Those were the words of Janet Willis, an Illinois homeschool mom, whose family suffered sheer devastation on a Wisconsin highway in November of 2004.

There have been numerous legal actions resulting from this tragedy.  Nine people, including the six Willis children, were killed in crashes with truck drivers who paid bribes for licenses when current felon and former Governor George Ryan was Illinois’ Secretary of State.  More details are in ABC’s 20/20 Edition; SCRIPT: Those Were Our Children 2/99.

Heartfelt words put Ryan release in context John Kass December 7, 2008

From Mrs. Janet Willis::

On Nov. 8, 1994, I voted to re-elect George Ryan as secretary of state to be in charge of road safety. I am a mother. I loved my children, home-schooled them and, with God’s help, poured my heart into trying to be the best mother I could be. We were very close. A few hours after that vote was cast, I watched as my children were trapped in an inferno. I have had to ask God to help me to forget the sights and thoughts of that day and all that occurred. However, I think now maybe for this one time, if I would be willing to share some things, it might down the road benefit others.

The unfolding story of Illinois political corruption led to George Ryan’s conviction and sentence of 6 1/2 years in prison after he left the governorship of Illinois.

IL Senator Dick Durbin is seeking a favor from President Bush with a request for Ryan’s sentence commutation.

From John Kass in the Chicago Tribune:

Sen. Dick Durbin has written Bush a heartbreaking letter on Ryan’s behalf. Durbin’s Democratic Senate colleague—now President-elect Barack Obama—doesn’t think it appropriate to get involved in the matter.

But you can get involved. This time, you can act.

You can e-mail Bush at comments@whitehouse.gov, or write him at The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20500.

~Susan Ryan

Christopher Paolini on inheriting JK Rowling’s crown, 29 September 2008, Melbourne Herald Sun. Melbourne, Australia

305 credits minus 100 demerits = +205

Credits:  Many direct quotes from Mr. Paolini, most of them to do with his writing and the books, and the history of getting his first book, Eragon, off the ground.

Demerits:  Homeschooling socialization critique tacked on to the ‘controversy’ section of a character in the book Eldest questioning of the gods, and the quality of the Eragon movie.  I don’t think the entire observation, “The Inheritance series is an epic work of imagination, particularly considering it’s the work of a boy home-schooled with his sister all his life,” was necessary.  The writer could well have stopped that sentence after the word, “boy.”

Greeley teen spends year building WWII diorama, 4 August 2008, Greeley Tribune, Greeley, Colorado

This is World War II as a 14-year-old sees it.

Andres Flores’ grandfather fought in that war, 65 years ago, but he was gone before Andres could ask him about it. So the Greeley boy has learned about it himself, studying, reading, watching “Band of Brothers” and the History Channel.

…

It took a year for Andres to build it: 1,600 shingles, made from broken popsicle sticks; dozens of miniature trees formed with wire, covered with clay, textured and panted. The village, made of Styrofoam and plaster and chicken wire and paper mache, looks as authentic as a miniature village could be. It shows the American soldiers chasing the Nazis through the village, shows the tanks and the Jeeps and bombed-out buildings.

[photo at site]

School board OKs class credit policy, 7 August 2008, Cumberland Times-News, Cumberland, Maryland

Mineral County’s policy on accepting class credits from outside sources will remain the same.

The Mineral County Board of Education Tuesday voted unanimously to approve the policy, Compulsory School Attendance/School Entrance, which includes an outline of which class credits will be accepted when a student transfers from either another school system or an accredited program.

The policy was of particular interest to supporters of home schooling, as it stipulates that credits will be accepted only from “all public secondary schools and credited nonpublic schools.”

“We do not accept credit for secondary courses taught in home schools,” Superintendent of Schools Skip Hackworth said when he presented the proposed policy to the board members last month.

It is up to each school (system) to decide what constitutes credit for the diploma that they issue.  This is just an fyi for any readers with an interest in enrolling in the schools of Mineral County, West Virginia.

Other information about Mineral County is at:

• West Virginia area in flux over homeschooler participation
• West Virginia school board deciding what makes a homeschooler

Congratulations to homeschooler Becca Ward on her bronze medal in sabre fencing in Beijing.  The icing on the cake, for those of you who spent the weekend in a cave, is that the American women swept sabre fencing.  Gold.  Silver.  Bronze.

First U.S. medals were as easy as 1-2-3 in sabre fencing, 10 August 2008, The Star Ledger,  New Jersey Online

Forget swimming and basketball — we own fencing. Well, at least we own the women’s sabre event. We haven’t won a medal in any other fencing discipline since 1904. So what? Sabre is our sport. I hear the NHL might actually rename its team in Buffalo to commemorate this moment last night.

Becca’s mom has been a regular on the HEM-Networking email list and has kept us up to date with Becca’s tournaments.  After the sabre fencing events, there was a small party on Networking.

Again, congratulations to Becca and her teammates.

Heir to diving tradition, 6 August 2008, Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Illinois

As she played at the pool where her older sister was training, Kelci Bryant had no idea the coach was watching her as well.

After all, Kelci was a 6-year-old kid messing around on diving boards while coach Wenbo Chen worked with Katie Beth Bryant, who would win five U.S. titles.

It wasn’t long before Chen told Kelci’s parents, “If you get her diving by 8 or 9, I’ll get her to the Olympics.”

They did. And he did. And here she is.

…

Chen, a former Chinese national team diver, insisted on making home schooling available to the high school-age divers as one of the conditions for taking the job as national head coach. That way they could train on his schedule.

Newsmaker of the day: David Scannell, 6 August 2008, Norwich Bulletin, Norwich, Connecticut

In the news: David Scannell, 18, of Griswold was recently recognized at an Eagle Court of Honor ceremony for earning the rank of Eagle Scout.

…

Education: Scannell was recently inducted into the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society at Quinebaug Valley Community College in Danielson, where he is studying computer science. He has completed 21 credits with a 4.0 grade point average. He did his high school studies as a homeschooler.

‘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.

Home-Schooled Homebuilders Win Aid, 15 July 2008, Tampa Tribune, Tampa, Florida

Sometimes, the Suggses worried the unorthodox upbringing might limit their children’s college opportunities.

But the path less traveled can be rewarding.

Last week, all three of the Suggs children received college scholarships from the Gulf Coast Community Foundation of Venice, in part because of the homebuilding experience.

…

The family dug out the home’s foundation three times because of summer rain. The plumbing failed inspection twice.

…

And the Suggs twins got practical experience with math and building materials that should come in handy as professional engineers.

“Pick a material, they’ve touched it and worked with it,” Mark Suggs said. “They have the practical experience engineers wish they had.”

Dropping out, hiding out and looking for answers, 21 June 2008, The Age, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

The Other tells of two friends, seemingly opposites, who bond as teenagers through their passion for the outdoors. The narrator, Neil Countryman, is a public high-school student of working-class stock who follows the relatively conventional path taken by Guterson – graduating from college, marrying young and becoming a high school English teacher.

…

Guterson made the case for home schooling in Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense (1992) and he doesn’t think parents’ emotional involvement with their children precludes them from being effective teachers. “That’s far less of a problem than what we see in public schools, where there’s no emotional relationship for the most part between most students and most teachers,” he says.

Nor does he believe that it’s important for children to socialise every day with other children their age: “In many institutionalised educational settings there’s a kind of neurotic social engagement that’s competitive and cliquish. It’s not really normal to take a whole lot of people of their own age and just force them to be together all day.”

I think “neurotic social engagement” is a fine counterpoint to “ethically servile.”