This is the question I get most, hands down, when uninitiated people are asking me about homeschool.
Answer: no. In Utah, there is no oversight, no regulation of homeschool. I can take my kids to the schools when they are doing standardized testing, or I can use any measures I myself deem reliable to check their progression. No one is going to come check up on me at all, so I even can just stay in bed all day, and let them build Legos and watch movies and never crack a book. I can do that.
But why on earth would I? Why would I sabotage my kids like that? I keep them home because I believe I'm educating them better than the public schools do, not because I want to go easy on them. I want them to have a broader and deeper knowledge base, not be doing first grade work at the age of ten. I want them to be productive, contributing members of society, capable of supporting themselves and their families. I do not wish them to be eternal infants forever dependent upon me.
And it always freaks me right the heck out when I find out about families who do just that. They withdraw all their kids from school and keep them home, and then never crack a book. Can't be bothered to work up a curriculum. Spend their day in bed.
I mean, I have sympathy for health problems, or depression. Sure, there are some things that keep you in bed all day, legitimately. But in those cases, public service announcement, PUT THE KIDS IN SCHOOL. They may struggle socially. They may be behind their grade level. They may have to start with short vowel sounds and three-letter words. But Concerned Parent, is that not better than sitting around all day, not learning to read or write or do math at all? Isn't it? A little?
I cannot even wrap my mind around a parent who would find the public school system so risky (?) that they would rather have their kid at home doing literally nothing educational than be in school and learn something.
(Yes, I know a family doing precisely this. My fifth grader is by far more accomplished in every subject than their 18YO eldest, who has "graduated". Which, when there's no oversight or regulation other than a mom's say-so, is without actual meaning under certain circumstances.)
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5 comments:
That's sad! Offer to have those kids come to your house but then you get paid to teach them. :)
Btw, do you think Utah will ever have some sort of "end of level" test for homeschoolers?? Just curious?
wow... Alyson had something to say about that! But, I agree. Even a little is better than nothing. Come on people. Step up. If you are going to take your kids out, you should be the replacement, not the fakeplacement :)
I'd love to hear your thoughts on unschooling. A former co-worker of mine was doing that with his kids (or rather, his wife) and the results were terrifying.
Laura:
That's sad! Offer to have those kids come to your house but then you get paid to teach them. :)
Every year someone asks me to teach their kids, for money. So far, I'm too expensive and it has never come to fruition. However, there does not exist enough money for me to take that family on; it isn't worth the abuse my kids would suffer when I take out my frustration on them. Which would be inevitable.
Btw, do you think Utah will ever have some sort of "end of level" test for homeschoolers?? Just curious?
My suspicion is no. There are too many other legitimate legislative issues for them to start focusing on the homeschoolers. Homeschoolers who make it all the way through 12th grade level find alternate ways to prove competence. Some universities will accept/require pretty extensive portfolios as proof of education. Or a GED exam result.
Many junior colleges, however, will accept almost anyone, even non-HS-grads. Many homeschoolers enroll their 12th grade-level children in the local JC and start knocking off the general ed. From there it is a transfer to a 4 year university, rather than a from-scratch application.
Connie:
My thoughts on what this family was doing (staying in bed all day, no curriculum, not teaching children to read) and on unschooling are purt near identical. I think unschoolers have good intentions (I won't call them all lazy), and heinous results. Children cannot be left to learn whatever they want whenever they want with any even success. I believe kids can become near experts on something they love, like (say) Legos or K'nex. And they can learn *something* from building those, but they cannot learn *everything*. I have heard tons and tons of unschoolers say, "He'll learn to read when he's ready! He just wasn't ready at six!" Reading is the key to everything. I would rather put aside everything else, math included, until reading is established, than let reading go until the kid actually has inclinations.
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