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HEM SUPPORT GROUP NEWS - March 2005 ~MARCH'S HIGHLIGHT
~UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS
~ISSUES TO WATCH
~COMMUNITY SERVICE
~CONFERENCES
~WEB & BLOG UPDATES
~HEM RESOURCES AND MORE
Return to Index
MARCH's HEM SUPPORT GROUP NEWS HIGHLIGHT is Paula Bolyard. Paula is a homeschooling mother, homeschool activist and moderator of an Ohio home school discussion list.
In November 2004, the Akron Beacon Journal ran a series, "Homeschooling: Whose business is it?" and it brought many questions to light about home education in our country. Paula Bolyard, who hails from the Akron area, was invited to speak at the Akron City Press Club Luncheon on January 10th, 2005. Also participating was one of the authors of the series, Doug Oplinger of the Akron Beacon Journal. Paula did an excellent job of preparing for the event. Once there, she took great care in making it clear that she did not speak for all homeschoolers and that we are a diverse group. She aptly pointed out many vital counter-points to the "series" at the luncheon. Paula has been kind enough to share her experience with us.
That day at the Press Club, Oplinger stated that in May '03 he attended an Ohio State Budget hearing and that he had heard mention of concerns about home education from the Ohio State School Superintendent and that he wrote about it in the paper. At the same time, the Kenmore Six story was in the Akron Beacon Journal headlines. In response to these stories, Oplinger claimed that they heard from over a hundred homeschoolers. He stated that he realized they had stumbled on to something he knew nothing about and he found it fascinating. Thus, the research began and Oplinger met with four area homeschoolers in May of '03.
Mary: Paula, you were one of the four participants in this original interview. How did that initial interview go? Was anything from that original interview in May of '03 used for the series? Did you feel it was an exhaustive interview and that there would be an article printed soon after?
Paula: I thought the meeting went very well, as did the other three-homeschooling parents who were present. I was surprised to hear that Doug later described the 2 hours as tense! We spent about 2 hours with Doug and shared all the technical nuts and bolts data about homeschooling. We went through the history of homeschooling in Ohio, the regulations, the assessment process, notification, etc. We were very thorough and at that point I decided that he would have no excuse for writing anything inaccurate about Ohio homeschooling procedures. He asked most of the expected questions about proficiency, socialization, college and curriculum.
We also discussed at length the Kenmore story and tried to make the point that this was not a homeschooling issue. This family had been through years of contacts with Children's services and the stepmother was threatened with jail if she didn't stop making "false" allegations. It's just illogical to make the jump that this family was under the radar screen because they were allegedly homeschooling. It became obvious at this point where this article was heading. Doug kept coming back to the issue of children who "fall through the cracks". He brought up other abuse cases that were possibly associated with homeschoolers and wanted to know how we could protect such children. We explained that more regulations or stricter regulations of homeschoolers would not solve problems like these. They would only drive criminal or abusive families underground.
It was clear that he had already formed a strong opinion about this subject. His theme seemed to be "How do we know you are not abusing your kids?" I don't know whether this was his personal opinion, or one driven by the salacious nature of this series that probably had him salivating. Near the end of the interview he started hastily throwing in wild questions like "What about that little sect of homeschoolers in Iowa who don't vaccinate their children?" We politely told him that this had nothing at all to do with homeschooling. Public health issue, yes. Homeschooling issue, no. As we were leaving he looked us in the eye and said that we wouldn't like everything in the article, but that it would be fair. At that point I assumed that we would see a local homeschooling story in the upcoming weeks. Obviously, it ended up being a bit more than a blurb about Akron-area homeschoolers. In fact, there was not one quote from the 4 of us involved in that interview!
Mary: How did the Akron City Press Club approach you to participate in this luncheon with Doug Oplinger? Was it a direct result of the Akron Beacon Journal "series"?
