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Home Education Magazine
May-June/97 - Columns
News Watch - Linda Dobson
Education President, Wall Street Journal, Israel, Australia, and Japan, Goals 2000
Commentary: Another Education President
"Mr. President, Stop Performing Tests on Living Students," Craig Lancto, The Fairfax Journal, February 10, 1997, p.A4
The text of President Clinton's 1997 State of the Union Address is at http//www.whitehouse.gov/WH/SOU97/
The text of Secretary of Education Richard Riley's fourth annual State of American Education speech is located at http://www.ed.gov.news.html
Does anybody else remember the Republican promises at the beginning of the 104th Congress to free Americans of the Department of Education? One had to wonder just how hard they were working toward their goal while listening to President Clinton outline his second term focus on education during the February 4th State of the Union Address.
Promising $51 billion in federal funds for next year, Clinton set forth a Call to Action for American Education based on 10 principles including "a national crusade for education standards," the inclusion of one million children in Head Start by the year 2002, character education, and "the 13th and 14th years of education."
While Clinton didn't break down spending, I thought you might like to know where some of your tax dollars are headed. Goals 2000 gets $491 million, a 40% increase over last year. Safe and Drug-Free Schools receives $556 million, up 26%. School-to-Work gets a boost with $200 million, an 11% increase. The federal government has dumped over $175 billion into its schools since 1980. Now, aren't you glad you worked so hard to get those tax returns in on time?
Good ol' Secretary of Ed Richard Riley, secure in his job, must have been soaring in the clouds when, in Atlanta, he gave his 4th annual State of American Education address on February 18th. "The President and I," said Riley, "are firmly opposed to any form of national curriculum... I encourage every state and school district to accept the challenge by the President to participate in these voluntary national tests."
Riley is still using the term "education" when he means "government school." Case in point: "Today, more than ever before, education is the engine that drives our economy."
He notes, "Reading is reading. Math is math. For these basics, let's not cloud our children's future with silly arguments about federal government intrusion." Silly? I guess he might think them silly if he can also say, "In the last four years, [Clinton and I] have eliminated about half of all federal regulations for elementary and secondary education, while never losing sight of our constitutional obligations." I for one would like to know where our Secretary of Education finds mention of educational obligations in the U.S. Constitution!
He ends with, "The year is 1997 (one right) - the issue is education (two right) - the question is: will we meet the challenge? I believe we can. (One wrong - unless he plans to stay up nights reading the Constitution.)
Fairfax Journal education columnist Craig Lancto did what many of us would have liked to do after the State of the Union Address: He used his column as an open letter to the President. In summary, Craig asked the President to stop listening to politicians and government officials who "turn to the same educational bureaucrats who have struggled so hard to maintain the status quo," and to listen, instead, to the rest of America, "the great masses [who are] disappointed at the obstructionist stance most schools assume when dealing with parents who attempt to participate in their children's education." He also provided the prez with a recommended reading list, including The Art of Education, Dumbing Us Down, and The Exhausted School.
Better Unreported, Unretorted
Knight-Ridder Newspapers article, Rachel L. Jones, March 5, 1997
"Solid Evidence to Support Home Schooling," Michael Farris, Wall Street Journal, March 5, 1997, p. A18
I've seen several versions of the Knight-Ridder coverage, all just a bit different. For our purposes, I will use the version that appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer on March 6th.
First, in case you're itching for details, here's a summary of stats included in the articles. The two-year study was conducted by the National Home Education Research Institute for Home School Legal Defense Association and includes data from 5402 students from 1657 families nationwide. Neither the amount of state interference (often referred to as regulation) nor parental education level appear to have any effect on test scores. "Homeschool children are involved in an average of 5.2 outside activities... each week; 98% are involved in two or more outside functions on a weekly basis." Educational expenditures per child come in at 1/10th those spent in government schools: $546 vs. $5325. And in a lesson showing what one can do with statistics, Michael Farris presents the estimated 1.2 million homeschooled children as more "than there are public school students in Arkansas (this should have been Alaska), Delaware, Hawaii, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wyoming combined."
Jones states, "...for the first time, backers of the growing homeschool movement have statistics to support their claims of educational successes that outstrip public schools." I don't know why Ms. Jones thinks 1) we need statistics or 2) this is the first time those who want them have them, but a statement like this warns one to read the article with a leery eye. Four paragraphs later, caution is rewarded.
