There you have it.

I caught an article by Adharanand Finn yesterday in the UK Guardian’s Mortarboard blog.  Finn pointed out an August ‘o8 article [No School Like Home] about 2 authors who had followed some homeschoolers around.  They discovered this :

Alan Thomas, a visiting fellow in the institute’s department of psychology and human development, and Harriet Pattison, a research associate, conclude that informal learning at home is an “astonishingly efficient way to learn”, as good if not better than school for many children.

“The ease, naturalness and immense intellectual potential of informal learning up to the age of middle secondary school means they can learn certainly as much if not more,” they say in How Children Learn at Home.

But back to Finn’s post, he reported that next week, Graham Badman (former Managing Director of Children’s Services at Kent Council) will release a government initiated Department for Children, Schools and Families “Independent Review of Home Education“.

(Home) school’s out forever? If Graham Badman’s recommendations for home tuition are adopted by the government, a whole way of life is under threat
Home educators have been feeling nervous ever since Graham Badman began his review of home education earlier this year.

The government’s announcement of the review came wrapped in sinister language about the need to investigate “claims that home education could be used as a ‘cover’ for child abuse such as neglect, forced marriage, sexual exploitation or domestic servitude”.

The Freedom for Children to Grow (Education Otherwise) site provides more details below, and that “Many home educators have a problem with the premise of the Review questions” mentioned below.  The purpose does seem a bit unsettling:

The government says that there may be safeguarding concerns around home educated children and that some people have said home education could be a cover for abuse and forced marriage. The question has been raised over whether home educated children can meet the 5 outcomes of Every Child Matters ie to be safe, to be healthy, to enjoy and achieve, to achieve economic wellbeing and to make a positive contribution.

No parent I know (homeschooling or otherwise), would think in terms of  5 outcomes for their child. Seems incredibly limiting, even as it could be a dangerously vague determination from a stranger wielding some power.

These Outcomes remind me of Northwestern University’s Kim Yuracko ditty on Illiberal Education: Constitutional Constraints on Homeschooling.  Her premise was this:

Modern day homeschooling raises then in stark form questions about the obligations that states have toward children being raised in illiberal subgroups. Surprisingly, the legal and philosophical issues raised by homeschooling have been almost entirely ignored by scholars. This paper seeks to begin to fill this void by making a novel constitutional argument. The paper relies on federal state action doctrine and state constitution education clauses to argue that states must — not may or should — regulate homeschooling to ensure that parents provide their children with a basic minimum education and check rampant forms of sexism.

My first reaction has generally been that these people need to get a real life, as their concerns certainly don’t seem to coincide with homeschooling families’ realities.  Finn also pointed out that: “Ironically, the very reason some parents take their children out of school is because they suffer abuse, through bullying, within the school system”.

Seems like the school folks would have better things to do with their time?  But yet, this review could recommend compulsory registration, along with minimal standards of education for homeschoolers.  That doesn’t seem likely with the strong network of United Kingdom homeschoolers pushing back.  But it will certainly take precious time away from their families contending with the issue.

Irony=Bureaucracy?

New homeschoolers would likely want to find a support network, along with encouragement from other homeschoolers. Families looking at homeschooling as a way out of the public or private school building would also be looking for state and local resources. Homeschoolers tend to know the states’ homeschool regulations (or lack thereof) better than many school authorities. We have to know them, to protect our family.

When homeschoolers ‘left the system’, why is ‘the system’ hunting down homeschoolers to study them? My Kid is Not Named Data, after all.

Counting seems to be irresistible to the eduwonks, along with the media.

Profound shift in kind of families who are home schooling their children USA TODAY 5/28/09
By Greg Toppo

Parents who home-school children increasingly are white, wealthy and well-educated — and their numbers have nearly doubled in a decade, a new federal government report says.

No one was counting my kids, or most other homeschooled kids in Illinois, Texas, Oklahoma, Alaska, or other states, where homeschoolers do not report to the state school authorities. Some others might also disagree with those reported ‘statistics‘.

