Saturday, March 08, 2008
Yea, Governator!
I was appalled when I heard about this recent ruling against California's homeschooling families. Considering that many homeschooling parents - like my own - are better educated than our credentialed public school teachers, requiring the former to submit themselves to special training is ridiculous! I'm really happy that the Governor has made a statement against this ruling and the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) petition has racked up thousands of signers. I'd encourage Californians to contact their state legislators and House representatives about the issue.
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Thanks to my mother for pointing out that the public and private schools would be in trouble too! Many hire tutors and teaching assistants without credentials and teachers who haven't officially completed all of the requirements. This would put schools experiencing teacher shortages in a real tight bind!
Apparently, CHEA is asking people NOT to write their legislators. Yes, there's a concern about any homeschooling legislation being passed, but I'm not calling for such. I was just suggesting that our representatives should know that their are voters who oppose the ruling. Replacing it with new laws would not really improve the situation.
Plenty of home-schooling parents are perfectly skilled to teach their children...but plenty are not.
I'm thinking of a website that once bounced around as a joke on the computers of comfortable college kids - the daughter was writing about what she learned from her mom through home schooling - how to make an elastic pair of pants, "multipleation tables" and how to preach the gospel to unbelievers".
I do believe people should be free to learn what they need to know to survive in their daily lives, and parents should have a say in what their kids are taught.
But it's still ridiculous to think that this girl would end up with a high school 'diploma' worth just as much as a child who was taught by qualified parents, or a child who attended a decent public school.
Maybe not "special training", but it's reasonable that some review of parents' abilities to teach their children from home, if the children are to earn educational credentials equal to regularly schooled children, should be required.
True, there are some kids out there who don't do anything at all. The question is whether or not the state should require parents to do anything.
I guess some other sort of review is possible - kids in some states are required to take the same kind of exit exams that other kids are - but requiring parents to get California state teaching credentials can't possible be a solution!
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