When Home-Schooling Goes Horribly Wrong…

T

Timshel

New member
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/07/29/when-home-schooling-goes-horribly-wrong/

Susan Svrluga of the Washington Post has an incredible story of a Christian home-schooling family where the parents don’t want to send their children to the local public school, and the children, knowing they’re not getting a good education, are fighting back:


[Son] Josh Powell wanted to go to school so badly that he pleaded with local officials to let him enroll. He didn’t know exactly what students were learning at Buckingham County High School, in rural central Virginia, but he had the sense that he was missing something fundamental.

By the time he was 16, he had never written an essay. He didn’t know South Africa was a country. He couldn’t solve basic algebra problems.


The article raises the question of what requirements must be in place when it comes to home-schooling. In Virginia, where this story takes place, there is no oversight whatsoever. If parents claim a religious exemption from public education, the state government doesn’t do anything to check in on them and make sure they’re doing a decent job.


It’s scary to think that 7,000 children in the state are being home-schooled and we have no idea how many of them are getting a decent education. We don’t know how many can read or write. We don’t know how much math they can do. We don’t know what books they’re reading (besides the Bible, anyway).


One argument in favor of home-schooling offered up by chairman of the Home School Legal Defense Association Michael Farris is that public schools let plenty of students through the cracks, too. He’s not wrong, but at least we can identify those students and try to rectify the situation. When home-schooled kids in the state fail to get an adequate education, we have no idea that’s even happening before it’s too late.


That’s what Josh realized after he enrolled in community college:


Josh Powell, now 21, wonders how much more he could have accomplished if he hadn’t spent so much time and effort catching up.


“I think people should definitely have the freedom to home-school as long as it’s being done well and observed,” he said. “I don’t see any reason for there not to be accountability.”


Most of all, he worries about his siblings: There are 11. One, old enough to be well into middle school, can’t read, Josh Powell said.
The saddest thing about the story is that it’s clear Josh’s parents are trying to do their best… yet failing at it. And if this family’s story is now public, how many are more are going untold?


There have to be regulations of some sort; these parents need to be held accountable for their kids meeting the same standards that public school children are held to. More power to the parents if they can do a better job than the public schools, but we need to spot the bad seeds early before their children are so far behind the other kids that they’ll always be playing catch up.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2013/07/29/when-home-schooling-goes-horribly-wrong/
 
Are socially conservative parents today irresponsible and lazy? In the name of freedom of religion they are doing all they can to keep their kids stupid. If they are not having them read "creationist science" text books claiming there is something called kinds within taxonomy that limits evolution and that the Loch Ness monster is likely a living dinosaur, they are just keeping their kids completely illiterate. It's a shame that these degenerates and deviants abuse their children.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/nessie-cut-from-creationism.21694263

New editions of Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) biology textbooks do not contain the controversial idea that Scotland's most famous mythological beast may have been a real living creature.


The updated book is only available to creationist-taught pupils in Europe, but campaigners say America is likely to follow suit.


The Sunday Herald exclusively reported last June that private schools which follow a fundamentalist curriculum, including the ACE programme, were teaching the theory aimed at disproving evolution and proving creationism.

Our story attracted interest and comments from across the globe and was followed up by several newspapers. Richard Dawkins, the outspoken evolutionary biologist, posted a link to it on his blog.


The previous edition of one ACE textbook said: "Are dinosaurs alive today? Scientists are becoming more convinced of their existence. Have you heard of the 'Loch Ness Monster' in Scotland?


"'Nessie' for short has been recorded on sonar from a small submarine, described by eyewitnesses, and photographed by others. Nessie appears to be a plesiosaur."


There was also a claim that a Japanese whaling boat once caught a dinosaur. In the new editions, both claims have been removed. However, it still suggests that dinosaurs co-existed with humans.
 
Wow... those poor kids!

Not all parents should be home-schooling; I don't care if they are conservative or liberal, but not everyone has the skills to make sure their kids learn to read, do math, study history, etc. Now there are some that do a GREAT job - again, on both ends of the spectrum. But obviously not in the Virginia case.

