This great headline is brought to you via Zev Singer of the The Ottawa Citizen and was found in a story about 19 year old Emily Witts. In a nut shell:

From ‘unschool’ to head of the class

When Emily Witts was homeschooled, the curriculum was pretty simple: her parents got her a library card. Read what you want, they said.

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For the next decade, there were no tests or exams, no science projects, no report cards.

So it was a bit of a culture shock for her last year, when Witts, now 19, finally went to school…

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The academic achievement, and the determination that went into her transition from the Pippi Longstockingesque curriculum to the more usual scholastic world, has landed Witts a Spirit of the Capital Youth Award in the category of academic perseverance.

And how is it working out so far?

So far, Witts has scored one B+, one A, and in each of the other seven courses an A+.

Soon, she will graduate.

While this piece quotes Emily’s defense of unschooling:

The wide-open educational model is sometimes referred to as “unschooling” and Witts defends it, saying a lot of people can’t see how it would work. She says it has huge advantages, like not burning kids out and souring them on learning.

The fact that this is a story of a girl who learned to assume the responsibility for her own education, and, with that, was able to put an entire elementary and secondary school ‘career’ into a single year is left to the reader to pick up on. And that story is not as unusual as Emily’s award might suggest.

An article on The Globe and Mail site tells us about an Canadian immigration case:

They hid from German authorities, fled to Denmark and sought safety in Canada. All this for a chance to freely educate their children at home.

Now the German family will take their cause one step further when they appear before the Immigration and Refugee board in Alberta Tuesday [3/23/10] to request asylum on the grounds that they would be persecuted for home-schooling their children, and risk being locked up and losing their children if they return to their homeland. The hearing is closed, and a decision could take weeks or even months.

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The family packed their belongings and hid in Germany for three months, before making their way into Denmark. From there, they made contact with the Home School Legal Defense Association, a non-profit advocacy group in the United States that also has an office in Canada, who helped them travel to North America in April, 2007.

According to the article, the family’s lawyer is not dicslosing the family’s name. This is what the lawyer, Jean Munn, wants us to know:

But the family, who doesn’t want to be identified because they fear their two teenage boys will be taken away by German authorities, say it’s not about religion. “In this case, religion plays a role less important than reasons of conscience and reasons with respect to the medical well-being of these children,” Ms. Munn said.

Hiding their identity is fair enough, but is this case about religion, health care or homeschooling? When HSLDA control the information, truth succumbs to ideology. The political ideology HSLDA serves first and foremost has a stake in the upcoming US immigration debate.

Read the story here. The comments are worth scanning.

Not so fast: Home schooling trumps full-day kindergarten Jun. 18, 2009 The Globe and Mail Amira Elghawaby
Research shows home-schooled kids outperform their public-school peers. So why so is there little or no financial encouragement for parents to take it on?

Seated beside a mom with coiffed hair, polished nails and an elegant suit, I listened wide-eyed as audience members talked about a world I had totally misunderstood and stereotyped.

They talked about children who weren’t being challenged at school – one daughter came home crying, begging her mom to let her stay home and “teach” herself. Another parent described a school that just didn’t know what to do with her rambunctious boy, so she decided to take over. He excelled.

While I’m not so interested in governmental “financial encouragement” (strings are always involved), I’d rather ask, why is there little encouragement for homeschoolers from the official educational world? Home education means parental involvement is at its max, children are interested in learning….everything a teacher would want in their classroom. That is the point, right?

It works at home, so why the attempts to interfere, as in Graham Badman’s Report to the Secretary of State on the Review of Elective Home Education in England ?

Headcounts via compulsory national registration, along with vested interests monitoring and analyzing why families home educate seems oppressive. As Badman acknowledges “England is the most liberal in its approach to elective home education“, he’s doing everything in his power to change that with his recommendations.

His suggestion of a “statutory definition of what constitutes a “suitable” and “efficient” education” seems very limiting and unimaginative, at best. Following that recommendation with a demand for “the right of access to the home” and “the right to speak with each child alone if deemed appropriate ” would be formidable to one’s personal living space. (That space also serving as the safe place for families to land.)

