SP: Blimey Cow - Seven Lies About Homeschoolers

My kids have introduced me to Blimey Cow, a YouTube Channel that's run by a collegiate home school student. He's definitely up there in terms of humor, but incredibly insightful too. Seven Lies About Homeschoolers is perhaps the most helpful and insightful commentary about home education I've seen all year. Yeah, it's February. So?



Click here to watch (in a new window)

This post is designed to be sticky (thus the SP designation), so it may appear out of sequence for you.

Why Colorado's Prop 103 Failed

Why this year? Colorado had a state-wide ballot issue on an off-year election this year with the hopes of stacking the polls. Most schools hold their school board elections on odd years because, quite frankly, they're not willing to risk asking the bulk of the population to pick their board members. They'd rather have it on years when voter turn-out is low because the teachers unions can more effectively work to keep their union-friendly--or union-intimidated--board members in power. Likewise, if the teacher's union stands to gain a windfall into their feeding trough via a tax increase, like Proposition 103, putting it through on an off-year election is when it's most likely to succeed.

What happened? The upset was apparent in the polls this week. Colorado voters roundly rejected the tax hike by nearly a 2-to-1 margin, even though commercials like this one (note the lack of inspiring Colorado mountains, Colorado homes, or Colorado anything) pulled at the emotions. HuffPo n' Co. stated unequivocally that school budgets have been "decimated." Heavens. It's enough to make a school administrator reconsider that Lexus purchase.

Why did Prop 103 fail? In short, it failed because of mail-in ballots that allowed the public to still voice enough of a general opinion. The Denver Post article addressed a tax hike's chances next year, saying,

"Maybe when this economy turns around, and people feel a little more confident with their personal situations, people will be a little more willing to talk about it," said state Sen. Rollie Heath, D-Boulder, who led the 103 coalition.

Some advocates had even wanted to mount such an effort in 2012, something [Boulder Democrat State Senator, Rollie] Heath said was now unthinkable.

"I don't think there's a snowball's chance in hell," he said. "In a presidential year? To do what we need to do to educate folks? I don't recommend doing anything in 2012."

Glad to see that even liberals believe in hell, by the way.

Seriously however, Heath was saying that it would be too costly, that too many people would turn out to vote next year for them to stack the polls in their favor. My belief is that unless the economy makes a turnaround in 12 months, the polls could turn even more hostile towards government solutions toward any issue, not just the majority that it's failing at.

I'd like to think that the public's perception is that it really doesn't take a lot of money to educate children. After all, if homeschooling families can both support a government funded school system with their tax dollars and still produce students who on average out-score 9 out of 10 public school students. and entrepreneurs, along with the occasional star athlete, there must be more at work than money. Maybe successful students start at home. On the other hand, others may not see it that way. Maybe they're just ignorant and greedy, like Rollie Heath seemed to say. But I hope not.

Homeschool Students Continue To Pass the Test

If you're worried about whether your child will be able to go to college without a transcript from the local high school, you shouldn't be. From ACT scores to GPAs to social habits, on the whole, it seems that homeschoolers have the mastership life requires.

You have the right to educate your children at home. Although it is not for everyone, but if your child is struggling in an area, bored, or just plain unhappy with the school they're in, you owe it to your child to examine homeschooling, whether they're 4, 7, 14, or 17. Even one year can have profound results!

Remember, public schooling advocates that there is one way to teach children, and that's in the classroom. That would work if kids were standard issue pieces of inventory. Any parent can tell you that their child is as unique as they are and that they don't all learn the same way.

What magical transformation happens at 5 years old when we send them off to Kindergarten? What does a parent not have to guide their child through their education? The answers to both these questions are "Nothing." Home education was far more daunting in the 1980s when few if any curricula existed that were designed for study at home. Today, homeschooling magazines are filled with ads for curricula as diverse as the students themselves and as detailed (or not) as the parent needs.

