My referrer logs, that is. I found this excellent libertarian blog during my obsessive perusal of the logs. Catallarchy.net is a group blog “dedicated to the defense of liberal philosophy, countenance of indivialist ethics, celebration of civil society, and study of human action.” Check ’em out.
A homeschool team from Kansas won the Texas regional BEST engineering tournament. The contest covered seven states with 60 teams competing. I attended one of these BEST events with my kids a couple months ago. Very cool in a geeky kind of way.
California has decided to ban a bio-engineered fish destined for the pet market. The fish had genes inserted that cause it to fluoresce under black lights. (Actually, the fish “phosphoresces.” There is a difference but only to us chemistry geeks.)
“For me it’s a question of values, it’s not a question of science,” said [Fish and Game] commissioner Sam Schuchat. “I think selling genetically modified fish as pets is wrong… Welcome to the future. Here we are, playing around with the genetic bases of life,” Schumchat said. “At the end of the day, I just don’t think it’s right to produce a new organism just to be a pet. To me, this seems like an abuse of the power we have over life, and I’m not prepared to go there today.”
He’s right, of course. It is an abuse of power. His! He’s paid to enforce the law for the safety of Californians. What’s next? A vegan commissioner voting to ban chicken and beef?
…or homeschooling. A recent homeschool grad is tearing up the professional bass fishing circuit (yes, there really is such a thing).
As a boy, Windham improved his reading skills partly because of his passion for reading Bassmaster magazine, said his mother, Rosemarie Windham, who schooled her son at home.
Here’s the NEA’s press release trumpeting their court victory which (temporarily?) stops Colorado’s voucher program:
NEA Successfully Challenges Colorado Voucher Law
Decision protects local control of public schoolsWashington — The National Education Association (NEA) and the Colorado Education Association (CEA) today won a victory in blocking Gov. Bill Owens’ attempt to impose vouchers on the state’s public schools.
The Denver District Court said the voucher program violated the guaranteed right of public school districts to control education under the state’s constitution.
“This decision is a victory for the children of Colorado, the state of Colorado and all of public education,” NEA President Reg Weaver said.
“The children of Colorado need highly-qualified and certified teachers and smaller class sizes, better discipline and programs that get more parents involved,” Weaver said. “Anything that diverts resources from providing these tools is wrong. And that is what vouchers do.”
NEA and CEA sponsored the suit Colorado PTA v. Owens on behalf of Colorado parents, educators and taxpayers in the 11 school districts forced to participate in the voucher program.
State budget officials estimated that public schools could have lost more than $190 million over four years to the voucher program.
# # #
The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional employee organization, representing more than 2.7 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators, and students preparing to become teachers.
In honor of our local celeb, I’ve changed the name of the blog.
After a too long hiatus, Skip Oliva is blogging again. He’s got a good post on smoking bans in NYC and DC.
Jesse Walker, writing in Reason Online, has a column up on how unpredictable the “really big things” are. He mentions the rise of homeschooling and links that word directly to Senora Lyman’s blog.
Hey Izzy- do I have to write “homeschooling (tm of Lyman Industries)” from now on?
One for Izzy- A Detroit TV station did a news piece(?) on the increasing number of homeschool sports teams. They briefly profiled a local football team. The transcript is fairly pro-homeschooling. There’s even some advice on how to get started.
I guarantee you that this virtual school will never see the light of day. The school district is targeting homeschoolers who live in the district. All 86 of them. They won’t start the program unless it can pay for itself with additional state funds.
A 7-year-old boy was punished at his g-school for explaining to a classmate that his mother is “gay.” The teacher sent him to the principal’s office and made him repeatedly write “I will never use the word ‘gay’ in school again.” Even worse, the assistant principal called the (gay) mom and told her that her son had used a word too “bad” to repeat over the phone. Where do they find these people??? (Thanks to Skip Oliva for the tip.)
The New London Day has a follow-up editorial to the local educrat’s op/ed I blogged the other day. The editorial notes that the school district doesn’t want to open their doors to homeschoolers and that homeschoolers are just fine with that.
Several families with whom The Day talked supported Waterford’s ban, but for different reasons. They think once a home-schooled family partakes of public school offerings, the state will have its tentacles ready to wrest educational freedom away. Most said that families should either teach the kids at home or send them to school, period.
