Accountability

The only reason teachers hate home schoolers is that we prove everyday that they are not doing their jobs. My 2nd grader was bringing home 2-3 hours of homework home everyday. What was the teacher doing for 6 hours? Now she has been home schooled for 4 years and has her work completed in 3 hours total. She is also taking an international horsemanship class online. She is avg. a B+ in that class.

I think it would be useful for school districts to offer end-of-level testing to home educated students. This would add an opportunity for transparency and accountability. I have attempted to have my children participate in this testing but have been refused. I suspect that the reason school districts do not provide this service (even when I have offered to reimburse the district for expenses) is that there is a fear that the home educated students would out-perform the conventionally educated students.

Since I made the decision to homeschool, I have received pressure to go back to public schools. Studies show that homeschooled children perform better academically and socially than most public schooled children. So why, when there is so much research proving the positive impact that homeschooling has on our children, is the idea of homeschooling met with so much resistance? The problem is that, as much as we would like to think that we are a forward thinking society living in a culture that allows us to have free thinking, it just isn’t so. We have been molded, from the time we were born, into thinking that the way we do things, the way we live is the “right” way. We are afraid to think that it might not be the best way. If we dare to think about it, we would have to take time away from our very busy schedules to think about how we would make it work. People are so settled in their ways that they can’t even imagine how to change. What would you have to give up to “do” school differently for your children? Many people reason that they went through public schools and turned out fine. I challenge those people to think about a few things. First, is it okay to settle for “fine”? So, you are living life day to day and functioning in our society. Are you happy? Are you living with plenty of financial reserves? Are you proud of who you are and how you treat others? Are you really living a full and rewarding life? My guess is that the majority of people would not answer these questions affirmatively. I haven’t looked up the statistics, but I have heard that the majority of Americans are deeply in debt and that sales of anti-depressant medications have never been higher. You just have to turn on the TV to hear about the credit crisis and the horrible things that people do to each other. The second thing I want you to think about is that the schools are changing with our society and they are different than when you grew up. I was completely horrified the first time my tiny kindergartner came home in tears because they had an “intruder drill”. In case you aren’t familiar with this kind of drill, all children are instructed to get under their desks and the lights are turned out and all of the doors are locked.The children are told that this is practice in case an intruder enters the school.It doesn't take an expert or research to tell me that this is not the kind of environment I want my child to be in. In addition to these drills and lock downs, my children have experienced humiliation from other students and (even) teachers that they never should have had to experience. I allowed this to continue for years because like so many others, I just didn’t think there was any other way.I mistakenly allowed myself to believe that it was okay because that is how our government set it up and how our society lives. Since I have allowed myself to think differently, I can see it so clearly and I am just amused (and at the same time, horrified) by the negative reactions I have experienced toward homeschooling. We are talking about our most precious children and a simple little thing like teaching them. Why is that so odd to so many? Why are so many horrified by it? Why do so many people allow themselves to be molded by a system without questioning it? I think it is because that same system has taught us how to be helpless. They have dictated what we will learn and when and how. That system has done all of our thinking for us – and hasn’t taught us how to think for ourselves. We just go along with the system because we don’t know how to do it differently, how to do it on our own, and it hasn’t given us “permission”. Individuality is not praised and rewarded. The cycle was set in motion a few hundred years ago with the "compulsory education system" and it has continued. This inability to see things differently is actually very dangerous. As I mentioned, this is just a little bitty issue like education. But…is the underlying idea really that much different than a more extreme example. Images of the Jewish concentration camps are what come to my mind. How was Hitler able to get so many to carry out his duties? Why weren’t they able to think for themselves? Now, I admit this is an extreme example…but it started somewhere. Twenty years ago, did you really ever imagine that your children would be going to a public school system where they had to have intruder drills or metal detectors? How did you come to the point of thinking that it is acceptable? If we continue with this same system, what will you consider to be the norm in 20 years from today? And who is currently being held accountable for the worsening state of the PS system?

What happens when the student is not up to sunff in the public system? Answer: Not a thing. The teacher is not fired no matter how many students fail due to lack of teacher skills. However, If a home school student fails then they live at home for many years. So, the home school parents have a vested interest in making the grade. What do the Public school teachers get for dropping the ball? Nothing.

Mob rule gets proved all the time. We like to think we have a stable society but fear is a powerful motivator. Unfortunately, it leads to tighter security and loss of freedom. Consider the tactics of most homeschool naysayers. Most of their arguments are based on common fears with conspiracy and intolerance heading the list. Get everyone to think we're unstable bible thumpers ready to overthrow basic constitutional rights and then maybe someone in Congress will decide that we need more oversight. Or better yet, they take our rights away and force us to put our children into public school. Because if homeschoolers rights are gone, private and charter schools are going to go next. This happens all the time, it happens now in Germany, it happened in Afghanistan, and it can happen here if people allow their rights to be taken away so that the government can keep them "safe" from those who are different. The problem with independence is it assumes that we are responsible enough to stay independent, and not trade our freedom for security. It's the difference between being an adult and being a child. The adult world is a scary place. Children like to be protected.

It would be nice to have some acceptance in what we do, but until homeschooling becomes a more common choice (I would say at least 30% of the populatiion) it will always be feared by the collective consciousness (or unconciousness) of our society. Can you see teachers' unions letting it go that far? Because I can't. Our schools go into a frenzy if we don't want to give them a nice large raise in taxes every year. They always threaten to cut back services. How about cutting back hefty pensions and overtime rates for maintenance and administrative staff? It always comes back to money, doesn't it?

Marty Hittleman writes: "The CFT supports the right of parents to follow their best judgment in the supremely important task of seeking education for their children. But we also know that our public schools need involved parents to help them work properly. We would prefer that highly motivated parents keep their kids in public school rather than place them in private schools or home school them. We need all of the community engaged so that we can assure all students receive a high quality, research- and standards-based education."

I can see how this argument works from a teacher's point of view, however, as a parent, it just doesn't work. We don't have the opportunity to "do it all over" if we make a mistake with our children's education. I cannot put my children's education at risk by putting them in the failing public schools in my area just so that I can give my time to try to make a difference in public schools.

From what I've heard from parents in my community, their input in our public schools is limited to the peripheries, their skills are not utilized to the fullest. In my homeschool, my skills are utilized to their fullest and my children, plus those I interact with, benefit.

This argument is based on the idea that government knows what's best for my children more than I do. I don't buy it.

Children are just a number in mass public education. They're expected to fit neat and tidy little boxes instead of being celebrated for their vast differences in abilities and the ways that they learn.

Public schools are only accountable to an outdated way of "education" where children become sheep who sit at desks and listen to the whims of teachers all day long.

Homeschooling provides opportunity for hands-on learning, interest-based learning, and building on strengths instead of the public school model of constant tweaking of weaknesses with a drive for impossible perfection.

At homeschool, children are celebrated for their individuality. My son has said for years he wants to be a robotics engineer and an inventor. But by public school standards, he wasn't good enough and didn't have the opportunity to study those fields. At homeschool, he has every opportunity.

My daughter is bad at math at public schools, but is learning it much more rapidly at home. She has rote memory difficulties, which were never addressed in mass education, but we can work one-on-one with her at home.

Accountability just does NOT happen at public schools.

In my experience, all kinds of policies and laws can be passed with the intent of making educators accountable but they do no good because they are not enforcable. Anyone with a special needs child who has experience "due process" knows what I'm talking about.