why don't we force testing all children raised in day care or the parents who put them there, or test all people on welfare ? What is that they have rights? Oh, testing them would be against their civil rights, their right to privacy. Oh yeah... I thought so.
I say NO to standardized testing of homeschoolers. These tests are to make sure the teachers we pay are instilling knowledge in kids who are in their care all day. Homeschoolers do not apply.
Children raised in daycare are tested when they go to school. Many jobs in our society require testing. Drivers licenses require testing. Formal educations require testing. MOST universities require a certain score on a standardized entrance exam. In fact... I'd be interested to see a list of accredited universities that don't. Certainly not everyone is required to go to a university And I support you and your kids rights to do whatever you choose to earn a living.
I don't have a problem with people who homeschool at all. I do see a difference between homeschool and noschool. Often I think that many people such as the key figures in this article are from the noschool philosophy, which is why they aren't willing to devulge the information they are teaching their kids, nor allow their kids to be tested. But that's also just my opinion.
Testing is a necessary evil in today's modern age. I don't want a doctor who has never passed a test in his life working on me. I don't want to drive on roads with people who have never passed a test in thier life. I don't want a drug reasercher/developer developing drugs for me that has never passed a test in his life. I don't want a cpa doing my taxes who has never passed a test in his life. A society that allowed anyone to open any sort of business he chose to, without being tested for the proper skills would be a dangerous place. Insurance would be out of sight, and the courts would be full of people suing others because of bad business practices...... oh yeah.. that's what we have now:) But it would be about a gazillion times worse. :)
Personally, I don't see the big deal. (the "Freedom" argument doesn't cut it with me, sorry.) I grew up in an area that had me doing calculus by age 14 - it was the state requirement. By 16 every student was sitting down at the same time for the same series of closed book tests that ran for several weeks. This process was repeated again at age 18. The Exams? -- the School Certificate and the Higher School Certificate. The State- it was New South Wales. The Country? Australia. Best education in the world, was a state education there because we were tested and tested often and expected to perform to a very high standard. These 2 major tests your performance was compared to everyone else in the state. (CIA stats on Australia rank it as #1 in the world as far as literacy goes.) If you failed your exams you were held back.
The US doesn't know what testing is.