After quoting Michael Farris, president of HSLDA, who asserts, "Homeschooling in the last decade has grown to be an experiment of significant proportion, which has succeeded despite the legal and political harassment it has faced from institutional competitors," Jones transitions to the critic's corner with: "The competitors remain skeptical."
Whoa. Competitors? Why not "fellow educators" or "education colleagues" or even "institutional counterparts?" Oh, I see, Farris called them "competitors" first. Suddenly, the article's statistics take a back seat as, on behalf of homeschoolers everywhere, Farris draws a line in the sand.
Arthur Levine, president of New York's Columbia University's Teachers College, takes the bait. Not enough of a sample, Levine retorts. The report "lacks credibility" because "there is too little information about the success of children taught at home in college settings... The answer to poor schools isn't to go and find a weaker teacher who'll teach at home. We'd laugh at someone who wanted to perform home surgery or home dentistry. Why do we just shrug at something that could determine a child's future?"
Suddenly it's difficult to take either of these guys seriously.
But this "media bickering" does lead one to bigger questions. Should this study have been surrounded with quite so much hoopla? An "announcement" in Wall Street Journal's opinion column, after all, begs attention and, therefore, criticism if there exist any holes. Was publication of this material premature? By the size of the holes, one would have to say yes.
This doesn't even take into account that many home educators don't measure their success (or failure) with test scores and college admissions. Why encourage the public-at-large or educrats to do so? For those whose children must take tests, we already know they are doing fine. Who else needs to know?
It seems some among us believe it's the entire country, judging by this announcement in Wall Street Journal. To what end? The question, unfortunately, begs an answer when the "announcer" claims, "The No. 1 political goal of homeschoolers is quite modest. We just want to be left alone."
Funny. Before the line appeared in the sand, most of us were.
Homeschooling In Israel, Australia And Japan
"No Teachers, No School Pack, No Recess Bell," Ron Shpira, Ha'aretz, December 22, 1996, p. B3
"Bureaucratic Showdown for Family...," Stephanie Raethel, Sydney Morning Herald, October 11, 1996; "Little "Esther's in Box Seat for Educational Battle," same author & paper, January 29, 1997, p. 3
"Cramming for Big Exam - and He's Only 2," Sonni Efron, L.A. Times as published in The Seattle Times, February 17, 1997, p. A10
We begin in Israel with this country's first-ever known newspaper coverage of homeschooling, translated from Hebrew by a very kind News Watch reader.
The number of Israeli homeschoolers is small, just a fraction of the few dozen who have expressed interest to the ministry of education. The interest, however, has captured the attention of the country's government, "the only country in the western world, other than Germany, which does not formally allow parents to educate their children."
In response, the Ministry of Education formed a committee which recommended guidelines to establish home education. (Section 5 of the Education Code already "allows the minister of education to exempt interested families from the duty to send their children to school.") As a test-run was to begin, the "chair of pedagogical secretariat in the department of education" received a letter from Dr. More, head of the North County Dept. of Education expressing his fears.
What is Dr. More afraid of? (All together now, gang!) "Children educated in their parents homes will lack the socialization, cooperation and working in teams with other children... Giving approval for home education might allow the development of fundamentalist and anarchist tendencies... Approvals will put a heavy burden on supervisors who will be required to approve lesson plans which the parents submit, and check to see if parents kept them up."
More's reservations were a fly in the ointment, sending the committee back to the table to discuss his appeal. Then the government changed. Then department heads changed. A new discussion is scheduled.
In the meantime, dedicated homeschoolers homeschool or, more accurately, unschool. Upper Galilee's Amiram and Michal Rozensweig-Gupper's nine year-old daughter, Maya, "alone determines what she learns, and by what means." Ronny and Hedva Kasher's daughter isn't school-aged yet, but they intend to keep her home for kindergarten and beyond.
Orna and Tzafrir Shifron live in the north, as do the Kashers, and homeschool their four older children. The two couples publish a newsletter, Naturally, where "parents conduct an exchange on didactic questions and assert that the decision to take the kids out of school has benefited the entire family." The Shifrons have waited more than 18 months since their initial request for homeschooling "permission" which is still not forthcoming.
I trust we will witness the birth of homeschooling in Israel as these families express a deep, honest understanding of homeschooling, and appear strong enough in their convictions to make sure it happens. I leave you with the words of Tzafrir Shifron:
"Home education is opposed from its very nature to any attempt to create power or political organization. Within the family unit there is no validity to extremism. The family unit can only function if its members treat each other with mutual respect and each individual is given an opportunity to fulfill himself. Home education allows creating such a setting, in which the boundaries between educator and educated are blurred and the parent learns from his children no less, and perhaps even more, than he teaches them."
