Let Home-schoolers Take the Field 
Washington Post Editorial Board

A BILL THAT would allow Virginia students who are home-schooled to play on public-school sports teams has cleared the state House and is now headed to a Senate committee, where a similar measure died last year. Our reservations about the so-called “Tebow Bill” have been rooted in a belief that issues about athletic eligibility, student activities and what constitutes a school community shouldn’t be usurped by Richmond.

It is clear, though, that the group entrusted with helping to make those determinations needs to revisit rules that have become too rigid. Local school districts that want to include home-schooled students are barred from even trying.

The editorial concludes stating the sponsor, Delegate Bell,  would introduce the bill again next Session, if it doesn’t pass, as he “believes that a generational change of attitudes is occurring about home-schooling in which the lines are being blurred and it’s only a matter of time before his bill is approved.”

Read more here.  The comments pertaining to the editorial are abundant.

Purcellville, Virginia is in a tizzy this week.  The Loudon Times, New York Magazine and the Washington Post are addressing the question of whether homosexuality exists at the Patrick Henry College.  The law of proportions says it’s certainly possible and  former PHC students confirm their existence.  From the Loudon Times:

Gay students at Patrick Henry College in Purcellville don’t exist. They can’t exist.

So says Dr. Michael Farris, the college’s founder and chancellor.

It’s simple, really. Homosexuals can’t exist at Patrick Henry College because the students sign an honor code, Farris claimed.

“[Homosexuals] could not sign our honor code,” Farris said, adding that he considers the actions of gay men and women “sinful.”

“Part of the honor code is to be sexually pure,” he added.

Even though I’m out on the farm in central Illinois, there is some familiarity with that particular community’s name in northern Virginia.  The national and even local media seem drawn to the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) based in Purcellville. Oddly, that attraction exists despite many state and local homeschool groups with deep homeschooling wherewithal advocating in our communities. There have been many Home School Legal Defense E-Lerts from the east coast sent to our inboxes concerning various issues.  Some HSLDA concerns, such as raising or lowering compulsory attendance ages, daytime curfews, and of course changes to state or federal homeschool law or statutes already have the attention of local homeschooling groups. Sometimes HSLDA positions seem contrary to the local issues.

But many of HSLDA’s worries make our homeschool community squirm. Recently, the chair, Michael Farris, was interviewed by CNN‘s Anderson Cooper regarding the Senate defeat of the UN Treaty for the Rights of the Disabled.  It is true many homeschoolers don’t support the treaty’s ratification, even as many other homeschoolers did support it.  We are that diverse.  But whichever side a homeschooler took, the notion of Michael Farris front and center as our self-proclaimed homeschool representative was difficult for many to watch.  In my state, for example, a HSLDA attorney confirmed actual Illinois members were estimated in the 5% range of all Illinois homeschoolers.

Many homeschool advocates discovered this particular and continuous discrepancy too, as pointed out by New York Magazine:

One of the bloggers, who goes by Kate Kane, told Daily Intel this afternoon, “Despite the college’s claims that they foster open dialogue on tough issues, their first response on this has been to attempt to bully and censor us through the misapplication of copyright and trademark laws. We find that incredibly disappointing.”

HSLDA will not post all state and local homeschool organizations on their website.  It’s their right, but the view only shows a certain sub-category of homeschoolers, rather than our rich tapestry of families from all walks of life. The HSLDA organization and their various associations don’t actually engage with most of our nation’s homeschoolers.

In this particular blowup, I would say the administrative staff at Patrick Henry College are surely squirming too.  In this case, you would think no publicity would have to be better than this sort of publicity.

As for the QueerPHC bloggers, this is what they seek, as reported by Trevor Baratko at Loudon Times:

“I remain hopeful for the possibility of more positive interactions with [administration] in the future,” Scott said. “I look forward to when it is possible to have mature, open, honest and loving conversation about LGBTQ issues at PHC without students or alumni experiencing fear of reprisal, rejection, or shaming.”

After the Senate ratification of the United Nations Disabilities Treaty failed, media coverage of the failure to pass a two thirds Senate majority cited the homeschool lobby as a major factor.

