After reading an update on re Rachel L which stated that the amicus brief filed jointly by California’s three homeschool organizations had been accepted, I poked around Just Enough and Nothing More’s site a bit, knowing she would have more information. I have avoided most of the news recently about the case in California because the vast majority of it has been a regurgitation of the same old information by a new group just discovering it for the first time.
So I came across an interesting post. It seems the California Homeschool Network has started an online petition for certified teachers to register their support for uncertified parents educating their children in their own homes. Tammy supports the petition, but asks an interesting question at the end, one that I have heard raised in different ways in a few places recently:
Now, the next question is, and I’ve been thinking a lot about this recently – is this what we really want? Is mainstreaming and bringing homeschooling into the public consciousness as a non-radical idea, something we can handle? Are we ready for the consequences? California Petition Calls for Credentialed Teachers and Parents
To answer as clearly as I possibly can: Yes, I do want homeschooling brought “into the public consciousness as a non-radical idea.”
Ask a dozen homeschoolers what homeschooling is and you will likely get a dozen answers. But there are some general themes which are repeated frequently. Concepts like liberty, family and the individuality of children are well-respected and at the core of many of our philosophies of education, even as we have very different ideas about what those terms mean and require. These are not concepts which I desire to keep to myself.
Even the educational establishment recognizes that you are your child’s first teacher. If Americans also realized it to the degree that homeschoolers do, we would not have the problems that we do in American education. That does not mean that everyone committed to their children’s education needs to pull their kids out of school any more than supporting education means that you have to support public education in its current form.
It is easy to find a treasure and hide it under a bushel. Or down a well. To keep it to ourselves and not suffer the consequences of speaking out. After all, homeschooling was more comfortable when people did not think about it all that much. Back when everyone just assumed the state was overseeing the process, that homeschools were being held to the same accountability measures as public schools and that we did have regular meetings with someone with a certificate. A great deal of the public reaction to the testing bill here in Nebraska was surprise. As “SAD” responded in the comment section of the Lincoln Journal Star blog:
You must be kidding! There isn’t a program in placr [sic] for the Dept of Education to assure; measure; and monitor performance of children home schooled? That is neglecting the value of education and children. Maybe Dr. Christensen has been delinquent in due diligence. What have Raikes and the Education Committee been doing? Who is looking out for the children? Thank you DiAnna!
We have benefited by the ignorant assumptions of casual critics and mainstream Americans who just have not taken the time to think that much about homeschooling. Even Senator Schimek’s own resolution implies that it might have been ok to sort of ignore the homeschoolers while we were still on the fringes. But now that we have become a “group,” perhaps it is time to regulate us. Point two for the legislature to research (emphasis mine):
2. Potential improvements that can be made to existing statute due to the increased number of home schools, in order to reflect current trends; LR 369
I think this has far more to do with the recent trends toward legislatures looking at ways to restrict homeschooling than any particular practice in homeschooling, be it religious, secular or other. The “movement” has simply grown too large to remain uncontrolled.
But this basic conversation, the one about who really should have authority over education, over the family, over the private sphere, is a conversation that America needs to have. Urgently.
Dana, I am just so scared of these people I don’t know what to say. I’m thinking the last thing I need is for them to “officially” know I exist so that they can regulate me and make me bring my school up to their “standards” or else have to send them back.
I just got done posting about how here in Missouri, children can be slapped around without parental consent and DFS does nothing about it. It’s IN THE LAW. And they locked my child in a closet on several occasions. If these are the people protecting and overseeing my children, I am truly frightened of what would happen if they were to regulate homeschooling more closely in our state as well.
http://homeschoolnetc.blogspot.com/2008/05/this-is-what-public-school-did-to-my.html
I think it is inevitable. We can’t have our cake and eat it too. Either home education becomes an ‘accepted’ option, or we stay ‘weirdos’. We can’t complain about the uninformed opinions and stereotypes of the Lessenberries and Ladenhosen, and then hope to continue to fly under the public awareness radar.
Obviously, recognition does not have to mean oversight. We don’t need no regulation,:p and while politicians and educrats view home education as a group or a movement, we need to continue to reinforce the fact that home educators are individuals exercising their individual rights. It defeats the purpose of home education to systemize something that is about getting out of the system.
There is that recent study/poll from … Easton? Ellison? about the public’s opinion of the best methods of education, and homeschooling didn’t do so bad as I thought it might. Folks realize that public education is not Eden, and know that parents are going to seek solutions for their children, and I think most people support that idea.
The problem is, we’re all just a little too scared what the result of that conversation may be.
LOTP, you are right…but that which we fear will be brought on more quickly and without protest if we all just turn away from it.
Mrs. C, I agree with you. And those are the kinds of things everyone needs to be thinking about. How much of what people fear about homeschooling actually exists in a systematized form in the public school system? But because it is “normal,” no one really thinks about it.
Sunniemom, I don’t mind being a “weirdo,” so long as everyone recognizes it as my right. I do think part of the problem is this perception of being part of a “movement.” But movement toward what?
We may not be ready for the consequences of being accepted, but I think we will all do better through the transition if we realize that the state’s desire to control and regulate is a direct result of homeschooling’s growth rather than any specific growth or segment of homeschoolers.
Any specific group not growth. Maybe I’ll have to look into one of those editing plugins after I move.
“I do think part of the problem is this perception of being part of a “movement.” But movement toward what?”
Hopefully towards greater educational freedom.
