I can't imagine what an inclusive homeschooler is. Are you educating other folk's kids in your home? That would certainly be inclusive, but would that not be a school?

Dear Alessandra and nrg, The story of our science program begins with us being a brand new school. We had 9 students in our first year 17 in year two, and currently have 31 in our upper school. These small numbers means that for much of our curriculum currently taught there is a difference between what we are currently doing with our limited number of student and what we plan to do once we are fully enrolled. This is the reason for the two sets of information on our website. We have a list of our current offerings (practical reality) and then a list of our intended offerings (our ideal). For the most part the difference amounts to when courses are offered. This is especially true for our science courses where we have had at least two grades grouped in a class for each of our first three years. We will confess that we are attracted to a "Physics First" approach to the natural sciences. Even though we are pursuing that course right now, without a head of our science dept. we are waiting for that hire to be in place before we make and large curricular commitments like that.

Can someone please translate? dc, ds, ????

Fun thoughts all: Regarding our in loco parentis statement. It is not so much driven by needing to let the students know where the limits are, but rather by the need to make clear that the source of our authority is the parents and not the institution of "school". Regarding text books in NY: It certainly is a very peculiar situation. The law is rooted in a notion that government schools ("publicly funded schools") should provide for all of the students who live in the district. They provide text books and bussing for the independent school students. My persistent questions related to this are: Why does NY embrace this and reject vouchers for independently educated students (schooled, homeschooled, or otherwise)? How can the schools reject some text books because of "religious" content when any thinking person knows that there is no such thing as a book without a worldview. Choosing one worldview over another amounts to the establishment of that worldview by the state and that dear friends is a direct violation of the 1st amendment. Regarding our uniforms for the girls: They really like them. The skirts are all gray and come in three different styles, the blouses are pretty standard. The only signature item are the ties which the girls asked for. The boys have a custom silk tie (stripes for rhetoric, dots for dialectic) that they have wear in three styles of long, and three styles of bow (their choice). The girls felt left out and worked with the tie maker for the feminine version for the girls. Not all were sold, but they have caught on and certainly any uniform will have its detractors. Finally regarding homeschoolers having access to textbooks. At the center of this is the popular notion that homeschooling = no-schooling. I have coached a team of homeschool rowers who compete entirely against other scholastic teams. We have an annual go round with these school folks explaining to them that homeschooling is called "homeschooling" because it is well....school. It is my opinion that homeschooling is no more different from corporate schooling than independent schools are different from government schools.

Woolybear, Is your lack of comfort with our choice of words (as you you understand the concept of in loco parentis but think we have worded it poorly) or with the idea that a parent would yield their authority (in a very limited manner) to anyone? Matt

All, My name is Matt Hopkins and I am headmaster at Augustine Classical Academy. Thanks for the interest and kind words about our school. I couldn't think of a better place than the WTM website for our school to be discussed. Most of us associated with the start of ACA were very inspired by WTM and we often read to each other the opening narrative about "Imagine a school...... this book is for the rest of us". We very much took that to heart and are committed to being that school for those of us that live in Saratoga County (though we have some families from Schenectady County and even Washington County). Please take a moment to give our website a look as much has changed since this thread started last year. We have a new location, many new teachers and students, and a rapidly growing grammar school. Our commitment to small classes (12), a biblically consistent curriculum, methodology, and pedagogy, as well as our commitment to being a school and not an all-consuming-family-and-church-time usurper remain intact. Soli Deo Gloria!