Homeschool
We home school. The reasons why we keep doing it are not the same as the reasons why we started. Some opinions and commentary on this page on the topic.
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March 20
I suppose by now, you've heard about the case in Germany. There, homeschooling is illegal. The police came to the home of one family, and removed the 15 year-old daughter. They put her in a psych-ward, because the authorities said that she is "school-phobic" (she didn't want to go to public school). She will be put into a foster home.
She has written a letter to groups outside of her country and Europe. There are international groups that are coming to the aid of the family. I hope that they succeed.
If Germany is trying to return to it's Nazi past, this is one way to do it.
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March 7, 2007
For once, some good news not only about homeschoolers, but for homeschoolers. To to the link below to find the whole story on CNN.com
http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/03/06/homeschoolers.universities.ap/index.html
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March 6, 2007
There has been a story on the web pages of CNN.com, in the Education section. The title is something like "Vanity is on the Rise on College Campuses". I ignored this article for a while, then I finally had to look at it. The contents were a "no-brainer" for those of us who have been in education for a while.
While I was teaching in Washington State, we were introduced to the Outcomes Based Education method. The kids were allowed to retake tests until they were passed, and the kid's self-esteem was all important. We weren't allowed to tell kids that they were doing bad. We had to tell them "that's good, but that's no quite the way that you're supposed to do it", or some such rubbish as that.
Later, while I was teaching in Wyoming, I was monitoring a break period with some of the other staff, and an English teacher said that we've been feeding the kids sef-esteem for so long, that now we have kids that think that they can do anything, but can do nothing.
Today, school is all about sensitivity, and inclusion, and all of this other gargabe that give kids an over-inflated estimation of themselves, and how good they are at what they do. Are they surprised that today's college students are a bunch of narcissists? It's all of this crap that we've been feeding them in the classroom, through the media, and elsewhere, about how good they are, and they don't have any clue about how life is really the "school of hard knocks", self-esteem be damned. We have been telling them for twenty years that whatever they do is OK, because we're all individuals and unique. Life, or the career path, is not a bed of roses where everyone will tell you what you want to hear. Get over it.
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Feb 26, 2007
Massachusettes has decided to become like California (or any other state now covered by the 9th Circuit Court.
A teacher decided to read a book, called "King and King", which is a homosexual fairy tale book. No prior notification was given, that the book was going to be read, so some parents became upset.
The parents sued the school district. Another couple joined the lawsuit because their son bough home a book about families which included homosexual adults.
Apparently, the parents values or morals don't count for anything anymore. The Federal judge in charge of the case basically sided with the 9th Cirtcuit Court, and said that the schools have the right to choose the cirriculum, and the parents have no say. The judge even suggested that the parents had the option of putting their children in private school if they wished. But they still have screaming hissy fits when any one suggests a school "voucher" program. The public schools don't want to loose the funding that they recieve for "educating" your child. Well, if I'm paying for it, don't I have a say in how the program should be run? Not only that, as a parent, I should have some say so in what goes on in my child's classroom.
What ever happened to parental rights? What ever happened to the right to "opt out" of programs, or events, which the parents (or the students) deemed objectionable? Now we have courts on both coasts that are saying that school children are "wards of the state" and have no say in how their children are educated. If that doesn't sound like Communism, I don't know what does.
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There was one state - I don't remember which one - that was considering putting a "free" mandatory preschool system into place.
The first problem is that the "free preschool" wouldn't be free. It would cost the state's tax payers approximately $1.4 million per year.
Another problem is that a southern state that already has this sort of program in place says that it can't prove one way or the other that the kids are better off academically, by the third or fourth grade.
They could have saved the money that was spent on that survey. As an education student back in the late '80s, I could have told you that such studies already existed, and came to the same conclusion.
One mother said it best. Her young child gets a better education at home, and the child's questions are answered right there by mommy. It doesn't take a college degree to be able to teach a child their numbers, colors, shapes, and how to learn.
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There was another decision handed down by the 9th Circus at the end of November, as well.
It seems that a school in Northern California had decided to teach the students about Islam. No problem, so far. However, the teachers decided to get a little deeper than just learning about Islam. They decided to have the kids dress up in Arabic style clothes, they had them memorize and recite Muslim prayers, and passages out of the Koran (or Q'ran). They would also voluntarily skip lunch, in order to simulate fasting for Ramadan, and they played a dice game that the teachers called Jihad.
This sounded an awful like religious indoctrination to some parents, so they took their complaint all the way up to the 9th Circus Court.
Again, the Court ruled against the parents, and said that the schools can do whatever they please, and the parents have no recourse.
Now, if this had been exercises in Christian practices, the ACLU and the Separation of Church and State would have been all over this!
This case also highlights how the Liberals aren't fighting religion in schools. Any religion is fine - as long as it's not Christian!
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During the week of November 1st, the 9th Circus Court gave parents another reason to take their kids out of public schools.
It seems that a California school district gave a questionnaire to some of it's elementary school students. It also seems that some of the questions that were asked were sexually explicit. Some parents were rightfully upset, and took their complaint all the way up to the 9th Circus Court.
The judges then proceeded to rule that as soon as a parent drops their child off at school, they are a ward of the state, and parents have no right to object to anything that they may be exposed to during their day at school.
All parents of school aged children ought to be outraged. The problem is, though, how can they get outraged at something they don't know about. I never heard about this on the news on the radio, nor did I see anything about it in the newspaper. I first heard about this over conservative e-mail sources.
People who do know about this, those who may be involved, or may hear about it in states that are covered by the 9th Circus Court, need to get word to the rest of us. They need to contact their legislators, and write to their newspapers.
There is hope, though. The 9th Circus Court is the most reversed court in the United States. If this does get to the Supreme Court, they should have the good sense to overturn them again.
And yes, I know that I've been saying Circus Court all through out this article. These guys are so out of touch with the mainstream, and with Constitutional thought that they are the biggest joke on the Left Coast.
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"It is worrisome that society is medicalizing more and more behavioral problems, often defining as addictions what earlier, sterner generations explained as weakness of will. Prodded by science, or what purports to be science, society is reclassifying what once were considered character flaws or moral failings as personality disorders akin to physical disabilities."
- George F. Will
"Electronic Morphine"
Newsweek, November 25, 2002
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Grading the NEA
Separation of School and State Alliance
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