyists look to see what they can get out of the deal.
HSLDA (a homeschool member financed organization) often warns of government policies sneaking in that will affect homeschoolers’ rights and liberties. This Virginia based group seems to understand these efforts so well. They themselves often use the practice out and about our country’s Capitol.

It’s been recently discovered that the Home School Legal Defense Association slipped in their business plan directing any military career interested homeschoolers to their site. Again.

Valerie Bonham Moon (The Military Homeschooler) posted this in 2006: The Army Recruiting Command changed its homeschool URL

Currently, and from the NATIONALGUARD.com Homeschool Eligibility Requirements

Current military policy requires homeschool graduates to be treated just like any other high school grad. In January, 2006 President Bush signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act that requires all four branches of the Armed Forces to institute a uniform recruitment policy for homeschool graduates that includes an exemption for homeschool graduates from any requirement to have a secondary school diploma or a GED.

*Links on this site do not constitute an endorsement by the Army National Guard

If the National Guard inserts a HSLDA logo and a link to the interested party’s site, I would say that is an engaged endorsement. You must click over to the HSLDA site to read the National Guard eligibility requirements.

These particular homeschool eligibility requirements don’t feel like a warm and fuzzy exemption. Rather, it seems like a Graham Badman produced nightmare, as in his Recommendation #4 calling for a representative opinion“. (I think GB forgot to consult home educators/parents for input about the well being of homeschooled children.) If you wonder why I bring up the Badman Report, I’ll mention that HSLDA is using that British Report to the Secretary of State on the Review of Elective Home Education in England for another Parental Rights Amendment trumpet call. One of their arguments is that: The Badman report is a stark reminder of how government officials in an English-speaking democracy have interpreted the UNCRC. It’s clear that the right to homeschool in America will be negatively impacted if the U.S. Senate ever ratifies the UNCRC.

Some other thoughts are here about the Parental Rights Amendment:

Taking Charge – Larry and Susan Kaseman
Yes – Parental Rights No – Constitutional Amendment

But back to the current iron in the fire.  Maybe I don’t understand all of the bureaucratic gobbledygook on the HSLDA site regarding National Guard eligibility. But looking at these requirements, if my children wanted to join the National Guard, we would be jumping through hoops that were not there before HSLDA involvement.

Why is HSLDA interested?

Apparently the interest stems from the potential business offerings. Just as in the HSLDA written, federal legislation introduced in 2005 (109th Congress HR 3753/S 1691). Here’s that pertinent federal legislative documentation illustrated under Section 10 Sec. 503a. Recruitment and enlistment of home-schooled students:

(5) The graduate has provided the Secretary concerned with a third-party verification letter of the graduate’s home-school status by the Home School Legal Defense Association or a State or county home-school association or organization.’.

There’s that third party verification of homeschool status again, just as in the eligibility requirements for the National Guard Homeschool Path to Honor. National Guard Requirements: “A homeschool diploma and transcript from the parent(s) or guardian(s) accompanied by a third party verification memorandum.”

My family (and many others) would have to join a homeschool support group and seek their approval of our eclectic educational resources and successes. In the eligibility requirements, HSLDA points applicants to their listing of homeschool associations that are selective, Christian based support groups that do not encompass all of the very diverse homeschooling population.

What homeschooling organization would lobby for third party verification of a family’s learning successes while publicly proclaiming that they support limited government? What sort of homeschool group would narrow homeschoolers’ boundaries into adult ventures? Does HSLDA lobby for homeschoolers or for new business?

More information and history about this issue is provided from Happy As Kings‘ National Guard and HSLDA:

The National Guard entry requirements for homeschoolers must be re-written without preference given to HSLDA, and the requirements must not be primarily hosted at an off-site page from the National Guard site.

Contact information.

Three Ways to Homeschool and Why Families Homeschool

These are nice reports featuring homeschooling families, which is a turnaround from the 2003 CBS series, “A Dark Side to Homeschooling.”

