Mom Is Teaching

For everyone who claims that all home schooling families are crazy fundies who lock their kids in the basement and are secretly abusing them and using home school as a way to cover it up, I present you with exhibit A:

The school board of a small central Ohio community voted unanimously Friday to fire a teacher accused of preaching his Christian beliefs despite staff complaints and using a device to burn the image of a cross on students’ arms.

A science teacher burned crosses into his students arms in class. Oh but don’t worry, he’s been described as a great guy.

Freshwater’s friend Dave Daubenmire defended him.

“With the exception of the cross-burning episode. … I believe John Freshwater is teaching the values of the parents in the Mount Vernon school district,” he told The Columbus Dispatch for a story published Friday.

Oh sure, there was that one little lapse where he BURNED CROSSES INTO THE STUDENTS ARMS IN THE CLASSROOM. But other than that, he’s a great teacher. Certified in science, has been teaching it for 21 years, and taught his students creationism. For who knows how many years before they finally fired him.

The photo of the burn on one student is interesting. At first it seemed like maybe just skin discoloration in a pattern that happens to be cross-like. However if you look closely you can see the skin all around this is much paler white than the rest of the arm. It does resemble the skin after a sunburn and peeling.

The investigation is still going on, but if it is correct the guy clearly has some issues. Freshwater claims he burned X’s into their arms, not crosses. As if that excuses the fact that he burned anything at all into their arms period. I know this really is not a home school verses public school issue. I just like reminding the people who leave comments that get deleted immediately that being crazy is a human trait, not just a home schooling one.

*Edit to add another news article on this case here. This one has more detail about exactly what he was teaching his students in the school.

Eighth-graders who were taught by John Freshwater frequently had to be re-taught in high school what they were supposed to have learned in Freshwater’s class, according to outside investigators hired by the district.

For 11 years, other teachers in the school district and people in the community complained about Freshwater preaching his Christian beliefs in class and slamming scientific theories, a school administrator told investigators.

education, teacher, religion, news

Sunniemom has a great post up about “homeschooling for the right reasons.” It’s a great look at an article about home education in Montana that waxes on about those kids falling through the cracks when their parents pull them out over little things.

Let me just say I doubt many parents are jumping head first into home schooling their kids over a minor rift with their school. What they see as minor might just be the straw that broke the camel’s back, or happened when home education was already being planned and the timing is there, or might be a bigger issue to the parents than the school feels it is. For instance from the article:

some do it because of their kid’s poor grades in public school or other reactionary reasons.

Maybe it’s just me but I don’t see poor grades as a “reactionary reason”. At least not in the tone implied in the article, that parents are matching in upset and ripping their kids out over a C in gym class. Poor grades, or a failure to educate, can be a very good reason to attempt to teach your kids at home. If they are not getting a solid education at school and you feel that you can reach them in better ways then do it. Trying to find the best education for your kids does not seem reactionary to me, that’s just good parenting.

Sunniemom’s post is definitely worth reading so go check it out. It’s good food for thought. What are “good reasons” to home school? What is a valid reason for your family might be a mundane one for others, and vice verses.

homeschooling, home school, education, parents

Sometimes it is just better not to watch the news. A lot of people know about the autistic boy who was voted out of his classroom, which just broke my heart. Then there was the little boy who had to endure his teacher calling him ignorant and pathetic in front of the entire class.

It is cases like those that really bug me when people say parents who choose to home school should just be trying harder to make the schools better. How exactly? Not only can we not change the teacher:student ratio, or the curriculum, or the hours, or the politics, or any other number of the negative things, we also cannot fire the bad teachers. And I’m not saying that to come down hard on teachers, they agree that getting rid of the bad apples is tough.

Teachers agree: Bad teachers with tenure too tough to fire

Think it’s hard for schools to get bad teachers out of the classroom? Turns out teachers agree.

More than half of teachers believe it’s too difficult to weed out ineffective teachers who have tenure, and nearly half say they personally know such a teacher, according to a survey released Tuesday evening by the Education Sector, a non-partisan think tank.

Tenure provides teachers with job security and generally is awarded a few years after educators enter the profession. It is supposed to ensure teachers can’t be fired at the whim of a principal or angry parent.

But it also can make it extremely difficult to dismiss a teacher who is doing a bad job, said Sabrina Silverstein, a Chicago pre-kindergarten teacher.

