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Newscomm for October 05, 2004
In This Edition:
"Nothing Weird and Un-American" About Homeschooling
"Homeschool or Die!"
Homeschooling and Politics - the D's and the R's
Bush and Kerry on Education
Alaska - Boomtime for Public School at Home
Canada - Home Learners Participation
Pennsylvania - Cases in the News
Washington - ID Badges for Homeschoolers
United Kingdom - Truancy Officers Harass Homeschooling Families
Home Schooling - The Fastest Growing K-12 Delivery System?
Homeschooling Choir Inspires
Homeschooling and Working
Final Words
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"Nothing Weird and Un-American" About Homeschooling
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headline: Home School Not for Everyone; Works for Me
The Modesto Bee, California, By Jake Alabastro, September 30
http://www.modbee.com
In his response to the Muskegon terrorist drill which mocked homeschoolers (reported last week), Alabastro, a 17 year old homeschooled student and a member of The Bee's Teens in the Newsroom journalism program, had this to say, in part - "To my knowledge, home-schoolers never have committed any acts of violence against public school students. Nobody, including home-schoolers, likes to be stereotyped. We shouldn't be mocked because of the way our parents have chosen to educate us. The truth is, we are not against public or private schools. We just have a different philosophy toward education. Most home-schoolers believe home is the best environment for learning and parents are the best teachers for their children. The fact is, there is no perfect education system, but I'm glad that my parents have sacrificed and chosen to home-school me. There's nothing weird and un-American about that."
Ann: What a well-spoken young man - I wish him a long and successful career in journalism if that is his goal. Contrast Alabastro's reasoned thinking with the following story.
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"Homeschool or Die!"
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headline: Homeschool or Die!
© 2004 WorldNetDaily.com, By Vox Day, vday@worldnetdaily.com October 04
http://worldnetdaily.com
"Now, some might say that this headline is a little ... [ellipsis in original] exaggerated. And perhaps it's not entirely fair to scare parents into pulling their kids right out of the public schools, as it seems unlikely that Islamic terrorists will be able to commit massacres at more than two or three schools, probably five at most. Then again, if one considers how TV shows such as "Law and Order" see fit to preach that homeschooled children are malnourished and abused little freaks, it seems only reasonable to point out in like manner that public schooled children are brainwashed, quasi-illiterate savages, with targets painted on their chests to boot."
Ann: Sigh. This headline is what we used to call an AGD - an Attention Getting Device. Look at me, look at me, look at me, the headline screams, and we all do it. We go there and look. But once we look, we should ask ourselves - Is this the kind of attention that is good for homeschooling? Is this the image that will gain friends for homeschoolers and maintain homeschooling freedoms? If so-called "friends" of homeschooling insist on writing sensationalist stories like this one, going out of their way to call public schooled children names in a childish game of tit for tat, is it any wonder that homeschoolers cannot shake that "wacko" reputation? Give me Jake Alabastro's reasoned response any day. Please.
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Homeschooling and Politics - the D's and the R's
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Ann: Although homeschoolers have been been publicly claimed by Republican party conservatives, many homeschoolers are in fact Democrats. As such, they get little respect, not from the homeschooling majority and certainly not from the Democratic majority. News flash for America: homeschoolers are as politically diverse as any other demographic - that is to say, normal Americans. Here are a couple of resources that try to get this message across.
headline: Homeschoolers for Kerry
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HSforKerry/
"This group is for homeschoolers who support, or are considering supporting, John Kerry. Topics may include how families can get involved in the campaign, Kerry's stand on education, and other related issues."
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headline: Democrats: A Teacher and Homeschooler Debate
http://forum.johnkerry.com
"YOU (and others like you) do NOT have to bash homeschoolers or private schools in order to support and make improvements in public schools. Please don't ALIENATE members of this party by bashing homeschoolers and, in an attempt to further your agenda, push for curtailing parental rights and the civil rights of children and families!!"
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headline: Democrats Homeschool, Too
By Ann Zeise, August 09
http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com
"...Listen to the Democrats in the homeschool movement. Realize that helping women to be confident mothers is just as liberating as teaching them to be confident workers.... With a little imagination, this CAN be done!" A list of resources follows the article.
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headline: Purely Political and Truth by Association
Autodidactic Press, © Charles D. Hayes, Fall 2004
http://www.autodidactic.com
"Truth by association is George W. Bush’s biggest strength.... Truth by association is antithetical to democracy. Truth by association short-circuits reason in favor of tribal instincts. Moreover, it leads to the imbecilic notion that a great democracy can be sustained by an electorate that makes up its mind by watching thirty-second television advertisements, pitting one group against the other, while reason is set aside and even ridiculed... Democracy demands more of us than loyalty through association disguised as truth."