The Old Schoolhouse is a great place to start looking into homeschool. Try "How to Homeschool," or consider attending a homeschool conference or even their online conference. It will be time well spent, because your children are worth it!



PS: But, wait! There's more! Consider,

• National Home Education Research Institute - Dr. Brian Ray shows how much better students educated at home perform when compared with their public education peers
• Take a look via MSNBC at what life is like for a homeschooling family

Christmastime In Our Homeschool

I posted about homeschooling during Christmastime on my Dad @ Homeschool blog. Christmastime is a wonderful time for both parents and children in our homeschool. Home education offers so much freedom compared to the rigid secularism in our schools. We can offer our children, and our God, so much more!

Wisdom And Artistry From Unexpected Places

My youngest has such a unique perspective! She's definitely the artist in the family. Last night, after a particularly hard day, I was about to lead the whole family in prayer, but then Shiloh asks, "Can I lead?" I was so taken off guard, the improper English didn't even register!

"Sure!" I said.

"Dear Jesus, please put the five pieces of our puzzle back together again ...and you be the board that holds us all together. Wow! Now I have two word pictures of God!"

To quote The Cat In The Hat, That is not all. Oh, no, that is not all.

Earlier in the conversation, before I even arrived, my firstborn was having a very real, teen-in-crisis moment when she confessed that she didn't see her purpose in life. This is a very honest question that I dealt with myself. Shiloh's answer, though, was one I'd never heard before.

"Kylie, I am so glad you're here because if you weren't, then Keegan and I would have to share a room. And we would have an empty room," she said, referring to the room they shared.

It didn't dawn on her that she would have had her own room just for her, or if it did, it didn't show. She's the one that's capable of sensing other's emotions and adjusting to the moment. That's a good foundation for an artist, or a counselor.

It's so good that we have her here at home with us! I'm certain beyond any shadow of doubt that putting her in a schoolroom would have negatively affected her, possibly to the point of ruining her wonderful, sensitive, kind, and loving spirit. I am so grateful for the gift of my young lady Shiloh!

Unwanted: A National Standard For Human Beings

As a father of three home-educated children, I take an active interest in homeschooling and educational issues. I've come to understand that each child is a unique gift from God. Because they're unique, any classification for a child, from school grades to performance grades degrades and even removes their characteristics and abilities. While I can appreciate a need for standards and groupings, this is not something I want to subject my children to.

I believe these folks are working towards a legal way to force me to let them test and classify my children, and I don't think that's right. Here is what I told them in their survey:

Since Elections Are So Close To Halloween, Here's Something Scary

I strongly suspect that those who would spend 30 minutes decrying Federal corruption and bureaucracy wouldn't spend 30 seconds on Google looking up who's on their local school board. If there was ever a weak point in democracy, this is it.

Thanks, Mike Rosen, for your thought-provoking commentary.

Training Parrots Or Educating Minds

This article, which was part of an HSLDA e-mail, makes a great case for educating children by helping them think on their own rather than training them to spit up answers to questions on command. We need students to think logically and consistently. Indoctrinating them with a conservative mindset without getting them to think through the reasons supporting both perspectives can cripple them when they assume their adult roles.

When my kids ask me what a specific person believes, I am under the obligation to tell them why that person probably believes what they do. For example, why is Barrack Hussein Obama pro-abortion rather than pro-life? How do we know that he believes that? What does this say about his values of human life? What implications does this have toward the current issue of medical care? Would Obama favor abortion on demand or possibly euthanasia? Taking them forward in these steps is more than asking questions and getting them to answer? It is patterning their minds to take the next logical steps. It applies as much to what they watch on TV as well as it does to understanding politics. Do the people on this show exhibit honor and value towards each other? Do we want to emulate them? What reasons do we have to watch it?

Walking through life asking such questions will change what you do, but it will also shape minds to live by the light of reason, and not just follow their appetites, which leads to sin. On the other hand, walking with reason leads to wise choices, which leads to life, full of happiness and hope. I owe at least that much to my children.

