Fourteen states do not specify any subjects that families must teach, and only nine states require that parents have at least a high school diploma or equivalent in order to teach their children. In half the states, children who are taught at home never have to take a standardized test or be subject to any sort of formal outside assessment....
“What we would like is for there to be a total hands-off policy,” said [Dewitt T. Black III, senior counsel for the Home School Legal Defense Association].
January 5, 2015
"Eleven states do not require families to register with any school district or state agency that they are teaching their children at home..."
"... according to the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, a nonprofit group that is pushing for more accountability in home schooling."
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The Coalition for Responsible Home Education: brought to you by the AFT and NEA.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth." - C. S. Lewis
I recall a famous saying, ""Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend"!"
Surely no progressive school union can argue against the words of Chairman Mao!
Public schools became a problem when they stopped teaching children the mores and beliefs that their parents value, and became centers for teaching against the "injustices" and "imperfections" of their parents value system. Why should you send your kids somewhere where what you believe is derided and everything you teach is undermined by some local government lackey?
Fuck you. My just turned three year old reads, writes and does arithmetic and he LOVES learning, actually asks to sit down and read rite and rithmatic. Leave my children alone. I remember what grade I figured out my teachers were mostly (mostly, not completely) useless, third grade. That's right an eight year old figured out the con. Hell, go look at any states kindergarten "curriculum" over half of it will be related to being good little obedient drones.
More regulation....but it's for the children.
More accountability for home schoolers would be fine if it's linked to more accountability for public schooling. That won't happen.
I was homeschooled K-12 by my mother, who raised 8 other kids and only had a diploma. She is the most dedicated mother and teacher I know. I consider my education superior to that of most kids my age. There were definitely areas lacking in our education (I mostly taught myself Physics and some Calculus) but the immediate interest my parents had in my education very much made up for that.
The hostility of the state to home schooling has increased as public schools lost their reason for existence. The teachers' unions are the biggest reason but the ed schools are second. Teachers and, especially ed school professors, find the teaching of reading and basic math boring. Therefore, they keep adopting fads to make things interesting and the fads all are harmful. When the uselessness of a fad is recognized, a new one is adopted.
More accountability for home schooled children would be fine except for the fact that the lefties will abuse any and every rule put in place.
But only every single time.
Who supports that "Coalition"? Teachers' unions, George Soros, publishers of (Politically Correct) text books?
Home schooling, to be done properly, requires well-educated, dedicated parents willing to put in the time, effort, and resources to nurture their children's joy of learning.
On the other hand, a schizophrenic crack whore with anger issues could still do a better job than many of our public schools...
I have several home-schoolers in my client base. Two are Catholic mothers with six children. They are both exceptional teachers. One has sent two sons to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, a son to West Point, and a son to the London School of Economics and two in process. The other has children a bit younger but also doing well in college and in home studies.
They make home schooling their full-time job. I wish I had such an education.
Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Mussolini, Castro, etc..., would have loved having agencies monitor every aspect of a child's development no matter who taught them so they could inject their agenda into the curriculum.. no wait.. they did monitor every aspect of the child's development and very much did inject their agenda into the curriculum.
Home schoolers school at home because they feel the state's ability to teach is so poor (and with reason.)
Stay out of their lives people. They tend to bring better educated young people into the world than any state does.
It's funny how utterly indifferent the liberals are to how bad the public schools for thousands upon thousands are but the thought that some one child in some state might not learn drives them into a frenzy of regulation.
And now that children are supposed to learn Common Core values and Common Core math the flight from the schools will increase and hence the drive to regulate.
It will be an election issue and anyone who thinks Common Core is OK, I predict, will not get the Republican nomination. Because that shows you don't know or care about an outrageous imposition on those who hold Christian values. It the same as the school lunch rules - they are pretend nutrition, Common Core is pretend learning and real hard left values.
Let's send all the kiddies to DC schools. Second highest per capita spending in the US. 60% graduation rate.
It's for the children.
While I agree that there are some homeschooled kids that probably do not get the education they need by staying home, do the naysayers really believe that the magical brick and mortar public school would suddenly transform them into learners? That by the physical act of attending public school, somehow they and their families would suddenly value education?
Judging from the comments in the NYT article, it seems most are just outraged that homeschooled kids are able to complete the entire instruction of a public school day in the course of a few hours. Then, they are then free to play minecraft, study The Bible, play outside, or do anything else they want. The horrors!
I write all of this as someone whose children are enrolled right now in school and who will probably never homeschool.
wildswan-
In what way does CommonCore go against Christian values?
It's funny how utterly indifferent the liberals are to how bad the public schools for thousands upon thousands are but the thought that some one child in some state might not learn drives them into a frenzy of regulation.
I hadn't thought about this. You're absolutely correct and it makes their arguments on vouchers completely disingenuous.
Everyone is all up in arms about home schooling, but that is still done by a small percentage of the US population. What about home cooking? How many people eat meals every day that are prepared in unlicensed, un-inspected kitchens? Is the raw food stored separately from the prepared food? Are both held at a proper temperature? Are the cooking and preparation surfaces properly hygienic? Why don’t these home cookers want the health department inspecting their kitchens? Are the secretly preparing unhealthy foods and from non-local, non-sustainable sources? What are they trying to hide?
We home school. My 5 year old asks 'Can we do phonics now?'. My 9 year old answers 'Pretty much all of them, but especially math and writing' when asked his favorite subjects. To paraphrase Charlie Sheen, 'We are winning the education!'
