Posted on 02/09/2005 8:20:55 AM PST by hsmomx3
send to homeschoolers on PEDL
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IMHO this is sounding like a controversy designed to make lawyers rich at student expense. In the first place education is (or should be) a state activity. We homeschool our kids with materials bought from the State of Texas school system and it's great. They send us standardized tests that are proctored by a local teacher and that helps us prove to others that we taught our kids right.
This is a fight we must all take seriously, whether you home school or not. When I hear things like this It becomes ever so clear of the attempt to indoctrinate our children. Damn this makes me mad
It's a foot-in-the-door requirement, to make homeschooling burdensome to parents, and to force the students to physically come to the public school premises.
1. A requirement that students attend annual standardized tests.
2. A requirement that students attend a two-week preparation session for annual standardized tests.
3. A requirement that homeschooled students attend a supplemental twice-yearly progress exam.
etc...
This simply is the battle between Conservatives and Liberals. Most home school families are very conservative, and most often religious, specifically Christian. Liberals want to defeat everything that these families stand for.
I choose to have my children in public school, but I am very conservative and I support families who home school.
Here in TN there is a fight starting about funding of pre-K programs (long story short--lottery money that is supposed to be for college scholarship is probably going to be used for pre-K programs). Once government starts funding pre-K programs, the government will want to make it mandatory for there to be kids in those programs. Too early for requiring children to go to school, in my opinion.
yep - but fits their findings that, even tho' heavily indoctrinated in school - kids often "revert" to the parents teachings. So they are trying to get to the kids earlier - to quote them "we must get to the children by age two, before the parents had instilled their values in them."
That should send a chill up every ones spine.
"In the first place education is (or should be) a state activity."
Show me the part of the Constitution that states the above.
"They send us standardized tests that are proctored by a local teacher and that helps us prove to others that we taught our kids right."
That's a subjective measure, do you really want that out of your hands?
What's the point of homeschooling if you aren't going to take advantage of the unlimited amount of good educational resources available and just do the same thing that the local school is doing? That seems boring to me...jmo.
Homeschool Bump!
Thanks for the ping. I just finished reading this in email and then checked FR... and there you were.
Some courts have accepted the 10th amendment:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved tot he states, respectively, or to the people.
And others haven't. To me, the amendment means that since education wasn't mentioned any where else, it becomes local business. That was in the late 1700's. Since then, the US found out that in order to survive it needed an educated population. So along with bearing arms (second amendment) the nation's young men needed to be physically fit (Eisenhower 1958) and know how to read a the latest tank operator's manual.
Bottom line: a good legal case can be made to keep the feds out of the 'ed biz'. OTOH, since the first rule is that the country also has to survive, the feds in cooperation with the people, will do what ever suits 'em..
There's no rule that says that a parent in Amherst can't buy Tex materials for homeschooling thus avoiding the homosex math. All doom'n'gloom hype aside, there's never been a homeschooling parent in Mass that's gone to jail solely because of homosex math education.
Maybe I'm a bit slow on the sarcasm pick up today, but you've got to be kidding. You can't possibly be serious.
The curriculum used in public schools today is a PC riddled, homosexual promoting, revisionist, godless mash that is assembled by committees. It is boring, filled with error, and outright lies. Why use the govt. pablum when there are better things to use to instruct your children?
It is a new world out there, a world that needs leaders, thinkers, and conscientious citizens, not people trained to be factory workers and mind-numbed followers of the godless state. The school systems are 50 years behind the modern world. If you are using public school standards, you're putting your children behind from the start.
I apologize for coming on so strong. It's just that your statement was breathtaking in its naivety. You can read books by John Taylor Gatto for a more informed view of how the state schools operate. He was teacher of the year in the state of NY. He gives real eye opening information about how the school systems work.
Homeschoolers are at a disadvantage in state tests. Most homeschoolers do not learn all Science from an environmentalist wacko point of view. Or learn History from a America is always wrong point of view. Or Social Studies from a Gay/Lesbian is the preferred lifestyle point of view.
Many school districts and states test these sorts of topics in their "standardized tests" that they wish for homeschoolers to take.
We were talking 'apples' and 'hand grenades'. I was talking about how (constitution wise) the state government can pass a law regulating education for kids and the feds can't. [My post 15 gives my reasoning why survival trumps the constitution.]
As far as what's the best way to teach kids, that depends on individual situations. We used to send our kids to public and private schools because it seemed easier to pay someone to find all the books, give the tests, etc. We started teaching our kids at home when we moved out to live in the jungle. Now we've learned that when we teach the kids, they get taught right -- kind of like why we do our own plumbing work too.
We've also found that teaching the kids at home is also easier and cheaper than what we had, but (like I said) other people may have other situations.
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