And that’s it in a nutshell. Programs to change the whole idea of homeschooling.
The following article is about a school program and the entire piece is one sentence after another about the bureaucratic set-up of the program and its effect on the children. The only “belief” I encountered in the article was the viewpoint that families need professional help in order to homeschool.
School is where home is: Children of all beliefs do home school. But it isn’t for typical reasons., 6 November 2007, Daily Democrat, Woodland, California
For many people, the term “home school” conjures images of socially awkward children whose families shun traditional schooling because of religious beliefs or anti-establishment sentiments. But a program for elementary and middle schoolers in Woodland is turning that stereotype on its ear, offering individualized support to families whose reasons for home schooling are varied and often complex.
The stage is set: the reader is prepped with an image of shuffling kids staring at their shoes while accompanied by weird ‘shunning’ parents. To save them, the Program rides in on a white stallion to Save the Day! How do we know this? Because the program provides all the appropriate schoolish props.
- credentialed teachers
- education plan
- program
- teachers talk privately with each family
- assignments
- lesson plans
- special instruction
That’s just from one paragraph. The list continues.
- district’s course of study
- same textbooks
- benchmark tests
- teachers … an invaluable resource
- moms who share teaching duties
- K-8 Home Study has two permanent classrooms
- teachers hold meetings
- offer group workshops
- bring the students together
- program students
- a program teacher for the past 10 years
- indistinguishable from any other American classroom
The article finishes with:
“People think home-school kids aren’t socialized, but that’s simply not the case,” said Jennifer Mahoney, a program teacher for the past 10 years.”
I suppose that the teacher’s affirmation that the homeschooled kids can say howdy-do is more authoritative than if a child’s mother thought so.
The 15 children at the October workshop gave credence to Mahoney’s claim, playfully jostling and joking with one another in a scene indistinguishable from any other American classroom.
And with that, the reader is reassured that the Program on the White Horse has counteracted the effects of homeschooling: “indistinguishable from any other American classroom.” This is a far cry from a quote I read in a homeschooling article a long time ago in which the mom’s reply to the statement that her children would be different from kids who attend brick and mortar schools was, “Thank goodness!”
- The S-Word
- Homeschooling is Best
- Socialization: A Great Reason Not to Go to School
- Homeschooling and the Myth of Socialization
- A Game of Socialization
The message of this article is that the right program can redeem even homeschoolers. It’s nothing to do with “Children of all beliefs do home school. But it isn’t for typical reasons.”
It is a good thing that the local system provides classes for schoolchildren who have difficulties in school so that the children can continue along their path with minimal interruption. Programs of this type aren’t a change to homeschooling, though, they are a change to public schooling (follow the money). The program developers want to change the idea of homeschooling, but they’re changing school instead.
posted by Valerie
Karen Vogel said on November 12, 2007
Well, we all know by now that if your child cannot (dys)function in a classroom setting of same-age kids, then he is not properly socialized. That is what is scary about professional educators. Their idea of normal is all messed up.