Political Pandering
Jun. 12, 2006 at 9:18 AM
Back in February, Washington State declared June 11-17, Homeschool Week.
How exciting! (Big yawn.)
To me, this is just a bunch of politicans pandering to a growing block of likely voters. If these legislators are seriously pro homeschooling, I'd like to suggest a few changes to their resolution:
WHERE, AS we believe the state exists to serve the the parent, not the parent to the state;
WE DO HERE BY RESOLVE, no longer to require a parent to file a letter of intent with the state. It's none of our business if you decide to homeschool. And to show our complete confidence in your abilities to direct the affairs of your children;
WE DO HERE BY RESOLVE, to remove all qualifications for a parent to teach their own children. In good faith we no longer require that a homeschooling parent either;
WE DO HERE BY RESOLVE to remove the requirement that the parent:
(HT: Gena)
Related Tags: homeschooling, homeschool, education, public schools
WHEREAS, Blah...blah...blah and Rah! Rah! Rah! (you can click here to read the rest.)WHEREAS, The State of Washington recognizes home education as a valuable educational alternative; and
WHEREAS, The importance of parental involvement in children's education and character development is critical; and
WHEREAS...
How exciting! (Big yawn.)
To me, this is just a bunch of politicans pandering to a growing block of likely voters. If these legislators are seriously pro homeschooling, I'd like to suggest a few changes to their resolution:
WHERE, AS we believe the state exists to serve the the parent, not the parent to the state;
WE DO HERE BY RESOLVE, no longer to require a parent to file a letter of intent with the state. It's none of our business if you decide to homeschool. And to show our complete confidence in your abilities to direct the affairs of your children;
WE DO HERE BY RESOLVE, to remove all qualifications for a parent to teach their own children. In good faith we no longer require that a homeschooling parent either;
and to further establish just how much we really do trust you;1) be supervised by a certified teacher, or 2) have 45 college quarter credit hours or completed a course in home education, or 3) be deemed qualified by the local superintendent.
WE DO HERE BY RESOLVE to remove the requirement that the parent:
Annually administer and retain a state approved standardized test by a qualified person or have the child evaluated by a certified teacher currently working in the field of education.When I see a resolution like this, I'll believe that Washington's politicians are seriously pro-homeschooling. Until then whoop dee do.
(HT: Gena)
Related Tags: homeschooling, homeschool, education, public schools
3 Comments and Trackbacks
posted by Aligirl on Jun. 12, 2006 at 2:07 PM
once again..you are RIGHT ON spunky!! I have always said, that I would never want to homeschool my children in a state like washington just because of their laws. I have a friend who is actually moving down here to oregon, to get away from Washingtons homeschool laws. It sounds pretty hypocritical for them to declare a homeschool week, and yet squash them with their laws.
The Lord Bless ya!
Ali
posted by Tressa on Jun. 13, 2006 at 12:55 PM
I am a Washington homeschool mom.They throw this resoulution out there every 6 months or so. I agree. Whoop de do. It makes me nervous when they do this, anyway. They want to make us feel all warm and fuzzy before they drop some other regulation on us.
posted by Lachen (http://1starfish.blogspot.com/) on Jun. 14, 2006 at 1:17 AM
AMEN! Here in California, I am already utterly daunted by the sheer nonsense surrounding registering my intent to school my child in the manner we choose (which is still not completely decided to be homeschool, but we are leaning heavily that way). When are we just going to rise up across the board (not only in education) and realize that we are SO backwards when we are jumping through hoops to be able to train up our children in the way that they should go.
*Lachen*