Posted on 06/08/2002 6:14:23 AM PDT by Valin
For homeschoolers, it's not hard finding a date to the prom. Got an itch for performing arts? No problem. Looking for a little pomp and circumstance? Done.
The lack of social opportunities — one of the myths of homeschooling — is not a worry for many metro-area families who have made the choice to teach their own children.
As homeschooling has shifted from emerging trend to an educational choice, resources for homeschoolers have blossomed. Homeschool students now have their own prom, graduation and theater classes. Local colleges cater to homeschooled teens with exclusive science lab classes. Co-ops arrange field trips and specialized language classes. Institutions like the YMCA open their doors for homeschool swim days.
Parents aren't left out, either.
Two statewide organizations — the Minnesota Association of Christian Home Educators and Minnesota Homeschoolers' Alliance — coordinate annual conferences and networking for parents. And bookstores offer curriculum discounts to homeschool educators.
"We're a market now," said MHA President Amy Leinen, who homeschools her three children in West St. Paul.
Indeed, they are. More than 15,000 students in Minnesota are homeschooled.
SUCCESS STORIES
Ariel Lopez, 18, who graduated Friday night, went to prom several weeks ago. Lopez, recently named a National Merit Scholar, will head off to Indiana's DePauw University in the fall.
Mother Linda Lopez said she homeschooled Ariel from the day he was born. Her son's extracurricular activities match his academic achievements: soccer, 4-H, choir, theater and photography.
"It's very antisocial to be in a class with 30 kids who are all the same," said Linda Lopez, a former school counselor.
Ariel Lopez said his daily structure is a perfect fit. He's been able to take college classes for homeschoolers and, he said, "I do enough activities outside of the home. I'm able to interact well with adults and 5-year-olds."
One of his sources of socialization has been Youth Educated at Home, which sponsored the commencement ceremony. Formed in 1988, its purpose is to provide outlets for fun to youth age 12 and older.
In any given month, 200 to 300 youth, mostly from the Twin Cities metro area, bowl, roller-skate, take hayrides or watch movies. YEAH also organizes a prom.
"It makes them feel part of a group, which I think is important for teens. It's a sense of belonging or community. That's where the socialization comes in," said Cher Baumhoefner, director of YEAH.
Often, parents feel ill-equipped to teach high-school courses to their children; many don't have backgrounds in science or foreign language. YEAH facilitates tutor groups as well as an academy that offers supplemental courses in subjects ranging from Greek to algebra.
Parents also receive coaching in how to prepare high-school transcripts and college applications.
The growth in homeschooling has prompted more targeted assistance: Last weekend, the University of St. Thomas hosted the Minnesota Catholic Home Education Conference.
Homeschooling can't match public high schools for the numbers of dances and student clubs, but homeschool parents are determined to provide their children with opportunities to be with other children.
STAGES OF LEARNING
In the basement of a South Minneapolis church, the set to "Pollyanna" hasn't been dismantled since the spring show. This space is home to Theatrix, a community theater for the homeschooled.
"We didn't expect it to be as big as it's gotten," said co-director Kira Bundlie, who has had to turn away kids at auditions.
"Pollyanna" starred 40 children — dozens more than the first play Theatrix produced. Participants do their own make-up, hair and sound effects. Bundlie, 22, said the theater serves youth ages 4 to 18 and appeals to different types of homeschool families.
Bundlie's mother started Theatrix in 1995 as a way for Kira and her younger sister to try acting when they were "unschooled," a looser form of homeschooling.
"I never felt like I didn't have any friends," Bundlie said. "Age becomes a non-issue. You're not always with kids the same age in homeschooling."
Roger Schurke, MACHE president, teaches a class at Northwestern College for parents on how to homeschool. Schurke, a former community baseball and softball coach, said parents should look to the community for socialization opportunities for their children, not the traditional school setting.
"Socialization is a non-issue. Kids aren't born in a litter. Why do we have to raise them that way?" Schurke said.
Natalie Y. Moore can be reached at nmoore@pioneerpress.com or (651) 228-5452.
This bears repeating over and over again. Folks talk about public schools like that is the way that its always been done. In reality, public schools are only about a century old. For thousands of years, people schooled their children at home.
The public school system grew out of the application of socialist political philosophy to eduction (the state has to do everything for everyone) and the factory method of organization typical of everything in the 19th century.
Many bad things grew out of the state control of education. First, it mushroomed into a corrupt socialist bureacracy dedicated to its own well-being regardless of the education offered. Second, it turned into a method of social control used by the same government bureacrats to mold the thinking of generations of american kids.
Also, bringing all the kids together from one region into one building (with badly outnumbered adults overseeing things) created something never before seen: modern youth culture. Kids got together and immediately formed their own dysfunctional "lord of the flies" culture...complete with gangster rap, slutty clothing, violence, teen pregnancy, and ultimately Columbine-style murder/suicide.
With home schooling, kids are moved back into an environment controlled by their families rather than one controlled by government hacks and wild youth culture.
I honestly believe that most of the pathologies we've seen in youth over the past 3 decades can be dropped on the laps of 1) media working its way into our homes 2) schools.
Both of these things brought us from "Little House on the Prarie" to Marilyn Manson in little over a century....and thats quite a fall (did Laura Ingalls Wilder have body piercings and a gothic hairdo? I don't think so)
ROFLOL bump! That needs to go into a counter-arguments list somewhere, to be used every time the goobermint skool idjuts bring out the "homeschoolers miss out on socialization" argument. That is great!