This has been bugging me a lot lately after a friend emailed me last week. She has sent her son to the local kindergarten, never once expecting to not use the public school system she had grown up in. Unfortunately the teacher he had was mean, nasty, and had no place being around little kids. After nearly a year of complaining to the principal, writing letters, showing up at the school, trying to meet with the teacher she gave up. In her own words:

Even if we did get a better teacher next year, and every year after, having to fight like this all year has jaded me. There may be good teachers, but they are trapped in a corrupt system.

Which is why next year she plans to file to home school her son. And says she is considering it until he leaves for college. Luckily she lives in Arizona where the laws are fairly lenient for her.

bad teachers, school, public school, home education

Well, they’ve found us out. It’s true, we’re all just a bunch of anarchists.

Dana shared that the California Chapter of the National Education Association declared parents who did not send their kids to school were creating “educational anarchy.” Anarchy? Really?

Well, you know home schooling is so punk rock. All that anti-authority, sticking your finger up to “the man”, and refusing to conform. You’ve got some pretty good street cred already. And it’s no secret there is a connection between punk rock an anarchy. But does that mean I’m an educational anarchist? Let’s look at the evidence.

Hey ho, let’s go….

First to examine is the Rock ‘n’ Roll Preschool shirt, a spoof from the infamous Rock ‘n’ Roll High School movie of the Ramones. If you’re looking for an example of educational anarchy you don’t have to look much further. This shirt is almost a family heirloom around here, one that has been worn by both of the boys when they could.

Next up, rockin’ the ‘hawk. That’s right, I’m the mom who let’s her kids get the weird hair cuts that makes the other moms at the park mad because they know their kids are going to bug them about doing the same for weeks. What can I say, I’m rebelling.

OK seriously, does choosing not to send your kids to a public or private school really equal anarchy? Other than the slightly less roll of the government in the home I just don’t buy it. We’re not breaking into lawlessness and disorder and I doubt anyone else is either. But it makes for a nice sound bite.

anarchy, educational anarchy, homeschooling

Too often it is assumed that people homeschool to instill a Christian viewpoint on their children without exposing them to other religions. But what about when that same viewpoint is being pressed at the public schools?

“My daughter Arie told me about a Jewish child who brought his Torah to school when other students brought Bibles in support of Freshwater … He thought he was supporting freedom of religious expression, and the other kids just ripped him apart. ‘What are you doing?’ they asked. ‘You can’t support Mr. Freshwater, you’re Jewish’ … I don’t think people realize the depth of what’s going on between the students. It’s a mob mentality right now. It’s peer pressure. To not wear a T-shirt and to not bring your Bible when they say bring your Bible and wear a T-shirt, you’re asking for trouble … one of Arie’s friends wore a T-shirt to school that read, ‘I don’t need to wear a special T-shirt to be a Christian.’ That individual was reportedly pushed into the lockers and called a ’stupid atheist b****.’”

I found this story via The Wild Hunt. While I know there are some who would pass this off as nonsense, I know from experience what it can mean to go to public school as a religion other than what the majority believe. In a small town where there are almost more churches than trees being an “other” comes into play too often. The supposed diversity gets shoved out the window quickly.

I thought this story made an interesting contrast. The case is often made that public schools are hot bed of diversity while those who keep their children at home are sheltering them from it. I know that in my case keeping my sons out of the public schools probably allows them more diversity, religiously speaking.

Of course we have to look at this as not just a religious issue, but an age issue. This is dealing with middle school aged children, one of the worst times in terms of peer pressure and a drive to fit in or else.  Bullying, harassment, and worse for kids who do not fall neatly into their assigned roles and social class can be intense.

Just some thoughts from someone tired of being typecast and pigeonholed. As they say, things aren’t always greener on the other side of the fence. Or, in this case, things aren’t always so diverse on your own side of the fence.

diversity, education, religion, students, homeschooling

My state’s newspaper did an interesting thing recently where they invited a group of teenagers to learn how to create a newspaper. It looks like an amazing experience for these kids to do and learn about. You can read the newspaper they created here at The Writer’s Strike.

I probably would not have even noticed if it wasn’t that one of the audio segments was a public school girl interviewing three home schoolers. It’s an interesting take on homeschooling teenagers. They tackled sports, socialization, going to the prom, and more. For parents worried about what it will be like with teenagers this is a great interview to ease your fears. They are articulate, intelligent, and friendly. Who knew teenagers could be described that way?