From Mothering.com:

Homeschooling for Black Families
By Jennifer James
Issue 140, January/February 2007

The black homeschooling movement is just beginning to take shape. Fifty years ago, little did we suspect that black families would today be exiting the public schools in growing numbers to embrace other means of education. While we all acknowledge and appreciate the sacrifices made by those who worked in the Civil Rights Movement, we also recognize that now is a new time in America’s educational landscape. While homeschooling may be picking up steam in our community, the great majority of black children ?are still educated in the public schools. Though we don’t believe that public education is wrong for all black children, we know from our own experience, and from the experiences of other black families, that there are other ways of learning. Many black families across the nation are finding this to be true, and I’m sure others will as well. Now, as our daughters grow and learn every day, Michael and I are even more convinced that ?we have made the right choice for our family and for our daughters’ educational futures. We have equipped them with a true and unwavering love for learning that has been made possible by homeschooling.

Personally, I like being mysterious. But if anyone wants to join the homeschool party, the mystery will be resolved. Each family is a unique and autonomous body. All different and all impossible to analyze, except by those who really count.

Does Homeschooling Research Help Homeschooling
Who benefits from homeschool research? by Larry and Susan Kaseman
Originally published January-February 1991 issue Home Education Magazine

Given all the problems and pitfalls, why would anyone do research on homeschooling? Who benefits? Obviously, researchers and the universities and other institutions with which they work or who support and use their work benefit directly in terms of money received and increased status and privilege. Homeschooling research may be particularly in vogue now, making it easier to get grants and other support for homeschooling research than for other seemingly less timely topics. When more than 100,000 “scholarly” articles are published each year (as reported in Phi Delta Kappan, Vol, 71, No. 3, Nov., 1989, page 226), there must be intense pressure on graduate students, instructors, and professors alike to find an original topic. Do homeschoolers have an obligation to serve as fodder for this arm of the educational establishment?

Conclusion

There are two major reasons why homeschoolers should not participate in research: First, research poses a serious threat to homeschooling because it increases the opportunities for increased control and regulation of homeschooling. Second, even if research did not have serious risks, it still would not be the most effective way to communicate information about homeschooling to others. It is much better for homeschoolers to share their personal experiences, to show how well homeschooling works for their families, and how important it is that homeschooling exist as an alternative that is not controlled by conventional schools or the government.

If homeschooling is to survive as an alternative approach to education and as a stronghold of parents’ and children’s rights and responsibilities, homeschoolers must be prepared to stand up and say, “We have chosen an alternative that works better for us.” One important area in which homeschoolers have to be prepared to do this is research. They need to say, “We don’t want our families poked and prodded and invaded. We don’t want our position weakened and our strengths lessened by research which cannot give a full and accurate picture of homeschooling anyway. We object to what research does to people and to alternative movements and the way in which it promotes the values and practices of conventional schooling. Therefore, we oppose homeschooling research.”

Getting out of the house Homeschooled students adjust to learning with 40K classmates
The State News Published: April 19, 2009
By Jacob Carpenter

In each of the past five years, fewer than 30 homeschooled students have applied to MSU. Each of those years, no more than 10 have enrolled, a surprisingly low number considering an average of about 1,500 students are homeschooled in Michigan each year, according to the state’s Department of Education.

The reasons for MSU’s low homeschool population are numerous, ranging from the school’s size to its public perception.

I don’t feel a need to do a study on this, but someone is likely earning a paycheck while contemplating one more reason for a governmental study of homeschoolers.

“It kind of makes sense with the families I know back home,” said Holcomb, an elementary education junior who would have attended Southfield High School in suburban Detroit.

“A lot of the reason why some of those kids are going to community college is because perhaps some of those families are reluctant to send their kids off to a more secular institution.”

It’s a common theme that likely prevents more homeschooled students from applying to MSU. The vast campus, 40,000-plus students, active dorm life and secular background are a stark contrast from the individualized, tranquil educational experience of homeschooled students.

With no knowledge of Michigan State University’s crime rate, but in reference to general social issues surrounding college life; could it also be the dorm rapes that go unreported by universities to keep their ‘good publicity’ or the weekend assaults by drunken bullies while students are walking back to the dorms or student apartments?  Other homeschooling families shared their concerns in the article.

Seems logical to expect a decent learning environment when spending thousands and thousands of dollars for college life.  Perhaps it  comes back to that socialization issue?

