Why Homeschool: Carnival of Homeschooling - Week 44

This Carnival is a real treat, so jump right in to learn some homeschooling tricks, and enjoy some homeschooling treats.

I was having trouble posting to blogger, so I tried out their new beta version. It has a lot of features I really like so for now you can find me at Alasandra.

Once I am able to do so I will swithch Home~Schoolers Rule to the beta version, don't worry I'll be sure to tell you how to find me.

Recommended for Teens

Timeweb

by Brian Herbert

Book 1 of the Timeweb Chronicles. I enjoyed the prequel and sequel to the Dune series better. The narrative didn't flow as smoothly as in the previous books I had read by him. Still an enjoyable read and suitable for teens.

Late Start to OSSO Season Causes Problems Finding Leagues to Play

As a homeschooler I rely heavily on the recreational leagues for my son to have a chance to play sports. This makes OSSO's treatment of the U16 team especially frustrating and irritating for me.

First off I do want to say that I think Sean has a terrific coach and assistant coach. This post should no way reflect unfavorably on them; as they have no control over the decisions the OSSO Board makes.

The U16 team still doesn't have uniforms, although the other OSSO divisions got theirs over two weeks ago.

The U16 team has yet to play a game and still doesn't have a schedule even though the other divisions have been playing for weeks. Part of the problem is Brian Parton's refusal to start when the other leagues we normally play in the fall do. East Central and George County will be ending their fall season November 4th. We on the other hand are just starting ours.

Honestly I don't see how we are going to get the 8 games in the fall & 8 games in the spring we are suppose to get and that the other divisions will get. I am going to take a wait and see attitude, but it looks like once again Brian Parton and the OSSO Board could care less about providing the U16 with a quality experience although they were happy enough to take our money. The Vice President is doing her best to schedule games for the U14 & U16 teams, but with OSSO starting after the other leagues that normally play in the fall she is going to have a needlessly tough job. The whole problem of not having anyone to play could have been avoided by OSSO starting at the same time as East Central & George County as we have done in the past.

School Districts Trying to Lure Homeschoolers With Virtual Schools

The Madison Metropolitan School District is developing a virtual campus and curriculum. The idea has been in the works for several years, but the district hopes to make it widely available for the 2006-2007 school year. The district is trying to bring back state aid for the more than 400 students currently home-schooled in the district.

While I think virtual schools should be an option, it needs to made clear that IF you choose to enroll your child in a PUBLIC virtual school, you are NO LONGER homeschooling. You will lose much of the freedom you enjoy as a homeschooler and your child will be subject to the same requirements as public school students including NCLB.

Sensationalism & Dr. Phil

The Homeschool Scuttle had an interesting post on the Dr. Phil show " The Great School Debate". It's too bad he choose to portray homeschoolers in an unflattering light.

Presenting, "Radical Unschoolers," as the norm of homeschooling to the mainstream world, implies that all homeschoolers are radical, controversial, Unschoolers. Unschooling is by far the least understood and radical concept of homeschooling, and the easiest target for critics to judge and condemn. To use this family as representative of the homeschool population is sensationalism at best, and deceitfully manipulative, at worst. The film portrays the Unschoolers as spending all of their days basically playing and hanging out. To seasoned homeschoolers, that may not seem a bad thing, and, to some, would even seem a good thing. But, to every mainstream American, who does not understand homeschoolers and homeschooling, let alone Unschooling, the film and the footage shown of the family serves to reinforce every negative stereotype mainstream America has about homeschooling.

I would have certainly thought that the unschooling approach should have been balanced with other homeschooling approaches. There are many ways to homeschool and unschooling is just one of them.

An angry schoolteacher states that she never wants to see her country led and governed by homeschoolers and unschoolers, and that they could never be future decision makers for her and her country.

I certainly hope she wasn't a history teacher. These presidents were homeschooled:
George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, James Madison, William Henry Harrison, John Tyler, Abraham Lincoln, Theordore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, & Franklin Delano Roosevelt. So unless she lives in a country other then America it has already been led and governed by homeschoolers.

their first request was that I not bring anyone, "Under the age of eighteen."

My seventeen year old is in his second year of college, but he would not have been welcomed at Dr. Phil's show??? (Of course having a formerly homeschooled 17 year old college student there might have shown how successful homeschooling is).

My close, homeschooling friend, my family, and I arrived on the big day, dressed as the Dr. Phil show had instructed us to dress: "Professional; Preferably in dark colors. Nothing white or beige, and no prints." We were to be, "Camera Ready."

A careful review of my closet reveals that I would not have been able to comply with their request. It's not that I don't have any professional attire it's the dark colors. My closet is filled with jewel tones and prints.

a huge group of what appeared to be high school students began arriving in ever-increasingly large lots.

Wait a minute I thought they didn't want anyone under 18???? Was this an attempt to make it look like parents favoured homeschooling while their children hated it? After all how is the TV audience going to know where these teens came from. One would have thought public school students would have been in school.

