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

Schooling Alone Together, 5 May 2007, Brooklyn Rail, New York, New York …

Despite the pedagogical differences at play, most parents say the home-schooling community is supportive and accepting, even thriving. We live in New York, says a NYCHEA member and mother of four in Carroll Gardens. By the time my kids start high school, they can take science from scientists at the Natural History Museum. Every major museum and institute here has classes. One of my teenage daughters is interning at the Cooper Hewitt.

I think it might be the best city on Earth in which to home-school, says a mother of two in Park Slope.

It seems that NYCHEA takes full advantage of everything New York has to offer. Like the weekly soccer practices, the Alliance runs its own events, including Playwriting for Teens, the Teen Film and Drama Club, Algebra and Geometry courses for 12 to 18-year-olds, and regular field tripsthis month to a Classical Music Hall of Fame performance at NYU and to a recital of Peter and the Wolf at Hunter College. NYCHEA also holds monthly meetings where families get together and children participate in recitals and other activities.

posted by Valerie

Either Google doesn’t catch everything, or I was distracted in March. The link-to-the-post only popped up (for me) last weekend via Families.com. In reading the comments, though, I see that Chris (COD) was manning the barricades.

Even though I’m late to the conversation — in cyber time ‘so last week’ is akin to ‘so last year’ — I do have replies to Mr. Laden’s objections.

Home Schooling: The Bad and the Ugly, Greg Laden

The main points about homeschooling made by Mr. Laden are:

Home schooling is a way of cheating the system.

Home schooling, on average, provides children with fewer resources of lower quality.

Home Schooling provides children with lower quality teaching.

Home schooling is ideologically driven.

Oversight and testing.

I find these opinions interesting because they reflect what non-homeschoolers may think about homeschooling. I’ve had conversations along similar lines with friends and neighbors. Polite consideration is often the rule in face-to-face discussions, but online the gloves are usually more off than on. I saw that in Mr. Laden’s opinion, rebuttals are seen as fearfulness and obfuscation, but them’s the risks of online communication. Rebuttalers aren’t in control of how the messages are received.

• Home schooling is a way of cheating the system.

Our system serves the children — of the people who want to use it. Children aren’t bred to serve the system and aren’t required to make themselves available upon demand to people who like to teach.

Compulsory school laws were legislated (after the unenforced use of organized schooling continued to rise [footnote 4, page 3]), but there is no compulsion to use only the public schools. In 1925, the Supreme Court said in Pierce v. Sisters that, in addition to children not being “creature[s] of the state,” the public school system is not the only source from which children receive their educations.

“the fundamental liberty upon which all governments in this Union repose excludes any general power of the State to standardize its children by forcing them to accept instruction from public teachers only.”

Children are not public school fodder.

Add to that idea the fact that homeschoolers pay taxes but don’t use ‘our fair share.’ If there isn’t enough money, where’d it go? The homeschoolers sure didn’t use it.

It is true that we are not ‘contributing’ by enrolling our children — enrollment allows schools to collect federal funds for each new nose that’s counted — but that is no more our problem than the demise of the buggy whip industry was Henry Ford’s problem. Evolution happens.

Parents do not owe their children to the public school system. If part of the rationale behind public schools was that tribute was owed with live enrollees, as well as the money from all adults who owe taxes, then parenthood would be compulsory.

• Home schooling, on average, provides children with fewer resources of lower quality.

The local school may have a greater number of high-quality resources, but the children must share them with a greater number of classmates. School schedules restrict time-of-use-per-item. There is always someone waiting behind you in line, the sands of time trickle away grain by grain for that class period, and the group must keep marching to the lesson plan drummer.

Lesson assignments aren’t usually open-ended so that if the children’s interest is piqued, they might need to abandon a project before their curiosity about the subject has peaked. This is merely group dynamics. If the group is to progress through ‘material’ ‘in a timely fashion,’ teachers will avoid interesting detours.

Another possible reaction is that the kids must feign interest in a topic that failed to intrigue them, but must still use their quota of time on the expensive resource or risk a lower grade for lack of ‘class participation.’ Be interested or else. This denies time to children with authentic interest. (I hated having to get off the trampoline to make way for the weenie who was afraid to bounce)

Hardware can be valuable to learners, but in the end, it is the wetware that is most important.

