THIS YOUNG LADY IS STARTING TO TICK ME OFF
Remember Abigail Frank, the once-upon-a-time homeschooler I mentioned yesterday? She’s spouting the educrat-control line again in the last part of the Des Moines Register series:
Frank and her three siblings – Rachel, 17 , a junior at North High School; Zachary, 13, an eighth-grader at Goodrell Middle School; and Emma, 12, a sixth-grader at Goodrell – were all home-schooled initially, before switching to public school.
Home-schooling gave her flexibility and one-on-one attention from her mother, she said. A certified teacher provided guidance and monitored her educational progress – making sure everyone was on the right track, she said.
“You did have accountability; it wasn’t like a free-for-all.”
This young woman spent the last nine years of her K-12 academic career in public schools; in the context of a story about homeschoolers in college, how can she be termed one in any meaningful way? I don’t know whether to blame her or the reporter.
The last-day main piece relates some specifics about Iowa homeschoolers in Iowa colleges:
There are 94 home-schoolers currently enrolled as undergraduates at Iowa State; 39 as new freshmen or transfers for fall 2004. Overall, home-schoolers make up less than one-half of 1 percent of the university’s undergraduate enrollment.
[…]
At the University of Iowa, more home-schoolers are applying now compared to four years ago, said Michael Barron, director of admissions. Ten home-schooled, undergraduate students enrolled this fall among the total 20,135 undergraduate student population.
Given the fact that the state’s primary and secondary homeschooling population is currently more than 9,000 kids, one would think more there’d be more than a hundred or two enrolled in the state’s universities. Is this ISU admissions official fooling himself when he claims:
[T]he university tends to only see the higher-ability home-schoolers, Caffrey said. Those with average or marginal ability tend not to apply.
“We’re only seeing the high end of the spectrum,” he said.
Where have all the Iowans gone? Off to Ivies, every one?
One Response to “THIS YOUNG LADY IS STARTING TO TICK ME OFF”
 Comment by Daryl Cobranchi December 15th, 2004 at 5:19 am |
Well, there are a couple of possibilities. 1) Some home educators do send their kids to the g-schools for high school, so I’m sure the colleges wouldn’t count them as homeschooled and 2) because of home ed’s meteoric growth, the demographics are still skewed to younger kids. Maybe there just aren’t that many who’ve gone through the full “program” yet? |