No, readers, this post does not have to do with physical education for homeschoolers. I only wish it did.
Pushouts and loopholes are the names given to certain actions government school officials are doing to avoid reporting the truth of their drop out and graduation rates in their schools.
In other words, the government schools are very busy misusing and abusing laws and in the process are dragging innocent homeschoolers into what is THEIR problem. Here's a link to what's been happening in Richmond Indiana, but I also hear that this sort of abuse of the laws may be going on in other states as well.
I used this topic to experiment with some new online software at xtranormal.com. With this site you can type in dialogue and create a video. It's a lot of fun and I highly recommend it for homeschoolers. Your kids can learn while having LOTS of fun.
Anyway, here's the video I made on my take on the pushout and loophole issue:
Showing posts with label freedom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label freedom. Show all posts
Homeschooling As A Method of Child-Proofing
I've recently discovered Peter Gray's Freedom to Learn Blog and I enjoy reading his perspective on learning. His most recent post, ADHD and School: The Problem of Assessing Normalcy in an Abnormal Environment makes the case that problems resulting in ADHD diagnoses may have more to do with the schools than any actual "problem" with the children diagnosed.
This topic is interesting to me because I've encountered it in different situations (on a purely anecdotal basis of course).
As a homeschooling parent, I met many families over the years whose children were having great difficulty in the school environment and were told their child had ADHD. Yet when they removed their child from school, those problems either went completely away or were lessened so tremendously, there was no need for any medical intervention.
Then when I worked in a private reading clinic for 8 years, I encountered many, many more children who were diagnosed with ADHD, some on medication, some not. And as I worked with these kids, I could not really see any big "problem" other than that they were active, curious kids who simply required more energy to work with than others. This was not a problem at all for me because they were just so much like my own son.
One other interesting comment I heard more than once had to do with parents saying they did not give their kids ADHD medication during summer and other breaks. These parents said their child did not need them when they were not attending school.
It certainly appeared to me than many of these kids were just trapped in situations where they were being forced to learn something at a specific time set by others with no regard to their individual interests, needs and desires. And I was more grateful than ever that I decided to take my kids out of school and give them the freedom to learn in their own way, on their own time.
So it occurred to me after reading the above post from Peter Gray that maybe homeschooling can be considered as a way of child-proofing. After all, isn't putting children into institutional schools and working hard to "train" them to learn about the world with such constraints kind of like putting vases on low bookshelves and then working hard to "train" a toddler to not touch them?
Neither case is necessary is it?
Life can be a whole lot easier if we just get rid of, not only the vase, but the school situation too.
Then both parent and child have much more freedom to enjoy living and learning with each other.
Is Educational Freedom Really So Hard To Understand?
So by now anyone involved in the homeschooling community has heard about the homeschooling piece produced on Good Morning America, which was specifically about unschooling. If you haven’t seen the video, here’s the link.
After this aired, they received such a response, they had the parents back on and they were able to explain a bit more about unschooling and what they do. Here’s the link for that interview.
Then Joy Behar interviewed them which gave them yet another chance to explain their view of the unschooling philosophy. Here’s the link to the Behar interview.
All of this created a lot of action online. What I found most interesting is how so many people were making definitive judgments about a topic based on a 5-minute news story based on a single family.
The judgmental people exhibited no inherent curiosity to learn more, to dig into the topic further in order to get a broader understanding of what to them was a completely new idea about learning and education.
And that in itself says all we need to know about the present-day state of education. Our system teaches students to react exactly in this manner. To listen to a 5 minute lecture from the "teacher" who is the "authority" and supposedly gives them everything they need to know about the topic.
However, I know there are those out there who do understand that learning about something new takes time and requires looking at a variety of resources.
So that’s why I wanted to do these interviews, to create a fun and comfortable place where people could grab just a glimpse of what it’s like to live with lots and lots of educational freedom and see how differently it plays out in each individual family.
Many people who have responded to my interview request are self-proclaimed unschoolers, but the most important thing is not unschooling, it's freedom.
Freedom is what creates the specific educational environment that works well for each family.
That’s the main lesson I would like for the general public to learn.
After this aired, they received such a response, they had the parents back on and they were able to explain a bit more about unschooling and what they do. Here’s the link for that interview.
Then Joy Behar interviewed them which gave them yet another chance to explain their view of the unschooling philosophy. Here’s the link to the Behar interview.
All of this created a lot of action online. What I found most interesting is how so many people were making definitive judgments about a topic based on a 5-minute news story based on a single family.