Oklahoma, teenagers, home education, journalism

It seems there are very few stereotypes of home education for us to get labeled. If we’re not all abusive, crazy parents hiding our children from the sun then we are over baring parents forcing our kids to memorize how to spell words out of medical text books. It’s either neglect or pressure that the kids have to suffer. The middle ground isn’t often mentioned in the news.That’s why I got such a kick out of Kim’s post about being “over homeschooling”

But may I ask why you feel the need to take the overachiever angle? Don’t you think you might be raising expectations a bit high as you step on our heads to reach the summit? Do you really think people like to hear about how brilliant you are? Don’t you know they snicker about you behind your back? ‘Oh, homeschooling is soooo superior. Homeschooling is in the gifted program. Homeschooling can spell onomatopoeia backwards!’ What about that time you told me it was okay if we didn’t have the times tables sealed up this year? You said everyone can go at their own pace, that was what was so great about you, you said. Reaching your own potential and all that bs.

What would a week without home education in the news look like? Well it would be pretty boring around this blog, we’re not doing anything around here worth writing about. But it might give some people room to breath again without feeling expectations looming over their head. If your 7 year old can’t read classic myths in Latin then you must not be a very good home educating parent, or you’re one of those abusive ones.

Dana has another take on what home education becoming popular means.

Is that all bad? What did a small band of anti-institutionalists bring to American education? Popularity certainly comes with a price, but it brings with it something else that I think is important to not overlook. It brought with it choice. A real choice for many Americans. Not only do we have public schools and private schools, but now we have charter schools and magnet schools. We have virtual charters and other means of attaining an accredited education at home in many states. We have cottage schools and homeschool coops. And we have support groups across the nation. Even Ravenna, Nebraska with its 1300 citizens boasts a homeschool group.

The press, even if it comes in terms we don’t like, is still press for home education. Is that what they say, there’s no such thing as bad press? Parents who might not have thought about it before are being turned on to home education more and more.

And if nothing else, being sold as super-geniuses beats being associated with incest and child abuse. Isn’t that what we usually get, finger pointing and accusations of abuse? There was a time when this “fringe movement” rarely got press, and all of that was hopelessly negative. Now if only we can get more middle of the road acknowledgment.

news, media, home education

It has not been the week for keeping up with news. I have had three disturbing articles show up in my email that frightened me a little.

First an 11 year old developmentally challenged student was Tasered after punching a deputy sheriff in the face. Apparently another student claimed the girl pushed him into the street, when confronted about it the girl became angry and the police were called. The mom says that her daughter “is like a 5-year-old” and “was simply scared to death”.

In Santa Anna students found a gun and bullets in an unlocked cabinet at their school, brought there by the teacher. Luckily no one was hurt, because if her third grade students had been like the next teacher’s it could have been much worse.

A group of third grade students conspired and arranged to murder their teacher for revenge. The group got together, organized who needed to bring what, and prepared to kill the teacher for getting onto one student who was standing in a chair. Third graders. Plotting murder. Pretty effectively, even. In third grade I was plotting how to get out of my chores by faking a stomach ache. Murder wasn’t anywhere on my list of things to try. Watch this video on the plot.

news, schools, violence

Hat tip to Alasandra for pointing out this great article in the Washington post “Home Is Where the School Is“. This article by Gregory J. Millman, a home schooling father himself, is just what needs to be said in the mainstream media after the flurry on California and abuse. A serious article in a respected newspaper that says “Hey, we’re not all freaks!”.

OK, so some of us are freaks. But we’re the fun kind, I swear!

I especially loved that he set the record straight about homeschooling being the result of over-religious zealots looking to brainwash their children. Not to mention that he mentions Holt, one of my idols. So I’m already quite pleased.

And contrary to most popular belief, home-schooling isn’t the brainchild of religious fanatics. It actually got started in the counterculture of the 1960s. In his landmark 1964 book, “How Children Fail,” teacher and education reformer John Holt accused schools themselves of causing students to fail; eventually, he came to advocate a sort of “underground railroad” out of compulsory schooling. It wasn’t until the end of the 1970s and into the 1980s that the movement spread through communities that believed public schools were threatening their moral values.

The boundaries between the counterculture and Christian home-school traditions blurred through the 1990s and 2000s, as home-schoolers from various backgrounds came to discover how much they actually have in common. Today, a well-established and widespread infrastructure of home-schooling groups, Web sites and networks has made home-schooling accessible to a broader population, people who wouldn’t consider themselves either particularly countercultural or particularly religious. People like my family.