Foreign Policy: Homeschoolers help torpedo disability rights treaty in Senate

International observers may be a little confused about why the U.S. Senate just rejected a treaty that has been ratified by 125 countries and is substantially based on U.S. law. They also might be forgiven for wondering what, exactly, this has to do with homechooling. In addition to groups like the Heritage Foundation — which opposes nearly any U.N. treaty on sovereignty grounds — and anti-abortion politicians like Rick Santorum who argue, inaccurately, that the law could lead to abortion being mandated for disabled children, the politically powerful, but usually under-the-radar U.S. homeschooling movement has been one of the most pivotal lobbies working against U.S. Senate ratification of the treaty.

Conservative News - Homeschoolers lobby, UN disabilities treaty fails

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ostensibly would have expanded access and opportunity for the disabled. But opponents, particularly those in homeschooling and faith-based organizations, argued that it redefined parental rights more narrowly while impinging on U.S. sovereignty.
In a floor speech Tuesday morning, Democratic Sen. Christopher Coons (Del.) acknowledged his office had been barraged with calls from homeschooled families in his district urging him to vote against the treaty, although he dismissed the calls as stemming from scare tactics and said he still planned a “yes” vote.

The Hill - Senate rejects United Nations treaty for disabled rights in a 61-38 vote

The treaty, backed by President Obama and former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), fell five votes short of the two-thirds majority needed for confirmation as dozens of Senate Republicans objected that it would create new abortion rights and impede the ability of people to homeschool disabled children.

Lee told Senators on Tuesday that the treaty “threatens the right of parents to raise their children with the constant looming threat of state interference.”

“We all want to support the best interest of the the child, every child,” Lee said in a speech on the Senate floor. “But I and many of my constituents, including those who home school their children or send their children to private or religious schools, have justifiable doubts that a foreign U.N. body, a committee operating out of Geneva, Switzerland should decide what is in the best interest of the child at home with his or her parents in Utah or in any other state in our great union.”

The  Washington Post- Senate rejects treaty to protect disabled around the world

He [Santorum] and other conservatives argued that the treaty could relinquish U.S. sovereignty to a U.N. committee charged with overseeing a ban on discrimination and determining how the disabled, including children, should be treated. They particularly worried that the committee could violate the rights of parents who choose to home school their disabled children.

The Daily Caller – A Bad Disabled Rights Treaty

The convention consists of a preamble and 50 (!) articles. Under Article 4 (1)(b), ratifying states pledge to “take all appropriate measures, including legislation, to modify or abolish existing laws, regulations, customs and practices that constitute discrimination against persons with disabilities,” and under 4 (1)(d), to “refrain from engaging in any act or practice that is inconsistent” with the convention. Who gets to define whether an existing law, regulation, custom, or practice “constitute[s] discrimination against” the deaf, blind, epileptic, diabetic, or paraplegic? Or — to name a few of the other groups currently deemed disabled — persons afflicted with psychosis, cancer, emotional dysfunction, narcolepsy, learning disability, past alcohol or drug abuse if in rehab, or serious contagious disease? Your guess is as good as the Post editorialists’, except that they seem to have spent no time guessing or so much as thinking about the matter.

Will states and localities have to change their laws, or just the federal government? Glad you asked: Article 4, Section 5 says “The provisions of the present Convention shall extend to all parts of federal states without any limitations or exceptions.”

Libertarians, along with all those concerned with the autonomy of the institutions of private civil life, please note: under Article 4, section 1, part (e), states must “take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination on the basis of disability by any person, organization or private enterprise.” (Yes, “any.”) The employment provisions of the current federal ADA apply to employers with more than 15 employees, but Article 27 (1)(a) would seem to prescribe doing away with any such threshold; it requires states to “Prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability with regard to all matters concerning all forms of employment.”

Homeschoolers tend to have much in common that few understand.  The joy and rhythm of days living and learning at home with your children is hard to explain to many.  So, it’s unsettling to see a respected homeschool mentor leave the homeschool conference circuit. Even worse are the attacks against her are she isn’t “Christian enough” or “too Christian”.  This is nothing new in the opinionated and sundry homeschool community.  It’s just unfortunate.

