What does homeschooling look like?

Here's one of the things that it can look like. 


High school student in English class:

Reading Walden...

Why we homeschool, parts ... well, I've lost count, but trust me, there are many reasons...

But a couple of stories from the past couple of days. First, we've got the American students at an American high school who were sent home from school for having the temerity to wear, on a Mexican drinking holiday, clothing displaying the American flag:

On any other day at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, Daniel Galli and his four friends would not even be noticed for wearing T-shirts with the American flag. But Cinco de Mayo is not any typical day especially on a campus with a large Mexican American student population.

Galli says he and his friends were sitting at a table during brunch break when the vice principal asked two of the boys to remove American flag bandannas that they wearing on their heads and for the others to turn their American flag T-shirts inside out. When they refused, the boys were ordered to go to the principal's office.

"They said we could wear it on any other day," Daniel Galli said, "but today is sensitive to Mexican-Americans because it's supposed to be their holiday so we were not allowed to wear it today."

The boys said the administrators called their T-shirts "incendiary" that would lead to fights on campus.

If t-shirts showing the American flag are "incendiary," if they could "lead to fights on campus," well, the school and the community have far greater issues to address than could possibly be addressed by having the kids wear the shirts inside-out.


And up in that bastion of liberal tolerance and open-mindedness, Ann Arbor, Michigan, there's a school principal who sees nothing wrong with choosing a subset of a class to receive a special educational experience based on nothing but race...

An Ann Arbor elementary school principal used a letter home to parents tonight to defend a field trip for black students as part of his school’s efforts to close the achievement gap between white and black students.

Dicken Elementary School Principal Mike Madison wrote the letter to parents following several days of controversy at the school after a field trip last week in which black students got to hear a rocket scientist.

...

“The intent of our field trip was not to segregate or exclude students as has been reported, but rather to address the societal issues, roadblocks and challenges that our African American children will face as they pursue a successful academic education here in our community.”

A handful of parents have complained to district administrators about the trip, the group and Madison. More than a half-dozen parents contacted AnnArbor.com to raise the complaints, but none would agree to talk on the record, citing concerns of reprisals to their children by Madison.

While there’s no clear agreement between the two sides about exactly what happened, most of the controversy centers on a field trip taken last week by the Lunch Bunch for African American boys and girls to hear a black rocket engineer talk.

District spokeswoman Liz Margolis said after the trip was over, those who went returned to their fifth-grade class and were greeted by boos by those who didn’t go on the trip. Margolis said Madison, who is black, heard the boos, and went to talk to the class. She said he and the class had a “discussion” about race issues.

“He wasn’t yelling at them. He was very passionate about it,” Margolis said.

Parents have complained he was yelling at the class and belittled a Muslim girl who said she also had experienced racism and discrimination.

Your tax dollars at work. I guess racism and discrimination are only bad when they come from white people...

Lying with facts - Taunton school edition

Here is a followup to Tuesday's story, about the boy from Taunton who drew the crucifix, that demonstrates how easy it is to lie without actually giving any false facts.

Although reporters regionally and nationally jumped on a story about a 9-year-old boy supposedly suspended for drawing a stick-figure Jesus on the cross, it now appears the tale was overblown.

Contrary to news reports -- including a story on ParentDish -- the boy was never suspended. He and his classmates at Maxham Elementary School in Taunton, Mass. (40 miles south of Boston), were never given an assignment to draw pictures that reminded them of Christmas.

Lie number 1: "The boy was never suspended." According to the boy's father, and, as far as I know, neither addressed nor contradicted by anyone in the school department, he was told that he could not return to school until he had gone through a psychological evaluation. Was he removed from class before the school day was over? Were his parents called to come get him? Were they told that they couldn't come back until he'd been evaluated?

After being removed from the school on Wednesday, he finished that evaluation on Monday, and returned to school either that afternoon or the following morning. Assuming that this is true, he may not have received a nominal suspension, but he certainly received a de facto suspension.


Lie number 2: "He and his classmates...were never given an assignment to draw pictures that reminded them of Christmas." According to the father, they were given the assignment, two days after their Thanksgiving break, of drawing something that reminded them of their Thanksgiving holiday, which had just finished. And the boy had visited the La Salette shrine with his family over the holiday weekend.


