Posted on 11/30/2012 7:11:40 AM PST by Morgana
TORONTO, November 29, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Homeschoolers are incensed after Anna Maria Tremonti, host of CBC’s The Current, decided to air what she called the “last word” on her show discussing homeschooling.
Following her November 14 show, a two minute skit cast homeschooling mothers as incompetent, uneducated, and sexually irresponsible.
The home-schooled teenage male—who was cast as unchallenged, resentful, rebellious, and delinquent—suggested at one point that he would rather not have been created than homeschooled.
“OK, so I’m supposed to learn geometry from a lady who never graduated college and wasn’t smart enough to use condoms?” rants the teenager in the skit.
The St. Augustine Classical Lutheran Co-op from the Kitchener-Waterloo area in Ontario slammed the show as “play[ing] to the tune the establishment likes to hear.”
“The only problem,” the group pointed out, “is [that Tremonti] described a fictional scenario quite divorced from reality. Masked in humour, her message in this segment was all the more insidious.”
In her segment prior to the skit, Tremonti interviewed Paul Faris, president of the Home School Legal Defence Association of Canada. She wanted to know why Faris’ association had supported the removal of a section of the first version of the Alberta Education Act that brought in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Alberta Human Rights Act.
Tremonti attempted to corner Faris into saying that parents compelled the Alberta government to remove the controversial section so that they could teach their children religious teachings on homosexuality. Faris would not take the bait.
Finally, Tremonti suggested: “If you believe religiously that homosexuality is a sin, do you believe that if [homeschoolers] were teaching their child that, that [they’d] be vulnerable?”
Faris pointed out that a “broad public act” such as the Alberta Human Rights Act was not made to “apply to private life in a home,” where homeschooling parents have “private conversation[s] in their own home with their own children”.
Prior to the proposed Education Act failing it third reading due to an election call, parents across the province had expressed grave concern over section 16 of the act, which they saw as an infringement on their parental rights to raise and educate their own children as they saw fit.
Tremonti then brought Kent Hehr onto the show, Liberal MLA for Calgary Buffalo and education critic for his party. Hehr accused the Home School Legal Defence Association of Canada of being “anti-gay” and spreading “misinformation to move a political agenda.”
But Garnett Genuis, executive director of Parents For Choice in Education (PCE), told LifeSiteNews.com that it was not homeschoolers alone who were concerned about language in the original Alberta Education Act.
“A wide spectrum of stakeholders had concerns about some of the language in the original version of the education act. These included the Alberta Catholic School Trustees Association and various alternative schools and programs.”
“From our perspective, people should have a right to hold differing opinions about moral and religious questions, and to pass those opinions on to their children before those children reach adulthood,” he said.
Genuis pointed out that the revised Education Act has “support of virtually all education stakeholders” since the “government fixed and clarified the language” that threatened “many people - not just home schoolers”.
The St. Augustine Classical Lutheran Co-op criticized the CBC for not taking the “opportunity to engage in a real debate about the state of education in this country.”
“Homeschooling families, as a rule, think about education much more than the average parent, and they tend to take their responsibility of raising the next generation of thoughtful, contributing citizens very seriously,” the co-op stated. “Far from being dysfunctional as portrayed in the skit, homeschooling families are a model of normalcy. Because the parents spend a great deal more time with their children than the average, the relationship between parent and child is most often one of mutual understanding, honour, and respect.”
“The kind of conversation this segment portrayed would be unlikely to occur in a homeschooling family,” it concluded.
The group accused Tremonti of demonstrating “exactly the kind of ‘close-minded’ and ‘prejudiced’ thinking of which she believes others to be guilty.”
“Is committing this kind of logical fallacy not an embarrassment for a nationally-broadcast radio host?”
You may listen to entire podcast here.
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As has happened quite frequently, a few years ago a home-schooled student won the National Spelling Bee. This time it was a girl from Wisconsin. So a reporter from one of the state's rags decided to ask some clown with the state public school association how he felt about her winning. The jerk was contemptuous and dismissive of her feat and said it didn't amount to anything. If I had the power, I would fired that major-league idiot on the spot. You can be sure if she had been a public-school student, the guy would have been singing her praises as a great example of what the public school system produces.
My wife is a teacher and our son goes to a private catholic high school. I see the teachers side, have made my decision as a parent, and also listen to my wife who often ends up with home school failures. This is a complicated question but whom ever teaches these kids has to be able to do the job. If they have to learn the material themselves to get it done so be it. Learn it and teach it. They can not effectively teach what they don’t know and you can not sit down and learn all of this at the same time you are trying to teach it.
We need to keep the goal of well educated children first. Social/religious aspects of their growth should be left to the parents. We need some new answers.
OK please read what I am typing.
My wife is a teacher. She primarily deals with special needs children and the children who are far behind grade level so we have a birds eye view of what is real, true, and factual. The children who are far behind are most often the result of home schooling failures. They are mandated back into the public schools and written off the books on the home schooling organization as if they never existed. What a way to keep a good average.... Most of the parents who teach their kids at home are not college educated. That is a myth.
What you say about high school kids teaching themselves has some truth to it but you have ignored the fact that many of them take a lot of adult supervision to keep them on track. They lack the self discipline to work independently. This is not the fault of the teachers it is the fault of the parents for not teaching them to sit down, shut up, respect others, and pay attention to the teachers. If they can not or will not teach their children these things makes you think they can teach high school math or science?