We've a different story in New South Wales, Australia, where homeschooling has been practiced for years. The Boxx family, "who became well-known advocates of homeschooling after their son Isaac won a scholarship to [Princeton University]," has "refused to comply with guidelines set down by the Board of Studies" for their 6 year-old, and therefore was denied registration to homeschool.
The Boxxes, currently homeschooling eight of their thirteen children, appealed. The appeal was denied. Since the dispute began, "registration for five of the other children has also expired and the board has refused to register the children until the issue is resolved."
"The State has two options," says Dr. Julia Boxx. "They can ignore us or they can prosecute us and a court can determine whether these guidelines and requirements are within the boundary of the law and appropriate, or whether they are in contravention of the law." The family has stated they would abide by a court's decision.
Stay tuned.
Finally, the latest word from Japan helps illustrate why homeschooling is so desperately needed there. Tokyo now has about 150 "cram schools" catering to preschoolers (that's right, preschoolers) "who are drilled in the test-taking strategies they need to beat the 10 to 1 odds for a slot in The better schools."
Just what do tiny little children need to learn to set them off on the right life path? "Children are taught not to cry or whine. They are taught to sit with hands politely resting on thighs... They are told never to take more than one cookie when offered the cookie jar [and] to wear conservative clothing... Children with mothers who work are less likely to be accepted by elite schools."
If In Illinois, Everywhere?
"Medicaid Moneyline Flows to Schools: Medicaid Funds Make Public Schools Providers of Socialized Health Care," Education Reporter, January, 1997
Just as taxpayers across the country loudly say "no" to increased school budgets, leave it to a state Board of Education administrator to alert her schools how to get money through the back door.
The state is Illinois, and the alert comes from the Illinois State Board of Ed. Medicaid Consultant Jean Rowe who notified administrators in October that schools "have found Medicaid to be a viable funding source" to "augment and enhance services for children with and/or at risk of disabilities."
Forget that Medicaid money was intended for those living in poverty. Since 1991, $100 million of this money has been funneled into Illinois public schools. In fiscal year '96 almost $32 million supported therapies, "social work and psychological services" and more. In the same period, another $40 million of federal funds paid claims for Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT) claims, including "identification and referral, initial health review and evaluation, immunization program management and family planning referral."
As if the above doesn't stretch supposed Medicaid guidelines enough, Rowe's alert told school folk Medicaid dollars have also bought "computer systems, substitute teachers, special education program expansion and staff, and new program implementation" among others. Indeed, her boast that "the potential for the dollars is limitless" is criminally true: Illinois Department of Public Aid guidelines actually allow schools to receive Medicaid reimbursement for services two years old!
How many billions of dollars do we spend on government schooling each year? Here's another reason why neither you - nor anyone else - can truly fathom the bottom line.
Goals 2000 Boosts Homeschooling Numbers In Pana, Illinois
"Parents Want Goals 2000 Funds Returned: Town Controversey Causes 46 Children to Be Pulled Out of Public Schools," Jim Day, St. Louis Metro Voice via Education Reporter, December, 1996
As if to prove every cloud has a silver lining, Goals 2000 in the 6000 resident town of Pana, Illinois, has caused forty-six children to be removed from its four public schools in favor of private or home schooling.
It all began when parents innocently (ignorantly?) signed permission slips allowing a new "counselor" to implement guidance activities, like conflict resolution, wellness and self-esteem programs. Despite kindergartners being told to keep "counseling sessions" secret (because they don't understand the meaning of "confidential"), parents slowly became aware of the type of information requested and revealed on questionnaires called "Personality Inventory" and "Profile Papers," like what kind of cars their parents own or if they argue or own guns.
Additionally, a few parents attended an information meeting on Outcome Based Education, shared what they learned with other parents, and 250 showed up for an October 7 PTO meeting to get answers from the powers-that-be. Questions were skirted, tempers flared, and some parents demanded "the return of Goals 2000 funding" and to "rid the district of OBE programs." School board president Jim Michael called a special meeting for October 15.
In the interim, Concerned Taxpayers of Pana (CTP) was formed, 450 signatures gathered on a petition, and 300-400 parents attended an October 14 informational meeting to learn more about OBE, Goals 2000, School to Work and alternatives to public school.