Kid Drives To School After Driving in Video Game

Oopsie. This should make parents think about where they put their keys. A six year-old kid drives on a highway to get to school to make PE and breakfast. I guess breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

One question: were the parents charged with Child Endangerment for letting him have access to the car or for letting him play Grand Theft Auto? This is a game where you can ruthlessly gun down innocent people and get away with it, where you regain player health by having sessions with prostitutes, where you live as a member of an underworld crime syndicate loaded with racism, corruption, and rampant murder. Letting him play should be considered reckless child endangerment. I avoid judging situations where I don't know the whole story, and the media never tells the whole story. On the other hand, I can't think of a case where a young child who is learning to spell "house" and "car" should ever be allowed to play GTA.

The fact that he drove to school thinking it was just like the video games shows us yet again that kids do have trouble sometimes distinguishing between games and reality. Parents must help their kids realize that life doesn't have a reset button and if you die, you don't come back by hitting "Continue." His dad needs to think these things over while he waits for bail and sees the real, living examples of thugs living the GTA life.

Homeschooling Grows

USA Today, the national McNewspaper, churned out an article on Monday saying simply, Home Schooling Grows. The article has inspired just under 1,000 comments from registered users of the USA Today site.

What they should have said is that homeschooling is maturing and diversifying. People are starting to homeschool for more reasons than simply the desire to teach their kids about God. Instead, people are finding that homeschooling allows their children to learn at their own pace instead of in lock-step with the class. They're finding that their kids don't have to do homework or spend 8 hours locked away in apublic school when they can be home with their families, learning what they need with a lower time investment and a big improvement in quality of life.

Homeschooling is growing and diversifying and for all the right reasons.

My Daughter Is Mighty In Spirit

My wife and I have recently been struggling to learn how to work with our youngest child, a daughter who is “mighty in spirit. ” What Dobson called the strong-willed child seems to manifest in our daughter’s personality several times a day. She reminds me so much of myself at that age! I had an intensely strong personality with my own preferences and mandates. My reaction to authority was best expressed through the title of a book I ran across a couple of years ago, titled You Can’t Make Me, But I Can Be Persuaded. Things worked best for me when I understood my options and I was allowed to make my choice. That didn’t always happen.

Violations of my independence were met with strong, sometimes violent resistance. As a result, elementary school had to be one of the most frustrating, torturous experiences I’ve ever endured. It made such an impression that it figured into my reasoning behind our decision to homeschool our children. If there is one objective for elementary school besides the obvious education factor, it is to remold young minds to be docile and easily lead. Why else is there pressure to fit in, to follow instruction without question, to do everything the same way as everyone else? Like thousands of other strong-willed children, my struggles with such institutionalized brainwashing nearly destroyed me. My teachers had labeled me unintelligent, frustrating, stubborn, disruptive, irresponsible, and lots of other things. It took me until my mid-20s to begin to figure out why I had struggled so much.

Strong-willed children have such strength for a very good reason. If they survive childhood, and if they are given what they need, they will be very strong, capable leaders. They will know right and wrong, and they will choose wisely. Their road is not an easy one, nor will they always be right. But they can learn, think and respond as well as—if not better than—their peers. I’m so glad my youngest doesn’t have to go through the pain that I went through to find that out. We can work with her and help her learn how to respond to those challenges. She can learn at home where her independence and creativity can be nourished, not stifled. She will make mistakes and she will learn the consequences, but she will not be devalued or rejected. She has a bright future; all we need to do is help her choose it.

Homeschool Kids Trump Public School Teachers On Test

I find this interesting in that the homeschool students passed, but the public school teachers admitted that they could not. The bias against homeschoolers is truly scary sometimes. Intellectual abandonment? I guess the kids showed them.

Is Preschool No Longer Optional?