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Ann: On the R side, Republican homeschoolers have received a great deal of media attention, particularly articles like this one, originally published in March in the Economist:
"George Bush's secret army (Why Democrats Hate, and Fear, Home Schooled Kids)"
http://www.freerepublic.com
Two other groups of note include:
headline: Homeschoolers for Bush 2004 Unit Study
http://www.hs4bush.net/
Just what it says - a curriculum plan to use between now and election day.
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headline: Generation Joshua Leaving Lasting Mark
Washington Times, DC, By Michael Smith, HSLDA, October 04
http://washingtontimes.com
"...Home School Legal Defense Association started Generation Joshua this spring. Generation Joshua is dedicated to harnessing the community spirit of home-school teens and young home-school graduates."
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Bush and Kerry on Education
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headline: Chart Comparing Positions
The Chicago Tribune, October 04
http://www.chicagotribune.com
"Both President Bush and Sen. John Kerry backed the No Child Left Behind Act, but they differ on whether to move aggressively or cautiously on testing."
Ann: If anyone can figure out what these positions mean to homeschoolers, let me know.
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Alaska - Boomtime for Public School at Home
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headline: Mat-Su District Steps in to Meet Needs of Home-schooling Families
Anchorage Daily News, Alaska, By Megan Holland mrholland@adn.com October 04
http://www.adn.com
"WASILLA -- A 3-year-old Mat-Su School District program that appeals to home-schoolers has boosted the district's correspondence school enrollment from 320 students in 2001 to nearly four times that many. The district expects 1,200 of its 14,400 students to learn at home this year, not in traditional school buildings."
Ann: The story gives several interesting examples of families and the curriculum and programs that taxpayers are providing for their enrolled students and continues.
"This year the state education department expects about 7,500 students to be enrolled with statewide correspondence courses. It expects another 2,500 to choose district correspondence programs. An unknown number of students are being home-schooled without any state or district financial aid. Unless they sign up for a government-run school, parents in Alaska don't have to report what they're doing and their children don't have to take the state-mandated standardized tests."
Ann: The District speaks proudly of its "homeschooling" program as if they invented homeschooling. Alaskan homeschoolers who educate their children as homeschoolers have always done, outside the governmental sphere of supervision and oversight, are barely acknowledged, but when they are, they are alluded to as outsiders who neither report nor submit their children for testing. Is there a nod to the fact that without the pioneering steps of early homeschoolers, this public school at home option would not exist today? No. Is there a resource for homeschooling information and support for those who don't want public school at home? No. It appears to me that this pro-public school at home story fits hand in glove with last week's stories from the Frontiersman which, you may recall, advocated for a reduction of homeschooling freedom under the guise of governmental regulation of homeschooling.
Now, lest some may think that, based on my opinions about this article and others like it, I oppose these public school at home programs, nothing could be further from the truth. If a program truly meets the needs of some families, then I support that fully. I support options that are what they say they are. What I do not support is the presumption by public school program directors that what they offer is homeschooling.
Advocates of public school in the home would do well to remember that the existence of these programs derives from, and is probably wholly dependent on, the continued health of the grassroots homeschooling movement of the past twenty to thirty years. Independent grassroots homeschooling will keep the public school at home providers - public school affiliates or whatever you call them - on their toes, trying to meet student and family needs to keep students enrolled, rather than going off to be independent do-it-yourself homeschoolers. Without a healthy and regulation-free model of grassroots homeschooling thriving nearby, the "public school at home" model will be easily assimilated back into traditional site-based public schooling. It could easily collapse from the bureaucratic weight alone.
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Canada - Home Learners Participation
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headline: School Trustees to Tighten Up Home Schooler Rules
The North Thompson Times, Canada, By Keith McNeill October 04
http://www.clearwatertimes.com
"Home school learners will have to be registered at the specific school in their catchment area to use the library or to join a school team, under a proposed School District 73 policy change.
'I think most schools are doing that now. That's the reason we're updating the policy,' said Joanne Stokes....The change would be the first amendment to the district's policy on home schooling since 1998."
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Pennsylvania - Cases in the News
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headline: Home-schoolers Chafe at State Law
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, By Karen Zapf kzapf@tribweb.com October 04
http://www.pittsburghlive.com
"Two Western Pennsylvania families filed lawsuits last week against their public school districts arguing that a recently passed religious freedom law makes home-school reporting requirements unnecessary....School officials have said the religious freedom law does not exempt parents from home-school requirements and have denied that the mandates are excessive. But Darrell and Kathleen Combs, an Indiana County couple who sued the Homer Center School District last week, say the requirements are problematic because they make parents answerable to the state -- rather than to God -- in the rearing of their children."
