May. 20, 2009 - Welcome to My World.
I notice a quite curious phenomenon each May. My friends with kids in school begin complaining about the steep step up in school projects due. Being a home educator and taking an attitude of benign neglect much of the time, I find this curious. It's the kid who has the project, right? So why are the parents stressed?
Actually, I know why the parents are stressed. Few of us have the wherewithal to really let our kid sink and sink deep. You can see this in the soapbox derby commercial currently running on TV. It's a great ad because any of us who have ever had a kid in an AWANA or Cub Scout derby event knows it's true that many kids have little to do with the design and execution of their cars. On the fairy tale commercial ending, the kid with the obviously kid made and clunky car wins and the child who is handed the fancy and obvious adult designed car to race loses.
Real life isn't quite that way, is it?
A small scale example. We signed our kid up for an enrichment science class at a homeschool co-op. In my mind, this class is purely "extra" and I gave nary the first second of attention to what he did in it. He's middle school aged and old enough to handle his own assignments and commitments.
Which he mostly did. A few weeks he didn't have his homework prepared. That's embarassing and he didn't like that much. So he learned to write down assignments. He picked and designed his own experiment concerning light and heat. About half way through, he came to us completely stoked about a cooking idea he had involving a box and a light bulb. It sure burst his bubble to learn he was 40 years too late for the Easy Bake Oven. No matter, he is now thinking of halogens to cook chicken. I'm sure he'll come to some ideas about energy efficiency on his own, given enough time.
Not to brag, but this kid routinely ranks in the top 1-2% nationwide on achievement tests reflecting science knowledge. But his board for the last day of class Science Fair? To say that the board did not reflect that fact would be kind, far too kind. It was a kid generated board of a kid generated experiment by a kid doing this for the second or third time ever. Don't get me wrong, I offered some friendly advice on how to jazz up the board. He chose not to. Whether he noticed a discrepancy between his and the other kids' boards, I have no idea. If he did, it didn't bother him.
From here, I would like to jump straight to the moral high ground. It's such an easy leap for me to do, having practiced my self-righteous flip straight into a holier-than-thou double back many a time. The fact is, if this class was going on my kid's "official transcript" and the grade affected his "class rank," I'd probably be cutting and pasting and insisting on Excel spreadsheets with the rest of the bunch.
I'm glad we homeschool because we can resist a lot of that pressure and really concentrate on student as worker, teacher/parent as facilitator without those lines becoming quite so blurred. But I wonder about the world we're sending our kids out into, a world where your best honest effort often isn't valued or rewarded. So, no moral gymnastics, just futher pondering on our nation's educational system.
Blessings, Holly
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Dec. 13, 2008 - The Certified Teacher Myth
As home educators, we already knew this. But nice to see it getting some more substantiated research and press!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122912779960403217.html
Blessings, Holly
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Nov. 2, 2008 - David McCullough gives a shout out to home schoolers!
I ventured into Chicago today to hear one of my favorite authors on
the planet, David McCullough.
McCullough contends one cannot possess any true love of country, nor
any idea how to live one's life well, without a sense of history.
He spoke of our urgent need to reconnect our kids to our history and
how simple a task that can be. Visit places where history occurred
with your kids; talk about our past.
He took teachers to task in the most politically noncorrect fashion,
by denouncing education majors. I grew up hearing this from my dad,
and believe it myself despite possessing an advanced degree in, you
guessed it, Teaching. Nonetheless, I found it refreshing to hear a
very great man suggest that teachers should not major in education,
but should actually know their subject speciality first and
foremost. His obvious regard for educators and their role in society
compensated a bit for his message that flies in the face of all that
is good and holy to the NEA.
Somewhere in the midst of the talk, he quoted none other than
Charlotte Mason as saying history provided an "inexhaustible" supply
of ideas. There's no way he's citing Charlotte Mason and not going
to bring up homeschooling, I thought to myself. Sure enough,
McCullough went on to explain that Mason, a 19th century British
educator, is "somewhat revered" in homeschooling circles and then
went a step further to laud the achievement of home schoolers,
telling the audience that home schoolers "are doing better than you
think." Than who would think? Everyone I know knows about the
outstanding achievement of home schoolers.
That home educators are on this guy's radar screen at all impressed
me even as the fact that noting our achievement seemed daring to him
and novel to anyone surprised me.