The Wise and Bauer homeschool families are spotlighted in the Washington Post Magazine as Homeschooling Trailblazers. The article Home-schooling pioneer Susan Wise Bauer is well-versed in controversy provides some history of well regarded homeschool pioneers.

There are three generations of homeschoolers in Susan Wise Bauer’s home, and her mother, Jessie, helps out with the her grandchildren’s education. Jessie homeschooled her children in the ’70s at their Peace Hill Farm.  In 1999, Susan and Jessie co-wrote “The Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home”.

This account below from the Washington Post article hits home in a most negative way.

Bauer has been a fixture behind the lectern at state and national home-schooling conferences for years. But this past spring, she announced she would sit out the conferences next year because of rifts in this once seemingly monolithic movement.

“For a number of people involved in it, their primary focus is not educating kids but a lifestyle,” she says. Whereas early home-schoolers were a freewheeling bunch forced to stick together against a hostile world because of their aversion to public schools, now it seems as if there are litmus tests for acceptance into the community.

For example, she says, Peace Hill Press came under fire from home-schooling creationists — at conferences, on the Internet and via e-mail — for publishing the work of scholar Peter Enns, who argues against a strict literal reading of the Book of Genesis.

Bauer has been asked “to swear I won’t bring certain books for my book table; to mention certain words,” she wrote on her blog in April. “None of which, I should say, have anything to do with what I normally talk about: grammar, history, writing, reading, learning. I have been told that I am not welcome, in some cases, because I talk too much about the psychology of learning, and not about the Bible. Or because I have a theological degree and am obviously pushing a Christian agenda. Because my ‘professional associations,’ however loose, are too liberal, or too secular, or too Christian.”

I did cringe at the reporter’s notion homeschooling was started as a “mostly religious fringe activity” that turned chic.  Homeschooling my kids never felt chic, for goodness sake.   John Holt was out there with the unschooling concept in the ’70s, even as there were “religious” folks homeschooling too.  The modern homeschooling movement was diverse from the start.

The Wise/Bauer family team has been personally successful, along with their business.  Their accomplishments help many children learn in an engaging manner. Public and private schools, along with non-homeschooling families also use their curriculum.  The Story of the World series has a spot in our public libraries here, often with a waiting list for checkout.  I have friends who deeply appreciated Susan Wise Bauer’s thoughts and insights at conferences.Disclaimer –  The Story of the World is on my bookshelf and my boys loved it.  That’s it.  No money exchanged.

It’s wonderful Virginian Susan Bauer will be starting up a new endeavor helping out would-be farmers learn the trade and the land.  It’s a shame she was bullied into this by restrictive world-views.  Despite this black spot, families interested in education can hopefully continue to benefit from Bauer’s present contributions and possibly, future ones.

ht to Homeschool Buzz

The Charlotte Conservative News article Sharron Angle’s political activism started in the Home School movement once again uses her background to move her story up the search engine searches, playing off a George Will commentary in the Washington Post about her homeschooling her son which appeared July 4: Candidate nobody is not to be underestimated:

“Her campaign began, in a sense, three decades ago, when a judge annoyed her.

“When her son was depressed about having to repeat kindergarten — “He was a 6-year-old dropout” — she decided on home schooling, which Nevada law permitted. But a judge construed the law to require that parents who home-school must live at least 50 miles from a public school.

“She and many kindred spirits descended on Carson City to get the Legislature to correct this. One legislator, irritated by such grass-roots impertinence, said, “If I’d known there would be 500 people here instead of 50 and it would take five hours instead of 30 minutes, I would have thrown it [the legislation] in my drawer, and it would never have seen the light of day.” Angle asked a cowboy standing next to her, “Can he do that?” The cowboy said yep. She has been politically incandescent ever since.”

Jay Matthews writes in the Washington Post: “When it gets too bad, a family may pull a child out of school to let everyone calm down and see whether another approach can be found. The pause in schooling doesn’t usually last long. The student reads on his or her own for a while — something he or she likes to do — until the parents find a different school or a new year begins with new teachers better tuned to different rhythms.

