So, yes progressives can support homeschooling.

But apparently with quite a few “ifs”. I really can’t bring myself to read through all the comments. I’m sure there is the usual education as the foundation for democracy and so on. I’m sure there are plenty of anti-homeschoolers who are certain we are isolating our children although the number of homeschoolers they personally know they probably can count on one hand. It’s just tiring.

For some reason, people think that public schools and education are the same thing. And progressives are for mandatory school attendance if the schools are teaching the “right” information just as conservatives would have no problem with requiring everyone attend public school if they were teaching the “right” conservative information.

It’s not about the quality of the schools, it’s about parental choice. And if you can’t trust parents to ensure that their children will be educated well enough to function in the “real” world, why stop with education? Why not regulate the clothing parents may buy children or how about inspecting every family’s kitchen? Why not require every two-year-old in the nation to be inspected for parental quality?

Granted, it’s a gray area and difficult to draw the line but if nothing else, consider homeschooling an escape valve for parents who don’t want their children in school for whatever reasons–too conservative, too liberal, too regimented, too dangerous, etc. If everyone grows up learning only the public school group think, who will be around to challenge it?

Technorati Tags: Progressive Homeschooling

It’s that exciting time of year when adolescent girls across the nation go in search of the essentials for starting off the school year prepared and ready to learn as a hot new ‘tween: pink, padded bras, T-shirts with slogans declaring their total lack of smarts (“I Left My Brain in My Locker”) and, perhaps, a Juicy Couture gym bag made especially for prepubescents, announcing “Juicy and Happy.”

If you want to understand why homeschoolers give you a look of amazement when you ask about socialization, think about “back to school.” Now if the phrase “back to school” conjures up a collection of warm feelings and exciting images, you can stop reading write now. But if “back school” brings a creeping feeling of dread, you might get some glimmer of understanding why homeschoolers think it’s schools with the socialization problem and not homeschoolers.

Do homeschoolers have to deal with the latest fashion trends? Yes. But it generally isn’t in the context of who is wearing what in Algebra class. And I don’t know many homeschoolers avoiding advanced math and science classes because they might be perceived geeky.

So the next time you have a feeling that all the “back to school” hype has gotten a bit out of control, you’ll have some insight as to why people choose to homeschool.

Technorati Tags: Back to school, why homeschool, commercialization, socialization

Sports – StatesmanJournal.com:

Unlike a lot the typical home-schooled students, Berrier (pronounced like Perrier) is well-adjusted and blends in enough with his McKay teammates that outsiders can’t tell the difference.

And then there is the basketball coach:

Sports – StatesmanJournal.com:

“The kids love him,” McKay coach Jack Martino said. “They get along with him great. There’s times you could see it would be a lot better if he was here. He’s socially inept at times. But that was more when he was a freshman and a sophomore — you’re trying to get him to act like a human, and he was a kindergartner at times.

Aren’t most freshman and sophomores socially inept at times?

Looks like his teammates are experts on homeschooling as well.

Sports – StatesmanJournal.com:

“Being home-schooled, he’s around 10 people a day, so he doesn’t take criticism from anybody,” said senior teammate Greg Plater.

Well, if he hasn’t received any criticism in homeschooling, surely he’s received some in college?

Sports – StatesmanJournal.com:

Berrier has finished his home-schooling curriculum for high school — but hasn’t graduated — and is taking classes at Chemeketa Community College.

He figures that he’ll have 60 credits toward a college degree by the end of the school year.

What’s interesting is that they never really give his opinion about the school and why he doesn’t attend although his sister does. They don’t have him saying, “yeah, since I homeschool, people are really easy on me” or something to that affect. The only statement from him is about when he couldn’t get into the high school dance.

Sports – StatesmanJournal.com:

“After that, I was so sick of it, I never went to one,” said Berrier, whose twin sister, Samantha, attended McKay and graduated in February. “I lost interest in it. If they don’t want me there, I’m not going to go.”

Sports – StatesmanJournal.com:

The thing that keeps Berrier coming back to McKay is basketball.

So he isn’t in school for the academic challenge or social opportunities–just basketball? What a resounding endorsement for the benefits of attending high school. Gosh, he’s so lucky to have been able to play basketball to save him from being a typical socially inept homeschooler.

Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | McKinney News:

“I don’t have a senior year,” Elizabeth said. “I might have made some bad decisions like the picture and staying in the group at homecoming, but it’s taught me a lot about how life is. I’ve learned a lot from it.”

Here are reindeer parents explaining that is was just a game and after all, they’re just teenage reindeer:

Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | McKinney News:

The cheerleaders admit they’ve messed up, but they deny they are mean people. Some of them are honor students. Others volunteered at shelters after Hurricane Katrina.”I’ve done charity work with these girls,” the mother of another cheerleader said. “I’ve stayed up all night seeing them work at shelters.”

Here’s the “well it shouldn’t have happened but now it’s affecting all of Santa’s operations so could we please do something about it so that Santa in’t embarrassed?”

Star Community Newspapers:

Cheryl True, the mother of a MNHS junior, also said the district’s investigation is still causing problems for the school.

