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Certifying Parents
Wall Street Journal ^ | 3/22/08

Posted on 03/22/2008 8:02:47 AM PDT by captjanaway

In the annals of judicial imperialism, we have arrived at a strange new chapter. A California court ruled this month that parents cannot "home school" their children without government certification. No teaching credential, no teaching. Parents "do not have a constitutional right to home school their children," wrote California appellate Justice Walter Croskey.

The 166,000 families in the state that now choose to educate their children at home must be stunned. But at least one political lobby likes the ruling. "We're happy," the California Teachers Association's Lloyd Porter told the San Francisco Chronicle. He says the union believes all students should be taught only by "credentialed" teachers, who will in due course belong to unions.

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: angrywimmin; california; dumblegunner; education; hesdrunkagain; homeschool; mccain; mumblemutter; mykidsbetterthanyors; shesangryagain
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To: humblegunner
And that makes my public schooled kids the ditch diggers of the future, right

Are Most public school teachers are generally C Students from 3rd rate colleges. Those that can't do, teach.

Most home school parents are at least as qualified as public school teachers. Kids do well despite the stilted learning environment. You can go to hell for being too stupid to see that.

41 posted on 03/22/2008 11:06:14 AM PDT by Nonstatist
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To: G Larry
The data on the achievements of homeschool kids argues against your bias.

My bias is based on the posts of arrogant homeschool parents
who praise themselves and their little darlings to the heavens
while implying that my publicly educated kids are substandard.

And they can go to hell.

42 posted on 03/22/2008 11:07:15 AM PDT by humblegunner (™)
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To: humblegunner
A bit 'tetchy' about the subject aren't you?

As both a public and private school teacher spanning 1968 - 2000 most of the home school students I knew were at or above grade level academically and socially. The one student who was ill-prepared was the child of moonbeam liberal parents. Many parent who choose public schooling for their children, over-estimate the quality of their children's educational experiences. Parents tend to reassure themselves with the belief that almost all their children's teacher are extraordinary. It reminds of the opening to the corny radio series, 'Lake Woebegone', where all the children are above average.

In the best of circumstances, perhaps one quarter of students have excellent (effective)teachers, and only one quarter are poor (ineffective) teachers. This 25% / 50% / 25% model refers only to the ability for a teacher to teach. It does not refer to the kinds of information taught.

One reason home schoolers tend to be more advanced than their brick and mortar brethren is that they do not waste their valuable time on such things as lining up (5 minutes), attendance (5 minutes), the calendar ritual (20 minutes), waiting for slower students (10 minutes), lining up after recess (5 minutes), class meeting about the use of red rubber balls (20 minutes), distribution of math materials (5 minutes), waiting for slower students (5 minutes), putting away materials and preparing for lunch (10 minutes).

Yes, a first grade child needs to learn the days of the week, and the seasons of the year. Concerning the calendar ritual: it does not take the home schooler one hour and forty minutes each week for thirty-nine weeks to master the subject. The calendar ritual is a part of the school day in classrooms all the way through 4th grade. For a number of teachers calendar time give them more time to do other things, while the student of the day directs the the counting of the days in English and then in Spanish, the months of the year, and the whole class reciting of such exciting facts as, "Yesterday was Monday. Today is Tuesday. Tomorrow is Wednesday." Excuse me for rambling on. My point is that out of five precious hours of class time per day about two hours is wasted on non-educational or minimally educational activities.

The other thing to consider is that the schools you attended as a child and teenager no longer exist. Schools now days are much more agenda driven. No longer is teaching the basic skills of reading, writing and math the first priority. I suggest to all parents to come and spend whole day in your children's classrooms. What you find out might surprise you. Read your children's text books, even their math and spelling books. What agenda is tucked within the pages of those books? What 'untruths' or 'adjusted truths' have been presented as the 'gospel truth'?

43 posted on 03/22/2008 11:13:30 AM PDT by Irish Queen (Nevada Gal)
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To: ruiner
This judge should be tarred and feathered. I’ve been watching too much John Adams on HBO.