I agree, LOTP…but I don’t think we can all even agree on that much.
Dana- I was using the word ‘weirdo’ in the sense of a religious-fanatic-child-abusing weirdo, not just a plain garden variety weirdo.
I was also thinking about the difference between ‘acceptance’ and ‘approval’. I don’t give a rip if anyone ‘approves’ of our choice to home educate or what methods we employ to do so, but as a nation that acknowledges that its citizens have the unalienable human rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, folks must ‘accept’ that home educators do have the right to direct and determine the path of their children’s educations, or they are denying a basic human right.
Those who have of late criticized and disparaged home educators don’t seem to understand that their approval is not necessary, but their acceptance is. And they also don’t seem to understand that their desire to legislate what is and isn’t normal is going to bite them on the toochas.
There are plenty of things I don’t approve of but will accept as another person’s private choice. Tattoos and Boston Terriers, for starters. And especially a tattoo of a Boston Terrier. Ick.
And to clarify further- when I talk about rights and privacy etc… obviously I am not speaking of behavior that would harm another person or deprive them of their property.
Dana – To answer as clearly as I possibly can: Yes, I do want homeschooling brought “into the public consciousness as a non-radical idea.”
And I agree. Perhaps it would lend itself to homeschoolers feeling less like they have to constantly defend their choice.
That some homeschoolers are afraid of the idea speaks volumes for how badly we actually need to stand up and say (and perhaps even prove – it’s not like the evidence isn’t there to support it)that homeschooling is a viable and acceptable option, not just a radical perspective.
The only way to elminate the fear on both sides is to engage in honest, open and intelligent dialogues on the matter.
I have no clue what toochas are and I’m not going to ask.
Mrs. C- it’s a silly word for behind, butt, backside, derriere, gluteus maximus… pronounced took-us. Proper usage- “Get your toochas back in this house right now!”
Zayna- I’d say that while I am not afraid of folks being conscious of public education, I am not thrilled with the idea that every time something comes to the attention of legislators, they think they have to form committees and start thinking up rules, regulations, and red tape. They can’t seem to abide the citizenry being independent of gov’t. They’re like an obnoxious mother-in-law who refuses to acknowledge that the apron strings have been CUT.
We’ve been normal for a while. It’s the rest of the world that needs to get a clue.
It is normal to spend time with your children and enjoy your life. Really.
Being a Mom or Dad at home with the kids is a terrific and normal thing to do.
Raising children who think for themselves and may not end up happily plugging away at some job they hate because they figure out something better — that’s normal too.
It’s the other way — shipping them off to be institutionalized and dumbed down — that is unhealthy and abnormal. It’s just that we’ve been told the opposite for so long we doubt ourselves.
Nance
Nance, I was thinking of that this afternoon as I watched the first grade end of the year field trip kids run through the children’s museum while we were there. They weren’t bad or anything, the zoo was well-managed.
But there is so much that is so much apart of the school “experience” that we all went through that we think of it as normal. And we begin thinking as if kids are missing out on something, even if it is negative. The system is so much ingrained that it is difficult to think that there could be another way.
Instead, suspicion is cast on all who try.
Catching up over here…
I agree, I suppose the conversation needs to happen, and this is a better choice than avoiding the issue. Not that I look forward to such a conversation, because sometimes things get worse before they get better.
Yes…but I think it is better now while we still have some respect for principles of freedom.
The American Jewish experience is “educational” along these lines:
Home education is both radical AND traditional, both private and public, academic and practical, political and principled, etc.
Any kind of education has both individual and institutional effects, both pro and con. Conversations based on that reality therefore, will be the most useful.
Is home education turning into a form of sacred secularism . . .? What shared identity do homeschoolers in this schoolish culture really want and need, for survival? Do we need more changing to fit in or changing to stand out, both, neither?
And can we stand each other while we’re doing it?
Can we stand each other? Not sure that we have to. Rebecca of Little Homeschool on the Prairie had an interesting post on the matter a while ago. I’ll dig it up later and see if it is relevant.
JJ- I think I see what you are saying, and no analogy is perfect, so I don’t like pickin’ at this one, but I am not sure about comparing home education to a nationality or cultural identity. Homeschooling, IMO, isn’t a culture, but an idea, a practice. There are no rites, ceremonies, wardrobe requirements (no, not even a blue jean jumper), or particular unifying theme. The only similarity I see all homeschoolers embracing is the idea that parents can and should be free to direct their children’s education.
So I don’t believe we really need a shared identity, or recognition as a ‘movement’. What should be acknowledged is that home education, in whatever form it takes, is a viable option based on the fact that the state does not have the power to direct or intervene in the lives of the citizenry until they evidence criminal behavior.
I also don’t have a problem tolerating anyone who is not doing something immoral, unethical, or illegal. I am not suspicious of strangers, corporations, or even gov’t- but I will act accordingly when someone’s behavior indicates that they cannot be trusted.
The idea of being mainstream does not necessarily have to mean that home educators unite in methodology or have a national organization for the purposes of representation. I already have Senators and Representatives elected from my state who are to represent the best interests and wishes of the citizens, and if we are to honor the principles in the Constitution, home education is just one more way that folks employ to enjoy their lives and become the best they can be.
I do like the idea of home education becoming so normal that it isn’t targeted by the media as an ooh-aah to throw in a news story for reaction. They don’t make a big deal if someone in the news is blonde or from Poughkeepsie, KWIM?