It wasn't until the Q and A, with McCullough's endorsement of Obama,
that I felt just a bit disappointed with him. Say it ain't so,
Dave! How to explain it? All I can offer for McCullough's lapse are
his own words, from Brave Companions: "As a writer I am still drawn
to the human subject, to people and their stories, more often than to
large current issues or any particular field of academic inquiry."
In that sense, I suppose I understand McCullough's choice. The
Chicago audience loved his enthusiasm for Obama, of course.
At the end of the talk, the lady who sat next to me asked how I liked
it. I told her the truth, that I loved every moment of the talk
except his Presidential endorsement. "I could tell you didn't like
that," she said. I guess one person not clapping in a sea of
enthusiasm stands out, but I assure you all that I did not rise and
shout, "Nobama!" as our two year old has taken to doing at
inopportune public moments. And no, she didn't learn that from me.
Mr. Wonderful said it once--ONCE!--at the dinner table and it has
been my sweet baby's phrase ever since.
I am becoming used to having all my favorite authors hold opposite
political opinions than I do. Whether that says more about me or
them I am not sure, but McCullough presented his in a far more
gracious manner than Tracy Kidder did. So I decided to continue
loving McCullough and shelled out $73 for four of his books, which he
autographed for me. I told him how he has been a favorite author of
mine since my folks shared their copy of Truman with me, back in the
mid-90s. I shared how I appreciated his comments about home
education and he asked if I home educated and had I read Mason? Yes,
and as soon as he mentioned Mason, I told him, I just knew he was
going to mention home schooling. I did not tell him I was not an
Obama fan, which isn't entirely true anyway. I like Obama for many
of the same reasons I suspect McCullough does, but those large
current issues aren't secondary to me and keep me from voting for
the man.
Blessings, Holly
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Oct. 21, 2008 - Homeschoolers for The Chicago Humanities Festival
Folks, I received a comment on my blog here worthy of reprint in the column itself. You read below of my thrill that the Chicago Humanities Festival will feature writer David McCullough. You heard of my anticipated upcoming battle to try to convince the the folks at CHF that while I may not have an "educator ID" from an "accredited institution" that I am, in fact, an educator. While I hadn't yet made that call, I had my full self-righteous snit going in my head, complete with martyr comments about the high IL tax burden we bear--including paying thousands toward the schools--all while sacrificing a second income in order for me to stay home and educate my own kids. I am sure you guys have similar tapes that run in your heads on occasion. I don't need to elaborate.
Fortunately for, well, all of us really--because how appealing are those martyr talks from anyone afterall?--the good people at CHF hunted me down. Or at least one good gal from CHF found this blog. I pity that her job must be to wade through such obscure blogosphere bloviating in what I imagine to be a ceaseless Internet hunt for references to the Chicago Humanities Festival. At the same time, I am thrilled to have my blog readership expand--I may yet reach into the dozens of readers!
So, a shout out to the CHF not only for their super sleuth marketing gal, but for their proactive and welcoming stance toward home educators. I trust that Gabriela at CHF must already be at work changing the language on the website to indicate inclusiveness of home educators in the "educator' rank. You'll note she even took pains to explain how my $5 ticket really does qualify as free. I give her additional bonus points for effort there.
Now, if Gabriela truly wanted to impress me, she'd do her level best to make sure that when such religious talks as Evolution: From Your Inner Fish to the Outer Limits are included in CHF, they include a PhD with a creationist perspective, like Dr. Jay Wile for example. Or how 'bout Dr. John Morris of ICR? Both of these scientists with a creationist perspective spoke in IL within the past year in smaller venues than CHF, so I don't think either guy would turn the festival down. But for the CHF "scales to Socrates" seminar, they feature an expert on artificial intelligence as part of their three person panel instead of a creation science perspective to counter the evolutionary one? CHF can and should do better.
That said, I don't think CHF will do much better than Ms. Jirasek. Enjoy her note below.
Blessings, Holly
Hi Holly,
Thanks for your post about the Chicago Humanities Festival. I run the CHF website and we are glad that you can join us at the David McCullough lecture.
We are also pleased to support the home schooled community and offer you free tickets to the Festival. I don't think you should have any difficulty reserving tickets.
