With the recent ruling that all California homeschool teachers need to have teaching credentials, the debate that rages on about homeschooling in general will get even more heated than ever before. Many people are happy that this new mandate has come down from the state. It will affect San Jose citizens because there are charter school and homeschooling groups in this area that have had their world turned upside down.
The parents that homeschool the right way (whether you agree with the concept or not)—those that make sure that they stay up to date on new curriculum, make learning fun for their child, and pool with other homeschoolers to create fun fieldtrips and dive deep into certain subjects—are the ones that are most affected by this edict. The ones that follow the rules always are. But they should ask themselves: What does this hurt? Being fully credentialed will only serve them in the long run to be better teachers because they will have access to the latest research on how children learn and the newest teaching techniques. However, it is not easy or cheap to gain your California credential, so I am guessing that many of those homeschoolers will just give up and send their kids back to public or private schools (and we all know how fun it is to have unhappy parents in your school).
This is really a decision that is based on protecting children. I say this because many laws or mandates that have to do with education don’t put children first. No Child Left Behind is the perfect example. That isn’t for kids, but for lawmakers. In this case, though, the mandate will protect the children who don’t have a choice when their parents decide to do it themselves and pull them out of school. Many, I am sure, are doing it right. Furthermore, a teaching credential or a slip of paper does not make a good teacher. But if we can stop a child abuse case from happening because of this ruling and make it against the law to teach your children at home without the proper credentials, then it will all be for a good reason.
Wow, Single Gal—that’s a big leap there from homeschooling to child abuse! I can’t recall a single incident of an abused, homeschooled child. And, although there’s probably an isolated incident someone can dig up, calling the new credentialing requirement a weapon against child abuse is like using a nuke to get a fly.
The homeschooling regulation decision will probably be overturned on appeal as it’s unsound, but it displays a Government First attitude that should scare everybody. If the State o’ California applied this level of rigorous oversight to its public school system, all adminstrators and teachers would be sent back to school for increased credential activity to make up for the crummy scores, violence, and financial mismanagement which sadly effects our school system. Maybe that’s a good idea, but it strikes me as absurd to apply more rigor to a privatized system that, broadly, works and doesn’t cost the State anything (homeschooling) and less to a system that, for all its good intentions and massive budget, has, at best, a checkered result (public schools).
From the way I read the actual court document, parents would need an early childhood credentilal to homeschool in the primary grades; then if they wished to continue homeschooling through high school, they would need a secondary credential for each subject being taught. That ‘s just about impossible, let alone ludicrous. It’s doubtful that most citizens have seen a typical classroom situation that students who want to learn have to put up with. I can’t imagine this ruling being held up, talk about government ruling lives. There was some discussion on the radio about how this ruling could affect private schools that are accredited who employ non-credentialed teachers. That would really open a can of worms if those schools were forced to comply with the ruling to employ only credentialed teachers.
I’m not sure how your concluding sentence with mention of child abuse, sums up your article. Where in the world did child abuse come from regarding this topic?
I know of a case where a high school drop-out was homeschooling one of her kids who was headed in the same direction. Clearly, she was/is not qualified to do any such thing. I suspect people like her (or should I say “women” like her as I have never heard of a man insisting on homeschooling his kids, although cases could exist maybe in Utah) are the target of this recent ruling, and understandably so.
I actually looked into what it would take for me to get my teacher’s credential last year before all this brouhaha. Out of the 12 required classes, only 3 were actually subject-specific methods. The rest were politically correct edu-babble such as “Multicultural Foundations of a Diverse Classroom”. This may be relevant to teaching in California’s public schools, but it has absolutely *NO* relevance to teaching my own children.
How exactly is studying how to teach ESL, poor, minority, or disabled children going to help me better homeschool my middle-class white non-special ed kids?
Boo hoo, kids might actually get to socialize and become functioning members of society. The tyrannical grip of paranoid parents has weakened. Maybe they should just move into their bomb shelters and avoid law entirely.
SG, WHERE did you get your info that the teaching credential was even remotely valid? It’s garbage!!! It means absolutely nothing! Dept’s of “Education” are a joke. Consider that someone with a PhD or an MA in math or engineering is forbidden to teach what they know without a “valid” “teaching” “credential”. Just sit in on any ed class at SJSU and take a look. It’s embarrassing. As for learning the latest teaching strategies in a subject, ptui! It doesn’t happen. What the courts should have done to protect the children was to have set up tests to measure accomplishment—but, oops, if they did that they’d have to do it for public schools—and the CTA and NEA will NOT allow that to happen, i.e., teacher and student evaluation. Avoiding evaluation is the TOP priority in public “education”—as at City Hall in SJ. This outrageous “verdict” from some pompous fool “judge”, offering the credential as a child protective service is akin to the outrage on 60 Minutes last Sunday, wherein two lawyers, and the whole legal system kept an innocent man in jail for 26 years because of “ethical considerations”—“betraying” client/attorney “privilege”—with a jailed murderer. Ethics and the law in America= oxymoron. Obama would certainly be an enormous improvement over the buffoon we now have as Prez, but consider that he eagerly accepts the endorsement of the NEA. Not much real Change coming, despite the “Change” signs.
Without serious education in America, the promise of democracy is doomed. George Green
#1
That was also my thought. Although I guess one could speak metaphorically, and equate a poor or mediocre education, along with a lack of peer socialization, as a form of child abuse.
Dear S.G.:
There’s no way that court decision will stand. How can it be “unconstitutional” to educate your own children in your own home?