In Elghawaby’s article, she asks a logical question about the Canadian government’s Early Learning Advisor wanting drastic governmental actions such as daycares moved into the schools for a “seamless day” . (By the way, what would sustain and improve an employee’s chances of staying in the government industry? Could it be more “Early Learning” programs funded by taxpayers? Just sayin’….) From The Globe and Mail:

In England, a three-year study concluded that home-schoolers achieved better results in both literacy and mathematics. Home-schooling movements are growing there, as well as in Germany, Japan and Switzerland.

So why isn’t any of this mentioned in Charles Pascal’s report on full-day kindergarten?

That question should be asked since there is a persistent drumbeat for birth to 5 year old programs by world leaders (and other interested proponents). If the agenda is for government oversight of babies and little ones prior to compulsory attendance ages, then families can start touting the glories of not starting academic training too early.

Much Too Early!
by David Elkind, Ph.D.

Although David Elkind is a professional educator rather than a “homeschooler,” his writing offers the wisdom of experience and research that can be of great benefit to any parents concerned about providing the right start for their children.

“Children must master the language of things before they master the language of words”
—Friedrich Froebel, Pedagogics of the Kindergarten, 1895

It works well when our little ones are nurtured by their families and other loved ones to live and learn. Those young ones have questions by the mile. They deserve the freedom to seek answers outside a classroom.

Lillian Jones’ thoughts ring true in her article: A Homeschool Curriculum for Preschool and Kindergarten

If you’ve been raising a child up to the age of “pre-school” or “kindergarten,” you’ve already begun homeschooling. In those early years, the most appropriate homeschooling activities are things that gently introduce a child into the wonders of his immediate world and the imagination. As Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge” – and those early years are the perfect time to provide an atmosphere where the child can freely dream and play and explore and grow in both body and imagination.

These are lots of things a parent can do to help a child develop a love of learning and searching – things that will carry through as a foundation for a life of joyful and successful learning. Most of these are things a parent does at one time or other anyway. A bonus is that your child will be getting a good foundation for later studies, even picking up some elements of reading, writing, and math!

If you read on in her article, her suggestions are educational and positive fun! As she concludes, childhood is short, fleeting, and so very important. Families can (and should be able to) do what works for their children’s learning needs. It should not be for a bureaucratic stranger’s satisfaction.

A homeschooling mom in British Columbia is starting a support group.

Learning at home, 29 August 2007, Prince George Free Press, British Columbia, Canada

The Prince George mother has heard all the arguments for and against home schooling but thinks the benefits far outweigh the negatives.

“People say traditional schooling encourages better socialization but I’ve found just the opposite. There’s lots of opportunity for that with home schooling because children can get involved in so many activities. My children do lots of things in the community and even do volunteer work, so they [interact] with others all the time. Really, the problem is to get them back to their school work,” she said, laughing.

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There is no blueprint for how parents or caregivers choose to conduct classes, said McConnell. Some home schooling situations are more structured than others.

The article includes the ‘accountability.’

Homeschool programs are not supervised by a B.C. certified teacher, are not required to meet provincial standards and are not inspected by the Ministry of Education. Homeschooling programs are not accredited by the ministry.

Parents are required to register their homeschooled children with a public, independent, Francophone or distance education school. For more information about homeschooling go to the British Columbia Home Learners Association website.

British Columbia requires children to be registered somewhere (see section 13).

posted by Valerie

Budget cycle, online program viability are at issue, 25 April 2005, Airdrie Echo, Airdrie, Alberta The RVSD board voted in favour of communicating this to ASBA. Also during the meeting, the issue of RVSD becoming more competitive with other school districts when it comes to online learning was discussed. According to RVSD, more than 1,000 students living within its boundaries are enrolled in the home-schooling, home-schooling blended and online programs of other school divisions. …

Trustee Sylvia Eggerer questioned the practice of ‘buying’ students, while RVSD board chairperson Trudy Hauser said some home-schooled students who utilize the online programs cost RVSD in teaching time that is also needed by full RVSD students.

posted by Valerie