It’s quite clear even when it’s cloudy, that going on the warpath over words ends badly, and leaves behind a populace no more enlightened than it ever was, much less than it could have been.
Glad we cleared that up! Have a bright week and clear sailing, whoever and wherever you really are . . .

and my personal favorite on this topic of defining and redefining without regard to the kids this all is supposed to be about in the first place, “Dwarfing Pluto and Shrinking Ourselves: A Joyfully Unclear Meditation”

What IS homeschooling then, and what is public schooling? All they all about the money, or lack thereof? Defined only by law and rule, or lack thereof? Are these definitions immutable and universal, or made by parents and citizens, just like every other aspect of government and occasionally in need OF change to REFLECT change?

Are they mutually exclusive, “separate but equal”?

Is either one of them in any part meant to be defined by protecting kids’ hearts and minds, so they can grow up to be smarter, more progressive and enterprising citizens than we are?

What part of each is just pandering to grownups and their groaning?

Should we define these two labels by law alone, or also by what they mean to the folks who choose them, what they want and need from their family’s education experiences, how they live while living those choices?

And why is there confusion and concern and endless angst over this, if it’s all so simple and clear?

And yes, those are good quotes, JJRoss. : )

http://www.americanhomeschoolassociation.org/blogs/HS-PSatHome/?p=142

And this one applies too, yes?

No group and no government can properly prescribe precisely what should constitute the body of knowledge with which true education is concerned.
–Franklin D. Roosevelt

LOTP – exactly. Could go on forever, and no doubt will.

The peculiar part is how any contrast between two things is SO important, enough to fight over, while the overwhelmingly similar comparisons are ignored or even denied outright, as if all similarity were were zeroed out by any difference.

Most things about “parenting” and “teaching” for example, are very similar. Many things about mother and grandmother are similar, etc.

Most things about any kind of “schooling” are the same whatever the program (some homes even have actual classrooms, desks, homework, grades and tests, practically the OPPOSITE of what we as unschoolers do! When I look for similarities, they are all parent and family things, not education things.)

So to me, that difference is much more important a confusion politically and every other way, than taxes and such.

I know quite a few unschoolers and I would say that every single one of them teaches their child.

The problem is, how do we define the word TEACH?

The definition game could go on forever.

I firmly believe in being supportive of and fellowshipping with those who use cyber-schooling or virtual public schools at home. I have done so and continue to do so, regardless of the laws on the books, or what some support group in Sheboygen is doing. But as long as tax dollars are attached to it (and I am including tax vouchers in that description) then there is going to be some amount of gov’t regulation.

As a home educator who does NOT want gov’t strings of ANY kind, I do not want, for the purposes of legislation, for charter and cyber schooling through the use of public education dollars to be included as ‘homeschoolers’. And there is no way on this side of Pluto that politicians are going to grant virtual public schoolers autonomy, so if they ‘define’ home educators as ‘anyone’ who educates at home, then all HSers can expect regulations.

I don’t see why the issues can’t be separated. It isn’t as if we are back in high school where the jocks and cheerleaders and brains and geeks all have to have their own clique. I think inclusive support groups should be supportive, and include anyone who does any educating at home, regardless of what method or means they employ (obviously this doesn’t apply to Charlotte Mason groups, or Principle Approach groups…).

But if we are talking by what definition lawmakers are going to decide the use of ‘public funds’ then leave home educators who don’t use ‘public money’ completely out of it.

http://www.tomahjournal.com/articles/2008/01/13/opinion/01edvirtualschools.txt

JJ Ross, sorry I completely missed your comment. I haven’t been lurking around online as much and my email box sort of got buried.

From a political standpoint, I favor sticking with the idea that parents have the inherent right to direct the education of their children rather than trying to hammer down exactly what homeschooling is or isn’t. So long as I have the right to determine what it is I am doing and the state has minimal power to intervene, I am happy.