• Home Schooling provides children with lower quality teaching.

Perhaps. But it’s hard to prove one way or the other.

“Lake Woebegone” and Fraudulent Testing, John Jacob Cannell biography

Realizing that if all those poor states were “above the national average,” then all 50 states were probably claiming the same thing and more than likely, nobody knew it! Sure enough, the U.S. Department of Education confirmed that they do not regulate or oversee commercial achievement testing in the United States. William Bennett, then Secretary of Education, had no idea what the states were reporting to their citizens, and it was the same with all his predecessors. They did not consider it their business as it was the for-profit business of commercial test publishers like CTB/McGraw Hill and Houghton Mifflin.

Among homeschooling families, statistically there have to be some sucky ‘teachers.’ In a general population, it’s unavoidable. I’d even bet that half of them are below average — and half of them above. Fancy that. But, the teacher assigned to each child in public schooling is luck of the draw. I figure that 50% of school teachers are also below average (and 50% of them are above). Most of them are probably ’round about the middle — like parents.

• Home schooling is ideologically driven.

And public schooling isn’t?

(in his defense, Mr. Laden did acknowledge that point)

Yes, I was waiting for someone to point out that yes, it’s all ideologically driven.

But you know what I am referring to here: I’m referring to people going through great lengths to either drive Fundamentalist Christian Beliefs into our public school system, or, when that does not work, to drive their kids home and give it to them there.

And? Because of this should we work to eradicate Fundamentalistic Christian beliefs? Or ban the teaching of any other beliefs with which we disagree?

I’m reminded of the controversy about the proposed 1977 march in Skokie, Illinois. Please understand that I am not, not, not equating anyone to the people proposing to march, I am only referring to the principle of freedom of speech and, presumably, thought.

When the Nazis Came to Skokie: Freedom for Speech We Hate, University Press of Kansas

In the Chicago suburb of Skokie, one out of every six Jewish citizens in the late 1970s was a survivor–or was directly related to a survivor–of the Holocaust. These victims of terror had resettled in America expecting to lead peaceful lives free from persecution. But their safe haven was shattered when a neo-Nazi group announced its intention to parade there in 1977. Philippa Strum’s dramatic retelling of the events in Skokie (and in the courts) shows why the case ignited such enormous controversy and challenged our understanding of and commitment to First Amendment values.

A gap exists in American culture. An ABC poll taken in 2001 showed that (according to the poll) 60% of Americans believe that the Genesis account of creation is a reportorial account of How It All Came to Be. But, until there is a requirement that we all think the same way, the people who believe that the books comprising the varieties of available Bibles may believe what they believe. We do not want a Cultural Revolution in which those who think in ways we consider wrong are stopped from doing so.

A problem is that the people who don’t agree with what the public schools are teaching are still required to support them through their taxes. It seems cold to require that they ante up their children as well as their cash.

A book by Stephen Prothero, Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know — and Doesn’t, gives one explanation about this gap.

Blind Faith, 4 March 2007, Washington Post, Washington, D.C.

The weakest part of this otherwise excellent book is Prothero’s proposed remedy: high school and college courses dealing with the historical and cultural role of religion. As the author rightly notes, teaching about religion — as distinct from preaching religion — is not prohibited by the First Amendment’s ban on “an establishment of religion.” But given the failure of so many schools to inculcate the most elementary facts about American history, it is hard to imagine that most teachers would be up to the task of explaining, say, the subtleties of biblical arguments for and against slavery. Furthermore, a curriculum that would meet with the approval of Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Protestant and nonreligious parents would probably be a worthless set of platitudes.

Thought control by working to compromise the passing on of beliefs from parent to child is not an answer to differences in cultural outlook.

• Oversight and testing

Mr. Laden thinks homeschoolers cheat, but what would be the point? It isn’t as if homeschooling families would continue to get their NCLB funding through their children scoring well on standardized tests … because homeschooling families do not get subsidies.

Accountability for spending money from taxpayers is one of the reasons for testing in the public schools. A billion here, and a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about a lot of money! Other than testing, there are few ways to find out if the tax money collected from parents (and singles, and empty-nesters, and retirees) is being put to good use (at least in the context of school).

