Archive for December, 2005

Home education can help prevent bullying

BevK December 30th, 2005

http://www.onlineopinion….sp?article=3977

This opinion piece starts with a pretty horrific story from Australia.

During the holidays Marie Bentham cried as she told her family about being bullied at school. Her concerned mother had already contacted the school which had followed its bullying policy and fully investigated the incidents. The bullying had continued. The day before school resumed, Marie refused to go back. Her mother was unsure how to deal with the situation and sent her to bed, convinced that children must go to school. Eight-year-old Marie Bentham strangled herself with her skipping rope that night - it was her only way to ensure she would never have to face those bullies again.

More from the article:

Children need to learn skills to enable them to cope with bullies in later life, and home education provides a much more respectful environment to learn them. Children absorb values, beliefs and morals from those around them. They can learn these more effectively in the safe environment of home and naturally widening social circle as they get older. Ideally their parents will model assertive behaviour and conflict resolution skills and family relationships will inevitably offer endless opportunities to practice them. Children can learn to confidently communicate and stand up for their point of view in a supportive and safe environment.

Home schooling - Closing loophole in law might not be necessary to prevent truancy

BevK December 30th, 2005

http://www.argusleader.co…1/51229024/1052

No, parents should not use home schooling as a way to avoid prosecution under state truancy laws.

But let’s be careful with any legislation – such as the Sioux Falls School District is looking at – to prevent that. South Dakota, and the district itself, already have shown themselves to be less than supportive of home schooling. We need to be sure we’re actually addressing a real problem and doing so in the appropriate way.

I agree.

First, we don’t know how many cases there are each year in South Dakota or how widespread the problem is. Second, we already might have a solution. Costain pointed out that judges already have the authority to overrule home-school applications, even if school districts are required to accept them.

Maybe all we need to do is make sure a judge sees the home-schooling application for any family facing legal trouble for truancy. That way, it’s out of the hands of the school district entirely.

I thought there must be some solution that doesn’t require more regulation for homeschoolers.

Homeschoolers and Sports in PA

BevK December 30th, 2005

http://www.yorkdispatch.com/local/ci_3357402

Districts working to include homeschoolers
State mandate pushes all schools to allow kids into sports, other activities

The real trick is always in the implementation. When you work with a school district that sees homeschool participation as a plus for all parties, things work so much better. When districts are forced against their will, you can run into bureaucrats that still make life difficult. Sometimes, not always. I hope that for homeschoolers sakes in PA that more districts see this as an opportunity to serve homeschoolers.

Sue Rothermel said she thinks her homeschooled children should be allowed to play sports at Dallastown Area public schools.

After all, her family pays taxes.

But homeschooling five boys doesn’t leave much time, so she’ll decide whether her children will participate based on the amount of paperwork required.

“It could be a real pain in the neck if they began to require a ridiculous amount of documentation,” she said.

Among the county’s 16 school districts, Dallastown is one of nine that do not allow homeschoolers to participate in extracurricular activities.

But school districts are drafting policies to do so in response to a bill signed by Gov. Ed Rendell on Nov. 10. The bill orders the state’s public school districts to allow homeschooled children to participate in extracurricular sports and activities offered by the districts where they live.

The new law includes language to make sure homeschoolers meet the same requirements as traditional students.

Home schooling used as truancy loophole

BevK December 28th, 2005

http://news.monstersandcr…ruancy_loophole

A Sioux Falls school administrator says a state law that allows parents to educate their children at home is being used as a truancy loophole.

Bill Smith, director of instructional support services for the Sioux Falls School District, said the district sees about 10 cases a year in which parents file a request to home school their child to avoid being prosecuted because their child is not going to school, the Sioux Falls Argus reported.

The district is considering submitting a proposed change in law that would stop parents who are in legal trouble because their child is truant from being able to file for home school status.

This is not new. This quote comes from an article in the Southern Illinoisan in April 2005, “Home-school mom charged with allowing truancy.”