The judgmental people exhibited no inherent curiosity to learn more, to dig into the topic further in order to get a broader understanding of what to them was a completely new idea about learning and education.
And that in itself says all we need to know about the present-day state of education. Our system teaches students to react exactly in this manner. To listen to a 5 minute lecture from the "teacher" who is the "authority" and supposedly gives them everything they need to know about the topic.
However, I know there are those out there who do understand that learning about something new takes time and requires looking at a variety of resources.
So that’s why I wanted to do these interviews, to create a fun and comfortable place where people could grab just a glimpse of what it’s like to live with lots and lots of educational freedom and see how differently it plays out in each individual family.
Many people who have responded to my interview request are self-proclaimed unschoolers, but the most important thing is not unschooling, it's freedom.
Freedom is what creates the specific educational environment that works well for each family.
That’s the main lesson I would like for the general public to learn.
Was John Holt Libertarian?
Finally, finally, finally, someone did a "history" of sorts on John Holt and his developing philosophy as he studied and analyzed the topics of learning and education.
This video discusses Holt and how he "reasoned himself into libertarianism," which was something that I always thought must be the case, and also because I feel as if I did the same thing and it began by reading many of Holt's writings.
I highly, highly recommend this podcast for everyone whether you think you know all about John Holt or somehow have never heard of him until now.
This video discusses Holt and how he "reasoned himself into libertarianism," which was something that I always thought must be the case, and also because I feel as if I did the same thing and it began by reading many of Holt's writings.
I highly, highly recommend this podcast for everyone whether you think you know all about John Holt or somehow have never heard of him until now.
The College Decision
This is a very thought-provoking article:
Is A College Degree Worthless?
The author covers a lot of ground and not just on money issues but he also gets into the whole idea of what it means to be educated in our society.
This article has attracted over 1000 comments too. Education is so darn controversial, which really makes one wonder why we continue to believe in so many one-size-fits-all options.
NOTE: I don't know what's up with blogger but the scheduled posts option does not seem to be working right. For the past few weeks, I've had to go in and publish the posts manually even though they've been scheduled. If anyone knows anything about this, I'd appreciate any help.
Poke, Prod, Measure and Test
The European Union really seems to have a problem with the natural variations of fruits and vegetables. Actually, they did recently relax the rules somewhat, but they still have amazing rules and regulations over the specific size, shape and color of produce that is sold at retail stores.
Some say the reason it's gotten so ridiculous is that you can't touch produce in the shops so someone has to do something to rate them. But hardly any of these regulations have anything to do with whether the produce is edible and nutritional.
Here's an example for apples in Class I and the slight defects allowed:
slight skin defects which must not extend over more than:
- 2 cm in length for defects of elongated shape
- 1 cm² of total surface area for other defects, with the exception of scab Venturia inaequalis), which must not extend over more than 0.25 cm² cumulative in area
- slight bruising not exceeding 1 cm² in area and not discoloured.
And here's one for onions and their sizing for Class I:
Size is determined by the maximum diameter of the equatorial section. The difference between the diameters of the smallest and largest onions in the same package must not exceed:
- 5 mm where the diameter of the smallest onion is 10 mm and over but under 20 mm. However, where the diameter of the onion is 15 mm and over but under 25 mm, the difference may be 10 mm.
And one more example, cucumbers:
- reasonably well shaped and practically straight (maximum height of the arc: 10 mm per 10 cm of length of cucumber).
So as we can see, they poke, prod, analyze, measure and test, in order to rate quality purely by numbers, always looking for conformity and standardization, giving little consideration to the true value of the produce and individual uniqueness.
Boy, I'm sure glad we don't treat the education of kids that way. Wouldn't that be a rotten thing to do?
Hey They're Talking About Us In Germany!
This morning I checked out the online stats for this blog and found out someone came here from Germany. To see that someone came from another country is not unusual, they might arrive here for many different reasons such as doing a google search on a keyword term that happens to show up here. Sometimes people come here as a result of seeing my free online book for homeschoolers or my freelance writing website.
But this time it was specifically German homeschoolers. One blogger was asking for good links and in the comments section, this blog was recommended. Cool, huh?
Since it was all written in German, I had no idea what they were saying so I had to do some work to figure that out. For all I knew they might be saying this was the worst blog they've ever seen. So I googled for an online translation site, found one very easily and simply pasted in the text. It did not come out grammatically correct but it worked great because I could understand what they were saying. Here's the site I used: Free Translation Online . I'm sure there are many others, I just grabbed the first one I saw.