While we do incorporate a $5 processing fee for all orders, this is to help us cover our basic costs of running a non-profit organization. We have a hard working full-time staff of 20 and a seasonal box-office to maintain during the Festival. It also allows us to keep admission prices low to all our events and to distribute free tickets. To date we have distributed over 5,000 free tickets to educators and students for this year alone.
I hope you have a wonderful time at the Festival. I hope you can join us again next year!
Best wishes,
Gabriela Jirasek
Marketing and New Media Associate
Chicago Humanities Festival
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Sep. 30, 2008 - My Day at the Fair
The McCormick Freedom Museum, located in the base of the McCormick Tribune Tower sponsored a free Teacher Resource Fair for social studies teachers in September. In an admirably egalitarian gesture, they allowed home educators to attend. So I went.
Free parking! Remarkable in and of itself. In Chicago, I don't care what the sign says, it will cost you $25 to park, unless you just happen to be in by 5am and out at precisely 10:38am on the alternating Wednesday that the garage actually honors the price they advertise. Otherwise, $25. But for me, one block off Michigan Avenue (aka Magnificent Mile), free. I like it already.
Free coffee. Free full breakfast. Nothing like eating a hot breakfast sandwich, nibbling fresh fruit skewers and drinking a free mimosa (with a coffee chaser) while sitting in a window box overlooking the Wrigley Building, with the new Trump tower rising behind it and a host of other still nameless to me but no less inspiring architecture surrounding the landmark buildings. Is that a run-on? I don't care. When life hands you a rare moment of wonderful, you gush.
Every vendor eagerly pressed freebies upon me. Want a copy of the Constitution? It's yours! How 'bout a beautifully bound Civics Engagement curriculum guide? Would you like some free Civics books? You're a home educator? You better take the text for every grade level then. Grab a pencil. No, no, really, take the full four poster Abraham Lincoln set.
This resource fair represents crack for the academic set. If I used all the goodies bestowed upon me, I'd be homeschooling the kids til they were 30.
The fair provided some interesting moments. The librarians, for example. They had a whole Banned Books Week display. Fair enough. I don't consider myself a raging censor. As I flip through a Most Challenged List, though, I see that many of these books were challenged at the middle school library level--usually for cursing, explicit sexual content or occult references. Well, butter my bunky and call me a biscuit, I guess I am a raging censor because I sure wouldn't let *my* middle schooler read most of the stuff challenged therein either. Good thing, I suppose, that I am also my school's librarian. Really. With all the edifying literature in the world, we have to argue about whether a 12 year old show be reading R and X rated topics? Spare me. None of which did I say to the fine librarians manning the booth. And I bit my tongue especially hard when they began to outline how I could download free lesson plans on the evils of the Patriot Act.
The Constitutional Rights display booth intrigued me as well. There, two teachers talked with the lady working the table. Now, I feel quite certain that had I begun talking about Obama in the same way as these three were going on about McCain, the entire fair would have fallen silent and the participants would have gazed at me as if I had loudly passed wind. Yet, the vocal equivalents of this had not a moment's hesitation in speaking thus in front of me, a total stranger. Was the Group Think so secure that they did not even pause to consider the appropriateness of their talk? Don't get me wrong. I know I stood in a First Amendment Museum; the folks had a right to say what they were a sayin'. I found troubling the underlying assumption that all the teachers within earshot would be in agreement with them.
The last peril to negotiate occurred at the BeyondMedia table. I remain less than certain what BeyondMedia actually does. They seemed intrigued to find out I was a home educator. "Are home educators concerned about social justice issues?" No, we are for social injustice, I thought to myself. C'mon, what type of a question is that? It's a "when did you stop beating your wife" question. Why is it that the questions of the "tolerant" so often reflect a startling and engrained intolerant presupposition toward those they are questioning? The answer to the question surely depends on what one views as a social justice issue, doesn't it? I suspected the lady and I might have very different views on that. Do I want to put biblically condemned sinful actions in the social justice realm alongside discrimination and poverty and abuse? No, I don't. Nonetheless, the woman at the booth and I conversed for probably 15 minutes and I'd like to think we both came away enriched by the conversation.
I learned much at the Resource Fair. And the material presented at the booths wasn't half bad either.
