Susan Ryan at the Corn & Oil blog is upbeat about an article on homeschooling titled Grooming the Next Generation of Leaders. Good quotes:

“We have greater opportunities as homeschoolers to dance to the beat of our own drums,” Alyssa said, adding, “The only downside is that we can never just watch a movie without having to dissect the plot afterwards.”

“As a mother, I am always told, ‘You homeschool? I could never do that.’ I consider myself the most fortunate woman in the world to have the privilege to invest my life in three spectacular young ladies,” Austin-Taitt said. “In the process of teaching them through the years, it is I who have learned the greatest lessons from them. I have learned to laugh hilariously, cry passionately – and learn incessantly.”

This week’s Carnival of Homeschooling, at The Homespun Life blog, features some great articles, covering a variety of subjects, including lifestyle, faith, and classical music, and beginning with the founder of the Homeschool Carnival, Henry Cate from ‘Why Homeschool’.

While not specifically about homeschooling, an article by Brian Gresko, a stay-at-home dad and writer, explains his view that childhood is under attack by the very people who should be protecting it: parents. His article In Defense of Childhood: Let Kids Be Kids! explains:

Many of the most important skills are untestable — imagination, general optimism and lightness of heart, the capability to love another creature, to empathize and demonstrate compassion. These are things a child can’t bubble in on a Scantron sheet, and yet cultivating these attitudes matters more in determining how my son will exist in the world and what kind of contribution he’ll make with his time on Earth.

Read the entire article at the link above.

The Air Force Times features an article on homeschooling by staff writer Jon R. Anderson, titled the ABCs of Home Schooling:

Experts estimate there are 2 million home-schoolers, with their numbers growing as much as 12 percent annually in recent years. And there is data to indicate that military families are home schooling at perhaps twice the national average.

That doesn’t surprise the Rexfords, who have been home schooling for 10 years. “Home schooling fits the military lifestyle very well,” James Rexford says. “When you move, the school goes with you. When you have time off, the kids can take time off with you.”

Former News & Commentary editor and Home Education Magazine columnist Valerie Moon, who runs the website The Military Homeschooler, remembers when the brass in Europe tried to forbid homeschooling, but adds, “That’s all gone now, the military has become very supportive.”

A sidebar highlights support resources for military homeschooling families, and explains how writer Jon R. Anderson’s family got into homeschooling: “My gut tightened when my wife first floated the idea of home schooling six months ago.”

The Military Times Media Group has been the premiere source for military news and information for the military and government sectors for over 60 years.

Recently two homeschool advocates were guests on the Kojo Nnamdo radio show titled “Homeschooling Goes Mainstream.” The discussion centered on the history of homeschooling and the diversity of the greater homeschooling community.

The guests were Celeste Land, Director of Government Affairs for the Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers, and a member of the board of directors; and Michael Donnelly, a member of the Staff Counsel for the Home School Legal Defense Association.

On October 14th Amy Wilson, also of VaHomeschoolers, reported on the program for the VaHomeschoolers Connection:

Celeste Land, VaHomeschoolers’ Director of Government Affairs and a member of our Board of Directors, was a guest on the Kojo Nnamdi Show on WAMU 88.5 in Washington DC on October 13, 2010. The program segment, entitled “Homeschooling Goes Mainstream,” also included Mike Donnelly of the Home School Legal Defense Association. Kojo and his guests discussed the history of the homeschooling movement, beginning with “anti-establishment freethinkers” in the 1960s, as well as the growth of conservative Christian homeschooling in the 1970s, and the appeal of homeschooling to a diverse cross-section of the American population today.

Read the rest of Amy’s good post at the link above. Also very interesting are the comments and questions posed for the two guests, available at the link for the free podcast of the program.

A good roundup post of mainstream news articles by Amy Wilson on the VA Homeschoolers site, titled Positive Press for Homeschooling:

It seems that the back-to-school season has inspired some recent media coverage of homeschooling. “Not everyone is going back to school” is the basic theme that VaHomeschoolers has noticed, accompanied by a human-interest angle that dispels stereotypes of homeschoolers as isolationists on society’s fringes and portrays us as a cross-section of the general American population that has chosen a different educational approach. Since VaHomeschoolers’ mission is to serve Virginia’s diverse homeschooling population, which includes families of all ethnic and national backgrounds, religious beliefs, and educational styles, we are pleased to see reporters for local and national media outlets portraying the diversity of the homeschooling community in their coverage.

Amy shares links to recent articles from CNN, MSNBC, and NBC News at the link above.

