Mom Is Teaching

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.

(more…)

I’ll try to refrain myself from dancing around the house chanting “told you so, told you so”.

According to a new study homework is a “homewrecker” for young children. The study, just released in Canada, says that homework for young children, those form kindergarten through 6th grade, causes stress and burnout with little to no educational value.

When school already last 8 hours each day, and then children are coming home with added homework on top of studying for tests, doing projects, and their work load at home (chores, family projects) it’s easy to see how kids can get burned out. It’s just too much. They’re kids afterall, just kids. Though this report is out of Canada ther are many in the US who are on the same lines.

There is a growing body of research in the U.S. that has found homework isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and a growing number of parents who say because of homework and other demands, children have no downtime; one writer has even gone so far as to say today’s children have a “nature deficit disorder.” Some American elementary schools have cut back or entirely banned homework.

(more…)

As if I don’t already have enough homeschooling blogs in my feed reader people have been passing around this online list of the top 50 homeschooling blogs. There are certainly some great blogs listed on there, and yes I’ve added a few to my feed reader. (Thanks Kim for pointing it out!)

Speaking of great homeschooling blogs on my feed this morning I read and reread this post on state testing for homeschoolers. As usual Dana hit the nail right on the head and explains it perfectly. It is important to think about right now as Nebraska, where she lives, is working on legislation to limit homeschoolers there. As Dana explains it is not that homeschoolers have something to hide nor is it we are failing. The reasons for being against state testing go much deeper than that.

Of course Nebraska is not the only state right now with homeschooling issues. Mississippi is trying to fix something that isn’t broken while ignoring what is. Setting up state testing for the homeschooling students while the public schools are still in need of repair seems distracking. As is “Look over there so you won’t see what I’m doing over here.” There is a great post on this over at Life On The Planet. Luckily her updates says that this bill is not likely to go through. But that I has been brought up shows how some people are looking at homeschoolers.

And of course many of us are familiar with the homeschooling issues brought up in Washington DC after the Banita Jacks news.

It is still January and there are already rumblings. What do you think February will bring?

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Don’t forget to leave a comment to win one of two homeschooling packages being given away.

Though my post on homeschooling in the media was half joking, the fact is that too often homeschooling is seen this a negative light in the media. Especially when it can be linked to tragety.

Take the Banita Jacks story. A mentally ill woman who murdered her four daughters, yet somehow a “lack of supervision” of homeschooling families is too blame. Not the woman, not the fact that she was mentally unstable, and not the fact that there were numerous moments when something could have been done to save the girls before the tragic end. Oh no, it’s homeschooling that is to blame. It is a tragic case, absolutely. But it seems to be another blow against those poor children that their death can be used as fodder by some who disaprove of homeschooling. However it seems to be a trend when homeschooling, or claims of, acompany an already suspicious family. Rather than focusing on the problems that were already there, and missed, attention is turned to homeschooling as a way to take the pressure off themselves.

I have to ask what of the cases of children in public and private schools who live in abusive homes? Many of whom do turn up dead. Yet, a “lack of supervision” doesn’t seem to be the case there. They are seen in school, by teachers and classmates. And yet the abuse still happens. Sometimes it’s the teachers themselves who do the abusing. And yet there are rarely rallying calls for more supervision in the classrooms.

The cold, hard fact is that there are abuse parents. I wish just as much as anyone else that this wasn’t so, but there are. Some will send their children to public school, some will homeschool. Some will serve fast food and kool-aid for dinner while some will fix homemade organic meals. You cannot nail down one list of what all abusive parents do, no mor than you can cast suspicion on all parents of a certain style because of what a few in the same area did. When you being treating one group of people as suspects before there was even a crime commited you are forgetting the “innocent until proven guilty” part of the law.

abuse, child abuse, Banita Jacks, homeschooling

Sometimes the oddest things come across my email box. Take this for instance. The article is a review of the book “Home School” by Thomas Dunne that is apparently the sequal to “The Graduate”. Apparently Mrs. Robinson’s daughter, Elaine, is married to Benjamin and have two sons of their own now. That they homeschool, hence the title of the book and the reason Google sent me this link. But it isn’t just a part of their lives that we see as they try to move on. Homeschooling is apparently an important topic in what seems to be a bizarre book.