“You might call this a kiddie sabbatical, a break to recharge batteries and reassess values. It isn’t the same thing as long-term home schooling. The strain on parents is short-term. In the Internet age, it is often possible to work at home for a few months. I have found no data on this, but we could be seeing a trend toward sabbaticals for the young and restless.”

Matthews references Laura Brodie’s new book “Love in a Time of Homeschooling: A Mother and Daughter’s Uncommon Year,” and quotes from Home Education Magazine.

Branching away from the typical media buzz about unschooling which flooded us last week, Jennifer LaRue-Huget poses a thoughtful question on her Washington Post blog, The Checkup: How do unschoolers learn what to eat? The question isn’t as facetious as it sounds, and LaRue-Huget provides some thoughtful commentary, an eye-opening quick survey, and some very interesting reader responses.

WRITE THESE LAWS ON YOUR CHILDREN: Inside the World of Conservative Christian Homeschooling By Robert Kunzman

The book was released in August of 2009 and published by Beacon Press of Boston.

A Review by Susan Ryan, Illinois Homeschooler

In one of Robert Kunzman’s interviews with six “strongly conservative” Christian homeschooling families, a California homeschooling mom related her kids “get a lot of life, real life that goes on, that they don’t understand when they are separated for several hours a day.”  She went on to explain that their family of nine children was able to spend valuable time lovingly caring for their grandparents as they reached the end of their lives. Whatever different views, philosophies and lifestyles any homeschooling family has, the incredibly diverse homeschool community can appreciate that, as Mr. Kunzman points out, “homeschooling is…woven into the fabric of everyday family life.”

Indiana University Associate Professor of Education Robert Kunzman’s name – and his quotes – have been floating into general homeschooling news over the last few months.  Many homeschool advocates have been wondering what collective influence he has had, to be sought after so frequently in articles about homeschooling. (It is an odd feeling, as homeschoolers carry on with our busy lives and then discover that some unknown entity is talking about us in an authoritative fashion.)

Often, Mr. Kunzman’s feedback was requested regarding a perceived homeschool growth trend.  The National Center for Education Statistics data is reported on his site with their supposed 74% homeschooling increase since 1999.  He has developed an impressive Indiana University website called: Homeschooling Research and Scholarship. It gave a start to see that on a university link. (The University of Illinois has a homeschooling applicant section in order to study at the University, but not to be studied.)

Kunzman researched and analyzed the families who were located in California, Indiana, Oregon, Tennessee, and Vermont. Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) co-founders Michael Smith and Michael Farris, former Generation Joshua leader Ned Ryun, and a Teen Pact college student were also interviewed. The book offered observations and reflections on “four crucial questions that framed [his] homeschooling journeys“: “What do homeschoolers do, and why do they do it? Do children learn to think for themselves?  What do they learn about the relationship between faith and citizenship?  And how, if at all, should homeschooling be regulated?”

I found Mr. Kunzman’s attentive layout of each individual family’s qualities and schedule engaging, although he didn’t ever seem to take his professional evaluator’s hat off when stepping in the door. He asked the parents’ opinions of increased oversight of homeschoolers.  The feedback seemed to be a resounding negative on more governmental authority. One California mom’s adamant rejection of more bureaucracy brought about his acceptance that some homeschoolers “who have learning difficulties would be having at least as much trouble in an institutional setting.”   He maintained that “to assume outright that a parent-teacher is a failure because her child doesn’t meet a fixed standard at a particular age or grade level may be just as unfair as expecting a classroom teacher to have all students excelling in June, regardless of where they started in September.”  That is a worthy concept.

Still, Kunzman proposes homeschoolers be subjected to those standards in his concluding chapter: “General consensus should exist on standards for meeting those interests.”  (“Interests” are included as part of his first proposition that “vital interests of children or society must be at stake.”)

There is a societal disquiet across our communities concerning much of public school education and its standards.  Naomi Wolf laments in a Washington Post article [‘Hey, Young Americans, Here's a Text for You’] that the federal No Child Left Behind Act mandates tests which “assess chiefly math and reading comprehension,” while civics and history education has gone astray. However, Kunzman calls for “basic skills testing” (reading and math) of homeschoolers, along with his third homeschool oversight recommendation that “an effective way to measure whether standards are met” be fulfilled.