3StoryFilms is working on an upcoming documentary entitled:
Class Dismissed: Education And The Rise Of Homeschooling In America.

Class Dismissed will be the first full-length documentary devoted to exploring homeschooling as a viable alternative to the industrial school model. This film will show how homeschooling is not only rapidly growing in popularity, but how it crosses all social and economic boundaries and covers a wide spectrum of the population. It will answer the questions that many people have and break down the myths that surround homeschooling.

Class Dismissed will challenge its viewers to take a fresh look at what it means to be educated, the difference between education and schooling, while offering up a radical new way of thinking about the process of education.

For information about the filmmakers, to see videos, read their blog, or donate to the project, visit the link above or check out their Facebook page.

A very interesting article titled Homeschooling way to go? by Monica Cheru-Mpambawashe, appears in in the October 9 edition of The Herald:

In Zimbabwe most homescholars use a syllabus designed in South Africa. A pro-homeschooling blogger claims that as of May 1, 2010 South Africa had more than 100 000 students on homeschooling. SA has developed its own syllabus which is closely aligned to the one followed in formal institutions in that country but with the methodology basically borrowed from the American system.

Another excerpt:

A parent who is homeschooling her children in Harare says that her son is learning Afrikaans and doing very well on the written tests.

“When we went to SA and spoke in Afrikaans, it was hilarious as everyone looked at us in obvious bewilderment and we could not understand a single word they said.

“Homeschooling works for some subjects but maybe for a foreign language, you really want to have a group and live experience with a competent speaker,” she said.

Of the more than 20 parents homeschooling their children in Harare interviewed for this article all felt that it was much better than formal learning and they would only take their children to proper schools if they were forced.

Writer Monica Cheru-Mpambawashe includes information about homeschooling elsewhere in the world:

Internationally, homeschooling is most prevalent in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the US while Germany and Brazil, have outlawed it. China allows it for foreigners. Kenya is the only other African country beyond Zimbabwe and SA to carry out homeschooling in appreciable numbers.

Read the entire article at the link above.

In an increasingly bizarre situation a school district in Texas is “seeking to bankrupt” a now-homeschooling family. Writing for the Houston, Texas FOX News channel, reporter Greg Groogan explains the case in an article he titled School District Seeks to Bankrupt Disabled Student’s Family:

In May, 2007, after learning that their son Chuka was not receiving the help he needed from the local school, Kenneth and Neka Chibuogwu filed a procedure called “due process” where a sort of education judge listens to all the evidence and decides the issue. But instead of seeking compromise, the school district launched a full-blown legal counterattack against the family:

“These people had been railroaded, these people had been maligned,” says special education advocate Jimmy Kilpatrick who represented Chuka and his parents.

Drained and discouraged, Kenneth and Eka dropped their due process case and Chuka never returned to class.

The conflict could have ended there, but Alief Superintendent Louis Stoerner and then board president Sarah Winkler had other plans.

The District sued the economically distressed parents of a special needs child for every penny of the district’s legal expenses, an amount, at the time approaching $170,000 dollars and now estimated at close to a quarter million.

“What I feel is that they are trying to bully me for asking for a chance for my son¿s life,” says Kenneth.

Reporter Groogan continues:

Those who represent special needs families suspect a larger more sinister scheme.

“What they are trying to do is send a chill down parent’s spine about advocating for their children,” says Louis Geigerman, president of the Texas Organization of Parents, Attorneys and Advocates.

“Lets set some examples, lets hang a few of them at high noon right out here in the middle of the town square and show you what we do to people who want to advocate for their children,” adds Kilpatrick.

“If I don’t fight them, you know they are going to do it to other parents,” says Kenneth Chibuogwu.

Read the entire article at the link above. Discussion of the article is taking place on the HEM Networking discussion list:

“I suspect too, that that school district doesn’t care if they win or lose (they’ve lost so far) that lawsuit. They are sending a message with the use of local, Texas and federal tax monies. LOTS of money.” ~Susan Ryan

The last of three articles on local homeschooling families is a positive, upbeat article from the Oct. 7th issue of the Dansville-Genesee Country Express in Dansville, NY, titled Homeschool Gives Choice to Students, Parents:

The freedom to pursue what a parent deems best for their child is still allowed in America.

That’s the feeling of Heather DeNee of Sparta, who feels “very blessed to have the opportunity and choice to homeschool.”

This mother of three (soon to be four) added that she understands that homeschooling is not for everyone, but, “there’s an opportunity for those who have that desire.”

Read the entire article at the link above.