According to the article the storyline wraps around the sinister principle who wants them to stop homeschooling. In an act of desperation the ever alluring Mrs. Robinson is called in to seduce the principle. Now here is where I start scratching my head in confusion.

I can’t help but wonder if the prinicpal has a long, handbar mustache that he twirls. And what kind of problems is he giving them that seduction seems to be the only way out? And, lastly, is Mrs. Robinson still … you know.

Benjamin and Elaine haven’t spoken to “Nan,” or allowed her to see her grandchildren, in years, so this scheme is undertaken in desperation. Having invited the vampire in, so to speak, they find it all but impossible to get rid of her. Her arrival also coincides with a visit, for “moral support,” from a family of appalling Vermonters who are considered leaders of the homeschool movement.

What? Is this book supposed to be a joke? Is it a real sequal to “The Graduate” that we all know, or did someone decide to go a little crazy here? Is this the product of some one just wanting to hurry up and get the book written without caring about the plot or characters?

And yet, the best and funniest part of “Home School” is not a critique of corporatism and yuppie culture, but rather the book’s relentless parody of the excesses of homeschooling and intrusive parenting. The matriarch of the family from Vermont tries to breastfeed everyone in sight, and to ensnare troubled folks such as “Nan” in a hilariously groan-making New Age practice called a “Circle of Agamemnon.”

Now I’m even more confused and uncertain. Do I want to read this book or not? I just don’t know. It feels a bit like a trainwreck, I want to turn away yet I just can’t. I’m horrified to see what they’ve turned a favorite book/movie of mine into with the sequal. And equally horrified at what topics such as homeschooling and breastfeeding are displayed as.

homeschooling, book, book review, Home School, The Graduate, Thomas Dunne

Yahoo News is reporting that Huckabee took the Republican nomination in Iowa. This is going to blow up in the homeschooling community online in 5..4..3..2..

Huckabee has been a hot issue among homeschoolers. For every Huckabee supporter there is another against him. In fact the Huckabee issue is one so big the retired from blogging Spunky had to blog about it. It is actually a multipart post, read to the bottom to see where it continues in other posts. With all the discussions about Huckabee WashingtonPost is saying that Home-Schoolers Buoyed Huckabee’s Rise. But could they also be his downfall in the end?

On the Democratic side Obama won out. Though there has not been as much talk about Obama in the homeschooling communities. There does seem to be a small Homeschoolers for Obama group on his website. There is a short but powerful article here that shares why one homeschooling family puts their vote in Obama.

Ron Paul is still a front runner in many homeschooling comminuties, though the other candidates are slowly gaining support as well. I am sure that as the year wears on we will begin to hear from a lot more homeschooling supporters. I myself have plans to write a post soon on who I am voting for, though it will probably be at my personal blog rather than here. Because it’s, well, a personal matter and I don’t want to be labels as a “homeschooler for…”. While I am, my politcal ideas go beyond my educational choices. I’m “a person who happens to homeschool for…”. As if that makes it any clearer. LOL

politics, Huckabee, Obama, homeschooling, homeschoolers, Ron Paul

There has been a bit of buzz online about the Utah woman facing jail over a form she had to file with her local schools to homeschool coming up missing. Really, I hesitate to even mention the article because I have yet to find a source outside of WorldNetDaily. They have a history of being… well WRONG on everything. Their crazed articles insisting that California was passing some law making it illegal to use the terms “mom” and “dad” in schools being one such instance.

I’m curious if anyone has any news articles on this that aren’t repeats of the WND article? As of yet I can’t find one.

homeschooling, news, jail, WorldNetDaily

I’m not usually into celeb gossip but I really like Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith. I liked them even more when I found out they were homeschooling. Not just for the typical “we’re rich and travel everywhere” reasons that most celebs do but because they’ve actually looked into educational choices and options.

In 2005, Jada Pinkett Smith told Essence that the decision to home-school was based partly on the family’s extensive travel schedule – but also on dissatisfaction with the other options.

“The school system in this country – public and private – is designed for the industrial age,” she said. “We’re in a technological age. We don’t want our kids to memorize. We want them to learn.”

Tammy posted that now it seems Will Smith is starting a school. Him and a handful of other homeschooling families are coming together to teach their children. (more…)

The Boston Globe has a recent article that has many homeschooling families chuckling. Their great discovery is that homeschooling familes do not stay at home all day. Who knew?

