Utterly Meaningless

Exactly. 🙂 Well said.

I taught chemistry at a co-op school for a semester last year. I (and the students) hated it. I just don’t like the school-y model.

‘Twas I, of course.

I think the mindset also comes from sensing an external pressure to appear to be providing an ‘adequate substitute’ for school (and possibly from a bit of self doubt).

I’m tired and should be in bed. Excuse the typos showing my sloppy half asleep thinking.

First off. Whoa. You agree with HSLDA on this one? *snicker* Just HAD to add that one.

Second. We “enrich”. I realize the pitfalls. I realize the evils. I know through our enrollment in an enrichment program that we are supporting g-schools. I know we will need to test if we continue in our enrichment program. But, darn, it’s been such a great experience so far. (and yes I can hear you grinding your teeth…).

Part of why our one day of enrichment works is because DD is working 1.7 grade levels ahead and they do not have any ammo to shoot back at us. Why do it then? Well, DD wanted to see what school was like, and the enrichment option was the lesser of all the evils we explored to honored her inquiry. Luckily, she still thinks life is really cool not going to traditional school. She loves home ed.

One thing I found that could ultimately support educational changes toward more home/school options – I checked test scores here, and the enrichment hs’ers were above school averages.

I must add that the district-paid-teachers have the weirdest educational mindsets – they clearly don’t appear to fit into the traditional school system. They are highly creative, motivated and are able to stretch beyond standard pedagogical ideology. They don’t have to grade – just rectify what they are doing by the yearly test stats. Home ed kids hold up their end – so they hold up theirs and continue to teach using unorthodox methods in an unorthodox environment.

All that said, I CANNOT STAND that the whole program is tied to a school district and testing.

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There is another angle to explore here – and this one is about Katrina.

Cyberschools and enrichment programs may be the best option for hurricane displaced students willing and able to continue their education and keep on track with President Bush’s NCLB standards. (I can hardly believe I wrote that…)

I’ve recently learned that NCLB standards can easily be relaxed after disasters – which does not give due justice to those students that are success driven and want or are able to be held to high standards (albeit I’m not impressed with the standards).

Many students now facing homelessness, dual family living environments, and the possible eventuality of divided families as parents periodically re-locate back to N.O. to rebuild. Not very conducive learning environments. There may be homeschool families in need to have both parents working to get back to a standard of living that they were use to before the disaster.

If these groups have access to cyber schools and enrichment programs (wow. with disaster counseling!? I know, I’m dreaming…) they could have a chance to fair better than to be stuck in a dual time/over crowded school with stressed out teachers.

I hear the arguments loud and clear. In my heart I want to see a total split between hs’ing and g-schools. For areas affected by Katrina I’m in favor of having varied options so to meet the now many different needs of students and families as they continue their education, as refugees, as their family rebuilds, or to ease overcrowding in refugee cities like Houston, San Antonio, Fort Worth and other places.

Concierge:

As may not have been entirely clear, I was writing about parent-run enrichment co-ops turning into de facto “schools”, but wow, what state are you in? The g-schools are co-opting co-ops now too?

In re HSLDA: I agree with them on a lot of stuff, though certainly not all things and rarely for the same reasons.

Yessiree Tim. We are in AZ. We have a public school district (Mesa) that has taken over an old strip mall and turned it into an enrichment school for homeschoolers. Wacky I know…

Here is the school site:
mpsaz....ridge/

What you see “there” will read like hard nosed typical PS school. But, understand that the school personnel make the place feel anything but typical. At first, I thought the classes looked like fluff – once in the program, I was quickly impressed with the individual attention to talents and needs, and the hard work and creativity of the teachers.

I’m a major cynic when it comes to great new home ed opportunities. We’re not in the program “blindly”. Yes, I can almost hear the greedy hand rubbing at the Super’s office about the program and how to entice in the homeschool crowd. But, down at the school level, my impression is that the teachers are more on the homeschool side than the Super’s side (that is, if there are sides).

I don’t really know the truth to this, but I surmise that there are a fair amount of saavy home educators that know how to work the PS system to their advantage. We have used this enrichment program to our advantage. Yes, we could live just fine without it. So far, the benefits round out all of the percieved wants and desires from a program that cooperates with homeschooling.

Currently, there are loud vocalizations about Eagleridge from one of our local support groups that passes along information “we should know” about issues ranging from Starbuck’s gay campaign on cups to ways to support any HSLDA legislative issue. If it is from HSLDA, it is considered flawless. Once again however, those of us that can work the system, are afraid of how sweeping generalizations from HSLDA could affect this tiny working option for the homeschool community.

Hey, BTW, did you know that in Iowa, home educating parents are able to dual enroll in any class K-12? That makes teachers stick to some pretty rigid schedules. You may want to hear from that camp as well.