On 3/19/08, Legatus <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Wed, Mar 19, 2008 at 1:59 AM, Andrew Lentvorski <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > > > Well, if you object to the teacher having to be certified, how about > > having to prove the progress of your student on a yearly basis? > > > > Again, it's all about accountability. You should simply be saddled with > > the same requirements that you demanded of the public schools. > > > > > To me these points are requirements of accountability and measure that are > on the schools, because they use public funds. When I send my kids to > public school or private school for that matter, I want to see some measures > that I can use to compare to the competition out there. I want to know that > they are getting the job done, or not. Then I can presumably take some > action, which would include anything from weekly chats with the principle, > running for the school board, moving my child to another school ( even if > that means I have to move), or homeschooling. I don't need some body to tell > me that I am, or am not qualified to teach the material to my child. I do > need trusted sources of measure, when I entrust that activity to others. > The idea that I should be accountable to my government in the same way that > my government is accountable to me is a new one to me, we have different > roles. In the same respect, I expect that my local government will ensure > that a paramedic or EMT is qualified (generally demonstrated by state > license ) before he is sent to my home to assist with a medical condition or > trauma, the same requirement does not exist for myself in assisting my wife > or children when they have a medical condition or trauma. I simply am not > held to the same standard of proof of my ability. Does that mean I am not > as qualified? No, I was a paramedic firefighter, and my wife has been a > nurse in skilled nursing fields for 17 years ( her license is not currently > renewed ). There are plenty of things that we will both know that exceeds > that of EMT licensed team from the local fire department. > > The risk of requiring licensing for homeschooling goes farther than mere > accountability. It places the government in control of who will be allowed > to teach, and what they will be allowed to teach. This is a direct assault > on freedom. The government can at anytime add requirements that are outside > the boundaries of giving instruction to the children. You could have some > nutcase get in charge of the department in charge of licensing, who decides > that it is important to cross check all applications for home schooling > licenses with voter registrations, and deny licenses to all green party > members, because those people must be nuts to belong to suck an obscure > party who always lose. They couldn't be smart enough to teach their kids. >
Actually there is an accountability mechanism that many home school parents take advantage of to make sure their kids get the best mix of their skills and skills beyond their capacity available. During the 2006-2007 school year I taught World Geography and a computer course at the H.S. that my church runs. Their school is a K12. The H.S. has @125 kids and the whole school has about 550 kids total. The school is certified by the Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) which is recognized as the top level cert org by major colleges (kids from this school currently attend the Air Force Academy, USC, Yale as well as many Christian colleges). When I got there I didn't know much about home schooling but the mechanics are quite interesting. It turns out that there are another 50-75 kids who show up for particular classes that their parents wanted to take advantage of both because of the quality of the teaching. So for instance the math and advanced math instruction is done by a lady who has a master's degree in mathematics and is an attorney. She teaches because she absolutely loves math. The second math teacher is much younger and is still working on his degree but he is brilliant at math. There are 2 part time math teachers/substitutes, one of whom had Hymie Escalante as a teacher in H.S. before majoring in math in college. Their classes are packed and I am amazed at the number of 6th-8th graders who are scheduled and sit with the H.S. students for their math classes. So parents are smart enough to figure out where they need help and because they are highly motivated they take advantage of resources like the Home School function of private schools. If I were to be in favor of parent certification it would be a sort of sliding scale where the closer you are to a Ph.d in anything from a top1000 school the more autonomous you are recognized to be and the closer you are the more you would be encouraged to supplement your own teaching with Home School programs from private schools. The reason I wouldn't make this a state enforced requirement because as mentioned previously there is the freedom factor but also the factor that we tend to forget that the state does have an opinion about who they like and who they don't like. And even if they don't care now the state has an annoying habit of using groupings of the attributes of people just because it makes their lives easier to conduct their business in a lazy manner[1]. I would have to think about this before I voted one way or another because I could see the value of perhaps requiring some outside teaching assistance where kids are falling behind grade level. But what is the best way to determine that? "No Child Left Behind" has sucked the learning out of teaching and made everyone a slave to standardized testing. This topic gets very dicey when the State and personal freedom start bumping heads given the tendency of the State to engage in incrementalism. rbw [1] We see that laziness where the federal gov't. eschews language capable human intelligence and just conduct illegal surveillance. I also saw an episode of Law and Order that dealt with the "bull in a china shop" laziness to get an investigation moved forward. In this particular episode they needed to cross reference individuals in the area at the time something happened in front of a Jewish Synagogue and the detectives demanded a list of all the congregants at the synagogue. It was a good depiction of something done by the state to do its job but without any consideration for meaning in reality. -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