The paper apparently has an agenda, however.
How students are taught is an individual choice. But they deserve to have as rich an educational experience as possible. The public schools can help with that, and they should. It’s the right thing to do.
Everyone except the Day editor is happy with the status quo. Perhaps he should get off his soapbox and just listen to the readers.
This lede is way too scary:
Home schooling in the state of Arkansas is in disarray, and Mountain Home School Superintendent Steve Singleton wants to see something done about it.
Arkansas homeschoolers better smack this down ASAP.
I’ve come to the conclusion that the editor of the Illinois Leader is definitely pro-homeschooling. Today, they print six letters from homeschooling parents and grandparents across the country in support of homeschooling.
I heard the chairwoman of the task force “studying” full day kindergarten for Delaware on the radio this morning. She had about 30 seconds and spent the entire time talking about how parents are behind this because the current half-day system complicates their lives because they have to find day-care and pay for it themselves. “Free” all day kindergarten will be much better (for them). There was no mention, of course, that income taxes will have to be raised to pay for this. Supposedly, public hearings are planned. We’ll see. Here’s the text of the resolution that started this train-wreck.
Delaware spent $100,000 federal (i.e., your) tax dollars on billboards with the message “Felon + Gun = Federal Prison.” The billboards are supposed to deter crime. Riiight!
Lydia needs a new minivan. It won’t be a Dodge Caravan.
…don’t seem to make much difference in a Long Island school district. The district, which consists of a single K-12 school, has a student-teacher ratio of 3.2, yet test scores were below the state average. The school spends an astonishing $45,000 per pupil.
The Wilmington News-Journal reports today that Colonial School District (where we reside) is now using the “Handwriting Without Tears” program. HWT has been popular with homeschoolers for years, so I should be excited about this development and, for the most part, I am. Two quotes, though, bothered me and signify an ongoing problem with the g-schools:
There have been no clinical studies on the program, but anecdotal evidence suggests the system can help children score better on tests and improve their school work in general, said Jan Olsen, a Maryland occupational therapist who designed the program…”This is something I believe should be in all the schools,” said Tania Ferrandino, an occupational therapist with the Smyrna School District.
There’s no direct evidence that it works, yet some educators are ready to jump in with both feet, effectively experimenting on our kids with our tax dollars. Other school districts in the state are sitting back, waiting on results from Colonial. A smart move and good science.
A New York Times editorial comes down on the side of federalism and states rights in discussing a case before the Supreme Court. The Washington state constitution Blaine Amendment prohibits state funds from going to religious schools or for religious education. A college student who was studying theology sued and lost at the Appeals Court level. It’s a very tangled case with all sorts of strange bedfellows.
Of course, if the government would just get out of the education business altogether none of this would have happened.
UPDATE: The Christian Science Monitor has more.
I’m reading through the other articles in the Courier-Press. On the whole, they’re much more positive than the first one I found. I guess that was the obligatory “balance” article. This one has a really snarky comment that I love:
While most mothers are in the work force pursuing careers and the American Dream of owning things, Betsy Fulton is teaching her children reading, writing and ‘rithmetic. And more.
That’s gotta hurt! The family profiled makes me feel inadequate, though. None of my kids are translating the Bible from the original Greek. I’m so ashamed.
Read them all. Well worth it.
In case you haven’t seen it, the American Homeschool Association has a terrific website. The “History of Homeschooling” is especially good.
Is something happening with homeschooling in Indiana? The Courier-Press has a piece that I guess is supposed to be pro-homeschooling. It quotes, however, a bunch of educrats who are less than enthusiastic.
[Ed Professor Greg] Marchant said one concern is that “while we all hear about homeschoolers who are doing a good job and for the right reason, we’ll never know about the closeted ones. And I think even most homeschoolers are worried about them.”
Even with that concern, however, he said he would not propose tight state regulation of homeschooling.
“I wouldn’t want to take the opportunity away from any parent,” Marchant said. “There’s no evidence that homeschooling does any substantial harm.
UPDATE: Now I get it. They have a whole series on homeschooling. (Here, here, and here) I haven’t read these others yet. More later.