Professor Kunzman also expressed ambivalence about the Home School Legal Defense Association’s teen civic education program called Generation Joshua.  Kunzman observed that Generation Joshua has “genuine civic engagement.” While noting a 2006 National Assessment of Educational Progress civics assessment is distressing, in that “only 27% of high school seniors [were] scoring at or above proficient.”

Kunzman’s 2007 interview with former George Bush speech writer and founding Generation Joshua Director Ned Ryun occurred before Ryun unhappily exited from the HSLDA fold.  The reason for that departure is one example that the conservative Christian homeschooling community is not in lockstep with HSLDA. Many draw the line when homeschooling rights are risked.

There was another case in point concerning the interviewed Tennessee homeschooling family who did not follow HSLDA advice.  They were the only family in the book that had to deal with state social workers (“four or five different times”).  The family determined they had “nothing to hide” and allowed the social worker into their home to chat.  When asked if there was any follow-up to the visit, the reply was a negative, with the father’s comment that: “As a matter of fact, the last visit, the man opened up to me quite a bit about how he raises his children.  He told me he smacks his children!”

The mother observed that was a touchy issue.  This family had a “thin black rod about eight inches long” that rested on the table.  They were also former neighbors of Michael Pearl, whose book “To Train Up A Child” is a deep source of dismay for many homeschoolers.  Conversely, the Tennessee homeschooling father was inspired by the book:”I have never read anything more encouraging, more uplifting, more knowledgeable in homeschooling.”

When Kunzman returned home from Tennessee, he looked up Pearl’s book on Amazon and discovered there were nearly 700 [currently 859] reviews of the book.  Many of the negative reviews were from dismayed homeschoolers not supportive of this type of discipline, and very active in the Stop the Rod movement.

Most homeschool advocates counsel to not let social workers or truant officers in the home without a court order.  We recognize and agree with the author that “some public school officials and social workers do have a decidedly jaded view of homeschooling.” Abuse is unwanted in the homeschool community.  That would include governmental bullying of law abiding families because they choose to homeschool.

That prudence should be understandable when homeschoolers’ educational base is located in the family’s private living space.  The call for regulation by Mr. Kunzman and others thrashes the very opposition that these six families have to governmental interference. Ironic, isn’t it?

There seemed to be a definite agenda in this book that wasn’t favorable to homeschooling self-sufficiency. The last chapter is oddly named: Becoming A Public. The premise of Kunzman’s homeschooling concerns, framed in the first chapter’s last question regarding “Homeschool Regulation,” seemed to lead to this book’s foregone conclusion.

I’m also bewildered by Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews’ thought process in his recent Education column, 3 Smart Rules for Regulation of Homeschoolers, which focused on Kunzman’s book. Mathews’ position seems to be that unfavorable political winds could increase regulation and that we should do something about that by using the “sensible answer” of universal regulation as offered in “Write These Laws On Your Children.” Mathews also states, “Kunzman knows that many parents have chosen to homeschool for non-religious reasons, but focuses on serious Christians because they are the ones that public school professionals are most worried about.”

The concern about “serious Christians” is the theme throughout this book. Kunzman requested each of the six families fill out a General Social Survey to confirm their social, political and religious conservatism.  There must be a survey or study sought out for almost every curiosity, while most homeschoolers seem to be holding out as the last bastion.  Robert Kunzman reported that nearly a fourth of our homeschooled population don’t need to notify or verify educating their children.  He asked HSLDA’s Michael Smith if their ultimate goal was to be a “place like Illinois where parents don’t have to report, register, anything.”

Kunzman’s propositions suggested that free homeschooling states (such as Illinois) “runs the greatest risk of neglecting the interests of children and the state.” His unease seems to be baseless and cynical, as he didn’t provide proof of such neglect. An imagined problem, that school bureaucrats need to oversee already established parental accountability, will kill what we live – and what we love about homeschooling.  The former Social Studies and English high school teacher, coach and administrator describes a “triad of interests” (children, parents, society) as a concern of “advocates of regulation.”  (‘Anti-homeschoolers’ is the term I use for homeschooling regulation advocates.)  Even after hundreds of hours observing homeschoolers, Robert Kunzman either doesn’t understand the homeschooling way of life, or worse yet, he does.