“It’s what I call an end around,” Garnati said. “These are parents who have no intention of home-schooling their child. Unfortunately, there is no law on the books that criminalizes improper home schooling. What concerns me are those children who are chronically truant from school.”

Then there is this case from HSLDA.

New homeschooling family charged with truancy

The Anderson family had withdrawn their child from the public school to homeschool. Their second grade son had been repeatedly beaten up while attending the public school. In October 2002, they received a summons to appear in court for truancy.

I guess its the timeline that distinguishes between people choosing to homeschool and then being charged with truancy as opposed to people charged with truancy who decide to file homeschool paperwork.

I’d also hate to see any state come up with rules for proper homeschooling. I’m sure most unschoolers would be labeled as improperly homeschooling. I just see more problems. And it seems that if you are charged with allowing your children to be truant before you decide to homeschool them, you can still be prosecuted for that. Let the courts decide whether there’s a legitimate case against the parents or not. That’s what happened with Anderson family. Their case was dismissed by the judge. You hate to see any family have to go through what the Andersons did, but that prosecutor is probably going to make sure that he has the goods before he tries that again. More regulation of legitimate homeschoolers doesn’t seem like the best solution to this problem.

Cyber School Laws in Tenn. and Homeschooling

BevK December 28th, 2005

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=18229

Law Banning Cyber Charter Schools May Be Harming Education in Rural Tennessee

A report released by the Tennessee Center for Policy Research on October 31 suggests the state’s three-year-old charter school law, which expressly prohibits the authorization of cyber charters, may be preventing thousands of rural students from improving their education.

While it would take a relatively simple language change to allow cyber charter schools in Tennessee, Mitchell cautions in his report that legislators must craft language that would prevent school systems from abusing the financial benefits of cyber charters, while respecting and protecting parents’ rights to homeschool their children.

Where cyber charter schools cost less than what the typical public school spends per pupil, every effort must be made to prevent the local education authority (LEA) from pushing students toward cyber charter schools for financial gain, Mitchell writes. Any law must prevent LEAs from turning a profit when a student leaves traditional schooling for a cyber charter school. Mitchell recommends placing those savings in a fund to offset future budget increases, thus saving tax dollars.

In addition, any cyber charter law must ensure homeschooled students remain exempt from the mandatory state testing that would be required of a public cyber charter student, Mitchell writes. The law also should prohibit local government use of cyber charters to take homeschooled students back into the public education system in an attempt to generate school funding.

That’s the trick. Writing legislation to cover all possibilities.

Christmas Day at Our House

BevK December 26th, 2005

To start the day, the household, minus one still ailing mom, went to Christmas services. Returning home, munchies were made available while the roast finished in the oven. Oh, I should say that one-young-son upon entering the front door demanded that the game be put on TV.

Kobe falls short of Christmas miracle

OK, most homeschoolers probably don’t watch NBA basketball on Christmas. I know it’s football time. Not at our house where the second annual Lakers vs. Heat game was a must see by at least one of us. One-young-son is a Kobe Bryant fan claiming that he can respect him for his basketball skills even if he can’t respect him otherwise. His momma begs to differ. I reflexively root against the Lakers. I’m not sure why he turns on Lakers games at all any more. He knows it comes with an automatic lecture on the perils of pride. Older brother is home from college and happily joined in the lecture (on mom’s side).

Meanwhile, Christmas dinner was ready, so the game was clicked off, and we tucked into pork roast, mashed potatoes, green beans, and rather interesting dinner rolls. The first Christmas dinner my husband had ever made as chief cook. It was overall a great success, but in the fine tradition instituted by the woman of the house, no criticism was allowed for any minor failures–only praise allowed. So, he basked in the glory of his efforts.