Paula: The moderator of the Akron Press Club called and said that he got my number from the Akron Beacon Journal. They wanted to have a discussion at their monthly meeting about the homeschooling series and that Doug would be the other speaker. Apparently he had made several other calls and he was having trouble even getting someone to return his calls. Hmmmm?..I wonder why homeschoolers wouldn't want to talk with the press in Akron?????
Mary: What helped you to decide that you would participate? Had you ever spoken at such a gathering before?
Paula: I had never spoken publicly about homeschooling prior to this. I have done a lot of public speaking as a zoo volunteer, but never in a situation where the audience might not be 100% friendly. But I immediately felt like this was something I needed to do. Because of my involvement in the original interview I felt that we as homeschoolers were under attack, and I had some very strong opinions about the subject. I wavered back and forth about it for a day or two until my son Ryan who is 13 said "Mom, if you don't do it, they could get someone worse!" It sounds a bit awful, but I knew exactly what he meant. Don't we all know a couple homeschoolers who we wouldn't want up there representing us? I knew at the very least I could sound calm, reasonable and somewhat 'normal'.
We walk a very fine line with the media. If we are an open book we run the risk of being misquoted, or having our words taken out of context. Many people are used and abused by the media to sell papers. On the other hand, if we are perceived as too secretive or not forthcoming, then we are characterized as paranoid and having something to hide. I think each person has to decide individually which direction is best. I have to say that the support I received from other homeschool leaders was phenomenal! Since I had no previous experience I was a little worried that I might be infringing on someone's turf. There are so many who are so much more experienced and qualified to do something like this. But I received nothing but support and encouragement from the homeschooling community (Mary included) and that helped me immensely! It was amazing to see that although we are an extremely diverse community and at times disagree with one another vehemently, we circle the wagons and work together when we are under fire.
Mary: How did you prepare for the event?
Paula: I joked with my family that the first order of business was to set about shopping for a denim jumper since I didn't already own one and I would probably be expected to wear one. My 13 year old was just horrified at the thought! I also briefly considered getting a couple tattoos or odd piercings to highlight the fact that we are a diverse community. But seriously, I spent nearly every waking moment for three weeks researching and preparing. I'm the kind of person who would rather say nothing at all than to say something inaccurate. So I wanted to make sure I had my facts straight. (and there are a LOT of facts!) I read everything I could get my hands on?.the Bill of Rights, Holt, Gatto, Dr. Ray, public school crime statistics, blogs, legal cases?.. By the time I was finished I had a file an inch thick and had to somehow narrow that down to 20 minutes!! Since there would be a Q & A after we spoke I also tried to anticipate the questions I would be asked and have answers prepared for them. And I prayed a lot! I heard from people all over the country who said they would pray for me and that was such an encouragement.
Mary: You spoke to others around the country that were being interviewed for the series, did you not? Did they feel they were quoted accurately and that this was a fair story?
Paula: Laurie Bluedorn from Christian Logic sent me e-mails she had received from several people who felt they were misquoted or mischaracterized. Researcher Lawrence Rudner said "I was appalled by their personal attack on Brian Ray and further appalled on their attributing it to me. For that reason, I told the authors never to contact me again."
David Swrarbrick who teaches math to homeschoolers in TX was quoted as referring to "a misconception that they are all brilliant". He said, "This is pure fiction. I never said it and don't believe it. The closest I came was that homeschool parents sometimes don't realize the good things which occur in schools." He was also quoted as saying "60% are on par with public schools, 20% are below and 20% are above" He later said, "I specifically said this in the context of raw intelligence and potential. For raw intelligence and potential, children who are homeschooled are pretty similar to the population at large. There were also 2 or 3 others who were misquoted or mischaracterized including one who was involved in the focus groups. It's obvious that accuracy wasn't a high priority here.
Mary: I read that Abe Zaiden the program director introduced Home Education as a growing entity, an educational phenomenon, and that it is causing a great deal of concern among opponents. I also saw that he said that it rivals the public schools and does not enable students to participate in open society. What type of tone did this set?