It's a shame that Dr. Phil choose sensationalism over educating his audience about homeschooling.

This N' That

At the New York Times read Artifacts Unearthed in Syria Hint at Ancient Burial Rituals of Elite then use the handy lesson plans.

Visit About Homeschooling , Beverly is hosting the 43rd COH, not only can you read some interesting post, you can find out more about Benjamin Franklin.

Why Homeschool: Carnival of Kid Comedy, week 29

If you need a laugh drop by Why Homeschool: Carnival of Kid Comedy, week 29, where you will find something to tickle your funny bone.

Arkansas Blog

The Arkansas Virtual School -- a byproduct of a little scam cooked up by Bill "Slots" Bennett to funnel public tax dollars to home schoolers and organizations that sell services to the home schoolers -- has claimed another famous victory in test scores. Home schooling works fine. That doesn't mean the state should pay public school dollars to support home schoolers.

Once and for all these aren't homeschoolers, they are public school at home students. And this is why it is so important to make the distinction. And yes, I am sure some homeschoolers did re-enter the public school system after they were lured with the spiel that they could keep their children in the home and use tax money to school them.

21 Years Ago

Wiseman was first a public defender in Newport and St. Johnsbury before she joined the Twelve Tribes. The video, called "The Children of the Island Pond Raid: An Emerging Culture," uncovers what she called the illegal, unconstitutional actions in the raid, and the anti-cult scheming behind it.
Mike LeClair, a retired state police captain, was just a trooper during the raid."A kid said "Good morning sir,'" LeClair recalled on the video. There were no signs of abuse, just happy, healthy, respectful kids, according to LeClair and others involved.
Headlines said it all. "Judge Mahady: State Didn't Have Single Piece Of Evidence" cried The Caledonian-Record.

Could this happen today? I certainly hope not, but forewarned is forearmed.

Follow Up

This is a follow up to my post The Slippery Slope of Censoring Books. The relationship section at Waldenbooks is back.

"We went through the process and returned the section once we found that we were within our legal rights to have it, well within the local ordinances," Roman said. "We think it's our customer's right to choose what to read and what to buy. But we wanted to balance that with local laws and be sensitive to the local community."

It's a pity Waldenbooks had to go through the hassle, because one customer wanted to decide what was fit for everyone to read.

Living Math Forum

A group for discussing math, homeschoolers welcome.

Emergency Homeschooling

A group to help people who are pushed into homeschooling by unexpected circumstances.

The Person Behind the Theory

An exhibit at the Franklin Institute introduces museum visitors to the person behind the theory, Charles Darwin.

Instead of becoming a doctor, Charles Darwin studied to be a clergyman. But his real love was collecting beetles.

This love of collecting led to Darwin's theory of evolution.

The Black Rose

by Thomas B. Costain

Join Walter in Oxford where he hears a lecture by Roger Bacon, which inspires him to use his inheritance to take a trip to Cathay. Travel with him on the caravan with Bayan of the Hundred Eyes. And find out if Edward the First forgives him for the rash remarks he made about the King in the beginning of the book.

NEA Wants to Make a High School Diploma Mandatory

Reg Weaver the president of the National Education Association, wants a high school diploma to me mandatory for those below the age of 21.

With 30 percent of high school students slipping through the cracks of our educational system, educators and political leaders are looking for solutions. One answer worth exploring is making a high school diploma or its equivalent mandatory for all students below the age of 21.

This is so stupid! What about kids who do well on the ACT and obtain early admission to college. Will the NEA insist they waste their time in high school, just so they can get the mandatory high school diploma?

We can use my eldest son and his cousin for an example. Both started college at 16, neither will ever have a high school diploma or it's equivalent. Will this hurt there earning power as Reg Weaver maintains? I sincerely doubt it as both will have college degree's (which are much more important then a high school diploma). My son at 17 is a sophomore in a Computer Science program, his cousin is working on her masters as well as working in a field she loves.

How would requiring students to have a high school diploma effect homeschoolers? An important question to ask before any legislation is enacted.

Related Tags: NEA, High School Diploma, mandatory diploma

Shannon at Homeschool Hacks is hosting the 42nd Carnival of Homeschooling. I hope you'll check it out, some very interesting post were submitted.

Public School System Isn't User Freindly

At least one public school forces homeschoolers to start in their freshmen year if they wish to return to the public school system, no matter how old they are or what grade level they test at.

“I find this a very user-unfriendly system that we have,” said committee member Mary J. Mullaney, who raised the issue after a home-schooling parent and advocate contacted her. Home-schooled students thinking of going to public high school “get very discouraged at the idea of having to begin again all over as a freshman,” she said during the committee’s Thursday night meeting. In one instance, a home-schooled boy who had tested at the college level in math was interested in coming back to high school, but decided not to after learning he would have to start with freshman algebra. In the other, a home-schooled girl who moved to the area from Virginia was accidentally allowed to enroll at Doherty Memorial High School as a junior. She passed the 10th grade MCAS and qualified for the National Honor Society, but three-quarters of the way through the year, she was told she would have to stay at the school four years, Mrs. Casiello said. Instead, the girl dropped out of school and earned her GED.

