Homeschooling News Links

Loudon Times-Mirror
School Board debates letting home-schoolers take PSAT

The LaPorte Herald Argus
Home schoolers may soon sit in LaPorte classrooms

NewsNet5 (Cleveland)
Home-Schooled Girl Kicked Off Volleyball Team

Sun Herald
Lit class registration to begin

Modesto Bee
Truancy ruling on home-schoolers creates confusion

Worldnet Daily
Parent-directed education

Houma Courier Today
HOME & FAMILY: Homeschoolers find their niche

Miami.com
Home school to high school

Houma Courier Today
More parents opting for homeschooling

Pantagraph.com
Academy supplements home schooling efforts

Cape Cod Times
From classroom to living room

MidValleySunday.com
Who watches the home-schoolers?

Nunatsiaq News
The Homeschool Experiment

NorthJersey News
Cancer patient, high school at odds

Vancouver Sun
Community hall an alternative to long bus ride, homeschooling

Homeschool News Links

My San Antonio: Cartoons about homeschooling
Nacho Guarache #1
Nacho Guarache #2
Nacho Guarache #3
Nacho Guarache #4
Nacho Guarache #5

Houston Chronicle
Teens making the grade in medical school

Christianity Today
The little school in the living room grows up

Tech Central Station
Teach the children well

The State
Homeschooling new niche market

femai.co.uk
The Class Divide

The Dominion Post
Pennsylvania school board denies sports to home-schoolers

Daily Herald
Home, school one in same

The Republican Journal
Home-schooling up, SAD 3 enrollment down

The Washington Times
Online Instructors Conduct Classes

Herald Times Reporter
Students plug in to regional virtual school

Press Democrat
Simon Stumps in Sonoma

Newport News Times
Early enrollment shows loss of Eddyville Students

The perils and pitfalls of definitions

It is the nature of definitions that they limit.

How ironic, it seems, that trying to pin down a definition of homeschooling could impinge on our freedom to homeschool. But that is, in fact, exactly what defining it in law does.

Let's examine, for a moment, the alternative. If we don't define homeschooling, then anyone and everyone can call themselves homeschoolers. It seems a little silly to invite that possibility, yet trying to prevent it by defining homeschooling in law brings certain regulation.

If a state does not allow homeschoolers to self-identify — and by self-identify, I mean that they decide for themselves that they are homeschoolers, rather than having the state determine for them whether they are or not — then the state is regulating homeschooling in some way. In other words, if the state is not simply taking a homeschooling parent's word for it that they are educating their children, then the state is requiring homeschoolers to jump through one or more regulatory hoops to demonstrate or prove that they fit the state's definition of homeschooling.

We can't have zero regulation if homeschoolers are not allowed to self-identify. It's a messy reality.

More Homeschool News Links

Los Angeles Daily News
Home school issue unclear

The Claremont Institute
Home school backlash

Rocky Mountain News
Home schooling on growth spurt

Rocky Mountain News
Q&A: State reveals how to get started at home schooling

Times Record News
Learning curve

World Net Daily
Home-school battle heats up in California

Daily Camera
Women open store for home schoolers

WorldNetDaily
Public education vs. homeschoolers

Cincinnati Post
Home-schoolers worried about online academy

Pacific Business News
Maui-based virtual community targets home-school families

Abilene Reporter-News
Flexibility, control keys to homeschooling

Gates Chili-Post
Home schoolers hit hard by library cuts

Sun-Herald: Moms
Homeschool benefits outweigh public school experience

Education Guardian UK
Opting Out

Ames Tribune
Learning at home

Nevada Daily Mail
Learning in the living room

Greenville Herald Banner
Home school programs mark progress locally

Enlightened path
New school counters MCAS-based mentality

St. Petersburg Times
No place like home

Washington Times
The challenge of cyber schools

Tallahassee Democrat
Remy Shand at home on Motown

Anchorage Daily News
Murkowski speaks on education

Globe and Mail
Edmonton board embraces choice to fight cutbacks

Sun Sentinel
Parents in school groups will help

Modesto Bee
Private schools grow

Boston Globe Magazine
Encounter: Joe Perry

Homeschooling News Links

Boston Globe Magazine
Encounter: Joe Perry

St. Petersburg Times
No place like home

Times Daily
Enrollment decline costing area schools

Boston Globe
Enlightened path: New school counters MCAS-based mentality

Accelerated Unschooling

I have always equated unschooling with simply living one's life in a mindful way, free from the shoulds, oughts, tests, timetables and other prescriptions and proscriptions of the schooling world. So when a concept like accelerated unschooling comes along, I am truly dumbfounded.

