{"id":6106,"date":"2006-02-21T05:24:28","date_gmt":"2006-02-21T10:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cobranchi.com\/?p=6106"},"modified":"2006-02-21T05:26:12","modified_gmt":"2006-02-21T10:26:12","slug":"our-friends-the-sheeple-herds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cobranchi.com\/?p=6106","title":{"rendered":"OUR FRIENDS THE SHEEPLE-HERDS"},"content":{"rendered":"

WISH-TV in Indiana aired a piece on homeschooling Monday. From the transcript<\/a> it’s hard to determine if the tone was neutral or negative. I want to focus, though, on a post-script that didn’t air.<\/p>\n

Big Response<\/p>\n

Since Monday afternoon, WISH-TV has been blitzed by phone calls and emails about this report.<\/p>\n

Why does the topic hit a nerve? Why does it spark so much passion and controversy?<\/p>\n

Before our report aired Monday at 6:00 pm, we received a fax from the Home School Legal Defense Association in Washington, DC attorney Scott Woodruff. He had read our preview of the story on WISHTV.COM and wrote, “I would like to offer to review your homeschool story for legal accuracy before you air it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Woodruff sent an email to countless Indiana subscribers requesting they barrage us with phone calls and emails – and barraged we were.<\/p>\n

Hundreds read or wrote from a script. It listed a half-dozen talking points. It repeatedly called our information quote “inaccurate.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d This was before our story aired.<\/p>\n

Not all of the emails were critical. After the broadcast home schooler Tony Grahn wrote, “It’s so refreshing to hear a broadcaster not put home schooling in a negative light.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Home schoolers don’t want much regulation but they don’t want critics to think they are free to do nothing. They were sensitive to the interview with the Indiana Deparment of Education where Mary Tiede Wilhelmus told us that home schooling parents don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to turn anything in to the state.<\/p>\n

In fact, as the home schoolers’ emails point out, there is a state statute that says a home school is considered a non-accredited private school. It requires children be in school from the ages of 7 to 17, and 180 days of instruction be provided a year. It does not require mandatory subjects be taught or standardized tests given and teachers do not have to meet any qualifications. It does not require any reporting to the state unless a school official raises questions. <\/p>\n

Home school advocates say there are many studies showing home education successes. Indiana University Professor of Education Dr. Robert Kunzman says most studies have been conducted by home school advocates.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The studies that have been done on home schooler academic achievement have not been comprehensive. They often times been self selected participation,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said.<\/p>\n

But Dr. Kunzman and the Indiana University admissions director say home schooled students who apply to IU are usually very qualified.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, those HSLDA E-lerts are oh so effective… at making us look like a bunch of idiots. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WISH-TV in Indiana aired a piece on homeschooling Monday. From the transcript it’s hard to determine if the tone was neutral or negative. I want to focus, though, on a post-script that didn’t air. Big Response Since Monday afternoon, WISH-TV has been blitzed by phone calls and emails about this report. Why does the topic […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cobranchi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6106"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cobranchi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cobranchi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cobranchi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cobranchi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cobranchi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6106\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cobranchi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cobranchi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cobranchi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}