"500 parents showed up for the special school board meeting" on October 15. The petition was presented to a board that announced it would not answer questions, simply listen to concerns. About the only one present without concerns was the president of the Pana Education Association (PEA - an NEA chapter) who stated, "the counseling program was a valuable tool to prepare youth to become productive members of society and that her organization wholeheartedly endorsed the present K-8 developmental counseling programs."
October 21 - regular monthly school board meeting in a tiny room with all parents save CTP spokesman Troy Karback kept outside the closed doors. When the parents didn't hear the call for "Visitors' Considerations," the meeting moved on. PEA prez Lynn Rochkes threw in her organization's support for Goals 2000. Karback presented 76 additional petition signatures and repeated CTP's demand to return the Goals 2000 funds. The school district's Goals 2000 "consultant," George Pintar, told how the '97 money could be used, but failed to mention the amount of the grant.
The board approved the application for its '97 grant, and the one board member voting against the application was seen leaving in tears after a subsequent closed executive session.
"On November 5, the Pana taxpayers defeated a $6 million bond issue to add additional classrooms to existing schools, build a new middle school, and retrofit the junior high to 'support needed technology' and 'new teaching methods.'"
The next time you see an ad advocating increased parental participation in government schools, remember Pana.
Catholic Homeschooling On The Rise
"Homeschooling's Mass Appeal," Victoria Benning, Washington Post, January 20, 1997, p. B1
Counting the number of Catholic home educators is proving as difficult as counting up all homeschoolers, and for the same reason; there is no one central organization. However, information from textbook publishers and support networks reveals rapid growth in the metropolitan D.C. area, likely reflective of the national scene.
Seven families formed the Traditions of Roman Catholic Homeschoolers in 1990; today it includes "300 families in the area and a total of 800 families in 60 chapters across the United States and Canada." Last year, the National Assn. of Catholic Home Educators drew 1000 people and 70 vendors to a convention in Manassas, VA. Seton Home Study School "has more than 9000 children enrolled in its Catholic home-study program."
Many of the parents choose homeschooling, according to the article, "because they were unhappy with academic and discipline standards in public schools and because nearby Catholic schools were full. In some cases, they decided to homeschool after being disappointed with the parochial school system."
At least in the Washington area, the Catholic Church tolerates homeschooling. A statement by the Archdiocese of Washington says "homeschoolers should 'feel comfortable' about using parish resources open to them but adds that parishes 'should feel no obligation' to provide space in their school buildings."
Busy In Georgia
Information gleaned from several e-mail sources including the Separation of School and State Alliance (sepschool@SepSchool.Org) and Home Education Watch (HEWatch@aol.com)
Several introduced bills kept Georgian homeschoolers hopping recently, to the tune of 9000 calls on February 17 regarding House Bill 586 which provided, but was not limited to, "that parents or guardians must have at least a baccalaureate degree to teach their children at home; to provide for standardized testing of home study students;...to provide for a curriculum and lesson plans..." Well, you get the idea. One homeschooling family who complained to Representative Charlie Smith, Jr. received a letter explaining "this legislation was introduced as a result of requests from home study advocates for state and local involvement in the home study programs." (No further details provided.)
This bill was shot down in the first sub-committee on February 19th.
Other bills included HB 405 and S 106 raising the mandatory education age from 16 to 18; HB 486 to provide for special diplomas for homeschool students; and HB 90 proposing HOPE scholarships for home study students.
Smith's letter indicated that the "Education Committee Chairman Dubose Porter is placing all these bills in a study committee to be reviewed over the next year with public hearings..." Still, I'd sleep with one eye open, Georgia homeschoolers.
When Home Teaching Fails
"Back to School," Sara Scott, Grand Rapids Press (MI), February 2, 1997, p. B1
"Homeschooling is a Growing Option," same author, paper, date, p. B4
It was inevitable...a newspaper report stating, "No one tracks how often homeschooling situations fail, and often there's no way to tell." Enter Alex Beck, homeschooled since first grade and returned to school at 13 in the eighth grade. "Alex was reading and computing math at the third grade level when he entered Sharp Park School in Jackson in September. In four months, he has improved 2 1/2 grade levels - an almost unheard of achivement."
Alex's older sister homeschooled successfully, now in community college at age sixteen. His mother, Jennifer Bruner, explains Alex didn't learn to read until he was ten; "that put him behind...he needs praise and something concrete to recognize what he's done. I tried to give him that at home, but it wasn't the same." As Alex's younger brother and sister, ages 9 and 5, continue to homeschool, "several times Alex has been punched or picked on by other students, his mother says. As far as Alex can tell, there appears to be no reason for the assaults." His mother is worried about him.