More seriously, my #1 son already knows more history, science, math and writing than I did at his age. For context, I have BA in Math and MS in CS, wife has BA in History/Math and MS in Statistics, so we may be less intimidated by teaching math than most. We are a lot more worried about teaching Art...lol. The oldest has had several piano recitals and been in two plays, so evidently we are leaning towards dramatic arts vs fine arts as it is easier to outsource the lessons / practices. :)
We use the Y for swimming lessons and seasonal sports (flag football, soccer, basketball, t-ball/coach pitch). Cub Scouts for a fair amount of citizenship and supplementary character development.
We had state standardized testing a year ago (required for grade 3) for #1 son and he was average to above average in all areas, even though we did not prep him for the test. That is, we told him he had a test, but we did not change our teaching or plan to match the test (well, we did go over how to fill out bubble form, as he'd never seen one). We wanted a realistic appraisal of how we were doing. Oddly, my wife is freaking out that we aren't teaching him enough.
If I had a justified faith that the public schools could do this, I might have my kids there. But I don't.
"We work all year around, but I can tell him to go burn off some energy.”
School's out for never.
Home schoolers school at home because they feel the state's ability to teach is so poor (and with reason.)
Also, how many truly lazy parents actually bother homeschooling their children? They are probably bound to get a somewhat better education simply because they are engaged and know their children well enough to work with them in a way that works for them.
I do worry about things like socialization [which I think can be solved in various ways] and having one parent as a teacher is bound to limit the number of viewpoints a child is exposed to as well. However, they can read a book to get to any subject or viewpoint they want and with the internet obviously you have access to a wealth of information.
"Must be a yearning deep in human heart to stop other people from doing as they please. Rules, laws - always for other fellow. A murky part of us, something we had before we came down out of trees, and failed to shuck when we stood up. Because not one of those people said: 'Please
pass this so that I won't be able to do something I know I should stop.'
Nyet, tovarischee, was always something they hated to see neighbors doing. Stop them 'for their own good' - not because speaker claimed to be harmed by it."
Robert A. Heinlein
The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress
You're absolutely correct and it makes their arguments on vouchers completely disingenuous
We should fund inner city kids that come from failing schools and bus them to schools in the suburbs that are doing well.
Instead of harrassing them, maybe we could ask some of these unsupervised home schoolers to take in an inner city kid or two and teach them along side their own kids.
the Coalition for Responsible Home Education, a nonprofit group that is pushing for more accountability in home schooling."
I smellllll ASTROTURF!!!
By my memory, the Home School Legal Defense Association has been helping Home Educators keep their civil rights since the early 1980s.
(I was educated at home from the late 80s to the late 90s. Back when "the law" was mostly court cases, and Legislatures hadn't noticed Home Education.)
This Coalition for Responsible Home Education seems like the new kid on the block.
Perhaps the guys at CRHE should as the guys at HSLDA, and various state-level Home Education Support Groups, for tips on responsible Home Education.
They don't want teachers in public schools held accountable for anything whatsoever, but parents who blow them out of the water when it comes to results need state supervision. Grrr.
As long as tax supported schools are turning out illiterate and innumerate "graduates" then this focus on home schooling is just a diversion. Note the complaint about home schooling is about methods and credentials, not about outcomes.
FUCK those people! Free the minds of children! End compulsory state indoctrination! They are purveyors of environmentalism, for all purposes an establishment of religion.
"Fourteen states do not specify any subjects that families must teach, and only nine states require that parents have at least a high school diploma or equivalent in order to teach their children. In half the states, children who are taught at home never have to take a standardized test or be subject to any sort of formal outside assessment...."
If the State schools were so good then why are there so many on welfare? Could the home-schoolers do any worse than the public schools are doing? At least they aren't costing the taxpayers.
Garage wants to bus inner city kids to the 'good' public schools in the suburbs so they can get a good education and yet never contemplates why the inner city schools run by the same school boards as the good schools can't run good schools in the inner cities.
A friend of mine has "home schooled" both of his children. He hired a full-time teacher at less than the cost of a private school"s tuition but at a salary that was higher than the teacher was making in the public school. When they advanced to high school classes the cost went way up because he then had to hire more specialized tutors to replace the single teacher. It was expensive but his kids were actually being taught several hours a day more than kids are being "taught" in public schools.
The first of his kids is at Harvard. The other is applying to Ivy League schools.
The coalition should go fuck itself.
Common Core!!
Instead of presidential debates I would relish the thought of candidates being asked to solve math problems, on t.v., using the idiotic methodology developed by the University of Chicago's department of Education to teach mathematics.
Garage:
Are you implying that black teachers in inner city schools are incompetent? Why, I think you are.
He hired a full-time teacher at less than the cost of a private school"s tuition but at a salary that was higher than the teacher was making in the public school.
Wow. That's pretty much how they used to do things before public education. If several families did that, they could probably do well, but that might be too close to having a school and regulations? I wonder what the law is on that...
"anyone who thinks Common Core is OK, I predict, will not get the Republican nomination. "
I don't think it is a political issue. My grandchildren are in public school and their teacher told my daughter-in-law that she doesn't understand the Common Core math either. She said to just teach my grandson math the way she learned it., The teacher is throwing up her hands at it. My daughter-in-law runs a successful business from home and my son is a fireman so homeschooling is not an option.
My ex-wife, who was a big advocate for public school when we were married (I put the kids in private school after we divorced), went back to teaching for a year in the 90s after she was laid off in a bank merger. She was horrified at what had happened to the schools. She has since said she would home-school if she were raising the kids again.
One of the co-founders of the coalition
My name is Rachel Coleman and I am a Ph.D. candidate in United States history at Indiana University, Bloomington. I received my M.A. in history from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, where I wrote my master’s thesis, “Ideologues, Pedagogues, Pragmatics: A Case Study of the Homeschool Community in Delaware County, Indiana.” I am currently working on my dissertation, which examines the role of children and childhood in the rise of the Christian Right, focusing primarily though not exclusively on the 1970s and 1980s.