Dave Long, a county commisioner in northern Colorado, opines that Preschool Is No Longer An Option. Mr. Long states that in order to be ready for kindergarten, children must already qualify under a long litany of criteria. According to his article, every child entering kindergarten must already:

• Be able to get along in a large group of children.
• Be able to sit still and pay attention.
• Be interested in learning.
• Be potty trained.
• Know numbers one through 15 and the letters of the alphabet.
• Recognize and be able to identify the letters in their first name.
• Recognize shapes including circles, squares, rectangles, triangles, ovals, hearts, cones and stars.
• Be able to identify body parts, including eyes, nose, mouth, ears, ankles, etc.
• Recognize the eight basic colors.
• Be able to hold a pencil and scissors the correct way for hand preference.
• Know basic manners and social skills.
• Be able to tie their own shoes.
• Be able to follow two- or three-step directions, showing the ability to remember and follow though.

Entrance exams for Kindergarten? When I was a child, this was what kindergarten was for. It was for getting ready for school by learning how to hold a pair of scissors, how to read my own name, and how to tie my own shoes. I should mention that I failed that last part of shoe tying until the middle or end of first grade. Thank God for velcro!

So today's students are going to preschool to learn what I used to learn in Kindergarten. This leads me to a very important question How is it that today's students spend more years in school and yet graduate from it knowing less than the children of my generation? More importantly, how are students who are homeschooled until they are 18 know so much more and test so much higher than their public school peers*, despite the extra year advantage given the school students?

The question now is obvious: Is preschool really no longer optional? Or is it just an attempt by a broken system to try to fix itself without adding more grades, like 13, 14, and 15? Should we really be pushing children out of their homes at the ripe old age of 4? Are they ready for such stress, or is this just the system's Rumplestiltskin solution, saying "you didn't teach the child anything! Now, give me your baby!"

Parents in Colorado need to know that they have a better choice. They have a low-cost alternative and one not nearly so heart rending as giving your child to a preschool. Keep them home and let them learn the entrance exam for Kindergarten in their own way and on their own schedule. Homeschoolers retain the home field advantage and produce top students in record time.

* - according to studies done by NHERI.org

Why Men Don't Talk About Their Emotions

It was while we were watching our umpteenth hour of Olympics coverage on NBC that I came up with an explanation on why guys generally have a hard time articulating their feelings about matters of the heart. I tried explaining this to my wife in the middle of her work and didn't quite make it through, so I'm going to try it here and see if I get better in explaining it.

Guys don't like to show their emotions or reveal their feelings about something dear to them because it leaves them vulnerable. This is not just "Me Tarzan not like feeling vulnerable. Rather hunt bear with pointy stick!" It's something I think we've forgotten in our relative prosperity and "lack of vital needs," like when there was only so much medicine available or there was only so much food to go around. In competition, weaknesses are exploited and it's imbued on men that weaknesses can cause you to fail and lose. To allow others to know what is in his heart is to invite disaster. So men have instinctively clammed up and only allowed their feelings out when they knew it was safe, confidential and controlled. To protect himself and the ones he loves, a man will not betray the contents of his heart for the instinctual fear that the sentiments of his heart could be used to hamstring him and expose his beloved to possible harm.

It's not an apologetic that I'm making for men, saying this is the way we are and so don't go asking us how we feel. Instead, understand that men need to know that when the environment and time is right, it is okay to actually open up a little. They won't do it if they feel threatened. Using his feelings in a later argument to hurt or hamper him is an immediate and profound reinforcement of the instinct to clam up and protect his heart. Good luck getting him to open up after that.

On that note, I'm glad that we are homeschooling my son. Keeping him out of the dog-eat-dog competition and ruthlessness of the schools, public and private, is probably going to spare his heart and protect him from the pathological side of this instinct.

No, my wife and I aren't fighting. It's just that seeing the competitive nature of the events and it's impact on so many of the olympians and their families. It really has helped me understand the human heart to watch the games. I just better come up with some more observations that are a little more profound in order to keep this from being a total loss.