Principal Steve Lieder explains, "I think, initially, he just wasn't used to being around so many kids." Now I'm worried about Alex.
Despite sharing the studies citing homeschoolers' positive test scores, and statistics of a 1990 National Home Education Research Institute study showing only 2.8 percent of 3547 students "attended a public school after homeschooling and 3 percent attended a private school," we learn "educators worry that as homeschooled students are granted more freedoms and held to fewer checks and balances, cases of homeschooling failure could skyrocket - and the burden for correction will belong to already over-burdened public schools."
Jackson Public Schools assistant superintendent David Reinhart, adds, "The parents get to that point where the kid is in the ninth grade or so - and they say, 'gosh',' I can't teach algebra or physics." This from the same man who says his schools "don't track how many former homeschooled students are enrolled there," yet knows "most of the students he has seen...did so because of academic reasons."
The shorter, secondary article accompanying the first is more positive and points out that the number of home educators "has grown by 330 percent in six years - or from 887 families in '89-'90 to 2980 in '94-'96." (Those in the know say the "real" number is closer to 10,000 because many home educators don't register with the state.) "Many say a July 1996 state law has much to do with that tremendous growth. The law allows anyone to home school for any reason. Previously, religion was the only legally accepted reason."
NM Asst. Superintendent Estimates One-Third Of Homeschools Legitimate
"Legislators Asked to Help Keep Kids in School," Jenny Mattheiss, Clovis News Journal (NM), January 19, 1997, p. 1A
With the national frenzy regarding truancy, educators and enforcement officers complained "New Mexico's compulsory attendance and home school laws are so difficult to enforce that some children and parents virtually ignore them." State Representative Brett Johnson and U.S. Representative Bill Richardson's representative Becky Gear heard the gripes.
Clearly half of this article was devoted to complaints about homeschooling. J.C. Ross, assistant superintendent of the Clovis School District, has no problem with "qualified" homeschools, but he only considers one-third of them "legitimate." "Another third are situations in which the kids are smart enough to get mama to sign the form and they're on the streets," he states. "The other third of them, I think, are cases of neglect."
Limitations on monitoring "the homeschool system" (yikes!) also make the job difficult for Sandy Hickey, an investigator for Child Protective Services. If families are registered, "and we visit at 2 in the afternoon and they're curled up watching 'Family Fued,' we can only say 'thank you' and 'see ya.' We come out of those homes with knots in our stomachs; we're not comfortable with what's going on."
"Representative Johnson told those in attendance their testimony would be critical to any effort to strengthen or rewrite the compulsory attendance or homeschool laws."
New Mexico homeschool advocates, it's time for a little damage control.
Think About This
"Thinking in the Homeschool: Apprentice Thinkers," Jackie Orsi, Think: The Magazine on Critical and Creative Thinking (ECS Learning Systems, Inc., San Antonio, TX), February, 1997, pp. 12-16
California Homeschool Network trustee Jackie Orsi does a bang-up job of presenting to the mostly teacher readers of this publication a picture of thinking skills naturally developed through homeschooling instead of being taught as a disjointed subject in the classroom.
"Give children time and freedom," Jackie explains, "and they'll go off and invent all kinds of thinking exercises for themselves. Any thinking they do on their own to satisfy their curiosity far surpasses what we can elicit with workbooks and gimmicks." She goes on to share interesting stories of young homeschoolers inventing, dreaming, and entrepreneuring (sorry for the noun-turned-verb; it just seems to fit!) before spilling the beans on what just may be the top secret weapon in the homeschool teaching-thinking arsenal: "Homeschool parents also teach thinking by simply living." (I can picture this common sense route to thinking skills knocking teachers off their chairs across the country!) "We've read maps because we wanted to go places; we've learned how to fix a piano because it was busted; we've rolled up our sleeves to advance our causes and spread our charity..."
We also learn of an interesting 1988 study where homeschooled kids were to serve as the control group as researchers Quine and Marek charted "the intellectual strides of the students of Pathways School in Texas as they completed a tightly formulated Piagetian learning cycle designed to accelerate them into the stage of formal thought." Rather than providing a scale against which to measure the accelerated group, homeschooled kids held their own and made the same impressive leap to formal thought at the "young ages of 10 and 11."
"The homeschooling parents, it seems, unconsciously designed a Piagetian program for their children," concluded the researchers, "as they 1) redesigned traditional curriculum, 2) provided extensive field trip-type learning experiences, and/or 3) allowed their children to explore their environment during extended free time."