His description of homeschooling is exactly what most people never imagine, kids joining debate teams and robotic teams and performing Shakespeare. None of which involves sitting at the kitchen table for 8 hours being shielded for the horrors of the real world. Millman even mentions his own son who did not read until he was 8 but whom jumped into books passionately in his own time. In school that would have been unacceptable, and I am sure many people read it and are shocked that the boy wasn’t forced to learn to read even if it meant destroying the love of doing so. But letting him bloom in his own time, late here in the US yet perfectly acceptable in countries such as Finland, worked for him. A one size fits all education would have been too tight and restricting.

Conventional schools are like the nation’s Rust Belt companies, designed in the 19th century but struggling to meet the standards of international competition today. School boards and administrators should be concentrating on ways to make schools more like home-schooling — not on ways to force home-schooled children to go back to schools. People who are free to think for themselves usually get together and find solutions that are better than what bureaucrats can devise.

Millman has a book of his own due out this August titled Homeschooling: A Family’s Journey. Based on this article so far it is a book I am excited to read.

In case you missed it Tammy of Just Enough, and Nothing More got her 15 minutes of fame on CNN. Not that she isn’t already about to become (even more) famous with her book Deschooling Gently due to come out soon. But it was still cool to see a face I “knew” on the news. She looked fabulous and her kids are adorable! Check out the video and see for yourself.

homeschoolers, news, CNN

Poor homeschoolers can’t get a break.

It seems that with the California case a new backlash against homeschoolers has popped up. I blame myself, wondering out loud in January what would come next. The next seems to be that homeschoolers are now perceived as “elitist and anti-democratic” by some. Sheesh!

Dana has a great take on the LA Times article that I love. My only point of disagreement is on how much discussion was going on. While Dana saw hardly a word of it the California case was something I could not seem to avoid. My Google alert brought me emails full of terror and panic and assumptions, and more than a few times did I find the case brought up when I was least expecting it online. In fact I had to go so far as to stop following a few people as I was getting a handful of fear stricken posts each day from them on the matter. Clearly, I need to hang out where Dana does online.

But back to the article. It’s hard to take any article seriously that uses lines such as

It smacks of a belief that privileged children should not have to associate with the other kids in the neighborhood and that by staying home, they would not be subjected to the leavening effect of democracy.

It is almost like putting up a giant flashing billboard stating that the writers could only be bothered with a few minutes of research and even then only used outdated stereotypes from the 80s to describe homeschoolers. Privileged? Not associated with the neighborhood kids? Not subjected to democracy? What planet are these guys from?

homeschooling, homeschoolers, news

Nope, not touching it myself. I spent too much of this weekend arguing this case and I’m done. So I’m biting my tongue, hushing my mouth, sticking my fingers in my ears and singing “la la la la” until it’s over. Is homeschooling legal or illegal in California? Oh look, something shiny….

Instead I’m just going to link to a handful of posts on the legalities of homeschooling in California and leave it up to you to read them and make your own opinions. Just don’t tell me what opinions you’ve come up with, I’m still over there admiring shiny things. Of course if you’re tired of the topic too you could go hang out somewhere else. I’ve got a party going on at my personal blog you could come to. Or go read the book review I posted yesterday if you haven’t had a chance to yet. Or go answer my questions about making resin jewelry if you happen to be in the know. See, shiny happy things to enjoy.

• Doc gave her final word on the matter, and it wasn’t pretty. But then that’s what I love about Doc, she doesn’t sugar coat things. You should also read her other posts on the subject. Be sure to read the comments too for some lively discussion.
• Dana has a great post on personal responsibility and homeschooling. Don’t hide under an organization’s umbrella and wait for them to do everything for you.
• Tammy has an update to remind us that it’s still not illegal to homeschool in California. Could you imagine the state trying to round up every single homeschooler and shove them all into schools? That would certainly lead to a breakdown of the system on a grand scale.
• Ned Ryun has an interesting take on the ruling that you might enjoy reading. It shows where the LA Times had a slip of misinformation in their article that could be important to those just learning about the case.
• You can read a copy of the case yourself here. It’s heartbreaking, so much abuse on so many levels. This, folks, was not homeschooling.

O, that’s enough for me right now. I’m turning off the computer and going to enjoy the warm weather we’re having. And shiny things, I’m always being distracted by shiny things.

homeschooling, California, law

Via COD:

High-school students here rarely get more than a half-hour of homework a night. They have no school uniforms, no honor societies, no valedictorians, no tardy bells and no classes for the gifted. There is little standardized testing, few parents agonize over college and kids don’t start school until age 7.