We are very connected to the UC Calif college system. I don't mean to break your bubble but the kids who do the best in college are not the home schooled kids. The Asian kids who go through the public schools you are putting down far out score and out perform all the rest. What does this indicate? The Asian kids have far more structure, supervision, and much better goals established than their peers. So it is all about parenting not so much about the teachers. There is value in home schooling if the person doing the teaching is qualified and able to teach. There are a lot of teachers out there who have the education but are really crappy teachers. The goal has to remain that our kids get a good education. When you stray from that goal to support your religious beliefs or ego you are making a huge mistake and it is the children who will pay the price. All parents should be able to teach their kids a belief system but few of them can teach chemistry or trig.
The jerk was contemptuous and dismissive of her feat and said it didn’t amount to anything.
What a moron. Again the most important issue here was over looked by both sides. Wherever she was educated it worked well. Her education and knowledge is the important thing and should be to all involved.
I would have fired him on the spot if he worked for me.
If a parent teacher wants the responsibility of teaching their child then they should have to take a test in the basic core subjects.
It this state they do. It is the CBEST test and they must pass it before they can even be a substitute teacher.
Issues with Christians, eh?
Not at all but just because someone can quote the bible chapter and verse does not indicate in any way that they can teach chemistry or trig. Can you really argue with that. We can both take these tests to find out the truth. I’ll even take a test on bible knowledge with you. You just might get a big surprise.
“They would need to take another test for middle school and high school when the time comes.”
Who develops and administers these tests? The same people that I won’t let teach my children?
“If a parent teacher wants the responsibility of teaching their child then they should have to take a test in the basic core subjects.”
So, should they be required to take a test to even become parents? Parents are teaching their children every day - you want the government to regulate who can and can’t have children?
Some school districts have a 40% attrition rate, 40% of the kids do not even graduate.
So what do we do about the public school failures?
Are they mandated to be homeschooled?
What makes you think that most of homeschool parents are not college educated? Got stats for that somewhere?
Because that sure isn’t what I’ve seen in my 12 years of homeschooling with involvement with three different homeschool support groups.
Why? Teachers aren't held to that standard.
I was watching "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" once and they had a braindead "teacher" who was asked what the largest percentage element was in our "atmosphere". He used a life line to call his friend, a SCIENCE teacher at his school. They both agreed it was Oxygen! WRONG!
Don't preach how f'ing smart "teachers" are.
Liar. You don’t even use proper grammar or understand the usage of paragraphs.
But I'm not the one who brought that up. It was used as a slam against homeschoolers, stereotyping them as ignorant Bible thumpers. Stereotyping homeschoolers seems to be what public school advocates are best at.
We can both take these tests to find out the truth. I’ll even take a test on bible knowledge with you. You just might get a big surprise.
As would you......
Chemistry and trig? High school level stuff. Stuff any other high school graduate could teach.
Well, ummm, you see, it's like this.....
In a word, "Yes" that would be the case.
Canadian conservative are fighting, along side our American cousins.
http://www.ontariolandowners.ca/index.php?p=1_50_Your-Rights
I don’t really know, Morgana, but I can find out from Jim Butler’s wife who home schooled her two up until Jim started running for state Delegate.
Well, as long as I’m able to pay an exorbitant fee for the test given and evaluated by a government run system, I’m all in. /s
Got this much from google. Looks like it’s a county responsibility.
The law contains two subdivisions that allow an exemption to compulsory attendance for “home instruction.” Under subdivision (1), the appWest Virginia Code 18-8-1 subsection (c)roval option, the county superintendent and school board must approve a “request for home instruction;” each county determines its own guidelines for homeschool approval and reporting (see below for more details). In subdivision (2), the notice of intent option, the law specifies what a family must do to homeschool. It also requires that a superintendent must obtain an order from the circuit court to stop a family from homeschooling, which means that the superintendent must have proof that a child’s education is being neglected
“And we’re supposed to take seriously someone who writes a *skit* that doesn’t even know that WOMEN don’t use the condom?”
Could be it was written by a Trannie?
That could explain it.
I don’t know how many homeschooled students you have encountered, but as a homeschool parent, in the past 17 years, I’ve come across literally hundreds of families. The vast majority of homeschooled students around here do very well. Around here, many (if not most) are taking college courses by their “high school” years (ages 15, 16, 17).
Unlike the comedy video, we don’t “play school” at home. We parents might help the kids reach a certain point, but eventually they have to learn the subjects on their own. One of my sons taught himself Algebra and Biology. All I did was give him the books. Learning on your own requires self-discipline and independence. This particular son tested at college level and started college courses at 16 - which is late compared to many other homeschoolers. But the college counselor told us: the vast majority of high school graduates aren’t testing at the level where my self-taught 16yo son is.
Also, homeschooled students have classes once or twice a week at cooperatives where some classes are taught by “professional teachers” but most by parents themselves who are well-versed in a subject - for example, one year, a medical doctor taught biology; an attorney taught law; and so on. I can appreciate the job dedicated teachers do, but those parents were able to share their life experience with the students.
Do homeschooled students ever fall behind in their studies? Sure. But, they catch up later. I have a son who is very active. In school, active boys are medicated - I’m so glad I kept him out of school!
As a side note: I looked into private/parochial schools, but the tuition was too expensive. For a year, I was very ill, but I did not enroll them into school - I kept homeschooling because I knew that, if I put them in school, and if they had fallen behind (as kids with an ill mother sometimes do), someone at the school would’ve been snotty about it and used it against homeschooling. So, we stuck with homeschooling. So glad I did!
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