***************

Heh. Adams was against the tarring and feathering of the tax collector. :)

44 posted on 03/22/2008 11:14:14 AM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: Irish Queen
Good points, all.

My objection is to the self-congratulatory posts of homeschool parents.

Broken down, they amount to "my kids are SO much better than yours".

This has soured me on the whole concept.

I'm certainly not prepared to agree with them that their kids are superior to mine.

45 posted on 03/22/2008 11:30:08 AM PDT by humblegunner (™)
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To: humblegunner
Arrogant homeschool parents can go to hell.

i don't understand why my homeschooling my kids bothers anybody... and it does... i hear it all the time... i don't go around telling people anything about the choices they make in regards to their children's educations... but many people who do not homeschool feel they can just let their opinions about my choice fly out of their mouths... and yet, i'm to sit there and say nothing about their choices... if i do say anything, i am an arrogant homeschooler who can go to hell...

46 posted on 03/22/2008 11:37:57 AM PDT by latina4dubya
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To: latina4dubya
if i do say anything, i am an arrogant homeschooler

Do you teach anything about capitalization and the uses of it?

47 posted on 03/22/2008 11:41:51 AM PDT by humblegunner (™)
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To: humblegunner
I recall feeling just as you do. I remember a home school parent being rather arrogant too. Then, I had to remove my son from school (fifth grade), and we couldn't afford a private school, so I did house cleaning on the side, and home schooled my traumatized son. I know I have weaknesses in math, so have tried to over come those weaknesses by utilizing tutors. Now, at 17, my son is well adjusted, is pursuing an apprenticeship, and will soon be ready to take his GED. I know some parents can be off-putting. But, I did what I HAD to do.... and I'm certain you will do what you HAVE to do to be the best parent you can.
Regards,
Yellow Roses
48 posted on 03/22/2008 11:54:40 AM PDT by yellowroses (a Yankee in Texas)
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To: humblegunner
The fact is that most people are dumb as posts and have no business trying to teach anything.

That has been my opinion of most public school teachers. They appear unable to write a complete sentence and unable to convey a coherent thought.

49 posted on 03/22/2008 11:59:11 AM PDT by gitmo (From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.)
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To: alicewonders
All of the homeschooled children I have known are far and above public schooled children in terms of knowledge, maturity and social skills. (Their teachers must be doing something right.)

I am a scoutmaster in a troop of homeschooled boys. They are far beyond their public-schooled peers in every category except two. They are fairly naiven about pop culture and about depravity.

50 posted on 03/22/2008 12:02:09 PM PDT by gitmo (From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.)
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To: humblegunner

Hey buddy my daughter homeschools her stepdaughter so you better watch your mouth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


51 posted on 03/22/2008 12:09:51 PM PDT by GregB (I will crawl over broken glass to vote for FRed Thompson!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
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To: Teacher317
The School of Education and the numerous Teacher's Unions were both useless at best, and immense obstacles from time to time, when it came to actually helping a classroom full of children to gain specific pieces of knowledge and concrete thinking skills.

I was a teaching assistant at a state university while in Graduate School. I spent one wasted year teaching Biology in the School of Ed. The class was taught to the university population (art majors, journalism students, poli sci students) and a separate class for the School of Ed. The first class was tough ... those students came out with a firm foundation in Biology. The latter class was pablum ... stuff you would teach to kindergarten kids.

52 posted on 03/22/2008 12:12:09 PM PDT by gitmo (From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.)
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To: Grizzled Bear; humblegunner

Yes, I am a single adoptive homeschooling mother of four, and I do not sit around pontificating about the sacrifices I make to raise my children the way I know God would have me to do. Public schools are not evil, and neither are homeschooled families. I am responsible to nurture and care for my children in the BEST POSSIBLE environment — educationally, spiritually, emotionally, socially and psychologically. Their experience with public schools was nothing short of a nightmare.

Now that I homeschool them, they don’t have to ever worry about being sexually harrassed, punched in the stomach, kicked and stomped on the ground right in front of a playground teacher, called filthy names in class where the teacher heard everything, or being bored because they had to wait for 30 children to figure out the lesson while they were done and ready for more.