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Washington - ID Badges for Homeschoolers
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headline: Controversial Truancy Policy Begins Tday
Yakima Herald-Republic, Washington By James Joyce III, October 01
http://nl.newsbank.com
"A collaborative effort to curb truancy in Yakima and Union Gap goes into effect today despite some community concern about the program. Police officers in both cities are putting extra emphasis on stopping school-age students who are not in class during the day. Officers who find truant students can either take them back to school, to a school resource officer or, as a last resort, to their parents. And although law enforcement officers and school officials argue that the program simply aims to get students into class, others are raising red flags. The American Civil Liberties Union of Washington warns that the program could lead to racial profiling....Under the new policy, district officials will issue identification badges that home-schoolers or students pursuing general equivalency diplomas can show to police."
Ann: ID badges for homeschoolers? That is unfair and unequal treatment, a probably violation of the civil rights of homeschoolers, and an absolute outrage.
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United Kingdom - Truancy Officers Harass Homeschooling Families
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headline: Parents Who Teach Their Children at Home 'Made to Feel Like Criminals'
The Independent, United Kingdom, By Sarah Cassidy, Education Correspondent October 04
http://education.independent.co.uk
"Families who educate their children at home are being 'made to feel like criminals' by Government truancy patrols, which intimidate and harass them, two leading home education groups have claimed. Some parents are now afraid to leave home with their children during school hours for fear of aggressive questioning from the police and truancy officers about why the child is not in school. The Home Education Advisory Service and Education Otherwise, which support home educators, met officials at the Department for Education and Skills last week to demand that truancy patrols stick to the rules after being inundated by complaints from furious families."
Ann: As I said before, these actions are an absolute outrate, a violation of the rights of homeschoolers, and patently unfair.
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Home Schooling - The Fastest Growing K-12 Delivery System?
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headline: Commentary & News Briefs
Agape Press, Christian News Service, Compiled by Jody Brown, October 01
http://headlines.agapepress.org
"...President Bush's secretary of education is offering a positive view of home schooling, which he sees as part of the public school effort. Education Secretary Rod Paige caused some raised eyebrows when he said the Department of Education supports home schoolers. "I understand [home schoolers] to be the fastest growing K-12 delivery system in my home state, so it's growing real fast," the DOE head says. "We are very supportive of home schooling. We think that public education is a concept, not a structure; and home schooling is a very important delivery system in the public school matrix."
Ann: I couldn't find the source for these comments at the Department of Education website, but if they are accurate - I find no comfort in these carefully spun views. Delivery system? What is being delivered, by whom, to whom? "The Department of Education supports homeschoolers?" Oh, yeah? Since when? "Public education is a concept, not a structure?" What would that mean - public school in the home, maybe delivered by corporate America? Secretary Paige's words unsettling at best.
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Homeschooling Choir Inspires
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headline: Far From Homeschool
The Oklahoman, By John Trotter, September 26
http://www.newsok.com/
"Kenneth Ruth could have slept through Saturday morning. Not long ago, like many high school students, he probably would have. 'I was a bum,' he said. That was before Kenneth, 14, joined the metro area homeschool choir, which is raising money for a spring choral tour by working at Dan's Famous Indian Tacos stand at the Oklahoma State Fair. The choir has made previous trips to Chicago, Orlando, Fla., and Branson, Mo., competing in choral contests. 'Chorus has really been an inspiration for me,' Kenneth said."
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Homeschooling and Working
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headline: Time Management is Essential to Home Schooling
Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester, New York, Column "Work and Life"
by Richard Mullins newmedia@democratandchronicle.com October 02
http://www.democratandchronicle.com
"Working full time while home schooling your children may seem an impossible scenario. After all, life offers only a fixed number of hours each day. Add up the time devoted to the job and the hours needed for home schooling and the clock can quickly run out. Still, a number of families are making the combination work - albeit with a great deal of effort, major cooperation among families and a militant focus on time management....'If this all sounds like taking on two full-time jobs, or three, that's not far off base, [Sue Klassen] said. But, she adds, 'Raising kids is a big job, no matter how you cut it.'"
Ann: Often homeschooling is the easier route, even for two-income families. It is nice to see a mainstream writer addressing the challenges of combining homeschooling and employment.
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Final Words
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E-mail addresses of reporters or their editors are now included with their stories when available. Please send feedback to reporters who make you think, who tell a great story, or who have wrong information. A pat on the back or a respectful correction is usually appreciated. As always, keep me in mind as you find and make the news. Please include a link if possible and a sentence or two of your own that summarizes the homeschooling aspect of the story. Thanks to all who contributed to this and past issues.
Ann Lahrson Fisher
News and Commentary Email
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