Locally, some people home school mainly because the school is so far away they don't want to deal with getting their kids there... There was a very sad case of a teenage girl left alone for a couple weeks who ended up killing herself. She was being "home schooled" but her parents were working out of the area, and she wasn't able to drive. She was supposed to be checking in once a week at the place that coordinates home-schooling, but that didn't happen.,

I do think anything that is paid for by public dollars - whether homeschooling or vouchers to a private school - HAS to meet the standards we have in place for public schools. They can exceed that; and I know parents who do exceed; but the kids coming out of it have to have the bare minimum education we would expect from any public school.

They say locally - some parents do great, some really fail. But there doesn't seem to be any process to rescue the kids whose parents are failing.
 
PostmodernProphet said:
sort of like the Detroit public school system......
Click to expand...

Or the average in Chicago, NY, etc.

OTOH, I agree with the OP that there needs to be accountability in the sense of standardized test administered by a separate entity, not the parents.

Horror stories like the above though, do not typify homeschooling. Indeed, the vast majority are doing better than their public school and private school peers.
 
Simple and obvious solution: Parents who wish to homeschool must pass a qualifying test to become a registered homeschooler. If they refuse to take the test and attempt to homeschool without registration, fine them and remove the children so they may be educated properly.
For the liberals out there, you guys could make it very expensive to get registered to homeschool. The poor won't have a choice. You'll love it!
 
The original concept of home schooling was an ideal. Today, after being hijacked by evangelical christians and nutcase libertarians, it's a waste of both time and intelligence. These parents need to be locked up and the children taken away from them.
 
Annie said:
Or the average in Chicago, NY, etc.

OTOH, I agree with the OP that there needs to be accountability in the sense of standardized test administered by a separate entity, not the parents.

Horror stories like the above though, do not typify homeschooling. Indeed, the vast majority are doing better than their public school and private school peers.
Click to expand...

Ah, but it does, see the surveys done on homeschooling are usually taken from the children whose parents use a planned curriculum, they are called structured homeschoolers, they did better than their public school peers on average, but not so for the unstructured homeschoolers, the children whose homeschooling teachers did not follow a structured school curriculum. The unstructured homeschoolers generally did not perform as well as the public school or structured home schoolers.
 
7,000 home-schooled kids in Virginia? If half of them are getting a bad education, it's still better than the number of kids in some CITIES that are getting a sucky education in the public system.
 
tinfoil said:
Simple and obvious solution: Parents who wish to homeschool must pass a qualifying test to become a registered homeschooler. If they refuse to take the test and attempt to homeschool without registration, fine them and remove the children so they may be educated properly.
For the liberals out there, you guys could make it very expensive to get registered to homeschool. The poor won't have a choice. You'll love it!
Click to expand...

I think we tried something like that in California (licensing the parents who were doing it), and it went over like a lead balloon.

Remember, for home schooling to work, a parent has to be able to stay home. Won't work so well for poor families who need two incomes.

Again - I have known some people who have done a wonderful job home schooling their kids. They follow a structured curriculum, they take the kids to museums and other enriching venues, they arrange play dates and get their kids onto local teams so the kids develop social skills. They've done great.

But sadly, some parents don't do so well. And we don't have a mechanism to say "sorry, your kids are going to public school from now on". It's a shame.

I would never home school myself. I SO don't have the patience it would take!
 
Rana said:
Ah, but it does, see the surveys done on homeschooling are usually taken from the children whose parents use a planned curriculum, they are called structured homeschoolers, they did better than their public school peers on average, but not so for the unstructured homeschoolers, the children whose homeschooling teachers did not follow a structured school curriculum. The unstructured homeschoolers generally did not perform as well as the public school or structured home schoolers.
Click to expand...

I think we can agree that whether home school or traditional school building structure is required. For that matter, so is a formalized curriculum. The difference I think for the homeschooled, the parents can give more time to the areas of interests to the child. Skills requiring further analysis can be applied to topics of interest. Those areas where the child quickly masters and doesn't wish to go deeper, can be dealt with fairly quickly. I only WISH that classroom teachers could do the same! Some kids find ancient history, especially Egypt, Greece, or Rome fascinating. Others want to rush through and get to 'current history.' LOL! Both are fine especially for research purposes, yet in order for practice to be given, the instructor does have to make some of the choices on when and to how much time will be given.

Of course one can vary the students selections, but if a kid really doesn't care about a certain topic, pretty hard to get their best work.

