Utterly Meaningless

Permantly connecting home education and right wing politics in the minds of voters.

Representing ALL homeschoolers as if we all agree with their right-wing theopolitical agenda.

I’m perfectly capable of representing myself even if I AM a woman.

When the principal of my son’s school threatened to rain legal hell on me for withdrawing him to homeschool I was so terrified that CPS was going to show up on my door that I would have converted into a chicha-drinking Scientologist to get rid of the anxiety.

I will have to count myself as a fearmongered sheeple;-)

I seldom vist the HSDLA site anymore because I don’t have access to a Buspar prescription.

Ohhhh, Daryl, I only wish I had the TIME to list all the ways… But I’ve got an issue to get finished up tonight. I’ll dive back in here tomorrow and see if anyone’s missed anything sparkling – there’ve been SO many, you know…

In Indiana, they left some very bad feelings behind at the statehouse on how they handled HB. 1347, Daytime curfew, this last January. It was changed, but I wouldn’t be surprized if the sponsor isn’t completely turned off on homeschoolers at this point. HSLDA used the lead foot approach they are so good at.

I’ve been saddened that the HSLDA-discount-offering support groups where I’ve lived require statements of faith that have excluded me (I’m Christian) and so many other people. Certainly I respect their right to do so, but it’s disappointing. I have fielded so many phone calls from new homeschoolers who were devastated with their experience with a group they visited that made it clear they were not welcome to join. Sometimes this bothers me more as a homeschooler; sometimes it bothers me more as a Christian; sometimes it bothers me more as a communication nerd. If you are going to exclude people, please make it clear so they don’t show up for support. If they show up anyway, please have some kind of diplomatic protocol that is sensitive to their feelings. If HSLDA does not agree with the policies of these groups, it could set up its own requirements for groups that provide discounts or at the very least, provide coaching and guidelines to groups so that they can avoid hurting new homeschoolers, some of whom are insecure with their new choice.

I’ve also been concerned that HSLDA’s use of academic achievement as a justification for homeschooling (“homeschoolers have earned the right to be left alone” or something like that) is a dangerous stereotype, even if positive. I think that average and below-average scoring achieving kids deserve homeschooling just as much as kids who score well (and as I always say, may need it more) – but if we use high test scores to justify homeschooling, it leaves families wide open for criticism if particular kids aren’t great test takers. It also lends credence to the over-emphasis on testing that burdens school children. And it provides ammunition for the folks who want to use test scores as a measure of who should be allowed to homeschool or to continue homeschooling: “Since homeschoolers do so well on tests, you won’t mind proving that your kids are measuring up.” And this also brings me to a related point, which is that if homeschooling continues to grow, it’s quite possible that it might not always attract as many kids who score well on tests. If the test scores for homeschoolers decline as homeschooling “goes mainstream,” but HSLDA has emphasized this as why we have “earned the right to be left alone,” then it seems like a set-up for losing our right to be left alone.

I’ll let someone else have a turn….

One of my concerns is that members take off their citizen activist hats when they join a group like HSLDA because they feel that the group monitors any dangers that might come through legislative hallways and they no longer need to do so individually.

I personally feel that each individual needs to monitor and maintain their rights because it is an educated citizenry that maintains freedoms, not a paid lawyer’s group.

Mary Nix

Ooh, yeah! The testing thing gets my goat! HSLDA has always said ‘tests mean nothing’ and ‘it’s wrong for g-schools to teach toward passing the test’, then test scores are the first thing HSLDA throws up to anyone questioning homeschooling.

And then there’s the socilization thing. HSLDA disputes claims that homeschoolers aren’t ‘socialized’ by saying how many support groups there are around. ???? Where’s the logic in that??? Re-create the same artificial, largely age-segregated environment that public schooled children live in so we can say we don’t need it???

Re-create the same artificial, largely age-segregated environment that public schooled children live in so we can say we don’t need it???

(sarcasm)

Well, we simply can’t let the little hoodlums… I mean kids, develop on their own in their own way. Chaos would ensue. We need to keep the little delinquents… I mean darlings, in line, with violent force if convenient… I mean necessary.

(/sarcasm)

Yeah, I’m full of coffee and itching to gnaw the nearest cubicle wall, why do you ask? 🙂

One of my sore points is the impression of the ease of entering the military by using the example of college-grad/officers w. homeschooling somewhere in their backgrounds to influence people who want to enlist, and must depend on the actual homeschool credential.
home.k...nt.htm
click on: Accurately portraying military enlistment for homeschooled grads

Then there’s just the whole flag-wrapping bit by continually pushing ‘the military’ when none of the HSLDA lawyers have probably ever counted cadence, painted rocks or, more importantly, heard a shot fired in anger.

Hmmmm, I just caught a reference to ‘chickenhawks’ in the blogroll.

I personally feel that each individual needs to monitor and maintain their rights because it is an educated citizenry that maintains freedoms, not a paid lawyer’s group.

Yep. Or any group for that matter. The state ‘support’ group here has the people in our capital thinking that they serve as some “umbrella” or something for homeschoolers. Several different times over the last few years I have gotten in touch with legislators over certain issues and gotten the “we’ve already heard from your group”. I just say, “No, you haven’t heard from my group, because I don’t have a group. My homeschool exists as a private school all by itself.” I even wrote to a congressional rep once and got the reply, “Thank you for your letter expressing the views of the North Carolinians for Home Education.” I had never once mentioned NCHE in my letter, or even implied that I was writing on behalf of that group.

My opinion is, we need to make it our business to speak for ourselves on issues because so many lawmakers and others have no idea how homeschool law works–and that goes for many states–and they think that what some of these groups are telling them is how every homeschooler feels.

I think it would be fair to say that I, too, am a Christian and I consider myself fairly conservative in my views on many things. But I have no desire to be lumped in with a lot that has their nose so far…ahem…into the government’s side of things.