Utterly Meaningless

UNSCHOOLERS ARE IRRESPONSIBLE

Filed at 10:42 pm under by dcobranchi

I went to the Appoquinimink School Board meeting tonight, where I managed to get into an argument with the Superintendent. Go figure. Their proposed homeschooling policy included a statement that homeschoolers who wish to enroll in the district “must” furnish an organized, sequential portfolio before they would be enrolled. I pointed out that many homeschoolers don’t have one and couldn’t furnish it even if they wanted to. I tried to explain that unschoolers don’t have work books or texts. He was very distressed and stated that they only want “responsible” homeschoolers living in their district. An educrat also made the statement that homeschoolers are not supervised nearly as much as the educrats would like. I almost did a Halleluah Breakdown right there in the middle of the meeting. In the end, the school board sided with me and agreed to change “must” to “should.”

UPDATE: I almost forgot the other silly thing in their proposal. When a homeschooler wants to enroll in 10th, 11th, or 12th grade, in addition to the portfolio (which would be mandatory), they would need a transcript of the grades received. They’d only give credit for a “C-” or better. I asked them if they realized that we don’t normally assign grades, but they insisted that we’d have to in order to get credit. They weren’t happy when I suggested that they might see a lot of “A” grades then.

UPDATE II: A reporter approached me after the meeting and asked if I’d give her a call to discuss the homeschool policy further. I’m debating. Do I really want to be known as a troublemaker in yet another district?

6 comments »

6 Responses to “UNSCHOOLERS ARE IRRESPONSIBLE”

Comment by Mike Peach December 10th, 2003 at 4:48 am	Yes, yes and yes. Get the word out Daryl! Save us from these idiots. Can you just choose not to enrol?
Comment by Daryl Cobranchi December 10th, 2003 at 5:43 am	Can you just choose not to enrol? Yes. The policy covers homeschoolers who want to quit homeschooling and start in the g-school. In Delaware, the school districts have no power over homeschoolers as long as they keep homeschooling.
Comment by Traci December 10th, 2003 at 10:02 am	Thanks Daryl, It’s a good thing I’m late w/ breakfast this morning or it would have been a waste of time… Now I’ll just skip it all together & have some pepto for my sour stomach… A few more posts like this & the $100 lawyer every day & I’ll be able to use your blog to control those extra holiday pounds. Just kidding… 🙂 See ya tomorrow. I guess I should be glad I’m not in the district either as I don’t keep a portfolio for 1st grade. I do have 2 giant boxes of completed Kindergarten work though,, By high school I could just back up a truck & dump all of my kid’s work for review…
Comment by izzy December 10th, 2003 at 10:14 am	What do you mean a troublemaker in another district? Too late. You already are a rabblerouser, pal.
Comment by Joan December 11th, 2003 at 8:38 am	Wait–so if someone wanted to enroll but didn’t have the outlines, etc. from their homeschooling, the school wouldn’t allow them to register? Wouldn’t that mean that the school is breaking the compulsory attendance laws? Wouldn’t the school be causing the student to be truent? I love it.
Comment by Mike Peach December 11th, 2003 at 3:31 pm	Email sent Daryl. Copy on my blog.