We’ve come a long way, baby?

posted by Valerie

A couple of years ago during the discussions surrounding Section 10 of the HR 3753/S 1691 legislation (the Homeschool Non-Discrimination Act of 2005), I found out that participation in the Junior ROTC program increased the likelihood that any recruit would complete the first term of enlistment. For the sakes of the homeschooled graduates who want to enlist in the Army, I’m pleased to see that a JROTC program that accepts homeschooled teens has begun in Georgia.

Home schoolers’ JROTC unit an Army first, 29 November 2007, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta, Georgia

Beckett and her older sister, Christina, couldn’t be happier to be part of the nearly 50-cadet-strong unit affiliated with King’s Academy, a private Christian school in Woodstock that offers home schooled students two days of on-campus classes.

Their National Defense Cadet Corps JROTC unit received its commission from the U.S. Department of Defense earlier this year and started classes in August, according to Tony Proulx, a JROTC program manager based at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah. Proulx confirmed the academy’s home schooled unit as an Army first.

posted by Valerie

Peggy Daly Masternak, a long time homeschool activist recently sent along an article, Public school students’ data available to anybody from the Toledo Blade by By IGNAZIO MESSINA/

It starts out by saying that:

If your children are in a public school, their names, addresses, phone numbers, and grade levels are all on a list.

And unless you say so, anybody not just the military can get a copy.

A review of those who have asked for a copy of the Toledo Public Schools’ student database, either in its entirety or only for certain neighborhoods, finds charter school companies, for-profit tutoring services, the Catholic Diocese, out-of-town law firms, and at least two community activists.

Farther down it reads:

Without consent

But the same law says, “Schools may disclose, without consent, directory information such as a student’s name, address, telephone number, date and place of birth, honors and awards, and dates of attendance. However, schools must tell parents and eligible students about directory information and allow parents and eligible students a reasonable amount of time to request that the school not disclose directory information about them.”

The people and companies that have requested TPS student lists during the last two years include:

• U.S. Army Recruiting station, 4925 Jackman Rd. and 530 South Reynolds Rd.
• Navy Recruiting District Ohio in Columbus.
• Toledo Catholic Diocese.
• Lagrange Village Council.
• Alliance Academy of Toledo charter school, 1501 Monroe St.
• Star Academy charter school, 3700 Dorr St.
• McDonaldald’s, 1520 Cherry St.
• OPOK Inc., an Indiana-based company.
• St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center Positive Choices program.
• University of Toledo’s Upward Bound youth program.
• Scholars for the 21st Century, a local for-profit tutoring company.
• Twila Page, African-American Parents Association.
• Nicola, Gudbranson & Cooper LLC, a law firm in Cleveland, in May requested the 2006-07 student list along with the date and place of birth for all students. A lawyer for the firm could not be reached for comment.
• Melvin Baker, who was listed as the contact for the Scholars for the 21st Century on its written public records request, refused to answer questions about his Oct. 1 request for the names, addresses, and phone numbers of all students at Nathan Hale and Lincoln elementary schools and Samuel M. Jones at Gunckel Park Middle School.
• Kathy White, principal of Blessed Sacrament Catholic School on Castlewood Drive, said she requested the names and addresses of children at Longfellow Elementary so she could send them letters marketing the parochial school.

Peggy Daly-Masternak, a resident of West Toledo who is co-chairman of the Student and Family Rights and Privacy Committee, said public school districts violate state law by releasing directory information to for-profit companies.

According to the Ohio Revised Code: “No person shall release, or permit access to, the directory information concerning any students attending a public school to any person or group for use in a profit-making plan or activity.”

Some might feel this does not affect homeschoolers, but I know that when the for-profit charters were targeting us in the state of Ohio, more than one district superintendent said they felt they had to release homeschool contact information to these companies.

The question of the day seems to be how do we live in this world of technology without having our privacy compromised? With so many reports of data being accidentally lost, is it any wonder that we want to avoid the growing trend for data gathering? The U.K.’s Carlotta at Dare to Know has a link to a Children’s Database Petition to abandon plans to create a children’s database (aka: Information Sharing Index and ContactPoint). Seems like we should be doing that and then some here in the U.S. where there are far too many bits of proposed legislation that pop up at the THOMAS site for the word/phrase search for “student data.”

Here are some resources regarding privacy and data gathering:

Homeschooling Perspectives on Privacy Issues by Larry and Susan Kaseman was published in the March-April 1995 issue of Home Education Magazine.

They wrote:

Concerns about protecting privacy are increasing, especially because computer technology is making possible the storage and dissemination of so much data about ordinary people, not just the rich and famous. As homeschoolers, we are in a unique position. Our homeschooling gives us a special label and visibility in many databases. Some “educational technology” being marketed to homeschoolers threatens privacy. But at the same time, our unique perspective on society allows us to clearly see and readily question some of the developments that are taking place whose problems may not be as readily apparent to others.

This column will consider some privacy issues from a homeschooling perspective and suggest actions that homeschoolers may decide to take.

Practical Ways to Claim Responsibility for Our Homeschools

We can minimize the information that public officials have about our homeschools by refusing to participate in surveys that are not required by statute and by getting out of data bases or ensuring that the information about our families is “locked” so that it cannot be distributed. We can minimize the damage that is done by information the government already has by obtaining records from time our children spent in public school before we began homeschooling and by using open records laws to find out what information the government has. When we do these things, we confirm for ourselves and show others that we have responsibility for our homeschools and are living up to that responsibility.

Maine Education Data Management System

Be aware that if your homeschooled child DOES participate in courses at the public school through the homeschool public school access law (full text of law), then he or she WILL become part of the state database of all public school students, called “MEDMS” (Maine Education Data Management System).

This database is extensive, computerized, and contains all kinds of (somewhat personal plus some demographic) information about the child, including assessment information. Each child is given a unique identifier, so that even if the child moves to another state and then moves back to Maine, the electronic records can be retrieved and continued once they move back.

MEDMS allows and requires schools to enter assessment data, a victims of the safe and drug-free schools law as well as student and staff offenders.

Kidtrax

Michigan homeschooling thrives in Kalamazoo, but doubts about the “practice” linger

The Independent Homeschooler by Mary McCarthy

Posted by Mary

In Kansas City, a family built a memorial to all the troops killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The memorial is made of one flag for each servicemember, and the display is impressive. Just before Veterans Day, vandals smashed many of the flags. I was saddened to read in the newspaper about the vandalization as I purposely go by this display when I have to drive ‘up north.’ It’s interesting to me to find out that the family that maintains the display, homeschool.

Vandals Destroy Flag Memorial, 14 November 2007, KCUR, Kansas City, Missouri

Anne Bender: “People just pulling in the driveway who were upset about the vandalism and wanting to help, some here on Sunday, left names and phone numbers, said call us, some kids from our Home School group, and a few veterans. But the vets worked so hard last week, its’ just such a shame.

Quin Brady and a group of his friends were on and off their knees, digging and measuring, enjoying the beautiful day. The handsome 15 year old is part of the same home schooling group as the Benders kids. He says home schoolers find their curriculum in the real world, and in this experience there are lessons.

Photos of the display and the vandalism

posted by Valerie

While cleaning out my inbox, I read an older email from Google. It linked to the Washington Times article by HSLDA President Michael Smith about how HSLDA has caused the military services to see sense, and how the services now accept homeschooled graduates as Tier I recruits.

High-scoring enlisted given top tier, 30 July 2007, Washington Times, Washington, D.C.

We are excited that the Pentagon has taken this step to place home-schoolers back in Tier 1 where we believe they rightly belong.

When HSLDA firsr released this information, I wrote about it at my own blog, but in re-reading the Washington Times article, I think there is an aspect I missed in the first go-round.

Anyone who has been paying attention probably knows why “the Pentagon” has moved homeschoolers to Tier I.

• Congressional Budget Office (CBO), March 1987, The youth population decline and prospects for military recruiting in the 1990s
• Government Accounting Office (GAO), December 1994, Military Recruiting: More Innovative Approaches Needed
• New York Times, 17 December 2004, Guard reports serious drop in enlistment
• Parameters — U.S. Army War College Quarterly, Spring 2005, Demographic Trends and Military Recruitment: Surprising Possibilities (“graying” of the population)
• San Francisco Chronicle, 1 October 2006, U.S. is recruiting misfits for Army: Felons, racists, gang members fill in the ranks
• Fox News, 24 June 2007, Military’s black recruitment numbers way down
• Washington Post, 10 July 2007, Army’s recruiting goal lags for second month in a row
• National Public Radio, 16 July 2007, Military recruitment sees decline
• MSNBC, 9 August 2007, Need help with a down payment? Ask the Army

Enlisting recruits who are not graduates of brick and mortar high schools is not a new solution to the recruitment dilemma:

Army Recruiting and the Civil-Military Gap, Summer 2001, Parameters — U.S. Army War College Quarterly

Recruiting standards have been changed to access recruits who are not high-school graduates, and the Army has placed increased emphasis on recruiting in order to meet its goals, incurring significant costs in the process.

My purpose here is not to embarrass the Army or the other services, not to howl about those evil recruiters (some of whom were assigned to the job involuntarily), nor to denigrate the achievements of homeschooled grads who have enlisted in one of the armed services. I’m not even going to poke at the ill-thought-out foray whose mission was allegedly already accomplished … [makes self stop typing]

My intent is to point out that any of the military services will do what they need to do to attract recruits.

When my mother enlisted during World War II, the military services accepted women to replace men for combat duty. This strategy was not appreciated by everyone, and the honorable legacy those women left still does not have the folkloric appeal of Rosie the Riveter. The services needed bodies, and women were the only people left to recruit.

The Women’s Army Corps: A Commemoration of World War II Service

Unfortunately, a variety of social factors had combined to produce a negative public image of the female soldier. Letters home from enlisted men contained a great deal of criticism of female soldiers. …

…

The most significant cause of anti-WAAC feelings originated with the many enlisted soldiers who, comfortable in their stateside jobs, did not necessarily want to be “freed” for combat. The mothers, wives, sisters, and fiancees of these men were not anxious to see them sent into combat either, and many people believed the WAACs were to blame for this possibility.

Homeschooled graduates who enlist in the services today do not face the scorn, slander and libel that the WAACs, WACs, WAFs, WAVES, SPARS and Women Marines did in the 1940s. Homeschooled grads serve honorably, or (statistically) as honorably as anyone else without a brick and mortar diploma. The homeschool grad attrition rate still is not as low as that of brick and mortar grads, through no fault of their own — as teens they just don’t get the training in institutional routine, nonsense and tedium — so there is not much else to do but suck it up and drive on.

As a governmentally-sanctioned body with a mission given to it by the civilian leadership, the Army especially needs recruits now, but the recruits are scarcer than they were before. Because of the scarcity, the Army has relaxed requirements and now offers other incentives. The inclusion of homeschoolers in the Tier I category may be only another incentive.

Time will tell whether homeschooled grads will be accepted on an equal footing with their brick & mortar peers. Women, despite their rocky start, integrated into the services, so maybe homeschoolers will prove their worth and shed whatever stigma they carry. The kids can only try, and do their best.

But all this repeated trumpeting, such as “High-scoring enlisted given top tier” on an article about HSLDA’s do-over study (the first one is here), is hubris. You’d think that some people would be familiar with “pride goeth before a fall.”

posted by Valerie

Gardnerville writer puts work on hold while raising family, 27 July 2007, Reno Gazette Journal, Reno, Nevada “A Test of Love” began with an idea in 1995. A stay-at-home mom of four children, Scott thought book royalties might pay for the orthodontist.

…

By this time, she had added home-schooling to her daily routine. So with only summers to write, she devoted the next two to finishing the book.

…

Scott was born in Pittsburgh, Pa. She joined the Air Force when she was 20 and ended up in Air Force intelligence, where she met her first husband.

…

Scott says her writing has gone dormant because she’s extended herself by home-schooling her teenagers as well as working part time at the library. With only three to four years remaining to home-school, she is content to wait for the time when she can write regularly. There are still three children at home.

posted by Valerie