Paula: I think what he actually said is something like "Critics say that it does not enable students to participate in open society". I didn't feel like it set a negative tone. One interesting thing he did say in his introduction was that I was on one side of the issue and Doug was on the other side of the issue!! Interesting that a fair and impartial journalist is perceived to have taken a side on this issue by a fellow seasoned journalist!
Mary: Doug Oplinger spoke first and I read that he said: "Home Education is recognized in Ohio as "parent driven education free of oversight", yet you and I as OH home educators know there is oversight of home education in OH. He indicated this lack of oversight in his article too. Did he clarify this position any more while speaking? Were you able to clarify it when you spoke?
Paula: I was shocked when he said this and ready to dispute it! But he did go on to explain the oversight that is in place in Ohio, so I didn't challenge him on it. However, he did point out a couple times that there are states with almost no oversight. I think that was his biggest 'shock and awe' moment with the audience. You could almost hear the gasps and tongues clucking!
Mary: You had provided them with a good interview in May of '03 and yet, Oplinger and Willard chose to set up focus groups in OH to gather information on homeschoolers. Oplinger said that homeschool support group leaders from over 44 counties sent a letter stating they would not participate. Oplinger said they were surprised. Do you believe that he and the other reporters he knows would like to be studied in this manner due to a few incidents that may occur in journalism?
Paula: Oh! Wouldn't that be fun!! I'd even sign up for that one! I actually brought up a similar point. I asked how the journalists in the room would feel if because of Jayson Blair and Dan Rather, some were calling for more government regulation of journalists. That they would now need to have their articles approved by the authorities before they could be published. After all, we have no idea what is going on in their little cubicles!
You do bring up a good point. I think that people like Doug just don't get it! They sincerely believe that the government has the right and responsibility to regulate anything and everything and that government control is the solution to all of societies ills (those ills would be things like politically incorrect outside-the-box thinking and refusing to fall in lock-step with the institutional schools!) It is a bit disturbing to think that the people who write things like this actually believe the nonsense they are spewing!! In some sense I think that they are really naive. They've spent so long being trained by "the institution" and serving "the institution" that they just can't see outside that box.
To most area homeschoolers the focus groups were just an accident waiting to happen. My biggest issue with them was that the participants were anonymous. Are homeschoolers so dangerous and subversive that we need to protect the identities of the participants lest someone ends up in the river with concrete shoes???? If an individual is not willing to have their name attributed to their statements, then the statements ought not to be in the newspaper unless there is some serious risk of bodily harm!
Mary: There were ominous headlines and you mention the use of words being utilized to illicit an emotional response. Can you elaborate on that?
Paula: On a great web site called "The Military Homeschooler" I found a word count from the series and it was eye-opening. The word 'abuse' appeared an astounding 54 times! 'Abduct' 37 times, 'sex' 35, 'police' 22, 'oversight' 33 times. Even worse were the pictures. A front page spread with 4" tall pictures of Mary Yates and two other child abusers. A 5" inside photo of the grave of the Yates children. On the day they discussed child abductions there was an entire page dedicated to mug shots and descriptions of these situations (never mind that some were only rumored to be homeschooling and others were of children who were not even of compulsory school age!) Sure there were some nice pictures of families involved in homeschooling, but the visual impact of those tabloid-style mug shots put it completely out of balance. There were literally dozens of web sites and blogs from around the country, which criticized this sensationalist "journalism". I think the universal criticism of this series was remarkable. It went beyond typical homeschooling sites to such places as World Net Daily, The Cato Institute and libertarian bloggers.
Mary: You said that: "The authors of The Fallacy Detectives, reviewed the series. There comment was: "An unknown number may be a million or zero. We don't know. We could say an unknown number of newspaper reporters were smoking an unknown substance when they wrote this article." Please tell us more about that!