The pencil and paper weighing and measuring of children to determine the whether the public’s money for schooling has been well spent conditions people to think of testing as necessary for learning. However, the results of the pencil and paper tests of homeschoolers are as immaterial in the public sphere as the results of the tests of children in private schools because homeschooling families don’t use public funds, even though they contribute to the communal moneypot.

Concerning homeschooling, no, we don’t want thousands — perhaps millions — of children growing up to be like the dummies I see driving on the roads because the homeschooled kids’ stupid parents, who don’t know an asterisk from their elbow, broke them. Fortunately, there is no indication that this is happening.

Many people may not like what some homeschooled kids were taught, but as a group the kids are not growing up ignorant.

These answers to Mr. Laden’s objections to homeschooling are from just one point of view but, with luck, conversations such as this will help clear the air about homeschooling.

posted by Valerie

Detroit’s University District markets to families that homeschool their children, 29 April 2007, Detroit Free Press, Detroit, Michigan The typical home in Detroit’s historic University District offers three stories, spacious basements and finished attics and maids quarters. Perfect places, community leaders say, to live while homeschooling children.

Ample space for classrooms — offices or play areas — is not an issue here.

And neither is cost.

Today, in a unique marketing approach designed to move unsold homes by pitching the district as a haven for families that homeschool, the owners of more than 25 of the 68 homes that are listed for sale will open their doors to prospective buyers.

The University District Open House Day highlights the architecture, open space and cultural and economic diversity that make the neighborhood ideal for living, investing and homeschooling.

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

Chicago Defender, Chicago, Illinois, 13 April 2007, Cheryl Fields-Smith is conducting a study of African-American homeschooling families in Georgia

The African proverb “It takes a village to raise a child” is finding new application among African-American parents who are opting to educate their children at home.

… Cheryl Fields-Smith is conducting a two-year study into black homeschooling in the southern states. She was in Chicago on Thursday to talk about the study and called the homeschooling movement among African-Americans “an extreme form of parental involvement.”

I had to look up Cheryl Fields-Smith. At the College of Education at the University of Georgia’s web site, her C.V. gives her title as, Assistant Professor of Early Childhood Education. That may explain her view of parents assuming their natural educational role as “extreme.”

Parents of black children are teaching them at home for various reasons, Fields-Smith found. Reasons included infusing black history and perspective into education, countering negative images of black children, demanding higher expectations from their children and sheltering them from bad influences in public schools.

I wouldn’t think that those goals are extreme.

One area, though, could lead to a feeling of conflict.

Others have the mentality that African-Americans have worked so hard for public school integration, it seems counterintuitive to pull their children out of school, she added.

Jennifer James, the director of the National African-American Homeschooler Alliance countered that idea.

African-American parents who want their children to receive an exceptional education are facing unequal resources in the schools, overt and subtle racism at times in the schools and an achievement gap that doesn’t look to be narrowing,” she said.

It is good to see that homeschooling is growing for kids who need it. Still, the idea of black parents homeschooling their children is not new. In the early 1990s, I used to buy some of our homeschooling materials from Donna Nichols-White’s catalog/magazine, The Drinking Gourd. I was sad when it went out of business, but I’m glad I had to opportunity to buy from it as Donna had collected unique science materials.

posted by Valerie

Herald & Review, Decatur, Illinois, 14 April 2007, Decatur Area Cooperative offers a little extra to homeschoolers

Maureen O’Brien’s eldest daughter attended traditional school, and O’Brien was stunned when she had to ask permission to take her to the orthodontist and provide proof afterward that it’s where they’d really gone.

“I’m her mother,” O’Brien said.

The three younger O’Brien children, Kaleigh, Kevin and Kiernan, are homeschooled. Now, the family can take off-season trips, and the kids can pursue their studies at their own speed.

And thanks to the Decatur Area Cooperative, homeschooled kids can take enrichment classes in areas their parents may not have the expertise to teach.

posted by Valerie

Lincoln Today, Lincolnshire, U.K., 13 April 2007, Homeschooling for family of 11Steve and four of the children form a Celtic folk-rock group called Remnant and the whole family is soon to embark on a three-month tour of America performing their music.