“Seniors at McKinney North have had to delay college applications because they are waiting on letters of recommendation from administrators who weren’t available,” True said. “Students at North have been made to feel embarrassed and ashamed in college interviews for something they had nothing to do with and that you have complete control over. Students, staff and parents have to continue to deal with gossip and ridicule.”

True blamed the district for not providing enough information to the public on the MNHS situation and not sharing more of the blame.

“To say you’re focusing your attention of educating students is an insult,” True said. “You’ve been focusing your attention on protecting yourselves. That’s not the kind of leadership we need in McKinney.”

Here’s the reindeer school directors blaming the organizer of the reindeer games.

McKinney ISD Issues Response To Cheerleader Sponsor – Education:

Fact: Interestingly, Ms. Ward sent a thank you card to her principal on September 26, just two days before her resignation as cheerleading sponsor, praising her for her leadership. The card included statements such as: “I want you to know that I admire the way you’re handling things and taking care of what needs to be done. You are so strong, you always display such a professional demeanor, and somehow you manage to smile all the way through it! I look up to you in so many ways! Let me know if there is anything I can do to help.” Eight days later, Ms. Ward stated to the Dallas Morning News that her attempts to discipline were thwarted due to the fact that the principal’s daughter was on the squad. It is important to note, McKinney North High School Principal Linda Theret’s daughter earned a spot on the squad through an impartial tryout process and Ms. Theret has not appealed any of the consequences that her daughter has received. Ms. Ward is attempting to capitalize on the fact that Ms. Theret’s daughter is on the squad by omitting the relevant facts on this issue when speaking to the press.

And here’s someone stating what no one wants to admit:

Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | McKinney News:

Mr. Jones said Saturday that he wishes the families well, saying the kids’ behavior didn’t shock him as much as it appears to have shocked the media.”I really wasn’t faulting the kids’ behavior so much as trying to determine whether the adults did their jobs,” he said.

The press’s reaction has been a cross between “Shocking! Just shocking! Our society would never condone such behavior” and “see how the mighty have fallen” both of which ignores the fact that you could find this going on in any school in the country.

That just leaves the question of where’s Rudolph? The media hasn’t seemed to be able to find a specific person who was excluded from the reindeer games. Somehow, the cheerleading coach, Michaela Ward just doesn’t fit the bill. And maybe that’s the most revealing aspect to this whole story. Nobody wants to come forward and admit that they have been excluded from the reindeer games or that they had been mistreated at the hands of the popular reindeer. Why? Because while these specific reindeer may be reassigned or graduate, the reindeer game remains and no one wants to suggest that their might be something wrong with the game itself if there is still a chance for them to join it.
In real life, there is no Rudolph that can come in, save the day, and redeem the other reindeer because that only happens in fairy tales.

The reason I find this interesting is that I think this show is so representative of our cultural mythology and reality. We like to believe that we are free to be whatever we want to be but the reality is that there’s incredible pressure to fit in. Being different is not acceptable unless the majority finds some value in being different and makes it acceptable.

We’re good with nerds that way, just look at any show that focuses on teenagers. How many story lines are based on nerdy kid doesn’t fit in, gets picked on, saves the day for a popular kid, and is redeemed in the eyes of the rest of the crowd? And people wonder why we have a “bully” problem in this country? If you don’t fit in, you’re considered fair game until somehow you do.

The bullies are never really punished. Okay, the over the edge ones do but never the popular individual who legitimizes the outsider. You can usually get a “sorry” out of them but that’s about it. The group continues to function as before, just the outsider is now included.

Think about how much our society actually reflects this myth. Teenagers who feel like outsiders are encouraged to make friends, join activities, get involved so that they fit in. We blame the outsider for not fitting in rather than the group that ostracizes him. And we assume that everyone really wants to fit in so once they are part of the group, the group doesn’t have to change.

I’m sure many think it’s perfectly natural and would never consider why did Santa allow Rudolph to be treated in such a way. After all, he didn’t even know about Rudolph and even Rudolph’s father was embarrassed by him. This isn’t Santa’s fault, he was the one who actually recognized him, right?

But then I think about another very popular Christmas story, Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Tiny Tim never has to prove himself to Scrooge by discovering a way to make coal burn more efficiently or reuniting him with his lost love. (It’s been a while since I’ve seen it so I’m probably getting some of the details wrong.) Instead, Scrooge is essentially punished by the three ghosts of Christmas for his actions. He suffers torment and realizes the error of his ways. The outsiders don’t have to do a thing to be accepted by Scrooge, there was nothing wrong with them to begin with.

Unfortunately, this message isn’t as strong as it might be since Scrooge is such an unlikable character. We all know that there is something wrong with him (greed) so of course he will have to change. In his own way, he’s deviated from society’s expectations and reforms to join the group.

Ultimately, we as a society don’t know what to do with people who don’t fit in or don’t want to fit in. For someone to go her own way suggests that the way the group is going might not be the best way. It’s kind of like hazing or some other rite of passage. You’re finally accepted by the group and you expect everyone else to have to suffer the same as you to join the group. But then you see this person who’s not even interested in your group. What’s worst is that even if you drop the hazing, the person still doesn’t want to join.