Paula: That was my favorite moment of the day!! I quoted the Bluedorn's who wrote the article I was referring to. They were making the point that it is a fallacy to state that something is true because there is no evidence to the contrary. A lack of evidence is only evidence that there is a lack of evidence. In response to the ABJ statement that superintendents and school officials say an unknown number of students receive an inadequate education at home, the Bluedorn's said "An unknown number may be a million or zero. We don't know. We could say an unknown number of newspaper reporters were smoking an unknown substance when they wrote this article." That was brilliant!! I wish I could take credit for it! When I watched the tape later I saw that Doug threw his head back and laughed. In his next turn to respond he stated for the record "I never inhaled". It was nice to have a bit of levity at that point!
Mary: Oplinger left the crowd hanging with his statement " Bottom line: Homeschoolers as a group are like the rest of society. Some succeed, some are in the middle and some fall thru the cracks", how did you respond to this?
Paula: I agreed with the statement. This is true of every segment of our society. Successes and failures happen in public schools, private schools and home schools. Child abuse, neglect, educational failure, violence?these things cross every geographic and demographic line. But if we want to talk about children falling through the cracks, lets take a look at public schools! Are we implying that there are no children in public schools who fall through the cracks? There is not one shred of evidence to suggest that these things happen more often with children who are homeschooled. When we know that 20% of public school students have experienced a violent crime in school, and 10% have been targets of educator sexual abuse, it's outrageous that the rights of homeschoolers should be under attack! They need to spend their time and resources cleaning up their own house where there is proof that an actual problem exists! The bottom line is that parents have the fundamental right and responsibility to raise and educate their children. Unless there is reasonable cause to suspect that there is abuse, the government has no rights/responsibilities here. In 1972 Chief Justice Warren Burger said, "The primary role of parents in the upbringing of their children is now established beyond debate as the enduring American tradition" "The state's interest must yield to the rights of parents to provide alternative equivalent care".
Mary: During the question and answer period, what was the tone? Do you feel that we are being scrutinized more closely at this time? What do you feel each home educator can do to protect his or her right to home educate?
Paula: I thought that the moderator handled it well. He was very good about giving us equal time and threw in some thoughtful questions of his own. Most of the questions were directed at me. For the most part they asked the questions that I had anticipated (questions that we've all heard a million times!) One man in the audience was obviously antagonistic to homeschooling. He said that he had two grandkids who were homeschooled. One was doing well and the other wasn't in his opinion. He asked a question about teacher qualifications and you could tell by his body language and snorts that he was totally closed minded about the subject.
One audience member asked what could be done to make homeschooling better. My response was that we need to make it easier for parents by giving them the freedom to do what is best for their children. More regulation will do nothing to make homeschooling better. The only thing it will accomplish is to send abusive or neglectful families underground rather than comply with the regulations. I said that support groups are the bedrock of homeschooling. Older families mentoring younger families. Parents discussing which materials work for them and which methods don't. Supporting and encouraging one another. That is what has always made homeschooling work and it will continue to do so.
The only question that really threw me was "Walk us through a typical day at your house". Oh my! I think I must have had the deer in the headlights look! My mind went blank! "Um?.we eat breakfast?and um?.we eat lunch a little later?.." It was a dreadful thing to watch later on the televised broadcast!
Overall, I think the tone of the event was very civil. I had a sense that this wasn't personal. To homeschoolers, obviously, it is very personal. We have so much at stake. But for Doug and the ABJ this is a job. Nothing he wrote in this series has made a single bit of difference in his life. I don't feel like he was out to get homeschoolers or that he has anything against us. Nothing that noble. Oplinger and Willard have found a niche for themselves criticizing any and every form of alternatives to the public school. It was obvious that this wasn't written to a local Akron area audience. I think they are just a normal red-blooded American journalist looking to make a name for themselves and gain some national recognition and perhaps a couple awards. I think that it's an important point to remember when dealing with the media. It's interesting to try to speculate who the target audience might have been. I'm sure the average ABJ reader didn't wade through 40,000 words of this topic. Was it written to suggest to legislators that we need more regulations? Or was it written to the members of the Pulitzer Prize board?