It seems it's easier for homeschoolers to enter college then it is for them to reenter the public school system.

Hunters of Dune

by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson

Omnius is back, can human civilization survive?
Some questions are answered, Murbella is able to go back in other memory to discover why the Honored Matre's hate the Tleilaxu. Sheeana, Miles Teg, the Rabbi and Thufir Hawat barely escape from the Futars home world. And Omnius launches a full out evasion, we will have to wait till Sandworms of Dune (August 2007) to see how Omnius' war goes.

Mislabeling of Public School at Home Causes Confusion

Dan at Cerulean Sanctum insist on calling his public school at home, homeschooling. He took offense when "real" homeschoolers pointed out he is not homeschooling according to Dan

People must come before labels. When we love our labels more than people, there’s a big problem. Jesus blew that kind of thinking away.

My response

Labels (or names) help us identify things. It’s not about loving labels more then people or using labels to put people down. It’s about having clearly defined definitions so we can communicate with others without misunderstandings.

Ironically Dan doesn't have a problem using labels. Apparently he has decided to do some reading and he had this to say about one of my favorite authors.

Never having read a Dean Koontz novel in my life, I picked up The Taking. For the purposes of my mission, I'd hoped to avoid any kind of pseudo-Christian themes in any secular authors

Gosh Dan's on a roll he labeled Koontz's work pseudo-Christian and labeled Dean Koontz as a secular author. Maybe he should think twice over admonishing people for using labels, since he obviously uses them himself. But honestly we all do. You couldn't communicate with others without labels (or names) for things.

But back to the subject at hand the mislabeling of public school at home students as homeschoolers. Dan has a big problem with homeschoolers objecting to him misusing the homeschooling label for his public school at home venture. According to him we are bad Christians because we want to keep the homeschool label for ourselves. This kind of rhetoric usually shuts most people up. Dan has said they are "mean", Dan has said they are "bad Christians"; so they better be silent and let Dan call himself a homeschooler even though he isn't and even though he is doing harm to the homeschooling cause. Heaven knows being labeled "mean" in today's politically correct society is enough to get you banished from social events, being labeled a "bad Christian" probably gets you thrown out of church.

Why is Dan so invested in calling himself a homeschooler?
From his previous post I gather it is because his religious leaders have told him that good Christian parents homeschool and bad Christians send their kids to public school. Dan apparently has bought into this belief; but for some reason chooses not to homeschool. He seems to feel doing public school at home is OK as long as he can call it homeschooling. Never mind that by misusing the homeschooling label he is causing confusion and sowing discord (two unchristian activities).

Why is it important to distinguish between families that homeschool and those who do public school at home?

1. Tax Money - Public school at home is paid for with public funds, just like traditional public schools are. The public has the right to expect certain things when their tax money is being used. On the other hand parents are solely responsible for the expense of homeschooling therefore the public (government) has very little excuse for interfering with homeschoolers.

2. Testing - Public school at home students are required to take the same test and meet the same requirements as their traditional public school counterparts. These test and requirements should not be required of homeschoolers, who do not receive public funds.

When public school at home parents insist on mislabeling themselves they cause confusion. J.Q. Public wants to know why they are being forced to pay for homeschooling? J.Q. Public wants to know why homeschool Dan's son has to take certain test while Susie homeschoolers children do not? When you attempt to explain to them that Dan isn't homeschooling, he is doing public school at home, they look at you blankly and state but HE SAYS HE IS HOMESCHOOLING!!!!

So maybe Dan should ask himself these questions.

1. Would a good Christian intentionally attempt to deceive people about the educational choice he has made for his children by mislabeling public school at home, homeschooling?
2. Would a good Christian cause confusion?
3. Would a good Christian sow discord?

When "real" homeschoolers attempt to explain to Dan that he isn't homeschooling, we aren't labeling him a bad parent, we are simply attempting to prevent confusion that could lead to the loss of our homeschooling freedoms.

IF everyone agrees that homeschooling is an educational choice paid for by the parents. That homeschoolers do not receive public funds, and that the testing and requirements required of public school students is not required of homeschoolers, then we can converse with J.Q. Public without confusion. On the other hand if public school at homers insist on muddying the water, then any discussion about homeschooling will be fraught with confusion.

Annette Hall explains how charter schools are hurting independent homeschoolers. I encourage you to read her entire post.

The public schools have done everything they can to neutralize the homeschool movement, right down to absconding with use of the "homeschool" label. We must ask ourselves why? Why wouldn't the public schools simply call their students, charter school students or something properly describing their ownership? With all of the words in the English language they could have selected, homeschooling was chosen to confuse parents and blur the distinction between public and private educational options.

If you haven't signed the We Stand For Homeschooling Resolution, please do so.

Related Tags: public school at home, real homeschoolers, independent homeschoolers, labels, We Stand For Homeschooling, tax money, testing, regulations, Christian