Well, anyone that homeschools knew that. And thankfully so does most of the community. The librarians that see us coming in all day, the store cashiers that always question why we’re not in school that day, and our friends who stare when we plop down on the couch and complain about what a busy day we’ve had. For some families the term “carschooling” seems more appropriate as that is where they spend the most of their time.

With the numbers of homeschooling families rising and more and more of us getting out of the house some businesses are finally catching on and providing services during the day. Some are even finding homeschooler discounts offered in hopes of attracting more families in during the slow hours of the day. It bcomes a cycle, the more things we are offered the more we will get out for them, and the more we are out in the community during the day the more services we will be offered.

They’ve got my attention. As long as I can wear sweats, I’m still not going to get dressed before noon.

homeschooling, news, socialization

In a new low McDonald’s has started advertising to kids directly from their report cards in Florida.

The advertisement appears on report cards envelopes for students in kindergarten through fifth grade. The envelopes are used to transport report cards to and from home throughout the school year.

Get good grades and get a happy meal? I’m disgusted, absolutely disgusted. Not only are they bribing kids to get good grades, but bribing them with McDonald’s. McDonald’s? Because bribing them with pizza for reading books isn’t enough junk food I guess. Because learning for the sake of learning couldn’t be enough. Instead we have to tell kids that it’s a pain to have to learn important things so here’s a greasy burger to sweeten the deal.

I’m not saying kids shouldn’t have treats now and then, I’m one who thinks the cupcake ban was a step too far. But I personally HATE McDonald’s and the whole “fast food” industry and bribing for grades annoys me. Especially since reading Punished By Rewards by Alfie Kohn. (Great interview about the book here.)

Not only is it the bribing and the unhealthy junk disgusting, but the blatant advertising. Are schools going to go the way of everything else? Gerber Preschool, Coca Cola Elementary, and Abercrombie & Fitch High. Will the walls be plastered in sponsor ads and the text books paid for by huge corporations? And if this is what it will take to fund our schools what does that say about the state of the school system today?

education, school, McDonalds, advertising

Apparently Represenative Ron Paul will be on The View Tuesday, December 4th, so anyone intrested should make a point to watch it. He has quite a growing number of supporters in the homeschooling communities, and with good reason. Represenative Paul is quite the homeschool supporter. From his Family Education Freedom Act that sought to empower families to choose non-public education to his glowing praise of homeschoolers. He’s a sweet talker, that Ron.

Now, I should make it clear that while I like that he is pro-homschooling, I’m still not a Ron Paul supporter. His politics and mine are very different on many levels. Some of what he has to say does make a lot of sense though. Such as

“The federal government does not own our children. Yet we act as if it does by letting it decide when, how, and what our children will learn. We have turned their futures over to lobbyists and bureaucrats.

I support giving educational control back to parents, who know their children better than any politician in D.C. ever will.

I think this ties in a little with my sleep post the other day. When we let some outside entity decide what time our children need to be up and going every single day we are handing our children over to someone else. Often while going against what is best for their individual needs. Some children do well early in the morning, some do not. It’s not the government’s job to decide whether my child should be an early riser or not, and trying to force them into a mold that they do not fit will only cause harm. We might not see the harm for many years, but it is still there.

Dana noted in her comment that many children, once in collge and free of outside forces dictating when they have to get up and go to class they don’t know what to do with themselves. I can tell you from personal experience that without someone hanging ovr my head like I had every day of my public school career I bcame that kid running late to class. Luckily I wasn’t alone in the early morning dash across the squad every day. And double luckily I went to a women’s college so showing up in pajamas and slippers wasn’t a big deal, half the class wasn’t dressed yet either.

Ron Paul has really come out of seemingly no where and continues to gain ground. Early on some thought that John Edwards would be the top contender among homeschoolers, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Their use of tutors, following the school’s curiculum, and their “school at home” approach has seemed to turn a lot of homeschoolers off. Mike Huckabee is another candidate that is using a homeschooling ticket, though not sucessfully. While he has done some good for homeschoolers he has also reduced some of the freedoms for homeschoolers in Arkansas. It’s a slippery slope of politics with supporters going back and forth on who is the most homeschooling friendly.