The unfortunate thing about a series like this is that it plays right into the hands of those who want to draw us into the gigantic public school net. I am concerned that some legislator in Columbus will be swayed by the emotional impact of this and start to call for a review of our homeschooling regulations. I think that we really need to remain vigilant. This could be an extremely critical time for homeschoolers. There are many who have a huge financial stake in getting us back into the system and many who could gain politically by proposing more homeschooling regulation. I think that the single biggest thing that homeschoolers can do to protect their rights is to know their rights! We have to know the regulations inside and out and be diligent about sticking to them and insistent that school authorities do not exceed them. I think we need to be cautious about quoting our excellent test scores, lest we invite more testing to be imposed upon us. I think that we need to think long and hard about the temptation of entangling ourselves with the publicly funded online schools. It may seem like a good deal to get a "free" computer and have some of the burdens of homeschooling outsourced to someone else. But it may just be homeschooling's personal Trojan horse. As the saying goes "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch".
Mary: Paula, thanks again for all the time you spent preparing for the Akron City Club, your presentation there and for taking the time to share with us here. It has been very insightful!
UPCOMING HIGHLIGHTS
April - South Carolina's Upstate Homeschoolers Unlimited
May - Eastern Prince William County Homeschool Community Center
June - The Organization of Virginia Homeschoolers
ISSUES TO WATCH
Sometimes it seems as if others are looking at home educators with a magnifying glass. Some such as legislators because they want to find our imperfections and others such as for profit educators who are attempting to discover the secret to our success. As this happens, others tend to pigeonhole us so they can either capture the "secret" formula for the success or find any mistake we might make to point to us as failures. What they don't seem to see is that the minute they attempt to capture how home education is done, they completely miss the boat. Every homeschooler knows that the beauty of home education is the FREEDOM to live and learn with each individual child and you can't dictate how that is done. It is a growing process unique to each child and family.
There were a few more cases of home educators being connected to child abuse in the media this month. As always, this is sad news to read no matter what educational choice a family is participating in. These purported child abuse stories seem to be printed by the media from shore to shore, despite the rarity of their occurrence by supposed home educators. We must continue to remind others that this is a societal problem and not exclusive to any one group of people.
How do we do that? I believe one great way to do this is by community service. It may be helping out a neighbor, visiting a nursing home with your local 4-h club, participating in a H.E.A.R.T. group, helping at an Animal Shelter or any other type of volunteer work within our own community. When we do this, those studying us closely must set their magnifying glass down and see us face to face as the unique individuals that we are. Then we stop being an unknown specimen in their eyes and we become an individual that they can get to know. They have the opportunity to see that we are people just like them, the only difference being that we have chosen a different option to educate our families. They see that just as there is a diverse group of people who send their children to school, there are is also diverse group of people who choose to home educate. This way, when news stories come up, others will then remember your family and know that certainly the news is reporting an alleged rare incident that effects an individual child and that it does not represent a collective group of home educators.
I recently heard a great example of setting the record straight for media and a legislator. It was from a Montana report on the hearing of SB 291, The Quality Home School and Child Protection Act. Senator Ryan was the sponsor and he was promoting his bill that would have required MT homeschoolers to register with their local district, take standardized tests in 4th, 8th and 11th grades and would have imposed monitors on parents lacking a college education. The sponsor spoke of this bill as being a way to protect homeschoolers from being abused. Senator Ryan had previously spoken of an 18-year-old homeschooler who wanted to study to become a nurse and that when she was evaluated by the nursing school she was informed that it would take her 4-6 years to catch up in order to get into nursing school. Senator Ryan argued that this was unsatisfactory, and what were homeschoolers going to do to correct the problem if this bill wasn't the answer. As often is the case, this was only part of the story.
