I've always had mixed feelings about people who home school because of the rhetoric that sometimes accompanies it. For example, I have a really hard time with people who say because THEY home school, EVERYONE should and/or can, that because THEIR children prosper from it, EVERY child should or can, or that any parent who DOESN'T is not a good parent.  Children are all different, and as we know, their ideal learning environments vary.  This kind of narrow, educational view is what I think is harmful, not necessarily choosing to home school.

I'm being frank here, so I hope no one takes this as an insult.  But I also have difficulty with people who assert that because they home school or choose alternative schools, they should be exempt from supporting public schools.  Some of these folks are the same ones also using services provided by public school systems.  Others fall into the "it's okay for me, you should be like me" mindset (as described above), and still others just believe all schools should be private.  I can go on and on how this mentality destroys public schools and any means they have of improving, how it demoralizes teachers, how it demoralizes parents who are NOT privileged, cannot give children what they need educationally, or who simply make different life choices.

Parents who want to be partners in their children's public education certainly have many venues in which to do that.  Home schooling is the most extreme choice, but public school parents can be just as involved by volunteering, working in classrooms, supporting the schools.  When many parents do this, the school becomes a community network of concerned parents who have direct impact on their children's learning outcomes.  Furthermore, parents who are actively involved in their children's homework, projects, and goals, who teach through the family activities they participate in, can end up giving just as much time outside the classroom as inside!  Parents who combine educational activities with the public school experience can provide their children education around the clock, something no individual can possibly accomplish.  

When we don't invest in public education, we neglect and destroy a major, important institution.  If this happened in other institutions--say, the government--and all of a sudden people said, "Well I don't get what I want from it, I disagree so I just won't support it, and I'll tend to my own business," what do you suppose might happen?  

Our institutions, all of them, constantly need care, upgrades, attention, and effort.  Public education is no different.   

I'm a firm believer in renovations.  If you have a beautiful old home with steps in dire need of repair, you don't burn the house down.  And you certainly don't continue to ignore the stairs, waiting until someone falls through the dry-rotted landing. 

Again, I am not demeaning anyone's decision to or rationale for home schooling.  There are so many reasons why parents might choose this as an option. But I think home schooling must be seen as just that: an option.

Katherine Mercurio Gotthardt
Online ESOL Instructor
Prince William County Public Schools
Adult Education
P.O. Box 389
Manassas, VA 20108
work 703-791-8387
fax 703-791-8889 



-----Original Message-----
From: povertyracewomen-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:povertyracewomen-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Cynthia Peters
Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 1:19 PM
To: RaceWomen and Literacy Discussion List' 'The Poverty
Subject: [PovertyRaceWomen 1455] Re: drop-outs


Hi Molly — Thanks for sharing your experiences. Your mother sounds
braver than I. There is a significant homeschooling community here, and
while some people definitely think we're doing a disservice to our kids,
it's not *that* hard to weather it. I'm interested in how much people
think kids just *should* be in school. As if it were some law of nature
or something. I think a big part of the explanation is that school is
training for the rest of life according to the rules and pressures of
today's institutions — alienating work, a profit-oriented economy,
irrational hierarchies, etc. I don't believe those are healthy
institutions, so I don't anyone should be trained to suffer them.

The question is: what's a collective solution? (Individuals deciding to
homeschool really isn't any more than a private solution.) More and
more, I wonder if we shouldn't be looking at education reform in a whole
new light. I propose a paradigm shift: free and open (and voluntary)
schools, lots of space and opportunity for physical activity, no
homework, teachers as resources and facilitators — not instructors,
per se, the community-as-classroom, mentoring, apprenticing, treating
youth as if they are an integral part of the community, as if their
minds matter — not just for solving problems on a worksheet but for
solving problems in *the course of daily life.* Put resources into
building safe communities with infrastructure that "scaffolds" young
people into what it means to be a member of a community. Ultimately:
trust the kids. I know it sounds radical. But we don't need to fear
young people. They are an amazing resource to be embraced an nurtured.
Instead, it seems to me, we treat them as future criminals who have to
be curbed and controlled and disciplined rather than *sought out* for
who they are.

Molly: To answer your questions at the end of your email: Zoe works in
a bakery, is doing some internships, and volunteers at a bookstore. She
takes a photography and a woodworking class, and she does a lot of her
own writing. She's got a lively social life and she watches movies and
keeps up her MySpace and Friends pages. My 11-year old has homeschooled
her whole life, until this Sept. when she started 6th grade. Her
favorite things at school are "Friday share" (a community-wide meeting)
and independent lunch (a special lunch that she can eat in the classroom
instead of in the lunch room — which is a purely chaotic and
inhospitable place).