Math is even more of a 'home school' ready subject. If fractions are 'tough,' more time can be devoted for real understanding. Indeed, cooking and trips to the grocery can be repeated and lessons applied. Once that is nailed, decimals will come much easier. Perhaps the kid is just truly talented at math, instead of pre-Algebra in 7th grade, they could already be in Algebra I. The student can move as slow or fast as mastery takes them.

General schools are getting better about using computer math mastery programs, but the very nature of schools frown against huge gaps within classes. There is also the lack of 'hands on projects from real life, that successful homeschools naturally apply. Simple, one cannot take 30 kids to the grocery for a field trip and mock groceries in classrooms, even in 3rd grade tend to get out of control.

Science projects at home can not only be performed by the child, he can design his own experiment. That's individualized and really too much for a regular classroom, even with a great lab set up.

Novels, textbook readings, poetry, all can be done both aloud and to self. Parent and child reading the same books, at the same time and discussing leads to closer relations. Now I admit that I read aloud to my kids from the time they were born-high school. Why? In middle school one was struggling with "Julius Caesar." I said, "That has to be read aloud, you can't understand it by reading silently. So the three kids and myself divided up the parts and read it aloud. Now that child wasn't crazy about Julius Caesar, loved "Romeo & Juliet." Until college, was not assigned any more full length Shakespeare. However, all of my kids enjoyed the comedies, we read those at home. They liked 'drama.'

Even British Literature AP courses are going to keep the kids in the same book or two. Has to do with evaluation and covering certain aspects of the readings. Homeschooling allows more student choices and types of evaluation.
 
The statistics on homeschooled children are very different than the posts in this thread assume. Yes, I am sure there are some idiots teaching their kids to follow in their footsteps.

But nationally, the home schooled kids are kicking public school kids asses on tests, in academic achievements after high school, and in success rates after school.
http://www.home-school.com/news/homeschool-vs-public-school.php

Now Howey, since home schooled children have better college graduation rates (66.7% to57.5%), and better test scores across the board (86th percentile as opposed to 50th percentile for public school kids), should we take the kids away from the parents who are proactive in their children's education or should we take the kids away from the parents who sit on their butts and just let someone else worry about it??
 
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tekkychick said:
I think we tried something like that in California (licensing the parents who were doing it), and it went over like a lead balloon.

Remember, for home schooling to work, a parent has to be able to stay home. Won't work so well for poor families who need two incomes.

Again - I have known some people who have done a wonderful job home schooling their kids. They follow a structured curriculum, they take the kids to museums and other enriching venues, they arrange play dates and get their kids onto local teams so the kids develop social skills. They've done great.

But sadly, some parents don't do so well. And we don't have a mechanism to say "sorry, your kids are going to public school from now on". It's a shame.

I would never home school myself. I SO don't have the patience it would take!
Click to expand...

I did have the patience, but my children wanted to go to school and we have good schools in my area, so I put them in public schools.

I agree with you that some home schooled children receive a good education, I don't have a problem with it, it is only the substandard homeschooling I have concerns about.
 
Professor Baxter said:
Are socially conservative parents today irresponsible and lazy? In the name of freedom of religion they are doing all they can to keep their kids stupid. If they are not having them read "creationist science" text books claiming there is something called kinds within taxonomy that limits evolution and that the Loch Ness monster is likely a living dinosaur, they are just keeping their kids completely illiterate. It's a shame that these degenerates and deviants abuse their children.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/nessie-cut-from-creationism.21694263

New editions of Accelerated Christian Education (ACE) biology textbooks do not contain the controversial idea that Scotland's most famous mythological beast may have been a real living creature.


The updated book is only available to creationist-taught pupils in Europe, but campaigners say America is likely to follow suit.


The Sunday Herald exclusively reported last June that private schools which follow a fundamentalist curriculum, including the ACE programme, were teaching the theory aimed at disproving evolution and proving creationism.

Our story attracted interest and comments from across the globe and was followed up by several newspapers. Richard Dawkins, the outspoken evolutionary biologist, posted a link to it on his blog.


The previous edition of one ACE textbook said: "Are dinosaurs alive today? Scientists are becoming more convinced of their existence. Have you heard of the 'Loch Ness Monster' in Scotland?