(In today’s Chronicle, there’s an op ed piece about how California does not receive its fair share of federal funding relative to other states. Again, there’s plenty of money to fund our civic institutions, but there are too many middlemen/women taking their cut.).
Pete Campbell
I’m not seeing the logic of your conclusion at all. You seem to have concluded that
a) home-schoolers are child abusers and
b) people who have teaching credentials do not abuse children therefor
c) requiring home-schoolers to have a teaching credential will eliminate abuse of home-schooled children.
The vocabulary you chose for your second paragraph is telling, with an emphasis on “fun” and the unlikely guess that homeschoolers will give up their misguided ways, but resign themselves to being “unhappy” with public education which somehow will unnecessarily waste the time of the educational system. (I realize that’s a run-on sentence.)
People who choose home-schooling don’t do it because their children will have more “fun.” They do it so their children will learn. They don’t choose home-schooling to be “happy.” They do it to improve the chances their children will be competent productive citizens well-grounded in their families’ values.
The fun happens along the way to competence.
And that’s what makes home-schooling parents happy.
When I say “child abuse” I mean parents who keep their kids in homeschool because they are either too lazy to send them to school, want the easy way out, or decide to neglect them. I am not meaning tying them up and torturing them. I know many people who homeschool where that isn’t the case, my point was it only takes a few bad apples to ruin it for the others.
Oh and test scores are not what makes a good teacher either.
SG—Depends on the test, doesn’t it? A 12th grader who absolutely cannot read a half page long sentence by Henry James and understand it well enough to answer a simple question about its meaning has flunked a 12th grade reading test. The wrong answer to a quadratic equation, or no answer, tells quite a lot about the student, and his/her teacher. But if a good score on a TF test given to gauge one’s writing ability is quite a different matter.
Anatomy tests for doctors? Performance tests by musicians—or welders—are irrelevant?
How come there’s no way to measure student accomplishment after a year of incredibly expensive “education”? Please!!! The only reason there’s no way is that the educational establishment doesn’t want there to be one.
In the real world, any minimally competent reader can instantly tell if an applicant for a job is non-literate, let alone illiterate. But no test can be devised to gauge that skill? George Green
Having experienced a”school of education” that grants these credentials, I have to agree with Thomas Sowell when he says:
“Do away with schools of education and departments of education. Close them down. There are fewer than 40,000 professors of education in this country, and 40 million students. That means we are ruining the education of over a thousand students in order to protect the job of each professor of education. I would think it would be one of the greatest bargains in history for us to give each professor of education $1 million to retire.”
SG wrote: “However, it is not easy or cheap to gain your California credential, so I am guessing that many of those homeschoolers will just give up and send their kids back to public or private schools.”
This is completely the point of the ruling. Home schooling is competition for the public schools and the teacher’s unions, so that evil competition must be stamped out. The unions want alternatives to public school eliminated.
I have had some experience with home schooling and it can in some cases be beneficial. However the lack of socialization can be a problem for some children.
Unfortunately not everyone who home-schools their children does it because they want their children to learn (10). There are people who do it because they are afraid that their children will learn. And there are people who may want their children to learn, but do not have enough mastery of some subjects to teach them effectively.
Surely denying children access to the existing body of human knowledge is an infringement of their rights, even if it is not actually child abuse.
The current system, or lack of one, does not address abuses or shortcomings possible with home-schooling. I’m not sure that requiring a teaching credential is the answer, though.
At the very least, the parent should be able to pass examinations in all subjects at the given grade level, and to provide evidence that the child is actually doing the necessary work. (Copies of assignments, projects, writing, etc.)
Look back forty years ago to the 1960’s. The Osmonds made regular appearances on the Andy Williams Show. Were Alan, Wayne, Jay, Merrill and Donny home schooled? Did they travel with a tutor? Did they attend private or public school? I simply do not know.
Whatever method was employed by their family worked. That method needs to be captured and duplicated throughout America. We need our kids to grow up in a nurturing, wholesome environment.
Imagine the rest of the world looking at America and the worst thing they can say is that Americans are squeaky clean.
Imagine the only time the phrase “Bad Apple” is spoken is in reference to the Osmonds’ song “One Bad Apple”, which reached number on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1971.
Some states have support systems for parents who home school. The children are assessed yearly for achievement, the parents are told what areas to work on, and so on.
To me, it’s a much more reasonable system than requiring a credential. Teaching and tutoring are very different skills. Even if you grant that credentials are good preparation for teaching 30 kids, that doesn’t mean they are appropriate to a homeschooling/tutoring environment.
George,
Marie Osmond is on her third marriage and has a kid in rehab. Perhaps this “bad apple” shouldn’t be a role model for home schooling. If you don’t like public schooling, then save your money and send your kids to a private school. If you insist on home schooling, understand that your kids will experience a very uncomfortable high school experience- much like “Piggy” in Lord of the Flies- as their social retardation blossoms. Eventually, expect to have your single 35 year old son back home living in your rumpus room (much like Fin Fan) spending most of his days on Second Life.
Bland de Bung
Dear S.G.,
Lazy parents do not homeschool. Homeschooling is hard work and takes a lot of sacrifice, especially on the part of one who is the primary teacher.
Lazy parents send their kids to the subsidized babysitting known as the public school system.
Now, I do now mean to suggest that *all* public school parents are lazy. There are plenty of concerned and caring parents out there who choose public schools. I’m just saying that those parents who are lazy are going to choose the option that requires the least amount of effort from them- which is outsourcing the education to the government.