Yippee! We Nebraska homeschoolers have our own holiday! Can we take the week off? Or, more fun yet, can I write a curriculum for use in the public schools? It would be my honor to help our schools honor this portion of the proclamation:
…I do hereby urge all citizens to take due note of the observance.
And that observance would be Nebraska Home Education Week. I am a home educator and I don’t know how to take due note of the observance. I guess from March 30 to April 5 I will do something out of the ordinary and talk about homeschhooling all week long!
OK, maybe I need some help with this…and I have only a few days to organize a major, statewide event. So do you have any ideas? Right now, I am looking to National Peanut Butter and Jelly Day as a model since it is on April 2nd. Maybe I could design some coloring sheets? A fact sheet about homeschooling? Make some recipes…wait, maybe that only works for food related holidays. How would you make a homeschool sandwich? Or rich, peanut buttery homeschool cookies?
Anyway, if you have any great ideas, please let me know. Right now, I’m going to contact all three Nebraska homeschoolers I know who have blogs. I’m sure we can make this an event to remember. Even if you aren’t from Nebraska, I invite you to take part in whatever events we decide to come up with. Just give me ideas so we have something to take part in!
Oh, and here is the whole proclamation:
- WHEREAS, The State of Nebraska desires to promote excellence in education; and
- WHEREAS, Dozens of studies confirm that children who are educated at home score
significantly above average on national achievement tests; and
- WHEREAS, Studies demonstrate that home-educated students excel in college; and
- WHEREAS, Home education has a long history of success in this country, helping to
produce such notable Americans as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson,
James Madison, John Quincy Adams, Patrick Henry, Benjamin Franklin,
John Jay, John Marshall, Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall
Jackson, Booker T. Washington, Thomas Edison, William Henry Harrison,
John Tyler, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt,
Mark Twain, Irving Berlin, Rembrandt Peale, George Patton, Douglas
MacArthur, John J. Pershing, Standing Bear, Roscoe Pound, Edward
Creighton, Willa Cather, William Jennings Bryan and Bertram Goodhue,
architect of the Nebraska State Capitol; and
- WHEREAS, Home education strengthens the family and promotes the highest standards
of honesty and morality, which are essential elements in the preservation of
a free society; and
- WHEREAS, Home education promotes good citizenship and positive socialization; and
- WHEREAS, The State of Nebraska recognizes the fundamental right of parents to direct
the education and upbringing of their children; and
- WHEREAS, Home educators view the cost of their children’s education as their own
responsibility and do not add that cost to the burden of the state; and
- WHEREAS, It is appropriate that home educators be recognized and commended for
their dedication to excellence in education and for their significant and vital
contributions to our society.
- NOW, THEREFORE, I, Dave Heineman, Governor of the State of Nebraska, DO HEREBY
PROCLAIM the week of March 30 – April 5, 2008, as
NEBRASKA HOME EDUCATION WEEK
and I do hereby urge all citizens to take due note of the observance.
- IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand, and cause the
Great Seal of the State of Nebraska to be affixed this Thirteenth day
of March, in the year of our Lord Two Thousand Eight.
I’ll outline the week’s festivities next week, but in the meantime, please give me some festivities to outline. Unless you want to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches all week. Hmm…maybe I should model this after a different holiday.
Update: Hey, it’s in Florida, too, with a whole different set of whereases! Thanks Domestic Adventures.
So see, it isn’t just for Nebraskans. Are there any other states following Governor Heineman’s lead?
And The Common Room has put up a list of suggestions!
Hat Tip to Sempre Dolce.
Principled Discovery is a place to stop and discuss news and information related to faith, family and particularly education. Pour yourself a cup of tea and join the conversation! 
Well, that’s easy - maybe all the school kids should stay home for a week…
I like it! But somehow I don’t think the state would go for it. Maybe just one day they could take a field trip home?
But, we will gladly take your tax money and use it…wouldn’t you think that the NEA would be happy that homeschooling is drawing more and more families, since that means fewer kids in school but the same amount of money, thereby giving them the higher per capita they incessantly demand?
Oh, wait…that’s a math issue and may not have been covered in public school. Disregard the question.
I guess you could spend the last two days of the week at the homeschool convention in Lincoln.
Maybe you could have an open house and invite all your public school friends and show them what you do. Who knows? Maybe they’ll all decide to homeschool too?
Seriously, if my kids were still in school we would do a field trip every day and celebrate the freedom we have in home education!
And to Scott, just think what would happen if all those homeschoolers decided to put their kids in school, how could the schools afford them? I know! Raise their taxes again!! Here we have a school district that just voted to give a laptop computer to every student in the high school. They just haven’t figured out how they’re going to pay for it….guess we need more accountants to run for school boards!
Let’s see…there are 2 million homeschoolers not burdening the system, but divide that by twenty five and you come up with 80,000. The number of teachers that would need to be hired…so 80,000 potential card carrying members of the NEA. As if we were able to find enough quality teachers as it is in the areas that need them most.
