"The Last Radicals...Homeschoolers Occupy the Curriculum"

[chiguirre]

The experts they quote are a bit suspect. The guy who said:

 

Education scholar Brian D. Ray, who specializes in homeschooling, found that West’s claims “basically have no foundation in research evidence,†and pointed out to the contrary that “repeated studies by many researchers and data provided by United States state departments of education show that home-educated students consistently score, on average, well above the public school average on standardized academic achievement tests. To date, no research has found homeschool students to be doing worse, on average, than their counterparts in state-run schools. Multiple studies by various researchers have found the home educated to be doing well in terms of their social, emotional, and psychological development.â€

 

works for NHERI, that's the source of the study of self-reported standardized test scores that "proved" hsers score 30 points above psers. I think that many hsers do perform well above psed kids, but I know that not all of them do. Lots of people hs their kids precisely because they have LDs or other special needs.

 

The quote from Seton:

 

The problem is not educational outcomes: Students in the Seton program tend to score on average in the 80th percentile on standardized tests.

 

Seton is the most school-at-home oriented program I've personally seen and I've used Calvert. There is no way to do it as an enrolled student with a child who wouldn't excel at any b&m school, imho. They do offer a special ed department, but those kids aren't enrolled in the regular Seton program.

 

The problem with the article is that is doesn't explain the huge diversity that exists in the hsing community. Trinqueta might be one of the Alfred E. Neumann look alikes holding up the 99th percentile sign, Geezle really, really isn't. And we're just one family!

 

I also feel they forgot the most important reason that hsing is growing so explosively: the internet! Without access to online courses, resources and community, hsing wouldn't be feasible for lots of families.

 

How many families here have a parent who telecommutes or whose parents work opposite shifts? We're not an island of one income, super traditional families!

 

Of course, these issues aren't exclusive to this article. Hsing is an amorphous phenomenon and it's HARD to write an article that covers it all. It would be hard to write a book that covers all the possible permutations. I wish they'd tone down the stereotypes, but you can't expect that in an opinion piece that's meant to rally the ideological troops.

 

I'd rather that hsing not become a hot-button issue for conservatives or progressives, that would endanger our freedoms more than anything else could.

[Haiku]

This article is decidedly partisan. It takes a very multi-faceted issue and puts a political spin on it. Homeschooling is not a political act. If it were, we wouldn't have so many people across the political spectrum doing it.

 

I would expect a better-written article from the National Review, even if I generally disagree with their political bent. Either their standards are falling or this was an anomaly.

 

Tara

[swimmermom3]

A concatenation of paranoias so disrelated I had no idea where the article was going.

 

:DThank you for the new vocabulary word. I got more out of your post than I did the article. My first response to it was, "And your point is...?"

 

Bill, it wasn't worth the effort. If my teens had turned that piece in to me, we would be having a Writing 101 seminar.

[catz]

Bill, it wasn't worth the effort. If my teens had turned that piece in to me, we would be having a Writing 101 seminar.

 

:iagree: No doubt. It was scattered at best. My 11 year old produced a more coherent essay earlier this week.

[momto2Cs]

I have to say I didn't mind the article. Sure, it had a lot of stereotypes and such but there was a thread of truth in it. Put aside much of stupid swipes (quinoa-consuming?? Progressives as champions of monopoly?) and there was a point I recognized and identified with.

 

Being on the liberal end of the spectrum (although I consider myself more and more a traditional conservative - traditional conservatives don't seem to exist in politics or media these days) I've often been depressed by the automatic dismissal that some left-leaning figures seem to give to homeschooling. These are otherwise clever thinkers like PZ Myers who, when it comes to homeschooling, think no deeper about the issue then to recognize that some parents teach their kids creationism and that is a BAD thing.

 

Of course the fact that conservatives at large generally don't have an issue with homeschooling is no great sign of their deeper thought on the issue. They generally seem to hold the same stereotypes as the liberals and so see a demographic that they can flatter for votes or market to.

 

:iagree:

Edited October 18, 2012 by momto2Cs

[Joshin]

Thank you for the link to Rachel West's essay. Although i don't agree with everything West says, either, it was not the rabid anti-homeschooling entreaty the NR article led me to believe. It further cements that the NR article is utter tripe. The quotes were most definitely cherry-picked to make a partisan point.