The Shepherds have a classroom on the ground floor of their home for use by the entire family. The bulk of the formal education of the children generally takes place in the mornings, but home-schooling means they can work to a less formal structure.

Steve said: “We decided that rather than putting pressure on them, the most important part of their education was their character and who they are as people.

“They do subjects like English and maths but any other subjects we’ve tailored towards what they’re interested in. It tends to produce a better learning environment for them.”

posted by Valerie

The front-page of the website for the magazine Brain, Child features an article on short-term homeschooling. (hat tip to Henry Cate at Why Homeschool) The article is easy on the eyes, perhaps because the magazine focuses on a literary approach. I like the observations made by someone who is outside mainstream homeschooling, but who has experienced the change from school to homeschool.

Brain, Child, Lexington, Virginia, One Good Year — A Look at Short-Term Homeschooling

But as the year went by and the complaints increased, I sympathized more and more with Julia’s plight, partly because of my own memories of public school drudgery, and partly because, as a professor of English, I understand the need for sabbaticals. If adults benefit from intellectual rejuvenation, then why not children? Why shouldn’t a child have time off to pursue her own research and writing?

A sabbatical year of homeschooling for school-age children may be an important development in the mainstream approach to children’s educations.

Still, I notice a theme that homeschoolers and their communities have not embraced part-timers. This harks back to a similar lament from public-school-at-home parents. I wonder if this is because the purposes of the various at-home-education methods are different, which means that the support bases must also differ in what they provide. The part-timers may also have problems similar to what I saw in military communities: transience. This results in a lack of ‘institutional memory’ so that there are no old-timers to guide the way. The transience also means that the rough ride of the first homeschooling year remains the snapshot of homeschooling. The family misses the mellower later years, especially if the parents intend to return the children to school and feel pressured to ‘keep up.’

I mean no put-down whatsoever for the efforts, but expecting all the benefits of homeschooling from a sabbatical imbued with keeping-up-with-the-educational-Joneses is like expecting to excel at gourmet cooking at a get-away-from-it-all cabin in the woods because you’re close to the mushrooms.

And of course, no two writers see a subject in the same way, so I find other points of disagreement, such as a reliance on the Department of Education’s recognition of part-time homeschoolers. The Department of Education defines part-timers as families in which the children spend less than 25 hours per week in school. Twenty-five hours per week in a five-day school week translates to five hours per day at school. Any child who spends five hours per day in school is schooled, though perhaps not as intensively as children who spend six hours per day there. The one hour per day difference doesn’t add up to much, although to an eight-year old watching the minute hand tick-toe its way to day’s end that reprieve must feel heaven-sent.

I enjoyed the reading of the article and it is one that I’ll probably go back to just for the sake of reading it. The author knows her craft. Still, the homeschooler in me sees her allegiance to the institutional world of schooling.

But in the meantime, my daughter needs more time away from Mom (excessive mothering is one of the most common concerns about homeschoolers). A third-party adult can often inspire a child more deeply than pleas from dear old Mother, which is why many homeschoolers hire tutors. In addition, the presence of a peer group in a public classroom can keep a child on task, who might, in a home setting, have problems staying focused, and the social diversity in the public schools can’t be matched in today’s homeschooling communities.

posted by Valerie

Tonawanda News, North Tonawanda, New York, 6 April 2007, Residency dispute forces child to be pulled from school

Stone and her daughter, Samantha, moved from Kiel Street to Sommer Street, a move that’s practically around the block. She sent the district her new address and thought everything was taken care of for her fourth-grade daughter.

The move happened on Feb. 1. Almost two months passed, and the district sent Stone a letter stating she needed proof of residency, she said. …

She sent in mail delivered to her new home, pay stubs and a television bill, but it was not enough, she said.

And so, Stone pulled her daughter out of Gilmore Elementary School. Samantha Stone has now been out of school for two weeks, and with a solution nowhere insight, Gail Stone decided to home school her.

But the district wouldn’t let her do that, either, she said.

“I’m frustrated and angry,” Stone said. “I don’t know what they want from me. They know where I live. They’re sending me mail.”

posted by Valerie