Will Home Schooling Become Illegal?

[deep]

In this case, the parents of a student had enrolled her in Sunland Christian School, a private home schooling program. In his opinion, Judge Croskey called this action a “ruse of enrolling [children] in a private school and then letting them stay home and be taught by a non-credentialed parent.”

Brad Dacus, president of the Sacramento-based Pacific Justice Institute (PJI), said it should be noted that this Christian school “has been in full compliance with the requirements of the law for more than 20 years.” PJI, which is a legal defense organization specializing in the defense of religious freedom and parental rights, is representing the family in this case.

The ruling, combined with Judge Croskey’s cautionary warnings, has had a chilling effect on home-schooling parents throughout the nation. Through the years, these families have seen examples of far-reaching efforts that attempt to quell the rights of parents to choose the way in which their children are educated.







second article here




I do have concerns about home schooling

I do think there has to be standards and testing
to qualify a student for University.

 

[deep]

I do think there has to be standards and testing
to qualify a student for University.

perhaps

we should allow home schooling for college

it would be less expensive

 

[the iron horse]

It will if more and more people keep believing that government should tell us what we should do in our personal lives and family.

To some this means security, control, and comfort

To others...it's a scary Brave New World

 

[anitram]

I am not familiar enough with US constitutional law to really comment on the court's holding. I might pull up the case and take a look at it though, as it sounds interesting.

I would not have my children home schooled. That said, my best friend at law school was home schooled during high school and she is perhaps the most extraordinary woman I've met of my age. So I think in certain circumstances it may be appropriate.

 

[melon]

It will if more and more people keep believing that government should tell us what we should do in our personal lives and family.

To some this means security, control, and comfort

To others...it's a scary Brave New World

To me, this is just overly broad, fearmongering nonsense.

Education has to have standards; if it does not, then education is effectively worthless, because, without standards, it will have to legitimize nonsense, which is antithetical to the very notion of education.

As both deep and anitram have noted, as much, homeschooling, itself, isn't inherently bad, because there have been some very bright people that have come out of it. On the other hand, there's also examples of homeschooled children who are, very clearly, "being left behind" by parents who have no business being teachers. And, to me, that is tantamount to child abuse. No parent has an inalienable right to abuse their children as they see fit.

 

[watergate]

I've worked for over ten years in education and here is what I've observed with what is wrong with the education system in America, but there are four major problems.
1. The Colleges of Education Departments come up with the theory that children are dumber than they are and can't handle failure because it would ruin their self esteem. As a result American education is dumbed down, and children are tracked into special education programs drugged on speed which set them up to be functional illiterates.
2. There are lots of Disney Land parents in America that believe in being their children's friends and bail the child out rather than have the child take responsibility. Then there are the parents that micromanage their children's lives and once the child is in college these parents are a pain in the ass. These parents will contact professors about their children's grades. The children of these parents are doomed because their parents are going to micro manage them for the rest of their lives.
Then there are the home schooled children whose parents send them to college full time at the age of 12, 14 or 16. From what I've seen is that these children are socially isolated because most college students don't want to hang out with them, and these children don't have the social maturity to handle a college atmosphere.
3. America hasn't spend money on schools on the federal level for 27 years. As a result American children are going to schools in buildings that are falling apart, over crowed and using ten year old text books. The message that children gets is that Americans don't care about their education. On the local and college level the administration is paid way too much money and waste too much money on garbage that should be spent in the classrooms. The argument that they would make more money in the private sector, so the should be paid CEO salaries is stupid.
The no child left behind is a failure because it only teaches how to take a ACT or SAT. Instead the education system should teach more subjects such as world history, civics, English, languages, math, sciences, literature etc. Use harder textbooks, research papers and give more homework. My grandfather was an educator and my family has text books from the 19th to early 20th century. These textbooks show that the expectations were tougher and covered more material than today's textbooks.
The ditto sheets need to go too, because the only thing that seek and find puzzles teach is how to do mindless office work.

 

[watergate]

Sorry I went on a rant about education in my last thread. On home schooling watch the movie Jesus Camp. The best education is a Jesuit education or a Catholic school education. The nuns will scare you into learning and make you feel guility for everything.

 

[BVS]

As long as there are standards placed, and they are the same standards placed on "legit" schools, and the parents place as much of a priority on peer interaction programs such as sports, etc in the child's upbringing than I am fine with it...

 

[verte76]

I just saw an email about home schooling. It was on one of my Aspergers Lists.

 

[CTU2fan]

As both deep and anitram have noted, as much, homeschooling, itself, isn't inherently bad, because there have been some very bright people that have come out of it. On the other hand, there's also examples of homeschooled children who are, very clearly, "being left behind" by parents who have no business being teachers. And, to me, that is tantamount to child abuse. No parent has an inalienable right to abuse their children as they see fit.

Agreed with this 100%. Homeschooling in itself isn't a problem if the parents are qualified to do it, but in too many cases it's just an excuse to keep children home and fill them with crackpot ideas about there never being any dinosaurs etc. As usual it's the religious wingnuts that make legitimate homeschooling look bad.

 

[MadelynIris]

Just an example...

In our county, year after year, the highest ACT scores are achieved by the homeschoolers.

 

[BVS]

Just an example...

In our county, year after year, the highest ACT scores are achieved by the homeschoolers.

I'd be interested in seeing these numbers. For I'd suspect that you are right and that out of all the homeschoolers there would be a small percentage that do rank in the highest ACT scores, etc and then the rest would probably rank fairly low.

 

[melon]

The best education is a Jesuit education or a Catholic school education. The nuns will scare you into learning and make you feel guility for everything.

FYI, there are very few nuns in Catholic schools today. Oddly enough, they are too expensive and there's too few of them left. They may have taken a vow of poverty, but they still get paid a salary that gets sent to their "mother house" (at least, that's what they are called around here). I can't comment on Jesuit Catholic schools, as I never went to one, but I know that they are held in high regard.

 

[randhail]

Just an example...

In our county, year after year, the highest ACT scores are achieved by the homeschoolers.

and they do pretty well in the National Spelling Bee every year, so they've got that going for them.

 

[MadelynIris]

BVS, just do your own google searches. Apparently this streak has been nationwide for 10 years (since they added 'homeschool' as a tracking option).

Their composite scores as a group, outperform the composite scores as a group of non-homeschoolers.

 

[clarityat3am]

All of my younger siblings were home-schooled. As far as I'm concerned they had more enriching experiences than anyone going to a public school. There was a network of home schoolers that they were associated with, so it wasn't just their own parents teaching them.