School Board: Homeschooling Disorganized and Isolationist

Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) ^ | August 1, 2011 | HSLDA

[Sopater]

West Virginia’s Monongalia County Board of Education is proposing a new homeschool policy. In the document’s “statement of purpose,” the board refers to stale objections, which reveal a flawed and stereotyped view towards homeschooling. Despite the fact that homeschooling has decades worth of practical and scientific evidence documenting its success, there are still public school officials who re-use the same old criticism of homeschooling—teacher competency and socialization.

Here is the proposed policy’s first paragraph:

“Monongalia County Board of Education encourages the enrollment of all school-age children [who] are residents in Monongalia County or in registered parochial or private schools so that they may enjoy the benefits a of well-planned educational program and the socialization possible in a group environment.”

As if homeschooling programs are not well-planned or lack in providing “socialization” opportunities. The modern homeschool movement has been going on for 40 years and there is plenty of evidence showing that it not only works, but it actually works better than other forms of schooling. For resources that HSLDA has been involved with to show the benefits of homeschooling go to: HSLDA Homeschooling Research webpage or the HSLDA brochure, “The Best Kind of Socialization” (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).

Mike Donnelly, HSLDA staff attorney for member affairs in West Virginia, encourages homeschool families to respond persuasively.

“It can be frustrating to continually address the same tired stereotypes—especially in the public context of a board of education policy review process. However, as we politely and persuasively point out the facts, we have the opportunity to open the minds of people who simply have not considered the arguments or who may not be aware of the evidence in favor of homeschooling. Take an opportunity to witness graciously to your elected officials and help them come to an accurate understanding of what homeschooling really is and the evidence that shows it works,” Donnelly wrote.

Membership with HSLDA allows families to unite and oppose efforts such as this that attack and erode homeschool freedom. When united, families can effectively defeat these attacks, advance the right to homeschool, and further awareness of the benefits of homeschooling.

[metmom]

Tolerance is just for everybody else.

[aberaussie]

I ran across Charter Schools and Cyber Schools. What’s the difference between them and homeschooling or are they the same thing pretty much?

Charter schools in my state (FL) are special schools set up by someone other than the public schools, but are still public schools, just with different rules. Cyber schools - I guess they could be lots of things. In FL, we have FLVS - the Florida Virtual School, online classes for students at home. Some are homeschoolers and some are traditionally schooled kids who might not be able to get the class they need at their private or public school, or might be trying to get an extra class in.

Thank you! We are proud of our kids and happy that we made the big decision to homeschool nineteen years ago!