They also are now allowed to talk at the lunch table, they aren’t separated at recess, they can ask questions throughout the day instead of raising their hand, they can tie subjects together to see how the world relates to itself not just by one topic at a time, and they can have all the time they need to THINK before they write a paragraph about an idea they read about.

In the homeschooling community, we have a weekly Physical Education program (Presidential Fitness), piano lessons, park days, library days, History & Science fairs, oral presentations, chess clubs, guitar lessons, and field trips galore. Each child gets plenty of sleep, no time limit on eating lunch, time to create and dream built into the schedule, and even at 7pm sometimes we are reading books together about the Civil War and the late 1800’s just because we WANT TO.

When people ask me, “How many days a year do you homeschool?”, I now say — “365. It’s called “home education”.


53 posted on 03/22/2008 12:14:36 PM PDT by adopt4Christ (The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.)
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To: conservativehistorian

My six year old (homeschooled) is learning the Gettysburg Address to recite for a History Project Fair coming up. He is tiny for his age, and has a speech therapist who comes biweekly to the house, but he is doing an incredible job on learning the speech. It’s only 11 sentences, and he is on #3 this week. Big words in there, too...


54 posted on 03/22/2008 12:18:37 PM PDT by adopt4Christ (The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.)
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To: conservativehistorian

Yes, but I’ll bet you’re going to short him on the wonders of Karl Marx and Bill Clinton.


55 posted on 03/22/2008 12:19:10 PM PDT by gitmo (From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.)
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To: GregB
you better watch your mouth!!!

I'll keep that in mind.

56 posted on 03/22/2008 12:19:35 PM PDT by humblegunner (™)
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To: Irish Queen

I firmly believe I could have skipped all 4 years of high school and have done just as well in college. Every **** year they start out teaching you what a noun is. Then they start you on what a verb is. I got the concept in the 5th grade and wasted 7 years after that acting like I’d never heard of any such thing.

The government is the biggest obstacle to education of your children.


57 posted on 03/22/2008 12:22:40 PM PDT by gitmo (From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.)
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To: Irish Queen

You’re exactly right. I’m teaching fractions to three of my children. We’re on day four, and they already know how to reduce, multiply, find common factors / multiples, and we’re starting conversion into percentages. This would take an entire YEAR in public school, because of having 30 students you have to wait for, and all the other ridiculous programming that teachers are required to cover.

My children are individually tutored by ME — and trust me, even with a college degree — teaching four elementary children — I spend many hours every week reviewing the material for each subject before I place it in front of them. We’re not in a race to “get through” the material — but once a skill is learned, we can keep going. I find this is mostly why homeschooled children often graduate high school early, and take college courses at the local JC when they’re 13 or 14. It’s just because we have ALL DAY long to work and learn and progress — and yes, it’s true — we don’t waste time lining up, having recess, and answering questions from 30 other children.

Great points you made about the allocation of time allotted in public schools, versus those of us who homeschool.


58 posted on 03/22/2008 12:24:02 PM PDT by adopt4Christ (The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.)
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To: humblegunner

Well, my little darlings are the most brilliant, talented, beautiful, athletic, children on this planet (and I bet they didn’t get any of it from me ;) ).

We send our kids to Catholic k-8 then public high school. Works for us and them. It’s sometimes annoying when a couple of the homeschoolers on the board insist that we’re abusing our children by sending them to school rather than homeschooling. Last I checked, it was still a free country and I’m allowed to educate my children as I see fit which is what we do.

I’m just joking with my first sentence :)


59 posted on 03/22/2008 12:33:09 PM PDT by Twink
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To: Twink
It’s sometimes annoying when a couple of the homeschoolers on the board insist that we’re abusing our children by sending them to school rather than homeschooling.

Yes, isn't it!

And regardless of statistics, I just can't bring myself to agree
with them that my kids are illiterate losers. Go figure.

60 posted on 03/22/2008 12:44:38 PM PDT by humblegunner (™)
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