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California limits home-schooling
A California court has ruled homeschooling by parents without teaching credentials is against the law. Article here.
I don't think that certification makes you a good teacher, but I do agree that there are a lot of unqualified parents that homeschool their kids.
What do folks think about this ruling?
I don't think that certification makes you a good teacher, but I do agree that there are a lot of unqualified parents that homeschool their kids.
What do folks think about this ruling?
Comments
After reading the complete text of the article it is clear that under California Law parents who choose to home school their kids MUST be accredited. The law looks to be very clear on this and was most likely designed to insure that dumb parents do not raise dumb kids.
The only question I have (and I'm too busy to look it up right now) is just what is required to get these credentials in the State of California? Are we talking a Masters Degree or just a few college credits? Either way the home school association of California (or what ever legal body exists) has clearly done a dis-service to California homeschoolers by not informing its members about the law. The state is also at fault for letting parents register their kids in these home schools without properly checking into whether or not the parents actually meet the criteria set forth in the law.
Also, just because we're homeschooled doesn't mean that we are, by default, anti-social. I happen to be going to a homeschoolers' prom in April, and I have a non-homeschooled date.
To take the radical standpoint, perhaps we should just give up on the kids who can't keep pace. This way, those that are going to benefit society the most, scientists, engineers, etc., can be taught to be the best they can be while we just let the unskilled laborers("Jesus rode a dinosaur into Jerusalem") be unskilled.
It's hard to figure out what to do.. and I know as I look at my words in the above that I shouldn't be talking. I can learn pretty much in any way needed, and I'm not doing any great service to anyone: I'm becoming an animator. X3;
All of the homeschoolers I do know are whacked in some way but not that way. I live in the North East where even the Republicans are liberals. I would have to say that the majority of homeschoolers I know do it because of some problem their kids have dealing with social situations, problem kids so to say. They don't do it because those evil liberal teachers are brain-washing their kids.
The first should be in schools anyway regardless. The second have no reason not to be - they're wealthy enough to pay for good private schools if they want them.
I don't know. It just seems like having homeschooling opens the way to having ridiculously uneducated people, and we as a society have, through the foundation of the public school system, made a decision that everyone needs certain standardized knowledge.
(With that said, I would like to say that the "homeschoolers are antisocial" thing is bullshit. People who are homeschooled are just as social as they would be in public schools.)
I'm not sure why my other .. well, they're technically associates, but anyways, I don't know why they are home schooled.
On top of all that, there's the social dilemma. Homeschoolers are not necessarily less social than typical high-schoolers, but they do have the choice, if they wish. I enjoy spending time with my friends, but sometimes I just prefer to be alone. If I don't want to see my friends, then I don't have to socialize with them out of class. I don't have to deal with seeing them at lunch, and talking to them between periods. Social time is fantastic, but being surrounded by hundreds of other people, friends of mine or not, for 7+ hours a day would just be too much.
I'll be able to deal with college, but that's a separate issue. As I'm sure many of you can attest, college is generally VERY different than high school, particularly regarding the social life. I pointed that out to refute what Apreche said prior to me: I did not take the pictures, so she has as much ownership over them as I do.
Also, I am hoping to make a particularly good impression on her (and her family) over the next few weeks, and her finding some random photos of herself on the Internet wouldn't exactly resonate positively with her family. It means that she has "legal guardians." Specifically, her parents.
-EDIT-
Here's the link to the prom website. You can go through the past photos, and you'll see plenty of happy homeschoolers socializing with one another. Not everyone there is homeschooled, but it'd say it's a 40:1 ratio. Those who are in school are going as the date of a homeschooler, proving that cross-socializing is quite common.
There is a method of teaching that is usually called "unschooling," and it consists of the child taking classes all over the place, with or without the parent. I follow that method of learning. The only class that I take at home is math, and I do that with a tutor. Everything else is either in Riverdale, or in Manhattan. The only involvement my parents have is payment for my travel and classes.
The problem with this ruling is that it fails to take unschooling into account. It assumes that the kids are either at home with the parents teaching them, or in a public/private school.
I don't think that you should need a license. I do, however, think that you should have a minimum level of ability in whatever you teach. For example, if you're going to teach your kid high-school level math, you should have demonstrated a proficiency in the subject matter.