As I understand it, there is no homeschooling freedom in Germany. But perhaps bloggers like these two will be able to play a part in changing the situation. I hope so because they deserve to have the same freedom, flexibility and fun as we do here, don't they?
To Understand Unschooling, Observe A Cat
Being an unschooler is kind of like being a cat.
Cats pretty much do what they want and if something is not interesting, they just stare at you, yawn and move on to something better, like a nap perhaps.
However, if a cat sees something interesting, like a mouse, it perks up and has no trouble concentrating for as long as it takes to reach its goal of catching it.
If a cat falls from some height, he can always flip himself around in time to land on his feet. Unschoolers don't worry about missing something "important." They always land on their feet because they are confident in their ability to learn.
Cats do not like water. Unschoolers do not like pre-packaged schooling because it gets their brain fur all wet.
So, live your life like a cat, follow what interests you, not what others tell you is important.
In other words, develop a Cattitude!
**********************
I have no idea why several of my posts involve cats. I don't even like cats. I wonder if that's why it took me longer to wrap my head around an understanding of unschooling than some other people. Hey, that might make an interesting survey! To see if unschoolers are more likely to be cat lovers or not. Hmmmm.
Support For Homeschooling, Written In 1939
Okay so this article I saw, The Defeat Of The Schools, posted on a homeschooling email list was not specifically written in support of homeschooling, but it certainly could have been. It was published in 1939 and provides quite an interesting analysis of the state of education.
I was particularly interested in parts IV and V and here are a few excerpts I could relate to having homeschooled two children through high school.
In this day of encyclopaedias, World Almanacs, and public libraries, a large stock of miscellaneous information for ready reference does not seem particularly vital. Even professional scholars can and do look up specific data when and as needed. It is far more important to know where to look for facts, and what to do with them when found, than to be able to produce them from under one's hat at a moment's notice. So the very strong and consistent evidence that twelve to sixteen years of schooling leave most people very inadequately equipped with ready-to-use memory knowledge, though highly suggestive, seems of secondary significance.
As you can see, part of the point he's making is that even if ready access to memory knowledge was useful, the schools aren't making it happen. The bigger point for me, however, is that we do indeed have easy access to information so it's really a waste of time to try and memorize much of it. This played a huge part in our family's educational philosophy. I was much more concerned about giving my kids the tools to find information when the needed it.
People young and old learn what matters to them, what seems of genuine moment to them.
If everyone involved in education would respect this basic truth, how would education change?
Hence the great necessity is for far more flexibility in our whole treatment of children in the schools, and above all for flexibility in what we ask them to master.
I don't know if the schools ever were capable of much flexibility, but with 70 more years of laws, regulations and rules, they are certainly not flexible now.
Homeschooling is the essence of flexibility.
I was particularly interested in parts IV and V and here are a few excerpts I could relate to having homeschooled two children through high school.
In this day of encyclopaedias, World Almanacs, and public libraries, a large stock of miscellaneous information for ready reference does not seem particularly vital. Even professional scholars can and do look up specific data when and as needed. It is far more important to know where to look for facts, and what to do with them when found, than to be able to produce them from under one's hat at a moment's notice. So the very strong and consistent evidence that twelve to sixteen years of schooling leave most people very inadequately equipped with ready-to-use memory knowledge, though highly suggestive, seems of secondary significance.
As you can see, part of the point he's making is that even if ready access to memory knowledge was useful, the schools aren't making it happen. The bigger point for me, however, is that we do indeed have easy access to information so it's really a waste of time to try and memorize much of it. This played a huge part in our family's educational philosophy. I was much more concerned about giving my kids the tools to find information when the needed it.
People young and old learn what matters to them, what seems of genuine moment to them.
If everyone involved in education would respect this basic truth, how would education change?
Hence the great necessity is for far more flexibility in our whole treatment of children in the schools, and above all for flexibility in what we ask them to master.
I don't know if the schools ever were capable of much flexibility, but with 70 more years of laws, regulations and rules, they are certainly not flexible now.
Homeschooling is the essence of flexibility.
Homeschooling Newspaper Article
My son and I were interviewed for today's front page story on Homeschooling in Indiana.
Grade Level? Who Cares?
When we're kids, everyone seems to want to know our grade level. And really I don't think most people think about the question much, they just use it as a conversation starter, which is fine.
But in reality, every child performs at varying grade levels depending on the subject. We all have natural talents and interests which means we would likely be ahead of our age peers in that particular area at the very least.