Blessings, Holly
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Sep. 15, 2008 - FREE We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution books
I ran in to this book at a free Social Studies Teacher Resource Fair I attended. The representative gave me each level of the textbook (Level 1 addresses grades 2-4, Level 2 covers grades 5-8, Level 3 concentrates on high school). Looks like an excellent resource and although I am not a textbook fan, I will use this one with my kids. The second grader will use it for outloud reading and I'll let the topic headings, which are phrased as questions, serve as the prompt for his oral retelling. Not sure how I will use it with my 6th and 8th graders yet.
To request your free teacher copies, click here:
http://www.civiced.org/index.php?page=free_examination_materials
Blessings, Holly
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Sep. 11, 2008 - For moms of boys.
As a mom of three boys (and one princess), I've chosen home education, in part, because of the gender of most of my kids. I find institutional schools toxic for boys, particularly young boys. Especially late summer birthday boys who also happen to be academically precocious--where in the world do you place the little guys?
I always thought this was just my private quirk and readily admit most people don't view the schools as I do. I'm content with going against the herd.
So imagine my surprise to read this in Newsweek:
But when nearly one in five boys has such serious behavioral and emotional issues that their parents are talking it over with their pediatrician, you can bet we are facing a problem that requires a more fundamental change in our society than medication or weekly therapy.
Is the world catching on? A gal can dream; here's the whole article:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/157898/page/1
Blessings, Holly
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Sep. 11, 2008 - My 11 year old poet
I'm finally kicking our Poetry and Tea Time back into gear for the year. I asked each kid to find two poems they liked to bring to read at Tea Time. N. asked if he might bring two original compositions in addition to selecting two. Um, yeah, you can do that. Wait, twist my arm. Ok, uncle. Go ahead. Write original poetry.
Here is his AUTUMN acrostic:
Azure skys, brown leaves.
Under the trees, the black bear leaves. Under the meadow,
The black bear sleeps.
Under the leaves, the jay stops his song.
Moving day has come along.
Naught but bare trees now are left, as frost steals up to make a theft.
Yesterday, as an aside in his Scavenger School (I hide their assignments all over the house, so they end up doing math in the bathtub and such), I asked him to write a poem. Here it is, an acrostic (I guess he likes those) on SEASONS:
Snowy winter
Excellent spring
April rains
Summer sunny days
Oops, time to dig out long sleeve shirts and pants
Nothing but a beautiful fall
Snowy winter again.
Blessings, Holly
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Sep. 10, 2008 - I want a Wheatie!
For my rockin' 41st birthday, I took the older two kids (13 and 11) up to Wheaton College last night. Dr. Jean Stanley, a long time geologist with the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, gave a free public talk on recent finds from submerged cities off the coast of Egypt.
While slightly technical and a bit above the level of tween/teen kids, the talk still sparked enough interest in N (Wheaton, 2019) for him to stick around and ask the guy a question afterward.
Because we were early for the talk, we also had time to cruise the student union. Now, you may know Wheaton recently earned second place in the "Stone Cold Sober" category of colleges in the US News and World Report annual survey. The Chicago Tribune featured a funny take on the rivalry between Wheaton and first place BYU here: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-sober_wheaton_subsep05,0,4106182.story . Wheaton took top honors in "Best Campus Food." No rowdy parties and great food...this is a place for my kids.
We studied the bulletin boards in the union. "Short Term Missions in Honduras" "Peace Corps Opportunities" "Teach Bible Club in Inner City Kids, transportation provided." These are not the types of signs I remember from my college days. On my well-regarded State U. campus, "Two for One at the Pub" "Transgender Studies Hosts a Lecture on..." were the more typical fare.
At Wheaton, more than one student made eye contact, smiled and said hello to my sons and me as we walked around. They appear to be an aggressively friendly bunch. And they make a delicious decaf latte, which my 13 year old (Wheaton, 2017) bought for me as a birthday gift.
I had a moment of discomfort as we left the lecture. Outside, alone at a table in a rather romantic spot, we saw a boy and a girl sitting close together. "Oh, great", I thought. " PDA. Just what I don't need my kids seeing." I looked again.
The boy and the girl were praying together.
Blessings, Holly
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Aug. 27, 2008 - Well, ya can't say I didn't predict it.
After my post yesterday, I received an interesting email from a cousin I admire. He outlined how well his kids are doing in "institutional" education (and they are truly wonderful kids) and politely but pointedly suggested we all just shut up about other people's choices.