Sounds like religion and politics to me. I have the impression that the movement is directed against evangelicals. The fact that a start up organization has received as much publicity as this one also makes me suspicious.
Aren't we told that it's the parents fault that children in underperforming schools fail? It certainly can't be the teachers fault, because they are all credentialed college graduates.
Yet when a parent has the audacity to think they can school their own children, we cry foul.
"My name is Rachel Coleman and I am a Ph.D. candidate in United States history at Indiana University"
One of my daughters was half way to her PhD in history but it was on Spain in the Muslim period and she learned Arabic as part of her study. This young womb sounds like an ideologue or maybe she is trying to figure out how to make a living with a PhD in History. My daughter gave up and got a job.
@Chuck,
It is about cultural extermination then. This is my shocked face :^O
Parents should have to register with the central authorities.
Are you implying that black teachers in inner city schools are incompetent?
Teachers in Milwaukee Public Schools are 70% white, 18% African American.
It's clear voucher schools aren't any better than public schools, we've tried that for decades. Time for all these voucher advocates in the burbs to start taking in some kids in from the cities. Why don't kids in MPS have the "choice" to enroll in public schools in the suburbs?
We homeschool all four of our children.
I'm very fortunate that I have a job that allows my wife to stay at home and homeschool. Her degree is in education.
I would say our children aren't any dumber, or smarter, than most other children. Some of the homeschooling stories I see are very impressive. Concert pianist kids and what not.
We don't have anything like that in our four kids, but what we do have is four children who really appreciate their mother and learn all the basics.
I have two children who would be considered "normal" kids. My oldest, who is my only daughter, and my youngest. They are pretty typical and normal children and do well when given tasks to do on their own.
My oldest son has all sorts of issues. He is a very slow learner. If he were put into public school, he would be put into special classes. I don't know what his problem is, but we think it's something along the lines of Aspergers, or maybe a sensory disorder.
The wonderful thing about him being homeschooled is we can teach him at his pace.
My middle son is my smartest kid. He started reading on his own at 4 years old. And we have the same opportunity with him that we have with my oldest boy. My wife can teach him at his pace. Rather than hold him back, like public schools would do. I think he's going to end up being an engineer of some sort some day, just by the way his mind works.
Ultimately, homeschool works much better for us and the city and the state should be happy that we homeschool.
I mean, doesn't the State pay something like $10,000 a year to public schools per kid that they receive from taxes?
Well, we pay our taxes but we save them $40,000 a year.
Maybe instead of attacking homeschoolers, they should be giving us some of our money back?
"garage mahal said...
We should fund inner city kids that come from failing schools and bus them to schools in the suburbs that are doing well."
Wait, you don't realize this has been going on in Wisconsin for decades?
LOL
My kids went to Brookfield East...lots of voucher kids there.
One of my old friends is a part of the Coalition for Responsible Home Education. They are almost entirely bitter, angry ex-homeschoolers who ended up getting great educations but have turned into culture warriors for the left.
Everything you need to know about their agenda can be summarized at this link where they list Elizabeth Smart as a victim of homeschooling.
http://hsinvisiblechildren.org/tag/utah/
"Fourteen states do not specify any subjects that families must teach, and only nine states require that parents have at least a high school diploma or equivalent in order to teach their children..."
All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.
garage: "Why don't kids in MPS have the "choice" to enroll in public schools in the suburbs?"
LOL
Garage apparently has never heard of MPS Open Enrollment (which is quite common now in many locales).
Maybe garage should take a few moments to familiarize himself on the programs already available to parents in the MPS.
Then he could return to "white-'splain" to those black parents in DC and elsewhere why their desire for vouchers is so wrong.
Modern public schools and the teachers unions are just enablers of child abuse and rape.
You can't turn kids against their parents if they aren't present in the Indoctrination Centers that used to be public schools.
The attacks on home schooling are attempts at grubbing up more Federal tax money that schools get when the kids butt is in a seat as well as an attempt to secure an ideological monopoly for leftist lies and propaganda.
All your children are belong to us.
"garage mahal said...
We should fund inner city kids that come from failing schools and bus them to schools in the suburbs that are doing well."
Why don't we fire the shitty teachers and administrators and hire competent ones for those schools instead. Is it that only school in white neighborhoods can be competent? How racist is that?
" This young womb"
Who knew that autocorrect had a sense of humor ?
There is a reason such high percentages of public school teachers, particularly in urban democrat-lefty paradise-land, send their own children to private schools.
In 2013 52% of the Congressional Black Caucus (with school age children) sent their own kids to private schools.
SGT Ted: "Why don't we fire the shitty teachers and administrators and hire competent ones for those schools instead."
You already know why.
The union needs more dues to funnel back to the dems.
That's all that really matters to the garages of the world.
Wait a sec, we already have school choice in Wisconsin? Holy shit!
garage: "garage mahal said...
Wait a sec, we already have school choice in Wisconsin? Holy shit!"
Hey don't worry about missing the explicit mention of the MPS Open Enrollment program.
Comprehension is not really your "thing".
Confusing credentials with competence. McGuffy readers are far better than the current elementary curriculum.
There are a lot of resources from the past as well.\
"The 1914 California Sixth Grade Reader with classical stories and poems that every high school student studied in that era. The same stories were read in most states, and the American culture of that era was profoundly affected by these stories. They remain relevant to those who care about civilization and are part of our cultural heritage. They're also good stories. The poems were once as popular as any TV series, and learning to read and enjoy great poetry, while hardly taught in schools now, was once another great part of our cultural heritage. The small amount of work invested in learning to enjoy poetry will last the rest of your life."
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LZ7PB7E/ref=as_li_tf_til?tag=chaosmanor-20&camp=14573&creative=327641
This is a bad thing. Who is going to teach 6 year olds that the best gay sex can be easily learned. And that if they are confused about being a man or a woman they can just switch sides with a minor medical intervention.
Yes, those are value questions.
If they knew what is taught in education grad school, most taxpayers would be unpleasantly surprised.
Garage,
I'm all for open enrollment. If a parent is going to go out of their way to pick a different school for their child, then we should let them.
What, did you think I was afraid of brown people? I am brown people.
We homeschooled our son the year he was being treated for cancer. It was his senior in high school. I'm certified for high school in both math and science, and it was not difficult to get approval. In MA you do need to do things like submit lesson plans, etc. When you take out all of the extraneous stuff from a school day, like taking attendance, waiting for 25 kids to change classes and get settled in, you can complete the school's lessons for a day in about 3 hours. Even with giving my son days off when he just didn't have the strength to do much, he was able to pass all of his final exams provided by the school with A's in March. We still kept up "hanging out with Mom" because it provided him with entertainment. We read more books together, followed current events and talked about how they related to the past, and learned how to write computer program applications. When it was all over, he was angry at me for not doing it before cancer put us in that position.
@ Matthias
That link is disturbing. "If only there was no homeschooling, none of those children would have been abused!" yeah, right.
Standard progressive stuff here. Measure inputs, not outputs. The article moans about lack of state certification, as though that had anything to do with educational outcomes.
There are thousands of schools run by states with state certified teachers that routinely fail to educate their students. Many more students fail through that system that the home education system.
So if they were actually concerned about student outcomes, maybe they should focus on the bigger problem.
Standard progressive stuff here. Measure inputs, not outputs. The article moans about lack of state certification, as though that had anything to do with educational outcomes.
There are thousands of schools run by states with state certified teachers that routinely fail to educate their students. Many more students fail through that system that the home education system.
So if they were actually concerned about student outcomes, maybe they should focus on the bigger problem.
As long as (a) school districts refuse to fire incompetent teachers and (b) school principals as a general rule tend to assign the best students to the worst teachers (because those students are more likely to learn despite the teacher) then the case for home schooling is self-evident.
"McGuffy readers are far better than the current elementary curriculum."
I sent them to two of my sons for their children. I doubt my lefty son has opened the package. The others are probably going to use them.
Two friends of mine in Tucson have three sons and the mother home schooled one son each year before returning him to the Catholic school they attended and taking the next son for home schooling. They have raised three outstanding boys. Every third year, they spent a year with mom.
To be duly noted, homeschooling rates have apparently escalated among felons, and "traditional"* has acquired a new definition: "Families keeping their children out of traditional classrooms were required to register each year with their local school district, outlining study plans and certifying that adults in the home did not have a criminal record."
New corporate mission statement for the Coalition for Responsible Home Education: Wee fite 4 akowntabilitee in homskooling beecuz acheeving akowntabilitee in guvernment skools, or kongres 4 that matur, iz just 2 hard. (Whut? Dontcha biguts no owr 5 oh 1 see 3 aplikashun was fastraked? And withowt enee time at the jim or selehbritee shus 2!)
*For those outside flyover country or without private schooling, traditional schools often meant one-room buildings with administrators days or weeks away in state capitols, if references such as sitting with Socrates make textbooks too blasted thick.
So, The Coalition is a grad school project?
What I get from the quote is that it is an attack on the notion that states can properly oversee home schooling.
The most important effect of moving oversight of home schooling from the states to the feds is that the overseeing entity it will become less accountable to the taxpayer. The "Coalition for Responsible Home Education" wants home schoolers to be more responsible to DC bureaucrats.
Garage
"Teachers in Milwaukee Public Schools are 70% white, 18% African American. "
Shoot us a link on that, please.
"The "Coalition for Responsible Home Education" wants home schoolers to be more responsible to DC bureaucrats."
And they want to be those bureaucrats.
The good students at public schools also get home schooling. The bad schools are the ones unsupported by home schooling.
The question is not the right to give your children an exemplary education at home, but the right to give them a mediocre to poor education. As with free speech and gun ownership, it's not a right until you have the right to do it poorly.
Considering that homeschooling raises the academic outcomes for children by roughly a standard deviation, you can see why they're mad these uneducated, unlicensed parents are apparently far better teachers than the professionals. Teaching in America is a political sinecure, not a profession. We hire the dregs of the softest college majors to teach our children. We'd do better to leave them in the woods to be educated by wolves, at least they'd learn a skill.
As long as tax supported schools are turning out illiterate and innumerate "graduates" then this focus on home schooling is just a diversion.
So basically they’re just like people who say that “Black Lives Matter” and focus on 200 cases of black people being shot by police officers rather than over 7,000 cases of them being murdered by other black people.
Mike K:
When the uselessness of a fad is recognized, a new one is adopted.
My child is a freshman and has always been the type of student that needs consistency. Now, the latest fad is "no text books": most material is given in the form of photocopies (some are copies of copies of copies - makes for faded print, skewed placement of text on the paper, original color pictures that turn solid black when copied).
Other stuff is supposed to be in "the cloud" - on-line texts that are mostly scanned in pages, takes massive amounts of clicking and scrolling to find anything, and don't display on IPads. Pretty useless as a medium to present information.
Now they have a "bring your own device" to school policy - kids can use their own smartphones or Ipods/Ipads, Tablets. I think the policy of school-related use only lasted about two weeks, and now the students are pretty much free to get "lost in the cloud" & the teachers/administration can't do anything about it. All day long I see my daughter's Facebook & Instagram pages being updated with new posts from kids that I know should be in class. Gives meaning to the saying, "too late to close the barn door after the horse has run out."
This is a pretty good school district, but I think there are going to be negative consequences soon to this "ungrounding" effect.
But gee, it's 21st century technology & we are preparing our digital natives for the future.