This article about Finnish schools is an interesting read. Finnish schools seem to be very different than American schools. They have a more relaxed approach with teachers having more freedom and an emphasis on helping the slower students catch up. The students seem to be out performing us on many levels, and the drop-out rate is substantially less than in the US.

Finnish teachers pick books and customize lessons as they shape students to national standards. “In most countries, education feels like a car factory. In Finland, the teachers are the entrepreneurs,” says Mr. Schleicher, of the Paris-based OECD, which began the international student test in 2000.

And yet the pressure of the American culture is still noticed there. Despite the fact that they are doing better than us some seem to want to change for the worst to meet our standards. Something that I think is a terrible idea. It seems to me to be tossing out what makes them work in order to fit in with a country that is not working.

Some educators say Finland needs to fast-track its brightest students the way the U.S. does, with gifted programs aimed at producing more go-getters. Parents also are getting pushier about special attention for their children, says Tapio Erma, principal of the suburban Olari School. “We are more and more aware of American-style parents,” he says.

There is a video with the article that shares more on this. (more…)

I found this disturbing news article linked at Alas, A Blog and knew I had to share it here.

According to this news article is common practise called “passing the trash” happens in some schools. What it involves is letting a teacher or school employee who has molested a child resign quietly and without scandal, moving them on to another school. Here is part of the article:

It would take months for the agency that licenses Oregon teachers to discipline a Salem-area teacher for inappropriately touching at least eight girls.

To get Kenneth John Cushing, then 44, away from Claggett Creek Middle School students immediately, administrators cut him a deal: If Cushing resigned, they would conceal his alleged conduct — clutching students’ waists, touching their buttocks and massaging their shoulders — from the public.

Cushing signed the pact — obtained by The Oregonian through public records requests — with Salem-Keizer Public Schools in 2004, and officials promised not to reveal the teacher’s behavior if potential employers called looking for a reference. They would attribute his departure to “personal reasons,” the document reads, and make “no reference to this agreement.”

Salem’s deal is just one of 47 similar confidential settlement agreements obtained or confirmed by the newspaper.

During the past five years, nearly half of Oregon teachers disciplined for sexual misconduct with a child left their school districts with confidential agreements. Most, like Cushing’s, promised to keep alleged abuse quiet. Some promised cash settlements, health insurance and letters of recommendation as incentives for a resignation.

The practice is so widespread, school officials across the country call it “passing the trash.”

The Oregonian reviewed 767 cases of educator misconduct over the past 10 years in which the state commission revoked or suspended licenses for misbehavior. Sex-related offenses ranked the most common, and in 165 cases the agency disciplined educators for misconduct ranging from touching students or sending them love notes to molestation and rape.

This, of course, is a tiny fraction of the 35,000 educators who teach, mentor and coach in Oregon.

The state Teacher Standards and Practices Commission eventually revoked Cushing’s license in January 2005. He went on to teach at a charter school in Tucson, Ariz., in the 2006-07 school year and drew no complaints or reprimands there, administrators said. He left after one year, citing “personal reasons.”

In August, he started work at Cardigan Mountain School, a private, all-boys school in New Hampshire. Headmaster David McCusker said Cushing didn’t reveal his misconduct in Oregon when he was hired, and background checks revealed nothing.

Read on >>>

Did anyone else read this interesting article about unschoolers? It is a great article that touches on what unschooling is and what their day really is like. For anyone not certain about unschooling it is going on my list of suggestions to look at. There is a quote from a Dr. Ron Glass, an associate professor in UCSC’s education department, on education in general that I loved:

“The notion that learning should somehow follow human nature has been around since the time of Rousseau,” Glass said. But the schooling we’re all now familiar with, he explained, is relatively new.

“The school system that we have now was invented in the late 19th century and had very explicit models: factories, railroads and the army,” Glass said. “So they took features from each of those areas and created a school system. The school was designed to basically rank and sort people into the economic, social, ideological order.”

But the 21st century is a very different time than the Industrial Revolution, with few remaining factories.

The whole article is a good read, even for those who do not follow unschooling with their children. As unschooling becomes more and more popular it is also being seen as less “weird” and unusual. Many homeschooling families are even embracing it along with their planned curriculum, creating a loose blend of structured and unstructed learning.

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