I still think we would be better off all joining the NEA. Subvert our most active opponent through infiltration!
Thanks for stopping by! Another Nebraska homeschooler with a blog!
You need a yard sign, at the very least.
Ooh…could I go down to the Republican Party headquarters and get one for McCain? I could just cross out his name and replace it with “Home Education Week.” That would look classy. Let’s see if this works:
Maybe I should keep working on it, but it was fun anyway.
Hold an open forum called “Breaking Stereotypes” where you show people that you’re not holed up in the basement teaching your kids 1+1=3, and beating them daily.
I was thinking more along the lines of a slogan.
or,
As my mother would say, “Tacky, tacky, tacky!”
Okay, Dana, half my comment was eaten. I’ll try for a do-over later.
Yes, I know. I tried, but not very hard. I wanted to cut and paste my daughter’s head in there, but I don’t have the software to do that. All I can do is deface McCain’s with scribbles, but the beard I gave him looked really weird.
But then I’d have to let them out of the closet for the day.
I fixed it for you.
And those are great. Maybe I should have a contest for the best slogan for Homeschool Week.
Make a Home Education Week flag with a refrigerator and toilet on it- two things most HSers who started out in PS love about home education; eating and drinking what they want when they want to, and going to the bathroom when they need to.
“Home Education Week- No Child Left Behind…Really!”
Home Education Week in Honor of Mark Twain “Where school doesn’t interfere with education!”
All this snarking around is fun, but on a more serious note, it would be great if we could publicize proclamations like this more — if the public no more knows about it than they know it’s Peanut Butter and Jelly Day, then we haven’t gained much by it. So I don’t think a yard sign is a bad idea. A hometown newspaper article, maybe a big park day with a banner, a community homeschool open house in a gym or civic center…bring the public face to face with real homeschoolers from their communities, so they can see that we don’t have three heads and that the stereotypes don’t hold much water…hmmm…maybe I should write to MY governor.
You know Rebecca, I’ve been thinking along those lines too. I’m actually seriously going to write an article for the newspaper to reject and I’m wondering how successful a question and answer session at the library would be without any promotional materials whatsoever. Seeing as I can answer questions, but have no promotional materials.
Dana,
OK- giving this some serious thought, since you very limited time to prep.
If the ‘big’ newspapers won’t carry an article, the local neighborhood newspapers eat this stuff up. Around here there is a company that publishes 8 ‘free’ end-of-the-driveway newspapers- one for each major community, so when I place ads and such, I use them.
If you use the library, would they send a promo in an email to all their cardholders? Our local library actually has a homeschooling ‘coordinator’ now- how cool is that?
You could put posters up in local businesses like grocery stores, WalMart, etc, and maybe some of the local bookstores would too. There are a couple of cafes around here that have a community bulletin board. I am sure local support groups would be, uhm, supportive, and help distribute flyers.
Is that the kind of input you find helpful?
Does your library have any books about homeschooling on their shelves? You could make a display table using those books…the library would probably appreciate your promotion of their books.
I was thinking about this too. A handout with a booklist and website links would be good.
I just went to our library site to see how many people fit in the meeting rooms- our limit is 35 standing, 20 w/ chairs.
Oooh…I love that idea!
The downtown branch has a few and Gere does. The others I’m not so sure. I just know that every time I go looking for a book, those are where they are located. But that IS something I can do.
And this post is only half snark. I actually am going to put something together and I actually am hoping that as many of you will participate as possible. Similar to Randi’s “Back to Homeschool Week” from last year, but with different topics. It would be great if they would let me add flyers to the display so anyone with questions has a summary of information and some contact information.
Also good…we have a couple of smaller book shops. I wonder if a flyer would encourage them to assemble books in a display, especially if they had an offer from someone to be available to answer questions? I don’t know that I can put together a presentation, but maybe…There are a lot of homeschoolers here but at the moment I don’t actually belong to any of the groups, although I’ll be meeting up with some other homeschoolers on Tuesday. Maybe they’ll be interested in something.
Speaking of the library, you could create a “Nebraska Home Education Week” bulletin board or display, featuring art and writing samples by homeschooled students, pictures of famous home educated people, resources for home schoolers at the library, info about local homeschool groups, photos of activities, a copy of the proclamation, a timeline of the history of home education…
Very good. I like how y’all think. : )
So glad to here this is happening in other states too. I too had wondered what we could do to celebrate the week. Thanks for pointing me to The Common Room for all those great suggestions.
How about: “Home Education Week- YOUR Child Left Behind…!”
If the library has wi-fi, take your laptop and have your website up and running on it. Make a button. I love buttons.
Thanks for fixing my html, Dana. You’re the best. And in case no one has said it yet, “Happy Home Education Week.”