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I say NO to standardized testing of homeschoolers.

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.

You realize you are talking about apples and oranges right now, right? What does that have to do with US governement forced standardized testing for homeschooled students? I am talking about education freedom, and the parent's right to choose what is best for their children.

With all due respect, I don't care what they do in South Whales.

With the track we are on my son will be doing calculus by the time he is nine or ten. Big deal. Literacy does not equal IQ ,or creative IQ. It is very important, but just because your area is #1 literacy does not mean you are creative thinkers or problem solvers, which BTW ,I think is more important to the individual and society as a whole.

Besides, just because you were forced to memorize a bunch of data and forced to spit it out on demand , does not mean you had a better education than anyone, now or then.

If the Aussies in South Wahles are so smart, why haven't they( you) created any of the major technological advances of our decade? What has been going on over there. The world is booming with potential right now, and the people in South Whales are leaders in what area? People from South Whales prduce what? People from South Whales are head and shoulders above other countries in what feild?

You may indeed have some fine people there and you may have limited cutting edge medial research in Australia, but if I were you I would not rush to judgement on what American children do or do not need ,based upon what you had in South Whales a number of years ago.