This article did compare community college savings as compared to university costs.  University tuition has grown as high as some of the new campus buildings being erected.  (I might sound like a slightly bitter parent wondering why my soon to graduate daughter had very limited access to a library under construction, while paying higher library fees in tuition for that 4 year honor.)

Hard to say what homeschooling family reasons are regarding their other options, but those concerns listed above are certainly credible from parental observations.

From the State News article:

Because of the stereotypes about homeschoolers that Fisher has encountered — that they are smart, not socially oriented and are even bad dressers, Fisher said — she typically is mum on her educational background.

“A lot of times when people find out that I was homeschooled, they’re surprised because they don’t see me as a ‘typical homeschooler,’” she said.

Even though my older kids attended public high school, they seem to brag a bit about being homeschooled now.  They have also heard that they don’t seem like a “typical homeschooler”.  (Which has often meant that their friends hadn’t met a homeschooler in person before.)  Again, from the article:

Holcomb also uses his homeschool experience to his advantage.

In his personal statement for admission, Holcomb wrote about how his homeschooling would add diversity to the university. He also has brought up homeschooling for discussion in his education classes at MSU.

“I feel like it’s something I’ve had all my life,” Holcomb said of his homeschooling background. “Yeah, I’m a little weird, but I’m over it. It gives me perspective and it gives me a new look on things.”

Well said and very refreshing, Mr. Holcomb.

Ht to TAFFIE‘s Susan Frederick who contributed this Michigan article link on the Home Education Magazine Networking list.

Comments at the bottom are always interesting in these on-line articles.

The Disadvantages of Home Schooling, Parenting Ideas .org

“Home Schooling ? Look Before You Leap”

To return the favor of the blog author’s concern about homeschooling, I rewrote the article. I’m sure we want all parents to thoughtfully consider the education choices they make for their children.

The Disadvantages of Public Schooling

Are you considering enrolling your children in public school? While you may have focused on the advantages of public education, take a moment to think about its disadvantages and demands before you take the plunge.

Answer the following questions with “yes” or “no” to see where you stand on readiness to send your children to public school.

1.) I will:

• volunteer at school
• attend PTA/PTO meetings
• commit many hours to instructing my child in the evenings and on weekends
• make sense of standardized test results
• comply with school security procedures
• be ready to adjust my schedule to accommodate days off because of bad weather, any illnesses my child catches, and in-service days for teachers

2.) I have effective communication skills and can counsel my child about bullies, cliques, intimidation, about how life is sometimes unfair, and about how friends are sometimes fickle.

3.) In addition to paying taxes, and volunteering, I am willing to either send my child out in the neighborhood to sell items to the neighbors for fund-raising, or to take the catalogues to work, and ask all my co-workers to buy from me.

4.) I understand the academic needs and abilities of my child and can tell if each grade’s curriculum meets those needs as they change.

5.) I have enough money for my child to participate in activities that work on their socialization skills since classroom time is for learning, not for my child to visit with his neighbors.

6.) I believe in public schooling but I understand that it is my responsibility to show up when asked, but stay away otherwise.

If you answered “yes” to all these questions then you have tackled the major disadvantages of public schooling. These disadvantages vary in intensity based on individual circumstances, but can be overcome through frequent parent-teacher meetings, or visits to the principal’s office.

The need for expertise in communication and skill in the art of compromise are among the biggest disadvantages of public schooling. Although homeschooling parents can adjust to change as needed, a parent of a child in public school understands that the needs of the group outweigh those of any one child.

Homeschooling parents are committed to their children in ways that fulfill their children’s individual needs. For a public school child, it is not possible for the parent to attend as closely to the child’s needs throughout the day. Therefore, the parent must be honest with herself and pay close attention to filling in the gap when the school’s procedures meet needs other than those of the child.

Time is another factor. Although public schooling schedules are routine, the academic work can overflow into family times as if six hours per day is insufficient for schoolwork completion. It is up to you as the parent to keep Other People’s Priorities from overwhelming your child and family.

Lastly, you will need to deal with parents who view public schooling as Someone Else’s Job and fail to raise their own children to respect the rights of others. You will need to stick by your choice and feel confident that you are doing what is best for your child.

Public schooling can be rewarding for some and a nightmare for others. Should you use public schools? Before deciding, read articles on school violence, test anxiety, school bullying, and cheating teachers.

posted by Valerie