Why would anyone want to accelerate life? I snarkily wonder if that would mean you'd end up dying younger. Ha!

Sure, if you or your children are bored, it might be nice to find more interesting things to do. And if you're just not managing to get things done that you really want to do, then arranging some sort of support or schedule to help you focus more on that could be just the ticket.

But the notion of a parent taking over the "motivation" (read "compulsion") aspect of learning because their unschooled child's interests just weren't quite varied enough, and their natural learning pace wasn't fast enough to suit the parent, is altogether different. Not a lot of trust involved there. The only remnants of unschooling in accelerated unschooling appear to be a nod to the child's interests, and maybe a lack of textbook type materials.

More often than not, I find my family wanting to slow down and take everything in, rather than find ways to amuse ourselves more and faster. And the risk is ever present that we might, in our excitement over something, sacrifice depth, understanding, mindfulness, and real connection, for speed and distance traveled.

Accelerated unschooling implies that living and learning is a race. It's not. That concept is totally foreign to our family's unschooling way of life.

California home-school fight goes public

Homeschooling father and attorney Will Rogers sent this heartfelt letter to the Washington Times in response to their coverage of California's intimidation of homeschoolers. His closing paragraph says it all:

"The fundamental right of a parent to direct the education of his or her child is older than the United States Constitution; it is older than recorded history. It is so deeply woven into the fabric of what constitutes a family that to deny this right is to do violence to the sacred bonds that unite a loving mother and father to their beloved child."

Homeschooling off the grid

I recently had occasion to explain how homeschooling works with our family's traveling lifestyle. Because laws regarding homeschooling vary from state to state, trying to comply with them could easily become a nightmare if we let it. Next time you go out of state on vacation - if you're lucky enough to get to do that - take a peek at how quickly your destination state requires children to be enrolled in school. Most states give you only a week to ten days, and a permanent residence somewhere else isn't any excuse for not complying!

Usually we find ourselves in a situation where it would take longer to comply with the homeschooling law than we would actually be living in the state. A ridiculous predicament, to be sure, and a sad demonstration of the burden homeschoolers in so many states have to bear.

Because we have the great good fortune to live in a free state homeschooling-wise, and can flee oppression elsewhere if the need arises, we have chosen a simpler route. We just go on living our lives, learning as we go, and ignore the legal hoops and chains that would only waste our precious time. In the past I have said that we homeschool underground. But how can I call it that when what we do is so deliberately out-in-the-open, and brings so much joy and light into our lives? We're living blissfully "off the grid" when it comes to school.

A slew of recent articles about homeschooling:

San Antonio Express-News
Home schooling today reaches beyond the house

The Ottawa Citizen (Canada)
Home schooling

TheDay.com
Storytelling family brings legends to life around nation

National Center for Policy Analysis (originally from WA Times)
California prepares to attack home schooling

Insight Magazine
Homeschoolers arrive on campus

Pioneer Press
Plan would shield home-school information

Hendersonville Tribune
'Battle Bots' attack apple festival

USA Today
As home schooling rises, districts fail to meet needs

Peninsula Daily News
Clallam: Homeschool band to help open Clallam County Fair

Sun Herald
Standing room only at homeschool seminar

Frontiersman
School district reaches out

San Diego Union-Tribune
Family finds success with alternative education plan

WXIA TV Atlanta
Home-Schooling Growing as Option

Washington Times
State eyes reducing home-school filings

Wellington Daily News
Bringing in home-schoolers

St. Petersburg Times
Young clogger hoofs her way to Brazil 

New York Times
If School Is Home: Web Help for Age 5

Tampa Tribune
At Home With Science

The Ledger
Disabled Child Home-Schooled With Voucher

Nashua Telegraph
Parents bring award home

Associated Press
Surf's up

Bakersfield Californian
Do-it-yourself school

Computer User Magazine
No place like home
NHEN contributed lots of contacts and info for this one. There's a link to NHEN and a quote from me in it.

Middle of the night is the best time for starting new projects, don't you think? We shall see how it goes.