If you’re not sure who fits your politcal style best here’s a great quiz you can take to find out.

politics, Ron Paul, John edwards, Mike Huckabee, homeschoolers

This is an alert that was forwarded to me and I thought was worth passing on. I know that many homeschooling families with young children have expressed concern over the Universal Preschool bill.

ACTION ITEM!

This Action Item from EdWatch was forwarded by Monica Boyer from Families United Against Government Mental Screening. It is in response to the Head Start Reauthorization bill H.R. 1429 that we’ve been discussing on the UniversalPreschool.com e-list this week. EdWatch has organized this ACTION — we need your help now to protect our young children…

Tuesday November 13, 2007

Mental Screening & Federal Curriculum for Preschoolers
H.R. 1429: Urge a NO Vote This Week

Is social-emotional (mental health) screening of very young children the purpose of Head Start? Re-authorization of the federal Head Start program, H.R. 1429, includes ongoing assessments of children. Very young children will be continually screened and assessed based on the radical ideas of the National Association for the Education of Young Children http://www.edwatch. org/updates07/ 033007-NAEYC. htm . Psychological screening of young children http://www.edaction .org/2005/ 112305-imha.htm increases the psychiatric labeling and drugging of children with ineffective and dangerous medications. This strategy will not eliminate poverty or raise academic achievement.

H.R. 1429 requires Head Start curricula and assessments that include gender issues, diversity, multiculturalism, mental health, environmentalism, and careers for very young children. Federal bureaucrats will be setting childhood norms in controversial areas for our nation’s very young children. These required “outcomes” constitute a federal, centralized curriculum for preschoolers.

PARENTAL CONSENT FOR MENTAL SCREENING STRIPPED FROM BILL
Last May 1, EdWatch Action issued an Action Alert http://www.edaction .org/2007/ 050107-fcpsa. htm to oppose the Head Start re-authorization that the House was about pass (see roll call vote http://www.edaction .org/2007/ 050207-fcpsva. htm ). The House version, however, included a positive amendment that required parental consent for mental screening of preschoolers. On June 19th, the Senate passed the bill without the parental consent requirement.

The Parental Consent language was stripped from the bill and passed out of the House/Senate conference committee last week. In other words, parental oversight of the mental and behavioral screening of preschoolers has been deliberately removed from Head Start.

Diagnostic criteria for mental disorders are extremely vague and subjective, as admitted by the US Surgeon General, the World Health Organization, and many psychiatric textbook authors. They are very difficult to accurately apply to young children. As a result of the New Freedom Commission recommendations for screening and drugging, this emphasis on mental health for very young children will result in increased screening and psychiatric drugging of infants and toddlers with drugs admitted to be ineffective and dangerous for children. (See here http://edaction. org/2005/ 021405.htm for details)

ACTION
Contact your members of Congress.

Find your US Senators Phone Number HERE! http://www.senate. gov/general/ contact_informat ion/senators_ cfm.cfm

Find your House Member Phone Number HERE! http://clerk. house.gov/ member_info/ index.html Or call 202-225-3121 to be connected.

(Who are my Senators? http://www.senate. gov/ )
(Who is my House Member? http://www.house. gov/house/ MemberWWW_ by_State. shtml )

Please tell your members of Congress to VOTE NO on H.R. 1429. Tell them:

* 1) H.R. 1429 continues the role of government in the mental health of very young children and their families.
* 2) H.R. 1429 implements radical curriculum standards for preschoolers in every state.
* 3) H.R. 1429 extends No Child Left Behind standards and testing to preschoolers. (See May 1, 2007 Alert http://www.edaction .org/2007/ 050107-fcpsa. htm .)
* 4) H.R. 1429 extends curriculum standards to all children via state and local integration.

Language that was stripped from H.R. 1429 in conference committee:SEC. 645B. PARENTAL CONSENT REQUIREMENT FOR HEALTH CARE SERVICES.

(b) Requirement- Before administering any health care service to a child (or referring a child to obtain such service) in connection with participation in a program under this subchapter, a Head Start agency and an entity that receives assistance under section 645A shall obtain the written consent of a parent of such child indicating consent for each specific health care service to be performed.

preschool, universal preschool, Head Start, mental health screening