What would be the point of that? The whole concept of warehouse schooling is flawed; it does little good to tinker with the details.
I've often thought the public schools are low security prisons. But now they are high security prisons.
Yes, it is scarier and more work than the giant luxury liner, but in the lifeboat there is a chance of survival. We don't want our kids to go down with the ship of fools who can't see the ship is going under more rapidly with each passing day.
And since the crew won't even admit the ship is sinking, I'm taking my family off the boat to avoid drowning in a sea of ignorance.
Your words deserved repeating.
If he'd been home schooled, it's virtually certain that she would have learned to write English as well. In any event, he would have, without a doubt.
Savage is for homeschooling young children--his point was that when children reach 12 or so they have to learn how to deal with the rude, ammoral brats in the world who dominate this planet now. He said that the wise parents would send them to the school AND be there when they came home so that they could deprogram them after the indoctrination of each day. His father did that to him and he claims that is how he learned to reason and be able to spot the inconsistencies in the liberal doctrine. You CAN overprotect your children so that they are too shocked by the real world and can't function in it--I have seen it happen to a few kids. Don't jump on me because I ADMIRE people who homeschool--I've done it myself, BUT Savage thinks facing the hordes and having to deal with them on a daily basis can make you incredibly strong--so that they can be like Savage and not be reduced to tears if someone calls them a homophobe or racist or whatever. It is not pleasant out there when you have to make a living, etc.
Somrthing he has a great deal of expertise in
"The whole concept of warehouse schooling is flawed; it does little good to tinker with the details."
First, I see so many great private schools that I wonder if you consider them "warehouses". These private schools pay teachers much less than the public schools but there is a quality environment and kids are not warehoused. As I've stated before on this thread that my own kids went to private Christian school even though my wife had public teaching credentials.
The truth is there are many women who -- because they lack the skills or temperment -- should not be teaching their own kids. I think it is fantasy to believe this home school solution fits everyone and neighborhood schools will always be necessary. I have seen actual home school moms spend less than 8 hours per week actually teaching.(This may be the equivalent of a public school but still it is bad.) Not every home schooled kid is a genius that's a fact.
As I see it, because homeschooled kids don't see rude folks, bully's, etc., on a daily basis doesn't mean they never see such folks. Also, I don't think they need to see that element daily to learn how to deal with it.
My kids can see that element in the following places:
We also talk to our sons about everything. They're a little too young to understand politics but we'll raise them to know how to recognize Barbara Streisand (BS) when they see it.
Our experience is different from the concerns of Mr. Savage and even though you've clarified his position, I still disagree with him.
"Socializing" is an NEA codeword for "being indoctrinated to accept current politically-correct viewpoints regarding race, gender, and the role of the almighty Government in solving all life's little problems"
The NEA knows they can't compete with homeschooling on classic academic grounds, yet cannot allow any children to completely escape indoctrination if they want to achieve their goals of bringing Socialism to America. Leftist doctrine cannot stand being subjected to reasoned argument, which means they cannot allow a pool of young people who might be able to point out the extent to which the emperor has no clothes
Old bumper sticker:
If voting could really change things
Voting would be illegal too
Perhaps Savage has seen what I've seen here in the Bay Area.
Northern California Home School Mom’s Actual Agenda:
5:00 Dad wakes up and gets ready for his 60 mile drive to work.
8:45 Mom wakes up and rushes to park for her Tai Chi workout.
10:00 Mom wakes up kids and they eat tofu biscuits.
11:00 Mom gets call from Tai Chi friend and they discuss how much Ralph Nader has gotten more conservative since 9-11 and they agree they need a more liberal candidate next election. Kids turn TV to Montel William where they learn about bad relationships in the African-American albino community.
12:00 Mom gets phone call from ex-lesb lover and they discuss how conservative Jerry Brown seems to have become since 9-11 and the kids tune into Ophra Winfrey and watch program about "make-overs" of slut teenagers.
1:00 Mom prepares tofu burgers for lunch.
2:00 Mom gets call from Feng Shui instructor and they discuss how Gray Davis has let the "people" down and they need a more liberal candidate next election. Kids watch Jerry Springer show on transvestite truck drivers.
3:00 Mom yells at kids for wasting the day and they discuss the dangers of not recycling and always using whole-grains in biscuits.
4:00 Mom is tired and takes a nap.
5:30 Dad returns home to tofu biscuits for dinner.
6:00 Kids take TV break until bed time at 11:00.
It could be. The schedule you list is one of choice. From real life experience I know a homeschool mother is busy, my wife sure is. What's important to us is that we decide how to spend our time, who to spend it with and the quality of that time.
They dont owe anything to the system in the first place for you to make a logical claim that they are robbing the system. Furthermore, their competition will go much further towards improving public schools than being victimized and sending their children to be victimized in a public school. Child crusades dont work.
By having many teachers in a school and have organizational regime you do get away from the dangers of a "time-waster" as a mom/teacher.
While I have seen evidence of many great home-schoolers I have seen evidence of really poor ones. This thread only seems to focus on the great ones and forgets that wacko liberals home school too. I know people who believe that public high schools turn good tofu-eating socialist kids into mean-spirited republicans who only want to go to college to get careers to buy SUVs!!!
Home schoolers actually make the life of education bureaucrats much easier.
The bureaucrats take the home schoolers' tax money without the burden of providing any educational service. So, if everyone home schooled I think public schools would still exist but the administrators would have bigger salaries since they wouldn't have to pay teachers anymore.
I’m for vouchers.
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