Less State, better State.
Monopolies are bad, I'm constantly told ... unless it's the Government.
Shoot us a link on that, please.
Student Demographics
2009-10 data for MPS: African American 56.6%; Hispanic 22.7%; Asian
4.8%; White 11.9%. (MPS teachers, meanwhile, are approximately 70%
percent White, 18% African American and 6% Latino.)
Now, the latest fad is "no text books
I love my kindle, but there are things I need on paper. No Textbooks seems like a crazy solution to me. I know one of the colleges here required all students to buy an ipad, which seems ridiculous to me. What are they supposed to write papers on? Ugh.
Garage:
Thanks, but I was looking for something official. I wonder how those teachers are dispersed in the Milwaukee schools.
The outcomes for black kids in Milwaukee Public schools is pathetic. 11% of 8th grade black kids reading at level. Give me a break. The teachers cannot be that bad. The physical schools cannot be that bad.
Busing is so 70s GM. Section 8 is where it's at.
Shanna
I do most of my light reading on an iPad but when it comes to something that requires back-tracking the iPad is horrible. You can't navigate it like you can a physical book.
Michael wrote:
"The outcomes for black kids in Milwaukee Public schools is pathetic. 11% of 8th grade black kids reading at level. Give me a break. The teachers cannot be that bad. The physical schools cannot be that bad."
Draw your own conclusions:
Below is the ranking of African countries by the literacy rate. This entry includes a definition of literacy and Census Bureau percentages for the total population, males, and females. There are no universal definitions and standards of literacy. Unless otherwise specified, all rates are based on the most common definition – the ability to read and write at a specified age (15 and above). Detailing the standards that individual countries use to assess the ability to read and write is beyond the scope of this article.
Country Literacy Rate
1.
Zimbabwe
90.70
2.
Equatorial Guinea
87.00
3.
South Africa
86.40
4.
Kenya
85.10
5.
Namibia
85.00
6.
Sao Tome and Principe
84.90
7.
Lesotho
84.80
8.
Mauritius
84.40
9.
Congo, Republic of the
83.80
10.
Libya
82.60
11.
Swaziland
81.60
12.
Botswana
81.20
13.
Zambia
80.60
http://theafricaneconomist.com/ranking-of-african-countries-by-literacy-rate-zimbabwe-no-1/#.VKrc_HsYEds
Dan Hossley: "Standard progressive stuff here. Measure inputs, not outputs."
Exactly.
I think you have given me my quote of the day here.
Thanks, but I was looking for something official
That data was pulled from the Department of Public Instruction.
CRHE is designed to kill off home schooling.
Does anyone know who is financing The Coalition for Responsible Home Education?
" I think the policy of school-related use only lasted about two weeks,"
My grand daughter uses Chromebooks in school in Orange County.
I gave her a lap top for Christmas. She is a whiz. Her younger brother is struggling with math and it is his teacher who told his mother she couldn't figure out the Common Core math lessons either. The teachers hate it, I'm told, and, even in Orange County, they are probably at least 50% Democrats.
The youngest got the McGuffey readers.
you can see why they're mad these uneducated, unlicensed parents are apparently far better teachers than the professionals.
They're mad for the same reason the Blue Fisters were mad at Walker -- the homeschoolers are stepping on the Ebu-blob's air-hose.
How many people benefit from a "well-rounded" education? How many people receive a "well-rounded" education? How many people acquire the basic knowledge and skills in order to be productive adults? How does the cost per student compare to the product of a public education? In short, how effective is the most expensive education system in the world, when it does not even rank in the top 10? Even our medical care system performed better before its financialization or "reform" a la Fannie and Freddie.
The opposition or fear of organic growth is remarkable. It has supported the creation of multi-trillion dollar deficits and brittle economies in America and abroad. As if the consequences of demanding instant or immediate gratification are localized. Perhaps premeditated abortion of around 2 million Americans annually, but the other costs are redistributed throughout the world.
"I do worry about things like socialization."
All the home schoolers I've met are way more mature than their peers educated in classrooms, whether public or private. Mostly because they don't get caught up in the bullshit tribalism of youth culture and feral teenagers.
"Teachers in Milwaukee Public Schools are 70% white, 18% African American. "
Unless one is a racist, that has no bearing on any issue.
"I do worry about things like socialization."
North Texas homeschoolers pool resources and hire coaches so their children can compete in athletics. HSAAs, as they're known, compete in smaller (up to 1,000 enrollment) public school leagues.
I went to public school. I don't recall that most of the student body was particularly well socialized.
I have mixed feelings on states that offer no oversight at all. I can think of good reasons that a state might opt for a policy of, "Swing by our office once a year with the children to register them as homeschoolers." I don't like the idea that horrendously abusive adults could register children in their care as homeschoolers to avoid ever having other adults get a look at them.
Our state requires registration (in person the first time and online or by mail subsequently) with the district. The state also requires standardized testing once a year. The testing does not count for anything, and no one sees the results except the parents.
I think these requirements are reasonable. By requiring testing, the children are assured to see at least one unrelated person each year who could report on children who appear to be neglected or abused. It also assures that the parents have some indication each year of their homeschool's effectiveness.
" I don't like the idea that horrendously abusive adults could register children in their care as homeschoolers to avoid ever having other adults get a look at them."
Are there any such cases ?
I'm OK with periodic testing. Note that most National Spelling Bee winners are homeschooled. I would think math would be the weak spot but how many ed schools teach math skills to the bottom 20% of college students that make up their student bodies.?
Does anyone know who is financing The Coalition for Responsible Home Education?
I was curious also, but couldn't find any information. I'm pretty sure there is some serious money coming from somewhere besides people donating at the web site.
Are there any such cases ?
Yes. And those are only those who've been detected.
