HMMMM
I really wish I had some background on the inspiration for this brief piece out of AZ, reproduced here in full:
Nearly one percent of all Arizona students are now being home-schooled, but Candace Cochran from the county’s school’s office says there’s no way of knowing how well they’re doing because they aren’t required to be tested.
“When home-schooling first began, students were having to be tested every year to continue home-schooling. They’re no longer required to do that.”
The only legal requirement for home schoolers is that they register with her county schools office.
Achievement testing and even high school diplomas are optional.
“A number of home-schooled students go on to be very successful. A number of home-schooled students don’t go on to be very successful. It just depends on how much the parents work with students, depends on how diligent the students are in their work.”
6 Responses to “HMMMM”
 Comment by Unique August 16th, 2007 at 7:37 am |
“A number of home-schooled students go on to be very successful. A number of home-schooled students don’t go on to be very successful. Oh, gee! Just like in any school, ya think? After all my years of thinking about it, I firmly believe how well a student does academically or in life depends more on how badly they want it than how great the teacher is. The best teacher in the world won’t produce a brilliant student if the student doesn’t take charge of their own education. You can encourage students to learn but you cannot make them. My .02 cents indexed to inflation. :p |
 Comment by sam August 16th, 2007 at 11:55 am |
Unique makes great points, but I’d also add the question, what is success? The writer seems to have an idea what success is, and they seem to think that we all have the same idea and agree. |
 Comment by Alasandra August 16th, 2007 at 1:16 pm |
Unique and Sam make valid points. My idea of success may not be the same as yours; therefore the homeschoolers the post deems unsuccessful may be very happy and content and successful by their own standards. And like my Dad say you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. |
 Comment by Nance Confer August 16th, 2007 at 1:46 pm |
And how would the writer of the article know anything about how successful any AZ hsers are, no matter how success is defined? And why would they care what she thinks. 🙂 Nance |
 Comment by Audrey August 16th, 2007 at 9:26 pm |
Yes, Sam — that is the question, isn’t it? What is success? It seems like, too often, success is measured in $$$. In that case, I’m a complete and utter failure. Oh well, fat lot of good public school did me, then. |
 Comment by Sandra August 16th, 2007 at 10:55 pm |
The inspiration for this type of article is usually a reporter or columnist who knows a homeschooling family and is ticked off by what “they’re getting away with.” The writer thinks if he drops the info about lack of testing and diploma oversight into the middle of the piece and then concludes with a nice neutral para about success and diligence, no one will see this as a propaganda piece for more oversight of homeschool families. He hopes that this “neutral” little piece will catch the attention of some bigwig, perhaps a state senator, who will then raise hue and cry demanding standardized testing – and perhaps oversight by the local district – of homeschoolers. The writer can then smugly sit back and see the homeschoolers that irritate him get what he thinks they deserve (how dare they flout their independence when public school is good enough for him and his own). |