Cynthia


-- 

Cynthia Peters
Change Agent Editor
World Education
44 Farnsworth Street
Boston, MA  02210
 
tel: 617-482-9485
fax: 617-482-0617
email: cpeters at worlded.org 
 
Check out The Change Agent online at: 
www.nelrc.org/changeagent 



>>> On 11/26/2007 at 4:21 PM, in message

<001c01c83072$59513b80$be070a0a at dpld.org>,
"Molly Elkins" <melkins at dclibraries.org> wrote:

> Dear Cynthia, 

> 

> I enjoyed your articles- coming from a homeschooling family myself. I

never

> had any interest in "trying" public school after my mom pulled me out

after

> 3rd grade. When I was 16 I enrolled in the local community college

for some

> classes, and that was as close to a traditional experience that I

got. 13

> years later I went on to get my Master's in education and I worked as

a

> teacher at a public middle school in southern California because I

love

> education, learning, and I love helping people. 

> 

> I no longer work at the school- the stresses were just too great for

many of

> the reasons you mention in your article. I found myself continually

> supporting the petty things you talk about in your articles (such as

> requiring name and section number in a special place on a project),

just to

> survive on a daily basis (otherwise the name and section might not

appear on

> the project, or I might not ever find it- but I hated that I had to

devote

> my time to such mundane things for grading purposes). I taught

language

> arts, social studies, and high school credit French, and the average

class

> size was 35 students. At our department meetings I learned that we

talked

> about what all we were required to do by the state, but we all knew

that

> under the circumstances we could not, so we just planned our lesson

and did

> our true best. Meanwhile students were coming to school needing help

dealing

> with parents who had committed suicide or who were in the middle of

messy

> divorces, pressure from older siblings to get involved in local

gangs, and

> kids who weren't ready developmentally for some of the higher level

thinking

> skills that are required by the state standards. I admire teachers

who do a

> good job in the circumstances that they face daily, they really amaze

me. It

> is a gift. People used to make jokes, wondering what was in my karma

that

> allowed me to avoid the public schools for so long, but then come

back as a

> teacher. 

> 

> I my home-schooling experience however, my mother did "make" us study

the

> minimum high school requirements as outlined in the public school

> curriculum, and we took standard tests every year to make sure that

we were

> keeping up with other kids our age. She un-enrolled us from school

because

> she felt that she could do a better job (without a college education)

than

> the public schools, and I believe that she did. In the early 80's

that was

> considered child abuse by most of the community that we lived in, and

she

> had to work hard to prove that we weren't being deprived of a decent

> education.

> 

> I would imagine that you face similar sentiments with your daughter

and her

> self-directed education. How do you address those concerns or talk

about it

> with others? 

> 

> I am curious to know what Zoe is up to now- and what is happening

with your

> other children? 

> 

> There is a lot of research done on students who are in or who remain

in the

> public school system. I think there is very little research done

about kids

> who are in private schools, alternative schools, or in home

schooling

> families. 

> 

> Molly Elkins

> Literacy Specialist

> Douglas County Libraries

> Phillip S. Miller Library

>   100 S. Wilcox Street

>   Castle Rock CO 80104

>   Map

> Phone: (303)791-READ 

> Email: melkins at dclibraries.org 

> Web: www.DouglasCountyLibraries.org 

> 

> -----Original Message-----

> From: povertyracewomen-bounces at nifl.gov 

> [mailto:povertyracewomen-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Cynthia

Peters

> Sent: Monday, November 26, 2007 9:47 AM

> To: RaceWomen and Literacy Discussion List The Poverty

> Subject: [PovertyRaceWomen 1444] Re: drop-outs

> 

> My daughter did not finish 9th grade. I suppose you could say she

dropped

> out. But we felt she made a positive choice. I wrote a 3-part series

about

> it on www.zmag.org (links below). We are a privileged family and so

our

> context for this choice is different from most. Still, I believe

there are

> lessons. - Cynthia

> 

> Part 1:

>  http://www.zmag.org/Sustainers/Content/2006-12/12peters.cfm 

>  Part 2:

>  http://www.zmag.org/Sustainers/Content/2007-02/09peters.cfm 

> Part 3:

> http://www.zmag.org/Sustainers/Content/2007-03/22peters.cfm 

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