I suppose the idea of grade levels started because institutionalized schools needed a way to organize and group large numbers of students to help keep everything in order.
So if you are homeschooling, don't concern yourself too much with grade levels. It's just not that important. What's important is that your child is learning and growing. And if you relax and have fun together, that's going to happen naturally.
But in reality, every child performs at varying grade levels depending on the subject. We all have natural talents and interests which means we would likely be ahead of our age peers in that particular area at the very least.
I suppose the idea of grade levels started because institutionalized schools needed a way to organize and group large numbers of students to help keep everything in order.
So if you are homeschooling, don't concern yourself too much with grade levels. It's just not that important. What's important is that your child is learning and growing. And if you relax and have fun together, that's going to happen naturally.
Education Is About Learning, Not Testing
The Josephson Institute recently surveyed nearly 30,000 high school students in various areas of ethics. One area was cheating on tests in school.
My interest in this survey isn’t really about the specific results because it’s no surprise that students cheat on tests. The real issue to look at here is WHY students cheat on tests.
If the point of our educational system truly is to help students learn, then there would be no reason for someone to cheat on a test. As a matter of fact, there would be little reason to even use artificially-created tests at all.
IF students are given freedom to learn what interests them.
Students become interested in a topic because something is going on in their daily lives to make the topic relevant. For example, if a child wants to paint his bedroom, suddenly the idea of calculating the area of a given space becomes relevant. If the child wants to draw realistic pictures, suddenly perspective is an interesting topic to study. If a child wants to complain to the manufacturer of the defective product she purchased, suddenly learning how to write a clear, organized letter becomes relevant.
No artificially-created testing is necessary.
This is a prime advantage to homeschooling, especially in the states where homeschoolers are not stifled by regulations. You have the freedom to help your children learn topics they want to know more about when it is relevant to them. I encourage you to do this as much as possible. If you do, you will know what I mean when I say you won’t need to test your children. You’ll know they are learning.
And learning is what education is supposed to be all about, isn't it?
My interest in this survey isn’t really about the specific results because it’s no surprise that students cheat on tests. The real issue to look at here is WHY students cheat on tests.
If the point of our educational system truly is to help students learn, then there would be no reason for someone to cheat on a test. As a matter of fact, there would be little reason to even use artificially-created tests at all.
IF students are given freedom to learn what interests them.
Students become interested in a topic because something is going on in their daily lives to make the topic relevant. For example, if a child wants to paint his bedroom, suddenly the idea of calculating the area of a given space becomes relevant. If the child wants to draw realistic pictures, suddenly perspective is an interesting topic to study. If a child wants to complain to the manufacturer of the defective product she purchased, suddenly learning how to write a clear, organized letter becomes relevant.
No artificially-created testing is necessary.
This is a prime advantage to homeschooling, especially in the states where homeschoolers are not stifled by regulations. You have the freedom to help your children learn topics they want to know more about when it is relevant to them. I encourage you to do this as much as possible. If you do, you will know what I mean when I say you won’t need to test your children. You’ll know they are learning.
And learning is what education is supposed to be all about, isn't it?
Homeschooling Laws
In the United States, each state makes its own laws concerning homeschooling and they can vary widely. If you want to see a short synopsis of the laws in each state, I recommend checking out this page at the National Home Education Network (NHEN).
When I hear about other states, I feel fortunate that I live in Indiana and did so the entire time I homeschooled my kids through highschool. Indiana is known as one of the most free states for homeschoolers. In Indiana, homeschools are simply non-accredited private schools and do not have to follow laws and regulations set up for accredited or government schools.
This is a big reason I think our family was so successful. We had the freedom and flexibility to do what made sense for our family. We could change things quickly and there was no bureaucracy or heavy-handed regulation.
Well, unless you count the forms my kids made me fill out when I wanted permission for 5 minutes of privacy in the bathroom.
When I hear about other states, I feel fortunate that I live in Indiana and did so the entire time I homeschooled my kids through highschool. Indiana is known as one of the most free states for homeschoolers. In Indiana, homeschools are simply non-accredited private schools and do not have to follow laws and regulations set up for accredited or government schools.
This is a big reason I think our family was so successful. We had the freedom and flexibility to do what made sense for our family. We could change things quickly and there was no bureaucracy or heavy-handed regulation.
Well, unless you count the forms my kids made me fill out when I wanted permission for 5 minutes of privacy in the bathroom.
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