What is it that people don’t get about homeschooling?  If the parents (or perhaps other family members) aren’t the ones working with their kids, then it isn’t ‘homeschooling.’  Yes, any number of hybrid structures can develop that are closer to homeschooling than not, to include occasional classes here and there, but any system where the kids ‘go to school’ is not homeschooling. 

 If a baby is fed breastmilk in a bottle, especially if the person doing the feeding is unrelated to the baby, that baby is not breastfed.  Using a curriculum supplied to homeschooling parents to be used by a teacher, is not homeschooling.  Just because homeschooling broke the mold of institutional dayschooling, doesn’t mean that every little educational wrinkle gets to wriggle in under the homeschooling blanket and cuddle up.  If a teacher is teaching kids at a school, then it’s either private schooling or tutoring.  If it works, it works, no big deal.  But to try to shoehorn any educational alternative into the homeschooling mold is just looking for novelty where none exists.

• The Truth, Elkhart, Indiana, 19 February 2006, Latest twist in education: Home schooling — in school

  Hybrid home schools, an idea catching on around the country, are meant for those parents who would like to home school but have to work or students who want a smaller, Christian-based setting.

  It’s basically a home-school curriculum taught within a school building, supervised by a teacher.

  …

  The home-school curriculum Christian Redeemer will use is called Christian Liberty Academy, widely used across the country. Students will get a diploma from Redeemer as well as Christian Liberty.

 Perhaps the writer should have paid closer attention to the families she interviewed when she was writing her other article, a nice enough general interest article with the usual mentions of rules, regulations and socialization. 

• The Truth, Elkhart, Indiana, 19 February 2006, Home Work

  Home-school laws in Indiana are not as strict as some states, especially in the eastern part of the country. Home-schoolers don’t have a required curriculum to teach and don’t participate in state testing. They are only required to keep attendance records, and parents do not have to have a college degree or a teacher’s license to home school.

I wonder if Indiana has more lenient child-feeding rules than other states, too?

Hat tip to Tammy.

Tags: attendance records, curriculum, diploma, Home-school laws, homeschooling, Hybrid home schools, Indiana, institutional dayschooling, parents, state testing, teachers license

This entry was posted on February 19, 2006 at 7:56 pm and is filed under News-Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.