Most reader know I have strong opinions about how the term ‘homeschooling’ is used – it is a matter of maintaining our distinctiveness. This piece from the Little Rock Homeschooling Examiner fumbles around with ‘homeschooling.’
The Arkansas Virtual Academy, located in Little Rock, is accepting lottery applications for the 2010-2011 school year.
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This is a huge benefit as local school districts are not mandated to provide services to homeschool children.~~~
Students do the learning at home, but it is rigid and inflexible like a number of traditional public schools.
To the writers credit, she does explain the ARVA’s “downfalls.” However, why not just say that enrolling in a public school is just that – public schooling?
Tags: Arkansas Virtual Academy, Distinctiveness, homeschooling, public school, state benchmark tests
We use the Oregon version of ARVA and have found it be very flexible. We were able to alter vacation times, substitute literature when I didn’t think a particular piece was appropriate for my child and of course I am free to add my own take on the world as well.
The integrated K12 curriculum is outstanding, and having weekly contact with a certified teacher is helpful. If nothing else it makes it a lot easier to meet the state mandates for reporting.
I do not appreciate the holier-than-thou attitude that says that this can’t possibly be “real” home schooling, just because it is set up through the public school system.
Over the years a tremendous amount of ‘virtual blood’ has flown over the distinction between homeschooling and enrollment in public school programs. Specifically, those who have insisted in framing this issue as ‘who is a ‘real’ homeschooler?’ have tapped into an emotional vein that has proven to add more heat than light.
While I hold tremendous sympathy for parents and children being together, the inconvenient truth is that enrolling in a program, whether public or private where families are responsible to the public school mandate is distinctly different than homeschooling.
I would argue that there is even further risk in these programs. By bringing the regulations inherent in enrolling in a public school programs into our homes we are risking the erosion of our overall freedoms by opening up our homes themselves to greater scrutiny and the further regulation that follows. It would be a sad legacy if homeschooling itself were to become the conduit for breaking down the privacy of our homes.
Strip out the emotion and the facts themselves have stood the test of time.