Meanwhile, one-young-son wolfed down some of his dinner, but overcome with anxiety…the game was in its last minutes…went charging back into the living room to turn on the TV and watch the last little bit of the game. He turned the TV on with 20 seconds left in the game, just in time to watch Kobe fail. There’s a lesson in that, but full of Christmas spirit I chose not to point them out to him when he came back to the table.

Later we played Apples to Apples and the Clue. We followed that with Phantom of the Opera on DVD — a Christmas gift. Youngest daughter avoided the movie. One-young-son was busy playing his new PC game, but came charging out whenever the music on the DVD got really dramatic. Older brother, older sister, mom, and dad enjoyed the video, although I’d have to say the females enjoyed a bit more than the males. All kids were then told to go to bed. Even the twenty-year-old obeyed, and mom stayed up with Dad to watch a James Bond film. Sort of a reward for watching my movie with me.

All told a great family day at home. I couldn’t think of a nicer Christmas.

NORAD Tracking Santa

BevK December 24th, 2005

http://www.noradsanta.org/index.php

If you haven’t yet heard that NORAD has a site up tracking Santa.

NORAD uses four high-tech systems to track Santa - radar, satellites, Santa Cams and jet fighter aircraft.

Along with keeping track of Santa, you’ll want to go to the download page where there’s lots of goodies, but especially some music downloads from the United States Air Force Academy Band ane the Naden Band of Maritime Forces Pacific of the Canadian Navy from Esquimalt, British Columbia. I’ve got a CD of Christmas music from the Heartland of American Band - another Air Force band, that is a family favorite. Who needs pop divas schmaltzing up holiday songs?

Just What Homeschoolers Need

BevK December 24th, 2005

http://www.nytimes.com/20…artner=homepage

University High School, a correspondence school in Miami being investigated for giving fast, high grades to qualify high school athletes for college scholarships, is going out of business Dec. 31, its founder, Stanley J. Simmons, said yesterday.

“It’s a disaster,” Simmons, 75, said in a telephone interview from his Miami home. “I’m finishing up everything, and I’m going back into retirement.”

The National Collegiate Athletic Association yesterday named 17 people to a panel to study correspondence high schools and other nontraditional routes to college athletic eligibility and scholarships. The move is a response to questions about the legitimacy of the academic credentials of some high school athletes.

I don’t use a correspondence school to homeschool. I’ve never felt that I needed anybody’s rubber stamp to validate the education my children have received. All I really need is some bogus school making it harder for me to present my transcript as valid—my transcript based on actual work and using standard grading procedures to arrive at the letter grade.

2005 Homeschooling’s Best Award Recipients Announced

BevK December 24th, 2005

http://www.emediawire.com…2/emw324856.htm

The people behind four efforts that improved the image and reputation of homeschooling during 2005 were honored as the 2005 recipients of Homeschooling’s Best Awards. Now in its fourth year, these awards are the only ones recognizing the distinct efforts of homeschoolers. This year’s recipients include a homeschool family from Michigan that saved two men from drowning, a couple from Louisiana that formed a Website for African American homeschoolers, a homeschool parent who lobbied in Pennsylvania for his son and other homeschooled children to have equal access to high school sports, and a reporter in Florida who wrote an article debunking many myths about homeschooling.

Texas Ruling Paves Way for Education Reform

BevK December 24th, 2005

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,179640,00.html

Anyone who has tracked the outbreak of lawsuits challenging states’ education funding over the last several years knows about the Texas miracle: A few weeks ago, the Texas Supreme Court declared that educational “adequacy” is not synonymous with “more money.”

I live in Nevada where the Supreme Court in 2003 set aside part of the Nevada constitution in order to allow a tax increase to fund education.

Read about it here: Judicial Activism in Nevada:
State Supreme Court Trumps Will of the People

So this ruling is an amazing thing, since it specifically states that more money isn’t the solution to public education’s problems.

According to the majority, “While the end-product of public education is related to the resources available for its use … more money does not guarantee better schools or more educated students.” The Court also accurately says that, “structural changes, and not merely increased funding, are needed in the public education system.”

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