 

I wonder why this quote from West's essay wasn't used in the NR article?

 

"Second, although I will be criticizing the right to completely deregulated homeschooling, I do not mean to deny for a moment that homeschooling itself is often--maybe usually--successful, when done responsibly. Passionately involved and loving parents, whether religious or not, can often better educate their children in small tutorials at home, than can cash-strapped, under-motivated, inadequately supported, and overwhelmed public school teachers with too many students in their classrooms. Results bear this out, as homeschool advocates repeatedly point out (and as critics virtually never deny): the homeschooled children who are tested, or who take college boards, whether or not religious, perhaps surprisingly, perhaps not, do very well on standardized tests, and on the average, they do better than their public school counterparts (though it must be noted that the parents and children who voluntarily subject themselves to testing are the self-selected educational elite of the homeschooling movement). My target is not the practice of homeschooling, whether religious or secular. My target, rather, is unregulated homeschooling--the total abdication of responsibility by the states for regulating the practice. The right to unregulated homeschooling visits quite concrete harms on the homeschooled children themselves, the mothers who are teaching them, and the often rural and isolated communities in which they are raised and taught."

 

(bolding mine)

[mazakaal]

How about this picture of homeschoolers:

These families are not living in romantic, rural, self-sufficient farmhouses; they are in trailer parks, 1,000-square-foot homes, houses owned by relatives, and some, on tarps in fields or parking lots. Their lack of job skills, passed from one generation to the next, depresses the community’s overall economic health and their state’s tax base.

 

Not finished with it yet but this struck me as hilarious:

 

 

 

:lol: Dh wishes! LOL

 

I'm confused why some are up in arms about the article. These are not the words of the author but a quote from West, which he characterizes as "a caricature of homeschooling families far removed from reality."

 

eta: Sorry, the quote from the article that was in the middle of the second box wasn't included for some reason.

[Lang Syne Boardie]

 

Bill, it wasn't worth the effort. If my teens had turned that piece in to me, we would be having a Writing 101 seminar.

 

:iagree: No doubt. It was scattered at best. My 11 year old produced a more coherent essay earlier this week.

 

:iagree: I thought it was a little frantic.

[celticmom]

My inner radical loves being identified as a member of "The Last Radicals."

Thanks for sharing.

 

:iagree:

[shanvan]

Thank you for the link to Rachel West's essay. Although i don't agree with everything West says, either, it was not the rabid anti-homeschooling entreaty the NR article led me to believe. It further cements that the NR article is utter tripe. The quotes were most definitely cherry-picked to make a partisan point.

 

I wonder why this quote from West's essay wasn't used in the NR article?

 

"Second, although I will be criticizing the right to completely deregulated homeschooling, I do not mean to deny for a moment that homeschooling itself is often--maybe usually--successful, when done responsibly. Passionately involved and loving parents, whether religious or not, can often better educate their children in small tutorials at home, than can cash-strapped, under-motivated, inadequately supported, and overwhelmed public school teachers with too many students in their classrooms. Results bear this out, as homeschool advocates repeatedly point out (and as critics virtually never deny): the homeschooled children who are tested, or who take college boards, whether or not religious, perhaps surprisingly, perhaps not, do very well on standardized tests, and on the average, they do better than their public school counterparts (though it must be noted that the parents and children who voluntarily subject themselves to testing are the self-selected educational elite of the homeschooling movement). My target is not the practice of homeschooling, whether religious or secular. My target, rather, is unregulated homeschooling--the total abdication of responsibility by the states for regulating the practice. The right to unregulated homeschooling visits quite concrete harms on the homeschooled children themselves, the mothers who are teaching them, and the often rural and isolated communities in which they are raised and taught."

 

(bolding mine)

 

I'm fairly certain the bold print above is also true of public school kids who have parents that are involved in their education. I think research has indicated that no matter what educational choices are made, kids with involved parents do better. That's one reason why I've never understood the argument for more regulation. I know a 'homeschooling' family that does not give much attention to their children's education and I'm not convinced they would fare better in school---their parents still wouldn't care.