So what does that mean? Absolutely nothing if you joined the group because it was what you wanted to do rather than what was expected. But how many of us have joined groups without really considering the reasons why? No one likes to be taken for a fool and if you actually examined your reasons for following the crowd, you might end up feeling foolish. So it’s much easier to find something wrong with the individuals who don’t join the group than confront your own reasons for joining the group. After all, these individuals are, by definition, different.

Why do I care about any of this? Because I’m a homeschooler and there is nothing wrong with me. I’m really not interested in playing the reindeer games and if Santa needed me, I would help but I still wouldn’t join the games. If you like playing reindeer games, great, most reindeer do. Just remember, you don’t have to play reindeer games to contribute to the community.

For those who abhor injustice, Judge Lindsay’s spine-tingling narrative is comparable to the works of Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King. But the judge’s writing is nonfiction. And it should be required reading for every principal and administrator in Dallas Independent School District.

Here is what he found after a trial that pitted Hispanic parents against DISD and Teresa Parker, the Preston Hollow principal.

To appease wealthy white parents who live near the school, Ms. Parker regularly grouped their children together in adjoining classrooms. In another part of the school, Hispanic and black children were put together.

This class-based – and to a large extent, race-based –assignment scheme was designed to make white parents feel better about sending their children to a DISD school that is 66 percent Hispanic, 18 percent white, 14 percent black and 2 percent Asian.

“In reserving classrooms for Anglo students, Principal Parker was, in effect, operating at taxpayer expense a private school for Anglo children within a public school that was predominantly minority,” Judge Lindsay wrote.

How depressing. Why bother with vouchers when you can have segregation?

Jay Mathews – School Boundaries, Money and Race – washingtonpost.com:

Grice is my guest columnist today. This is a big risk for me since it is clear she is a much better writer, and much braver about getting to the heart of the issue — how much our school boundaries depend on the skin color and the size of the paychecks of the families involved. Nonetheless, this is a must read:

Some of you may be wondering, “so what’s the homeschooling connection on this?” Well, what is the first issue anyone brings up when discussing homeschooling–what about socialization? We are often accused of isolating our children and denying them the opportunity to mix with people of different backgrounds. And how many people who live in the wealthier, white, Union Grove community discussed in the column would be quick to join in such accusations? See my point now?

I will admit that homeschoolers aren’t as ethnically diverse as I would like. African American homeschoolers are still a rarity around here but then again, they only make up 13% of the population. And it is changing.

What I will argue is that my son is much more likely to meet someone from a significantly different background than his cousin who is in his public school. I went to one of his middle school football games and his team was essentially all white and the opposing team was a majority Hispanic with a scattering of whites and African Americans. Both schools were in the same district. And San Antonio is over 60% Hispanic. Figure that. There are plenty of Hispanic homeschoolers around.

We are also much more likely to interact with people outside our income bracket. If our car breaks down, we take it to the shop and maybe even get a rental if necessary. For a lot of the homeschoolers we interact with, a broken down car means we wouldn’t be interacting for a couple of paychecks. Even in schools that have some diversity in income levels, students somehow manage to be segregated in classes by income. So while you may go to school with the “poor” people, you aren’t taking Algebra with them.

Yes, there are plenty of homeschoolers that associate only with others that share their same religious beliefs. But they are a much smaller number than you think. As an Odyssey of the Mind coach for the past few years, we have had team members who believe that the earth is only 6000 years old (or something like that) but it never really came up during team meetings. The same is true of the fencing class my son takes as well as the German class. Probably a lot like kids who attend public schools.

Basically, my point is before you accuse homeschoolers of not socializing, take a closer look in the mirror.

The Northside Independent School District says a fourth grade boy was beaten and kicked in the back of a crowded school bus Friday morning. The students were being taken to McDermott Elementary School off Huebner.

Apparently a 4th and 5th grader beat up the kid. The other kids were nice enough to inform the bus driver that someone was lying unconscious in the back of the bus. I guess peer pressure allowed for that much but wouldn’t allow for anyone to report to the bus driver what was happening when it was actually happening and maybe prevent the kid from reaching the unconscious state to begin with.

What kind of children are we raising so that they are willing to watch two human beings hurt another without saying anything? (To stop it, I mean, rather than encouraging it.)

http://www.comics.com/comics/grandave/

The setup for the strip, a girl in a lunch room, “The bad news: Grandma still humiliates me in front of all the kids by packing notes in my lunch!”

So this is funny because it society in general accepts that this happens in the lunchroom. Why do kids make fun of the note? Who are the kids making fun of the note? Would you admit to doing it when you were a kid? Would you believe your child is doing it now? So what will the kid do because she feels humiliated? Is this something that you experience at lunch at work? This is the socialization my homeschool kid is missing out on?

Spare me “kids will be kids.” This is mean and cruel and only happens when adults aren’t around. Is this the way a 10 year old is supposed to demonstrate their separate identity from their parents, by humiliating other kids’ relationships?