It's logical. One assumes abusers would prefer to be undetected, and keeping their victims at home rather than sending them to school each day obviously makes that easier.
I would think math would be the weak spot
I think it often is. (Needless considering how many math classes of extremely high quality are offered online.) But I also think you're right that the public schools don't do well in this area.
If there's a worry that the state shouldn't have the right to ask to see the children each year, perhaps doctors, community sports program directors, or the generally trusted like could send in a note of having seen the children after check-ups or participation each year. One note could be required for each homeschooled child. Someone would have to come up with the details.
Freeman Hunt: "I would think math would be the weak spot
I think it often is."
Why do you think it "often is"?
What evidence exists to suggest it is?
Why do you think it "often is"?
I mean relative to other subjects, not relative to public school. I think it probably is based on the number of parents who tell me that they don't understand math and have no idea how to teach it.
Plus, most parents were taught the usual American way that "computation = math, so memorize these algorithms and plug in the numbers."
Isn't home schooling illegal in Wisconsin? After all, we keep hearing how there are "no choices" for parents because the government maintains a monopoly on education.
It's also in our state's annual homeschool reports. Average percentiles for reading are generally higher than they are for math.
Homeschooled both our sons. Social life generally revolved around church youth and Boy Scouts.
Both are now degreed, employed, happy mid-twenties young men.
the teachers unions are just enablers of child abuse and rape
Peeking into the mind and thoughts of the rightwing is always interesting and it is what keeps be coming back to this blog despite the death threats, childish taunts, and constant harassment.
So are you saying the teachers actually abuse and rape the children themselves or do they just enable it so others can rape and abuse them? Or both?
You don't read Insty and the reports of female teachers having under age sex with boys. It's not minds or thoughts. It's police reports and trials.
CRHE is just a front to bring homeschooling back under the doctrinal and social-engineering control of institutional American "education".
Kids today are leaving high school utterly unprepared for college educations, which has resulted in a dumbing-down of standards for college education and devalued "degrees" in almost every field, even the STEM courses. It would be an act of positive child abuse to put homeschooled children back under the control of the "experts" who caused that.
"Are there any such cases ?
Yes. And those are only those who've been detected. "
You link goes right back to the outfit we are discussing, a very anti-homschooling bunch. Do you have any other evidence ?
I would tend to avoid Rolling Stone as a source on college rape.
"It's funny how utterly indifferent the liberals are to how bad the public schools for thousands upon thousands are but the thought that some one child in some state might not learn drives them into a frenzy of regulation."
Hey, at least those public school kids are learning how to properly wear a condom and address LBGTUVWXYMZ's...
"So are you saying the teachers actually abuse and rape the children themselves or do they just enable it so others can rape and abuse them? Or both?"
Mostly they rape them themselves.
http://www.wnd.com/2014/10/female-gym-teacher-rapes-boy-30-times/
http://nypost.com/2014/06/03/high-school-gym-teacher-charged-with-rape/
http://www.wcvb.com/news/brockton-high-school-teacher-charged-with-raping-female-student/29463332
http://www.people.com/article/montana-teacher-stacey-dean-rambold-re-sentenced-rape
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/11/02/massachusetts-high-school-teacher-charged-in-students-rape/
http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2014/10/teacher_charged_with_raping_student
Idiot !
@madisontroll Here's a 13 page list of over 200 female teachers guilty of sex acts with students.
"I do worry about things like socialization [which I think can be solved in various ways] "
North Texas homeschoolers pool resources and hire coaches so their children can compete in athletics. HSAAs, as they're known, compete in smaller (up to 1,000 enrollment) public school leagues.
As I said, I think that can be managed. I vaguely remember hearing about some sort of homeschool groups when I was a kid. I think the athletic options have expanded for kids not in school. And church groups, other group activities like cub scouts...I think that sort of thing can be managed. (I grew up in a neighborhood without many children, so I tend to discount the neighbors but that's also a potential outlet). I just think people with kids out of the school system might have to pay more attention to that sort of thing, but those who actually do homeschool like freeman may have to weigh in.
Freeman Hunt: "I mean relative to other subjects, not relative to public school."
Thanks for the clarification.
Sgt Ted is right about socialization. Most Home-schooled kids can carry on an adult conversation at a much earlier age than public school kids. In a typical class of middle school students, only one or two can can carry on an understandable conversation of any kind,and they are the ones who are semi-home-schooled, i.e. they get another dose of schooling when they get home everyday. Public school students are socialized by their peers. Much of it is tribal, cliquish, and toxic.
A Retired Teacher
madisonfella: "Peeking into the mind and thoughts of the rightwing is always interesting and it is what keeps be coming back to this blog despite the death threats, childish taunts, and constant harassment."
Your astonishing courage and bravery are an example for us all.
madisonfella: "So are you saying the teachers actually abuse and rape the children themselves or do they just enable it so others can rape and abuse them? Or both?"
Doesn't matter. They won't get fired in either case.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/education/sex-predators-remain-nyc-schools-group-article-1.1380535
What's really important is that the teachers contributions to the dems remain undisturbed.
If a few public school kids have to suffer knowing their abusers have safely gamed the system thru their union, hey, that's too bad.
Sometimes you just "hafta" break a few eggs to make that lefty omelette.
Big Mike: "@madisontroll Here's a 13 page list of over 200 female teachers guilty of sex acts with students."
Well, hey, at least it isn't a 14 page list with over 205 female teachers guilty of sex acts with students.
Besides, was that list published in Salon or Media Matters or like publication? If it wasn't, then we already know it doesn't really "count".
@Drago, apparently it's a Christian-oriented web site, so I can only imagine that it doesn't count in madisontroll's universe.
I thought "rape" was safe, legal, and rare.
Don't you dare be free. We will control your freedom.
Texas only requires that a course in civics be taught, and provides no guide to what that even means.
Aaaaaaaand garage once again ventures out on his own without adult supervision.
The results are self-evident.
"I thought "rape" was safe, legal, and rare."
Only in your dreams, garage. The wet ones, I mean.
Interesting theory being presented. (That teachers enable each other to rape students). If the 200 rapes by teachers is an indication of the group as a whole then what do over 85,000 rapes a year committed by men say about them as a group?
What's really important is that the teachers contributions to the dems remain undisturbed.
Not sure how it is where you live, but here in Wisconsin only the public sector unions that donate to Republicans are able to collect dues automatically. Those unions that don't give to the GOP have been banned from doing so.
Scott Walker made that exemption, because as you pointed out, that is what is really important.
so I can only imagine that it doesn't count in madisontroll's universe.
You've been forced to believe I'm anti-Christian. You really shouldn't listen to what Curious Drago in Vermont says; he, himself, pointed out in a different thread that he regularly lies.
garage mahal said...
You're absolutely correct and it makes their arguments on vouchers completely disingenuous
"We should fund inner city kids that come from failing schools and bus them to schools in the suburbs that are doing well."
But only if the government approves. The Bureaucracy must remain in control. Additionally the goal must not be to improve the education of the inner city kids. It must be equality.
Your link goes right back to the outfit we are discussing, a very anti-homschooling bunch. Do you have any other evidence?
They are anti-homeschooling. I am pro-homeschooling. I don't see how their list isn't valid unless you think that the cases they're listing are fake. And no, I don't think I'll be able to find a pro-homeschooling site that hosts a big list of criminal homeschoolers.
garage, you're one sick puppy you know that right?
Freeman - do you teach your kids that the Earth was created 6000 years ago?
There are articles like this. Doesn't it seem obvious that some abusers would use homeschooling as a way to escape detection?
Thesis 1:
Adults with children support vouchers.
Thesis 2:
Adults without children and rich adults with children who can self fund private school support forced government education.
Given the percentage of Wisconsin Public school teachers with kids in private there is much support for this second thesis.
We could also use President Obama as an anecdote as his kids are in a private school with armed guards while he tried to ban guns, and his first action as president was to end the voucher program in DC so those poor kids couldn't afford to be in the same school as his kids. I am betting DC democrats have about 95% of their kids in private schools.
Freeman - do you teach your kids that the Earth was created 6000 years ago?
Are you kidding me? Haven't I been here long enough that you don't need to ask me that question?
Alex said...
"Freeman - do you teach your kids that the Earth was created 6000 years ago?"
More importantly do you teach your kids that the most deadly and destructive force in society for the last 170ish years are tyrannical governments trying to push Karl Marx's statist fantasies and how governments are responsible for well over 100,000,000 deaths pushing for socialist control of their populations?
"Freeman Hunt said...
Are you kidding me? Haven't I been here long enough that you don't need to ask me that question?"
Freeman, you've been here long enough to know that Alex only goal here is to be provocative.
Point taken, Curious George.
madisonfella: "Not sure how it is where you live, but here in Wisconsin only the public sector unions that donate to Republicans are able to collect dues automatically."
Links to public sector unions (who are able to collect dues automatically) giving by party in WI will be sent shortly one supposes?
Poor madisontroll got dropped on his head as a baby. Usually lefties can reason from A to B and from B to C, but not from A to C. In madisontroll's case, the ability to reason from A to B is suspect.
Just feeding the troll some humor. We laugh at your superior intelligence, madisontroll. You are the punch line of every joke.
Socialization?
Socialization would the last bloody thing I would want public schools to be doing for my kids.
Socialization with those feral little shits usually raised by liberals? Or not-raised, in the case of many of their fathers?
Not "no," but "Hell, no!"
The way bullying goes, student-on-student crime, date rape and with the added risk of abuse by teachers themselves (rare, yes, but the more teachers you add to the mix the greater the chances) I'm much more worried about child abuse in schools than child abuse at home among homeschoolers.
Madisonfella wrote:
"Peeking into the mind and thoughts of the rightwing is always interesting and it is what keeps be coming back to this blog despite the death threats, childish taunts, and constant harassment."
While discussing statehood for DC on another blog with a liberal who called himself 'RickDFL', I mentioned that the federal government was the creation of the states (not the other way around), and that there were constitutional means for the states to dissolve the federal government and form another, but no constitutional means for the federal government to 'uncreate' a state. This RickDFL person than informed me that people who thought like me had been properly killed by the federal government during the Civil War.
Terry: "This RickDFL person than informed me that people who thought like me had been properly killed by the federal government during the Civil War."
The sad and unavoidable truth is that on Althouseblog we can only dream of having lefty trolls as capable as RickDFL.
Congratulations to RickDFL.
Alex:
An alternative theory is derived with an assumption that both time and space are uniform. This is clearly outside of the scientific domain. And unless you're an extra-universal entity peering inward, it is actually an article of faith for the Earth's human inhabitants.
Alex: "Freeman - do you teach your kids that the Earth was created 6000 years ago?"
Perhaps a better question to Alex is whether or not Alex would teach his kids that "life" on Earth is the result of spontaneous generation.
This RickDFL person than informed me that people who thought like me had been properly killed by the federal government during the Civil War.
Its disgusting when people behave as such.
I truly don't understand why so many people are unable to have a difference of opinion without resorting to death threats or wishes for physical harm but it seems to be very prevalent on this blog.
Has there ever been a commentator on this blog who went against the conservative viewpoint that wasn't attacked for doing so? It seems that anyone who doesn't march in lockstep is at the very least called childish names and often times threatened with violence.
(and before someone accuses me of it, I am not RickDFL, nor am I Penguin or Inga or Shortbus or Garage.)
madisonfella: "I truly don't understand why so many people are unable to have a difference of opinion without resorting to death threats or wishes for physical harm but it seems to be very prevalent on this blog."
Death threats should be taken seriously and reported to the proper authorities if for no other reason than to get it on record.
Further, if this is true, Meade should be notified and the antagonist named and removed as a poster from this board.
I do find it amusing that madisonfella has taken time out from calling me Curious George, Birkel, Tim in Vermont, Fen, etc to complain that others on this board are calling her/him "...Penguin or Inga or Shortbus or Garage"
madisonfella: "Has there ever been a commentator on this blog who went against the conservative viewpoint that wasn't attacked for doing so?"
Has there ever been a conservative comentator on this blog who went against leftist orthodoxy that wasn't attacked by leftists for doing so?
FIFY
n.n.-
the heliocentric model of the solar system is about 500 years old. The standard model of the universe that we believe in today -- a universe about twelve billion years old, with island universes called galaxies receding from one another with greater speed as their distance in time and space from each other increases, and with our sun completely unremarkable in its position in time and space, is much less than a century old.
Some wag (Berlinski, I think) once noted that in a standard museum exhibition showing the fossil remains of an eohippus next to the skeleton of horse, the part of the exhibit that is the least natural and the most human is the placard describing how the eohippus became the modern horse.
Drago - you gave yourself and your many names away when you and your many names all started calling me Inga and/or Penguin and/or Shortbus and/or Garage at the same time. It is pretty obvious which sockpuppets are yours. Next time you are try to drive a dissenting voice away from this blog you should plan it a little bit better.
And I am STILL waiting for this "absolute proof" you have that I am Inga. Or Penguin. Or Shortbus. Or Garage. Or whatever other person you think I am. Anytime you want to provide it feel free to step up.
Has there ever been a conservative comentator on this blog who went against leftist orthodoxy that wasn't attacked by leftists for doing so?
You keep claiming that Garage and I are the only "leftists" on this blog. (If that is not true, then please point out the others that you consider to be a leftist) Neither Garage nor I have attacked every other user on this blog and it is foolish for you to claim we have.
Seriously, are you ever serious?
Madisonfella, I have been accused of being a Lefty for simply pointing out the uncomfortable truths of capitalism. In a perfectly efficient market economy, economic profit is 0. To maximize profits, the goal of every businessman is to buy in a free market and sell in a closed market. This is classical economics.
Sometimes I believe I am only conservative who has actually read Wealth of Nations from cover to cover.
madisonfella: "You keep claiming that Garage and I are the only "leftists" on this blog."
I have never claimed this.
I'll just chalk this latest muttering of yours up to a few too many late night cocktails.
Sgt Ted is right about socialization. Most Home-schooled kids can carry on an adult conversation at a much earlier age than public school kids.
I just want to point out that I think being socialized to children your age is very important to development. That is what I was talking about.
No. Being socialized to other WELL-BEHAVED, WELL-BROUGHT UP children your age is important to social development. Being socialized to feral little shits is downright harmful.
Guess where the feral little shits are? Answer: not at home schools.
No. Being socialized to other WELL-BEHAVED, WELL-BROUGHT UP children your age is important to social development. Being socialized to feral little shits is downright harmful.
Guess where the feral little shits are? Answer: not at home schools.
There are kids that go to school who are not 'feral little shits', as you put it. Good lord, Jason, you get what I'm saying.
The people at homeschool are your siblings, assuming you have any. I think it's good for kids to spend time with children who are not your siblings. Take them to the damn park or whatever you want. Learning to deal with people who are not adults is important too.
Shanna:
Why would you think that homeschoolers don't take their kids to the park?
My (homeschooled) kids have significantly more (and deeper) interaction with other kids their age outside of school hours than I (non-homeschooled) ever did.
The only thing that holds them back from even more is that so many of their cohorts are tied down with a schedule that would be unacceptable to subject an adult to: school (7:30 am - 3:30 pm), structured evening programs (5:00 pm - 7:00 pm) and insane amount of homework (7:00 pm - ...) The only free time that the neighborhood kids get is in the window right after school until dinner (unless they're carted off to a structured afterschool program.)
So during "school hours" (roughly 9:00 - 2:00) my kids deal crank through their schoolwork, figure out ways to entertain themselves and each other (Remember that?), and "socialize" with their siblings (and the kids they run into at trips to the library, museum, rec center or homeschool co-op).
Outside of school hours, they play sports, and - during those brief hours after the bus unloads the other kids - form into ad hoc gangs of neighborhood children who come togehter without adult interference to play pickup sports, build forts and invent games (Remember that?).
At night, instead of two hours of homework, we do things like "be a family."
The people at homeschool are your siblings, assuming you have any.
You need to leave the house.
Homeschoolers do.
Jeebs. You think people homeschool in a vacuum?
Shanna: "The people at homeschool are your siblings, assuming you have any. I think it's good for kids to spend time with children who are not your siblings. Take them to the damn park or whatever you want."
Gee, uh, thanks for the insight.
Terry said...
Madisonfella, I have been accused of being a Lefty for simply pointing out the uncomfortable truths of capitalism. In a perfectly efficient market economy, economic profit is 0. To maximize profits, the goal of every businessman is to buy in a free market and sell in a closed market. This is classical economics.
Sometimes I believe I am only conservative who has actually read Wealth of Nations from cover to cover.
Assuming facts not in evidence. Freemarket capitalism isn't a zero sum game.
I have never claimed this
We're the only two you've called out by name.
Who else are the "leftists" on this blog that are attacking each and every conservative on here? That Is your claim after all.
Terry hit the nail on the head - Drago (and his many sockpuppets) define "leftists" as anyone who disagrees with Drago (and his many sock puppets)
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