[stripe]

I thought the article could be worth reading.... Until I got to "secular, progressive, organic-quinoa-consuming homeschool families." Thumbs down to dumb stereotypes. Why should conservative Christians eat garbage snack food? Is that what was growing in the Garden of Eden? Well, they might eat junk but at least they brush their teeth afterwards. "The Tea Party and the Ron Paul movement are in some ways the conservative flipside of Occupy, albeit with better manners, more coherent ideas, and higher standards of personal hygiene." Snort.

[Bluegoat]

I have to say I didn't mind the article. Sure, it had a lot of stereotypes and such but there was a thread of truth in it. Put aside much of stupid swipes (quinoa-consuming?? Progressives as champions of monopoly?) and there was a point I recognized and identified with.

 

Being on the liberal end of the spectrum (although I consider myself more and more a traditional conservative - traditional conservatives don't seem to exist in politics or media these days) I've often been depressed by the automatic dismissal that some left-leaning figures seem to give to homeschooling. These are otherwise clever thinkers like PZ Myers who, when it comes to homeschooling, think no deeper about the issue then to recognize that some parents teach their kids creationism and that is a BAD thing.

 

Of course the fact that conservatives at large generally don't have an issue with homeschooling is no great sign of their deeper thought on the issue. They generally seem to hold the same stereotypes as the liberals and so see a demographic that they can flatter for votes or market to.

 

:iagree:

 

I've found that in the Canadian context, the Greens are the closest thing we have to traditional conservatives, which is what I've come to identify with too.

[Catwoman]

I liked it, which is surprising because I'm a card carrying hippie liberal freak.

 

 

WHOA! HOLD THE PHONE!!!

 

You got a CARD??????????????

 

Where's my card? I never got a card. OK, so maybe it's because I'm more Armani than hippie, but still. I should have gotten a card for something.

 

I am always late to the party. :glare:

 

;) ;) ;) ;)

[Diviya]

Enjoyed the article. Thanks for posting. Somehow missed the poison :D

[WishboneDawn]

:iagree:

 

I've found that in the Canadian context, the Greens are the closest thing we have to traditional conservatives, which is what I've come to identify with too.

 

:) I lean that way too. I was a Tory in my younger years but once the alliance with Reform happened there was no room for folks like me. The "Conservatives" today seem to be radical authoritarians.

[Elizabeth in MN]

WHOA! HOLD THE PHONE!!!

 

You got a CARD??????????????

 

Where's my card? I never got a card. OK, so maybe it's because I'm more Armani than hippie, but still. I should have gotten a card for something.

 

I am always late to the party. :glare:

 

;) ;) ;) ;)

 

Oh yeah, totally. But you have to know the secret handshake ;)

[Farrar]

It's funny to me that some people found so much to hate in such a random, poorly constructed article. Nothing new in there. A few things I found to be true. A few things I found to be completely distorted and oversimplified. Definitely not one of the finer articles about homeschooling I've read.

[StartingOver]

Gotta go read it now. LOL

[StartingOver]

Well, technically, the author is talking about homeschooling not afterschooling so you aren't included in the population he is talking about :).

:iagree:

[8circles]

It's funny to me that some people found so much to hate in such a random, poorly constructed article. Nothing new in there. A few things I found to be true. A few things I found to be completely distorted and oversimplified. Definitely not one of the finer articles about homeschooling I've read.

 

:iagree:

[Spy Car]

This is the line that I remembered most. If you are homeschooling/afterschooling, you are doing just that- rejecting (on some level) bureaucracy.

 

Well, technically, the author is talking about homeschooling not afterschooling so you aren't included in the population he is talking about :).

 

:iagree:

 

:lol:

 

Bill

[LibraryLover]

How about this picture of homeschoolers:

These families are not living in romantic, rural, self-sufficient farmhouses; they are in trailer parks, 1,000-square-foot homes, houses owned by relatives, and some, on tarps in fields or parking lots. Their lack of job skills, passed from one generation to the next, depresses the community’s overall economic health and their state’s tax base.

 

 

Which I thought was innn-ter-eeesting, given the rest of the article.

 

Trying to hit every soundbite is my take.

[edelweiss]

It's funny to me that some people found so much to hate in such a random, poorly constructed article. Nothing new in there. A few things I found to be true. A few things I found to be completely distorted and oversimplified. Definitely not one of the finer articles about homeschooling I've read.

 

:iagree: