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Tim Tebow Debate - Interesting article


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My first reaction is that if I never hear the name "Tebow" again, it will be too soon. :D I think the concerns raised are valid ones (validating eligibility etc.) and may imply some extra regulation or oversight, but are not insurmountable. As long as the homeschoolers don't increase the tax burden on others, I don't see why there would ever be a fundamental problem.

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This last paragraph sums it up I think. Of course, I think it's a pipe-dream as well - but ideally, a good point.

 

"In a diverse society like ours, there is value in commonness. Opponents of Tebow laws have it backwards: integrating homeschoolers into our public education system advances the goal of commonality. Besides, given all the problems our public schools face, it makes sense to build bridges to different communities, not exclude them. It’s how you build support and political coalitions. Letting homeschoolers play sports is one way to do that — if the homeschooling community can get past its reflexive opposition to regulation and meet the public schools halfway."

 

If a parent chooses to open themselves up to the scrutiny of the ps system, more power to them. There should be scrutiny though if they're going to participate in sports/extracurricular activities. I'm not sure how you'd go about that. Yearly testing would hardly be adequate to assure that they're working on a weekly basis. I don't know. I have no good ideas on that one.

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It's pretty well-balanced, although he does leave out things regarding VA's requirements for testing/evaluation that are already in place. The problem has always been the VHSL, and the extra layers they insisted be in place. Testing and evaluation were not enough, they were insisting homeschoolers ALSO have to take the state SOL tests (I think the letters stand for something OTHER than "Standards of Learning", though ;)) in order to participate.

 

The SOL tests would essentially mandate a certain progression of study... that WAS a problem. Kids who aren't following the normative path for math, science, or history would have to do double duty for test prep. For example, in the 5th grade took writing, reading, math and science. while the writing and reading were pretty standard, the science that was tested was what my son had studied two years prior...not his current PUBLIC SCHOOL level (he's 2 years accelerated in science). He did not pass. The US history test for 6th graders included such necessary knowledge as "Who invented the DVD?" or "Who invented Facebook?" On a test with roughly 35 questions covering the civil war to modern times THAT was viewed as "critical knowledge?" :tongue_smilie: Similar problems existed in the younger grades for history and science. Thankfully for my dd, we had spent a weekend at Yorktown and Jamestown, since about 1/3 of her test covered early VA history (something not covered in this PS until 4th grade :glare:, as she was studying Rome, China, and other civilizations up to the middle ages).

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It's pretty well-balanced, although he does leave out things regarding VA's requirements for testing/evaluation that are already in place. The problem has always been the VHSL, and the extra layers they insisted be in place. Testing and evaluation were not enough, they were insisting homeschoolers ALSO have to take the state SOL tests (I think the letters stand for something OTHER than "Standards of Learning", though ;)) in order to participate.

 

 

What about taking the SOLs, but leaving out the science and history sections?

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