http://articles.latimes.com/2008/aug/09/local/me-homeschool9
"In February, in a child-protection hearing, the 2nd District Court of Appeal said parents must have a teaching credential to home-school their children. The decision caused nationwide uproar among home-schoolers, evangelists and others, and the court agreed to reconsider its decision.
Today the court ruled that California law allowed home schooling but that the right of parents to home-school their children can be overridden if a child is in danger.
Unlike in at least 30 other states, home schooling is not specifically addressed in California law. Today's ruling essentially upheld the position of the state Department of Education, which has traditionally allowed home schooling as long as parents file paperwork with the state establishing themselves as private schools, hire credentialed tutors or enroll their children in independent study programs run by charter or private schools or public school districts."
I don't know whether to be disgusted by this or not. I personally only know two African-American children who were home schooled. They did fine in high school and are now in college. However their father is a major architect and their mom has a masters degree in biology but chose not to work. These circumstances aren't the same for rest of the nationwide home schooled students. Here are some comments from some teachers speaking out on this subject.
http://californiahomeschool.net/resources/teachercomments
"My state teaching credential did not teach me how to successfully instruct children as individuals, nor is it even possible to instruct another how to teach. Teaching is an innate ability possessed by most mothers. Instead, my credential gave me the skills to manage large groups of children efficiently within an institutional setting, a skill set completely unnecessary for home instruction."
"Home Schooling has produced some very educated students. Ability to teach is not conditioned on having a credential."
"The classes required for a credential are more about managing a classroom than becoming an excellent teacher. They are quite irrelevant to homeschooling."
"I hold a current teacher's certificate in the State of Illinois. I also homeschool our five children. My credentials did not prepare me to teach my own children!! Rather, being their mom did."
What do you think?
At least in California parents must establish themselves as private schools, hire tutors or enroll their children in independent study programs. In Indiana a parent can simply take a child out of school and say that they will be home schooled. They do not have to use a tutor or a program. I had one student while I was student teaching in Inidana who kept missing school because he had lice. After 9 missed days, his mother told the school that she was going to home school him and we never heard anything else. I was completely outraged, but other teachers said there was nothing the school could do!
ReplyDeleteI think Home-Schooled kids are either being given an awesome opportunity to learn at their own pace and out in the world, or they are being denied a basic education. The question is, WHO decides, and HOW do they decide? I don't think a teaching credential is the way to go (I agree with those who say this is more about classroom management and school law). Perhaps home-schooled kids could be required to show AYP? (I am not sure I really like that idea).
ReplyDeleteOne very important aspect of schooling is socialization between peers. Children learn how to get along with other students, work in groups, form friendships, interact with teachers and classroom aids etc… Children that are home schooled are being deprived of the development of social skills. Critics may argue that parents can take their children to extracurricular activities of their choice to provide socialization, but in my opinion a few hours a week is not sufficient time to build the much necessary social skills needed in today’s society. In addition to social skills, homeschooled children are not being exposed to the diversity of backgrounds and experiences of their classmates. Students can learn so much from interacting with one another. These children will be at a great disadvantage when entering the college/ work world do their lack of diversity/ cultural knowledge and experience among their peers.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Craig that students who are home-schooled are either at an extreme advantage or an extreme disadvantage, depending on what is taught and how it's taught. Also, I think that home-schooled students do need to have built-in socialization opportunities, either with other students from their local school district and/or other home-schooled children.
ReplyDeleteKaren... How many hours a week do you spend socializing? I went to public schools, and I didn't find it even remotely adequate to prepare me for adult life. If anything, it created a unrealistic environment that slowed my development.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you feel that the public school system is more representative to the social skills needed in the real world than a home environment might be?
I would argue that public schools require children to put too much emphasis on social behavior. Our daughter cannot seem to focus on anything but "who likes who" and "does everyone like me". It's easy enough to teach children about human behavior, and not force them to be a part of such a rigid and unrealistically harsh social structure as a public middle school (before you jump to conclusions, I was actually popular in school :), but I do feel I side-tracked my education to accomplish social goals, most of which gained me very little in my adult life.)
Summer camps and other social events can often be more than adequate to allow social skills to develop. From what I am reading, most home-schooled kids are at an advantage to other kids when entering college.
Granted, I still feel it's still very important for the home-schooling parents not to ignore the significance of social development.