Home Is Where the School Is, 23 March 2008, Washington Post, Washington, D.C.

During a break in a high school debate tournament not long ago, my 17-year-old son struck up a conversation with a student on the rival team from a New Jersey public school. “Where’s your school?” asked the boy. When my son replied that he was home-schooled, the student probed.

“How do you socialize when you’re at home all the time?” he asked.

“Well, for one thing, I’m here, right?” my son laughed.

I wonder what the reply to that was?

The article touches on perennial pieces of homeschooling trivia, such as ‘who started homeschooling,’ socialization (above), the religious connection, reasons for homeschoolng, school-style v. homeschool-style of learning, and whether homeschooled children are competent later in life.  For a bit of current events, the California Crisis is included.

I’ve read many reactions to homeschooling, but one from this article surprised me because of the personal audacity.

Adults, on the other hand, can be surprising. Like the professor at the community college where one of our sons was taking a course, who went out of her way to pull him aside, sit him down and tell him, “You home-schoolers think you can change the world. But you can’t. Nobody can.”

It’s hard to generalize about home-schoolers, but if there’s one thing we know, it’s that we are changing the world, or at least the world of education choices.

My first reaction is to wonder what this teacher expects of the education she is paid to provide.  Is it supposed to be drudge work or inspiration?

My second reaction is that homeschooling parents do change the world.  We change the world of our children.  Whether this change makes larger ripples in the world is, on one level, immaterial.  We’ve made a difference in the lives of individual children.  We’ve done our best to fulfill our responsibility to Jake, and Julie, Madison and Ethan, Olivia and Chris.  If we do nothing else, we’ve done that.

The ‘usual collection’ of comments on the article is at:  “Your comments on ‘Home is where the school is.’”

posted by Valerie

The Discovery Channel carried a documentary about Patrick Henry College in Loudoun county, Virginia, where a “Christian” worldview is taught (as if Christianity is comprised only of one specific viewpoint), but not all sections of the country get the same programming. When the program was first discussed on email lists, I checked our local listings but the program wasn’t broadcast here. It is lucky, then, that Google has the 48-minute program online (it ‘buffers’ as it plays).

• God’s Next Army, Google Video, 48 minutes

(for non-Mac-users on dial-up, the best strategy might be, at a time when the computer can be left to itself for some time, to right-click on the link, and then choose “save target as” and save the program to a file on the hard drive; with luck a savvy Mac-user will use the comments section to give instructions for other Mac-users)

Patrick Henry College has received attention, not only from the Discovery Channel, but also from others around the country, and around the world. What people are saying about the college may be of interest to homeschooling parents because of the emphasis placed on how the college is ‘for homeschoolers’, again as if homeschoolers, like Christians, were all-of-a-kind. In light of arguments made against the insular-appearing ‘pedagogy of homeschooling’ by academics such as Rob Reich and Michael Apple, the policies of Patrick Henry College seem almost designed to give ammunition to critics of homeschooling. Another area of ‘interest’ in light of the college’s aim to groom political leaders is the college’s program on Strategic Intelligence.

• The Independent (via Common Dreams), London, England, 21 April 2004, The Bible College That Leads to the White House

• The New Yorker, 20 June 2005, God and Country

• The Washington Post, Washington, D.C., 15 May 2006, Where Academic Freedom is the Freedom to Quit

• The Baptist Standard, Dallas, Texas, 27 June 2006, Loss of religious liberty ‘can happen here’ Shurden says

• Talk2Action blog:
  – Generation Joshua
  – An informative expose of a BattleCry event
  – The Money Changers (Leininger)
  – Taking action, Part 1, winning elections & the next generation
  – Taking action, Part 2, the judicial arena
  – Abstinence for Africa
  (use ‘Ctrl F’ to search for specific names/terms in the blog posts)