I hope both teachers and administrators take Jackie's article to heart if for no other reason than to help them understand, just a little bit better, that we educational laypeople, even if by accident, do some wonderful work with our kids. I leave you with Jackie's conclusion:
"A homeschool comes as close to a natural apprenticeship for thinking as one could hope to devise. The children supply the spark, and the parents must simply create the conditions in which the spark may kindle and glow. If my children and their homeschooling friends do not convince you, then perhaps the examples of Franklin, Jefferson, Christie, Churchill, Mead, Lincoln, and Edison will. You see, each of them was homeschooled."
Out In This World
Various articles about homeschoolers out and about in the world:
Teen homeschoolers Melanie and Carolyn Neale "have lived their entire lives on their parents' 47 foot sailboat, Chez Nous, sailing round trip from Rhode Island to the Bahamas every year," says the InSync cover story in the 12/6/96 Richmond Times Dispatch. Currently taking correspondence courses, Melanie thinks she might take "homeschool college courses" and wants to get her captain's license when she turns 18, sail around the world and write a book about it." Sister Carolyn only knows she doesn't want anything "normal," hoping to "perfect the art of guitar playing and be an airplane pilot."
When Stephanie Curcio of Stratham, NH, wasn't available to play harp with the Nashua Chamber Orchestra she recommended one of her students, 12 year-old homeschooler Piper Runionn-Bareford. Piper began with the folk harp at age 8, but "Curcio encouraged her to make the move to the pedal harp because she had advanced beyond the scope of the folk harp instrumentation," says the 2/21/97 edition of The Telegraph (p. A2). Her brothers and sisters also enjoy music, and together the family has performed for community and church events.
The front page of the Cincinnati Enquirer on January 6, 1997 shared word of Terrace Park, Ohio's Marc Sebens, homeschooled until fifth grade, who left high school after his junior year with only a senior-level government class standing between him and a diploma. Marc chose, instead, to play hockey for the Cincinnati Mohawks, a traveling club. On his first stab at the SATs, he scored only a 1520 as he "didn't crack a book and stayed up late the night before." He prepared the second time (looked at preparation books, got some sleep and ate breakfast), and scored a perfect 1600. Future plans include that government class, then business and more hockey in college.
Richmond, VA homeschooler Stefanie J. David placed second in juvenile women's freestyle in Baltimore's Chesapeake Open figure skating competition in September. Virginia also saw three members of the homeschoolers' Pathfinders 4H Club place in the state level of competition in a nationwide 4H poster contest. Congrats to Nick Pajic, Justin Watson and Alison Wade.
Worth Looking Up
- "Mommy, What's a Classroom?" Bill Roorbach, New York Times Magazine, 2/2/97, pp. 30-37 - What, Linda, have you lost your mind, relegating a New York Times article to the "worth looking up" section? I don't think so. This long anticipated, long article was a rare opportunity to say something real about homeschooling. Instead, through heavy editing and definitely through the author's admitted inability "to see learning in any light but the fluorescent glare of the classroom..." I found an article that could have appeared in the Podunk News. It was longer, but standard - up close and personal on a couple of homeschooling families, HSLDA quote, and highlighted criticisms from critics beginning to sound like broken records. The bright spot was a spotlight on the college process, but even these interviews with admissions people didn't escape words like skeptical and concerned. Roorbach begins his summation with "My American sense of the rightness of school, the inevitability of school, the hegemony of school, is akin to my sense of the rightness of the oceans, of rivers, of rain. God made them, right?" Wrong. Fallible man created schools.
- "Won't You Let Him Be My Friend?" Peter Shearer, The Oregonian opinion piece, 1/29/97 - Apparently young Peter's dad had a bad, 8 year-long homeschooling experience, and Peter thinks today's homeschooled kids are all suffering the same fate, for he implores homeschoolers, "Please don't mess up your children's lives: Put them in school." His beef? Friends. While he said little else, one walks away knowing friends - not academics - are at the top of Peter's priority list. As you can imagine, homeschoolers young and old did their best to clear up misconceptions in responses.
Not Worth Looking Up
- "Doonesbury" comic strip by Garry Trudeau, 3/1/97 - an off-topic, slap-in-the face to homeschoolers as slimy Duke's son calculates 10 days at $1000 per day has dad becoming "a millionaire." Duke remarks, "Homeschooling - what are you gonna do?"
© 1997 Linda Dobson
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