Friday, December 17, 2010

Spanish Constitutional Court says "No."

Home schooling is not legal, rules Constitutional Court
The ruling states that "the right of parents to choose for their children an education outside the compulsory education system for reasons of pedagogy does not fall within any recognized constitutional freedoms."

I think there will be
another gavel coming.

The article reports that the children in question "spoke five languages, knew music and were taught math, science and language, and ethics education."

Part of the ruling: "The court added that the exclusion from the formal system can generate in minors "serious problems in their future development" both in academia (in reference to the difficulties of access to university) and in the social and integration with other children their age."

That was a tactical error on the court's part, to clarify. Their "clarification" can be refuted pretty easily, with statistics from other countries, if they'll accept any outside information.

No doubt this will be overturned before long, but for now Laura Mascaró, the author of Educatíon y libertad (lower right on this page) wrote "I'm thinking of moving to another country or something..."

Laura's article on this ruling is here, in Spanish: El TC contra la libertad educatvia

Links from Laura's notes:
La verdad siempre vencerá, por Julian Assange en La Jornada

Controlar a los controladores, por Francisco Capella en Expansión

Pero qué malo es Google, por Antonio José Chinchetru en Libertad Digital

Beneficios de educar en casa (XXIII edición del carnaval de blogs de homeschooling), por Ketty Sánchez en Mariposas Multicolores

The most dangerous place in the world, por Priscilla Hill en Preserving the torch

Update on Christer, en Friends of Domenic Johansson

Sunday, December 05, 2010

A homeschooler's commentary on six weeks in high school

One of the unschooling moms on facebook posted this introductory note:
Here's a video by one of the unschooled boys in our homeschool group. He talks about his six weeks of high school and explains why he stopped going. It's definitely worth watching!

A little story with big meaning

Hazel Mae Donovan wrote on facebook:
On our first midterm, there were only 4 As in our class of about 40 people. 3 of the 4 As belonged to homeschoolers (myself included). Surprising? I think not.

These stories are heard quite often. I have a son taking his first college classes. English 101 (which he tested into without preparation, after unschooling) isn't going as well as the math, but he's like his dad, who also had some English 101 problems, after 13 years of public school.