Oh, and NBC, ease up on the ads for sex-and-violence shows. My kids are watching, and it's only reinforcing our desire to turn off the TV after the closing ceremonies. Maybe that wouldn't be a such a bad thing for us.

I Don't Feel Cold...

Surrender your rights when you work with the government or its schools. Best thing to do. Don't be religious or think of trying to help others. Fit in. Conform. Don't think. Don't feel. Be fake and everything will be just fine. Don't expect. Suggest. ...I feel numb.

Did we revise the line about the Statue of Liberty to say, "Bring me your neo-pagans and your hindus, but keep your Christians yearning to breathe free"? Maybe I'm getting cynical, but I see a anti-Christian bias in more and more places it shouldn't be. It shouldn't be there, unless we're no longer free.

Musical Brains

I have a musical brain. The trouble is, I don't play an instrument. Oi vey, everybody.

It is a sad and sometimes painful truth that I bailed or failed piano and trumpet after a few years each. Of course this was before my parents discovered that I had a learning disability. Yeah, you can hear the screaming now too, eh? Yep, my eyes were broken and my ears took over. I could pick out any tune I heard and could play it pretty well until my piano teacher refused to play through the pieces for me. My pleas fell on deaf ears and I was forced to stumble through reading each piece one painful note at a time. You can see why I quit, but my teacher, God bless her, she called me lazy. One last painful sizzle across the soul and I was out of there.

Seriously, I couldn't understand why it was so hard for me to read music. Trumpet was easier because there's less of a demand to learn to read sheet music in band. Lessons were easier too, but it only got me to a certain point. Eventually, I had to read there too and that was that.

I don't mean to drag everyone through my own childhood failures, but I want it to underscore one very important thing parents need to remember: Your child has a natural learning ability that may or may not follow the traditional education methods.

If someone said it or read it in class, I knew it. If it was on the board or in my book, it was like it didn't exist to me. This is why I soared with some teachers and sunk with others in my private-but-just-as-flawed schools. To this day, I am still remembered by most of my teachers for all but the best reasons.

If you're struggling through something with your child as you homeschool, if your public or private schooled child is struggling with just a nominal amount of homework, if things just don't add up in their education, seek help. Check their eyes with a learning specialist. Check their ears. Find out if your child does better thinking while they move around or if they just sit or lie still in a quiet room. There are many ways of learning and if you take the time to find them out, you will save your child so very much.

That doesn't help me get this song out of my head. Press play. I dare ya.

Western Slope Vision School Digs A Dry Well

According to the Grand Junction Sentinel, the Colorado Department of Education has approved a "vision" school on the Western Slope. Mesa Valley Vision Home Community Program Contract School "would provide home schoolers [sic] a network with teachers, a set curriculum, instructor employment policies and a home-school director," as well as "give the district the opportunity now to have more ability to track students that are home-schooled."

Colorado school districts are not supposed to be tracking which students in their district are homeschooled. The homeschooling law in Colorado is written in a way to separate homeschool students from the districts they live in. As I understand it, parents can file their notice of intent to homeschool with any school district in the state.

I find the following quote more ominous. Cindy Enos-Martinez said, “Right now, they can go in and sign up, and there’s really not a good way to track them." Why isn't "signing up," as Ms. Enos-Martinez calls it, a good way to track homeschoolers? The last part of the article makes the reason for the CDEs approval of the school abundantly clear:

“It’s a terrific challenge,” said Lu Vorys, who is on the board of the Lamborn Vision School in Paonia. “To work out the finances was a huge challenge.”

What was good about it for the school district, she said, is it was losing enrollment, but it got paid by the state per child, “so when all these Vision students came on, they [the school district] had much more state funding.”

It's obvious that they're happy about solving their declining enrollment, but why was enrollment declining and why did they look to bring in homeschoolers to bring in much more state funding? I believe the two questions are related. Western Slope parents are coming to the same conclusion many other Colorado parents have come to, which is that public schooling is no longer a viable solution to their educational needs. As a result, the school districts are looking for solutions that will continue the flow of money from the state.