In other words, this news report attempts to debunk the story without actually contradicting anything the father said. Given how careful the Superintendent is being with the words she's using, I assume that the father is right. They aren't saying that the boy wasn't given an assignment to draw a picture about their holiday, only that he wasn't given an assignment to draw something about "Christmas or any religious holiday." They aren't saying that he wasn't banned from the school until after an evaluation, only that he wasn't "suspended." Those are weasel words. Rather than debunking the story, they tend to confirm it. I believed it the other day when I posted it - the officials in the Taunton school system have, thus far, strengthed my belief.

Reason number ... why we homeschool

I've lost count, but it's a big number...

Taunton second-grader suspended over drawing of Jesus

A Taunton father is outraged after his 8-year-old son was sent home from school and required to undergo a psychological evaluation after drawing a stick-figure picture of Jesus Christ on the cross.

The father said he got a call earlier this month from Maxham Elementary School informing him that his son, a second-grade student, had created a violent drawing. The image in question depicted a crucified Jesus with Xs covering his eyes to signify that he had died on the cross.

Insane. Just insane. As I said recently, "God, spare me from well-meaning liberals." Look at that picture - what kind of demented mind looks at that from a second grader and sees a need for a psychological evaluation? This is child abuse. Someone should lose his or her job over this, because it is completely, totally unacceptable. No one will, of course, but someone should...

Why we homeschool, part 689,775

A paper recently crossed my desk, a strategic plan being prepared for a graduate-level business class. The following excerpts are taken verbatim (with the company name redacted) from that paper. They are taken from about a two page span in a 14 page paper. The material here is representative of the paper as a whole, and all of the author's classwork.

Materials and products used to sell to consumers depend heavily on domestic and foreign vendors for its high end products. The company boasts its global inspired accessories and diverse home furnishing products. It’s not afraid to go above and beyond to all corners of the globe to unique pieces that will captivate customers’ attentions.
...
The cost of new entries is a lot. It’s difficult for new entries to enter because they don’t have the brand reputation and it takes longer to build brand awareness. It’s not impossible to do; however, [redacted] needs to monitor its market share. Competition is high in the home furnishing industry and it continues to be more difficult in the future.
...
Suppliers are as important as suppliers. Suppliers are one of the business lifelines. [redacted] depends on its suppliers for products to sell.
...
Their wants and needs will change and [redacted] needs to stay on up of it. In addition, the brand needs to create quality products that will add values to consumers. Buyers need to believe why they should pay $36 for a towel when they can get a substitution for half the price. By learning the target consumers, [redacted] will able bring unique products that will distinguish the brand from competitors.

What has that got to do with homeschooling?

The author is a tutor. In the local public schools.

Tutoring students in English.

Why we homeschool, part 689,774

Another lovely public school story from Florida: St. Lucie teacher has students vote on whether 5-year-old can stay in class

Melissa Barton said she is considering legal action after her son's kindergarten teacher led his classmates to vote him out of class. After each classmate was allowed to say what they didn't like about Barton's 5-year-old son, Alex, his Morningside Elementary teacher said they were going to take a vote, Barton said. By a 14 to 2 margin, the class voted him out of the class...Barton said after the vote, Alex's teacher asked him how he felt.

"He said, 'I feel sad,'" she said.

In modern American schools, frequently kids cannot play games in which score is kept. They can't play tag at recess, there are no such things as "winners" and "losers." Which is wrong - children need to learn how do deal with disappointment and failure and keep going. It is an essential part of life, and the successful people, in the end, aren't the ones who don't fail [there aren't any] - they're the ones who fail and keep going.

But this is just obscene. I doubt whether the teacher can even be fired, but (always assuming that the story is correct) jailed would be more appropriate. There is no excuse, there is no way to justify this. There's a certain amount of abuse that some children will take from other children, and it's never pleasant, but it's something people need to learn to live with. To support this abuse, to ratify it and give it the stamp of institutional authority is to inflict unspeakable damage on a five-year old. It is not just thoughtless, it is cruel.