"'Nessie' for short has been recorded on sonar from a small submarine, described by eyewitnesses, and photographed by others. Nessie appears to be a plesiosaur."


There was also a claim that a Japanese whaling boat once caught a dinosaur. In the new editions, both claims have been removed. However, it still suggests that dinosaurs co-existed with humans.
Click to expand...
They hold a different and, I think, inferior attitude towards education. They don't believe in a high quality compulsory public education that they should invest resources into. Rather they believe education is a personal, private and optional.
 
WinterBorn said:
Also, there ARE regulations in place. Most (if not all) states require a graduation exam. If you can't pass it you don't graduate.
Click to expand...

You are missing the point of the article. The problem is not home schooling but Virginia's religious exemption.

http://vahomeschoolers.org/guide/religious-exemption/

Parents who have sincere religious convictions against sending their children to school may consider a claim of Religious Exemption (RE) to compulsory schooling under §22.1-254 B 1 of the Code of Virginia.
Families who have received a Religious Exemption are exempt from the Compulsory Attendance Code. Once approved, families with an RE do not have to file an annual notice of intent, submit an annual description of their curriculum, or submit annual testing or evaluation results to their local school division when educating their children at home. However, the public school division may in subsequent years inquire if the religious exemption is still applicable.
 
Annie said:
I think we can agree that whether home school or traditional school building structure is required. For that matter, so is a formalized curriculum. The difference I think for the homeschooled, the parents can give more time to the areas of interests to the child. Skills requiring further analysis can be applied to topics of interest. Those areas where the child quickly masters and doesn't wish to go deeper, can be dealt with fairly quickly. I only WISH that classroom teachers could do the same! Some kids find ancient history, especially Egypt, Greece, or Rome fascinating. Others want to rush through and get to 'current history.' LOL! Both are fine especially for research purposes, yet in order for practice to be given, the instructor does have to make some of the choices on when and to how much time will be given.

Of course one can vary the students selections, but if a kid really doesn't care about a certain topic, pretty hard to get their best work.

Math is even more of a 'home school' ready subject. If fractions are 'tough,' more time can be devoted for real understanding. Indeed, cooking and trips to the grocery can be repeated and lessons applied. Once that is nailed, decimals will come much easier. Perhaps the kid is just truly talented at math, instead of pre-Algebra in 7th grade, they could already be in Algebra I. The student can move as slow or fast as mastery takes them.

General schools are getting better about using computer math mastery programs, but the very nature of schools frown against huge gaps within classes. There is also the lack of 'hands on projects from real life, that successful homeschools naturally apply. Simple, one cannot take 30 kids to the grocery for a field trip and mock groceries in classrooms, even in 3rd grade tend to get out of control.

Science projects at home can not only be performed by the child, he can design his own experiment. That's individualized and really too much for a regular classroom, even with a great lab set up.

Novels, textbook readings, poetry, all can be done both aloud and to self. Parent and child reading the same books, at the same time and discussing leads to closer relations. Now I admit that I read aloud to my kids from the time they were born-high school. Why? In middle school one was struggling with "Julius Caesar." I said, "That has to be read aloud, you can't understand it by reading silently. So the three kids and myself divided up the parts and read it aloud. Now that child wasn't crazy about Julius Caesar, loved "Romeo & Juliet." Until college, was not assigned any more full length Shakespeare. However, all of my kids enjoyed the comedies, we read those at home. They liked 'drama.'

Even British Literature AP courses are going to keep the kids in the same book or two. Has to do with evaluation and covering certain aspects of the readings. Homeschooling allows more student choices and types of evaluation.
Click to expand...
Yes well the obvious question there is "Are they competent to do so?"
 
In Pennsylvania? If you want to Substitute to make extra money....you don't need a teaching certificate. All you need is a bachelor's degree. Could be in anything.

I know that's not the subject of this thread...but I thought I'd mention it.

The sad thing about homeschooling is the parents. If they don't have rudimentary skills to get their kids past a GED level....they are going to be fucked if they want to move on in their education....think of the movie "the Waterboy"....."mama said that alligators are ornery because they have all those teeth and no toothbrush!"
 
Believe me Mr. Steel, in most states you don't have to have anything, probably not even a H.S. diploma to sub. Pass the FBI or local law criminal background check and you're good to go.
 
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