While I welcome any option that increases the parents' choice between educational models, I can't help but feel this is a back door approach to funnel money out of state coffers into a struggling, outdated and hopelessly inefficient method of education. Having 1 teacher to 25, 35 and even 45 students fails to give children the attention they need in their schooling. Placing them in an artificial environment with unwritten codes of conduct enforced by a caste system made up of their peers doesn't prepare them for the real world. Forcing all students to learn from curricula that are designed for a pedestrian pace serves neither the quick nor the slow students among them.

Rather than force my child to suffer these ills of the public schools, I believe, along with many other Colorado homeschoolers, that homeschooling is a superior and efficient method for educating my children. I have yet to see how providing homeschoolers "a network with teachers, a set curriculum, instructor employment policies and a home-school director" would assist most homeschooling parents. Instead, it seems to me that they are looking to imbue homeschoolers with the same failed policies of class-based instruction, unswerving commitment to a single curriculum and school district bureaucracy. What's worse, when that approach fails a student, I fear that the parent might think that it's their own fault and shuffle the child back into public school instead of tasting the true freedom offered by homeschooling without the district's "help." For the thirsty, the vision school offers a bucket, but the well is dry.

Parents need to know their options. They need to know that they have a choice in where their child spends time every day. Most importantly, they need to know how some students aren't merely surviving their schooling, they're thriving in homeschool! Rather than pour more money into broken schools, lets help promote public awareness of parents' options and their irreplaceable role in the education of their child, whether they're public, private, or homeschooled.

Guitar Heroes Crank It Up In the Library

Maybe just in walking by great books the youth of Detroit will somehow get smarter, but I doubt it. In reality, using GH3 and other console games to bring in crowds of teens will only succeed in the goal of filling a room not the goal of filling minds.

In contrast, when I tell my three children who are homeschooled that we are going to the library, they can barely contain their excitement. They can't wait to go and pick up new books. Our children are instilled with a love for reading and learning. Passing on this love is possible in a homeschool, but next to impossible in a class-schooling environment like in a public school.

My children may be "nerds" and "bookworms" when compared to public school students, but if the 90s taught us anything, it's that nerds can and will succeed in life. In fairness, I should add that my children like games like Dance Dance Revolution (and Dance Praise). They just know that there's a time to work and a time to play; a time to read and a time to dance.

Bullied To Death

I have long argued that the high incidence rate of bullying, rejection and other forms of intimidation inherent to class-based education is reason enough for parents to consider homeschooling their children. Fox News is reporting today that one parent is convinced her child was bullied to death and she is taking the school to court over the loss of her son.

Why Renegade Teachers Kidnap Their Students - A Social Reckoning

I think I'm beginning to understand what's going on here. As most homeschooling parents know, teaching fosters a sense of intimacy. For a lot of professional teachers, they keep it cool by distancing themselves from their students or putting it in a pseudo-parental relational context. Unfortunately, there's a lot of folks out there that mistake these feelings of intimacy for love and it manifests itself in an adult relationship with a non-adult student. The teacher is unable to distinguish these feelings from real love, a commitment to the better good of the beloved, and makes choices that give them short term gratification while bringing the long-term destruction that no sensible person would choose.

What continues to bother me is the alarming frequency of these incidents showing up in the news. I suspect that many more of these incidents go unreported or under-reported. My heart questions why our society places adults in a non-familial role that produces such strong feelings of intimacy in the first place. I don't want to hit this too hard, but the Bible instructs parents, not teachers, to teach their children. Although most parents won't admit to as much, I believe that when we drop off our kids at church or at school, we are rolling the dice and hoping our children won't be exposed to this abuse. We're better off keeping them with us at both places. Putting parents back in the classroom is a good start. Keeping the kids with us at home is better.

On a related note, Tia Linscheid blogs on Home Where They Belong about what else students are being asked to keep from their parents.