First off, I am glad he has a responsive and flexible educational setting for his kids. We all deserve that. He had to leave the public system to find it; an irony not lost on him, I am certain. And I truly believe we ALL deserve it, not just those with means. I dare venture that even many of us homeschoolers would make different choices to a degree if we could control the $8900 per pupil that monopolist government schools now control. I bet I could find responsive and flexible for $27K for my three school aged kids--how 'bout you? And Chicago proper spends 10K per kid on their lousy system. Think any of those parents would opt out of those schools and choose others if only they had the means to do so? Yeah, me too. So why don't we let parents control the 10K Chicago already spends? (Hint: NEA) Do we really think they will put their kids in a school where LESS than 4% are at grade level proficiency? Yet that's what some South Side Chicago schools are at. Really? Parents would do worse?
As I pointed out to my cousin, if people's choices didn't affect me, that would be one thing. But who does he think is going to pay for the "free" half day daycare our kindergarten now provides under the guise of full day kindergarten? Um, me. That's who.
I file this post under "I told you so":
New program puts District 204 in the Red
Lead paragraph:
D204 will run a $2.2 million operating fund deficit this year due to
the launch of its all-day kindergarten program.
But never fear. Later we learn:
Funding for the program will come from the state revenue that is
expected(!!) to exceed the outstanding costs associated with starting
the program within three years. Each year, the district anticipates
it will receive an additional $2 million in state funds above the $6
million cost of the program.
Hmmm, where does the great state of Illinois get it's money? Oh,
wait. That's right. From me.
But I'm sure district officials made their decision based on "the
children" and not the money maker at the state trough this will be
for them. Of course. Too bad the paper boxed and bolded the D204 finance supervisor's statement that "We knew when we made a decision for all-day kindergarten...it would flip and become a revenue producer for us next year and on."
Because really, if your 5 year old is not a revenue producer for the good folks at D204, why bother?
Again, why the group parent psychosis that thinks it good for a five
year old to be away from their folks 35 hours a weeks, I don't
understand. But the district's decision? That's crystal clear to me.
Blessings, Holly
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Aug. 26, 2008 - We're the dumbest smart people I've ever seen.
Public school began yesterday. Today, I read in our local paper that 1942 out of 1969 kindergarten parents chose our district's brand new full day kindergarten option. Only 27 parents district-wide kept their kids at the half-day option.
This is clearly insane but there's obviously a group psychosis going on. If I were sending my kid to institutionalized schooling, I'd probably drink the Kool-Aid too. But really, folks. Really? A typical parent quoted in the paper said that their (FIVE YEAR OLD) was "ready for full-day."
Maybe that parent is right. But if your five year old is ready and raring to be gone from the family 40 hours a week, perhaps it's the family that needs their collective heads examined. Then again, I am talking at a society that somehow thinks one must ship off three year olds to learn their letters and colors and numbers and socialization. Funny, people used to understand the kids are socialized in families. With their brothers and sisters and parents.
Well, folks gotta work, right? And it's better than daycare surely? Maybe in some communities both parents gotta work, but I read in our same paper last week that while the national household income averages 50K, the average in my community is $123K. Obviously, folks wanna work but clearly we are not on the ragged edge here in Stepford Land and two incomes are not required to fuel anything other than our own inflated material expectations.
Well, the full day kindergarten must offer a different curriculum than what could be squeezed into half a day, yes? Nope. Same curriculum, whether one chooses the half day or full day. Of course, the administration blathered educationalese about depth and enrichment. Um, ok. When our second grade neighbor came home telling how they watched not ONE but TWO Magic School Bus videos on the first day of school...well, let's just say I'll believe the line about depth and enrichment when I see it.
Do I sound angry? I think I am angry. I watched a wonderful mom on my block struggle all summer with the decision of whether to send her first born to full or half day. Half day would mean he would travel to another elementary school, not the one three blocks away and not the one he would attend in first grade. And then there's that nagging fear, especially prevalent with your first, that if you don't do what the crowd is doing, somehow your kid will miss out or be behind. Full day it was for the little guy. And I don't blame her; I understand the choice. But I am mad at the larger collective us that has decided five year olds should be gone from home the same amount of time as a full time working adult. What is wrong with us?
Blessings, Holly