The rest of the story played out as 1000 citizens came to oppose the hearing that day. One opponent stepped up to the podium and spoke. She said that she was the mother of the 18 year old that Senator Ryan spoke of. She told the committee that her daughter who is 20 years old has cerebral palsy. She stated that the Senator didn't mention that when the girl was small, the school district and doctors said she'd never speak or be able to read or write and so the family brought her home, loved her and worked with her. This wonderful homeschool Mother also testified that Senator Ryan didn't mention that the young woman is now finishing up her first year of college.
The bill was tabled later that day with a vote of 9 to 1 and it is reported that no other threatening bills are facing homeschoolers at this time.
The Montana situation is another wonderful example of how we can deflect the magnifying glass mentality that seems to be prevalent today. We follow the news, we correct it when they are mistaken and if we are faced with legislation, we let those governing us know that we know our rights and we won't easily stand by and let those rights be taken from us.
Community Service
H.E.A.R.T.
This year, during the months of March and April, many homeschoolers from throughout the country will be making handmade blankets to contribute to local charities, including Project Linus (`security' blankets for critically ill children) and Warm Up America. This is an all INCLUSIVE effort - which hopes to encompass a very large and diverse representation of homeschoolers. Non-homeschooling members of the community are also invited and encouraged to participate. You do not need to know how to sew or knit or crochet in order to participate in this effort. This community service outreach is being coordinated by H.E.A.R.T.S. (Homeschoolers: Educating, Assisting, & Reaching-out Through Service) and presents a great opportunity for children to participate in community service.
If you would like more information please visit the web site: http://www.h-e-a-r-t-s.org/HandmadeBlankets.html or email: MichelePulis@h-e-a-r-t-s.org
CONFERENCES
North Central Florida Home School Fair. It will be held: Saturday, April 23, 2005, 9-4 p.m., Westside Baptist Church, 10,000 West Newberry Road, Gainesville, Florida. Please visit our web site for all of the current information on this years fair. http://www.ncfhomeschoolfair.com/
2005 CHN Home Educators Fair. It will be held on Saturday June 4, 2005 from 9:30AM-5PM at Middlesex Community College, 100 Training Hill Road, Middletown, CT. Check our web site for details www.cthomeschoolnetwork.org Speakers include Anne Ohman, Sam Blumenfeld, Deborah Stevenson of National Home Education Legal Defense and Ned and Luz Shosie. Please mark your calendars!
The New England Homeschool & Family Learning Conference in Boxborough, Massachusetts, July 15 & 16, 2005.
http://www.homeeducator.com/conferences.htm
WEB UPDATES, ANNOUNCEMENTS AND RESOURCES
AHA Weblogs Blog
The AHA's blog showcasing homeschooling weblogs. http://aha.typepad.com/weblogs_blog/
The Military Homeschooler --9 Mar 05
Dealing with Deployment
Read the articles, with linked references, at: http://www.militaryhomeschoolers.com/
SWAPATHGAMI WALKOUTS/WALKONS NETWORK recently began publishing an English version of its Swapathgami magazine (there's a Hindi version, too) You can view it at: http://www.swaraj.org/shikshantar/swapathgami_english1.pdf
HEM RESOURCES and MORE
HEM Resources
Listings of resources reviewed or mentioned in the pages of Home Education Magazine http://www.homeedmag.com/HSRSC/hsrsc_gn.html
HEM's News and Commentary http://www.homeedmag.com/whts_nw.html
HEM's Online Newsletter http://www.homeedmag.com/wlcm_hemnewsltr.html
Be sure to bookmark Home Education Magazine's Support Group page, which can be accessed at: http://www.homeedmag.com/wlcm_groups.html
If you need your listing updated or your group would like to be added, email me at Support Groups Email and it will be added in a timely manner.
I look forward to writing to you next month!
Mary Nix
HEM's Support Group Liaison
Support Groups Email
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