WHY IS THIS SO HARD?
A Letter to the Editor of the Oregonian is pro-(forced)-testing for homeschoolers. I can’t help myself; it’s gonna get fisked.
I can’t understand why Christine Webb, the author of the letter, “Biased against home schooling” (June 23), is so upset at having to have home-schooled students tested yearly if they, as she claims, do so well on these tests.
There are so many reasons: freedom from governmental control, interference with our educational goals and directions, unnecessary expenses, etc. I don’t understand how an intelligent person could not understand.
I am a retired high school counselor.
Nevermind.
I saw during my career students coming back into the public school system who had been home schooled extremely well by a caring parent or other adult. Unfortunately, I also witnessed students being brought back into the school setting who had spent several years of what I call “No Schooling,” where the most stimulating moment in their day was changing the television channel.
And how many kids are bored to tears in the g-schools, where the highlight of the day is recess?
When these students came back into the school system, they were behind considerably, and now it was the school’s problem to get them caught up.
So? When we liberate kids from the g-schools, it sometimes takes us six months to de-school them. And, besides, anecdotes aren’t very persuasive. I can go one-on-one anecdotally speaking all day.
If public schools are expected to be accountable, so should home-schooling parents.
G-schools are held accountable because they take tax dollars. If teachers don’t want accountability, cut the apron strings. Not bloody likely, eh? How many tax dollars do homeschoolers take? Zero! Zip! Nada! None! Is that clear now? Money=accountability. No money? No accountability. Not to you, not to the schools, and not to the Governor of Oregon. Geez!
One Response to “WHY IS THIS SO HARD?”
![]() Comment by Mike July 2nd, 2003 at 6:55 am |
Another issue: The real conflict in most (public) schools revolves around the emphasis on socializaton, rather than education. For example, the entire school will bus up and travel over 250 miles one way, remaining overnight(and partying) for a volleyball game, but the ‘future business leaders of America’ need to raise their own money to attend events… This pits parent interest squarely against those of the Public School. |