HS Comments on the Fly

I always love to hear how homeschoolers are perceived. We are all so different, yet so many folks lump us together and call us “the same.”

From an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education:

The last hurdle in the admissions process for home-schooled students is persuading colleges that they have the social smarts to get along with their traditionally educated peers.

“There is an assumption that kids who are home-schooled are strange, that their idea of having a good time is sitting in a tree,” says Mr. Reider, the college counselor. (source)

We watched An Ideal Husband today, laughing at Wilde’s wit and enjoying the actors. We like Wilde much better than Shaw, but I guess that is only based on Heartbreak House, The Importance of Being Earnest, and An Ideal Husband. So, that’s a rather flimsy opinion.

An Ideal Husband, though, isn’t as good as The Importance of Being Earnest, which is also by Wilde. An Ideal Husband is a bit of a morality tale — which isn’t bad in itself, but it not inherently amusing. One lesson: “No one should be entirely judged by their past.” And another: “Sooner or later we have all to pay for what we do.”

The Importance of Being Earnest, with its identity twists, is by far more entertaining than An Ideal Husband. There are also many more quotes that can be stolen and used in everyday life, much to the amusement of oneself and one’s knowledgeable companions. However, you only sound crazy saying something like, “I couldn’t find any cucumbers at the store today — “… not even for ready money” to someone who’s never seen the movie.

Link to An Ideal Husband (Cate Blanchett, Julianne Moore, Rupert Everett, Jeremy Northam, Minnie Driver)

Link to The Importance of Being Earnest (Colin Firth, Reece Witherspoon, Rupert Everett, Frances O’Connor, Judi Dench)

I won’t link to Heartbreak House by Shaw because I think it’s not worth the effort. My apologies to Shaw fans.

The Road From Home is a fairly well-known homeschooling book. It’s recommended by a few curriculum publishers and is a Newbery Honor Book (1980). It’s about Veron, a young girl who is Armenian, and her family’s trek across Turkey into Syria, I believe, back in 1915. We read it aloud quite a while back, and I don’t remember all the details perfectly.

But my point is that if you read The Road From Home to your students, you might want to tie it in to current events going on between the US House Committee and Foreign Affairs and Turkey. What Veron and her family lived and died through has shown up in today’s current events … nearly a century later.

I’m happy to say that reading the book gave us a bit of a framework to help us understand today’s issues. Funny how that works.

Here are a few articles if you haven’t already heard the about the issue:

• Turkey Condemns U.S. House Vote on Armenian Killings
• Armenia Hails Controversial U.S. Vote Recognizing Genocide
• Turkey Calls Home Its U.S. Ambassador Over Armenian Resolution
• Traumatic Issues Trouble Turkey’s Sense of Its Identity

An article in The Missoulian shows a photo of Renna homeschooling her son Christopher in the parking lot before a Widespread Panic concert.

Renna, her husband, Kevin, and son, Christopher, 7, have toured with Widespread Panic for the last four years. They home-school Christopher on the road, following the band while selling their Panic-Stricken Chicken Wraps, out of their makeshift Panic-Stricken Chicken Shack. The chicken wraps contain chicken, cheese, lettuce, salsa, bell peppers and onions.

Don’t those sound good? I think I know what we’ll be having for dinner tonight. Well, homemade ones; we’re not traveling to Ogden, Utah, to get them.

Christopher gets an amazing hands-on US geography education, too. With just this Fall tour, he’ll visit these states: Tennessee, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Colorado, Missouri, Iowa, Wisconsin, Indiana, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and Alabama.

I was bopping around the internet finding some new (to me) homeschooling blogs (Schoolless and HeartSchooling) when I stumbled onto this entry at Electronic Toy House. The author linked me to an NEA page. Now, truly, I pretty much ignore the NEA and its web site even though my grandmother was a teacher for umpteen years. I have a tendency to give teachers, the older and experienced ones at least, a modicum of respect. I loved some of my teachers and used some of their ideas in our homeschool through the years. However, the NEA is worth ignoring when it comes to its views on homeschooling.

But this article at the NEA web site is a shocker — and no, it’s not their yearly resolution rant.

It’s written by the head custodian of an elementary school who was also formerly employed by Wal-Mart, and it begins like this:

There’s nothing like having the right person with the right experience, skills and tools to accomplish a specific task. Certain jobs are best left to the pros, such as, formal education.

There are few homeowners who can tackle every aspect of home repair. A few of us might know carpentry, plumbing and, let’s say, cementing. Others may know about electrical work, tiling and roofing. But hardly anyone can do it all.

Dave Arnold, the author of the article, doesn’t know my husband. My husband can do all of those things … well, except “cementing.” “Cementing” isn’t a trade, believe it or not. (Why didn’t the NEA catch that before they published the article?) Cementing has to do with oil wells, which very few homeowners ever have to deal with. However, “masonry” is a trade, and my husband can do that, including bricklaying, concrete work (driveways, sidewalks, etc.) and also build fireplaces out of stone or river rock, and also can do marble or granite countertops or floors. (link to history of concrete)

Dave Arnold goes on:

Same goes for cars. Not many people have the skills and knowledge to perform all repairs on the family car. Even if they do, they probably don’t own the proper tools.

Sorry, Dave Arnold, but for the most part my husband can perform all the repairs on the family car … so far. I think the only thing that he doesn’t do is the tires and alignment. Even I do some of the repairs … well, sort of. Like when the battery dies in Target parking lot, my daughter and I get out and clean off the battery terminals and the ends of the battery cable with diet coke* and brushes. We used the ratchets and stuff, too. It took us a while, but we did it and got the vehicle going again. It’s not rocket science. It’s vehicle repair/maintenance. However, if we needed to build a rocket, we’d get help from a rocket scientist … you know, like that astronaut farmer feller. We don’t avoid professionals when we need them.

My husband has pulled out the engine, sent it off for overhaul (or whatever it’s called), and then lowered it back in. He goes to parts stores or the boneyard and buys parts and replaces them. Recently he replaced the water pump, the starter, the windshield wiper motor, the radiator, and also welded a piece of the transmission. Sure, it takes the proper tools, but they can be bought at stores or online. Again, it’s not rocket science. Just look inside The Home Depot sometime. (And no, my husband doesn’t buy all his tools from The Home Depot; they don’t carry everything he needs.)

Dave Arnold’s next comment is:

So, why would some parents assume they know enough about every academic subject to home-school their children?

You tell me.

Maybe because my husband can do a lot already (the home and car repairs that Dave mentioned), my husband figures that facilitating learning is not an area reserved only for “the professionals.”

You’d be surprised how many “amateurs” are actually better than professionals. Think about it for a minute. There are quiet folk, who go about their business without fanfare. Just being a professional doesn’t make that person “the best.”

People need to know that they don’t need professionals to do everything for them. People can do many things on their own or with a little help from a pal. Yeah, even homeschooling. We shouldn’t be duped into believing we are helpless, misguided amateurs who need help tying our shoes. Dave mentions that even window washing should be left to the pros, but we even do our own janitorial here at home, including window washing with squeegees, blades, and wands from Ettore. It’s a much better method than Windex and paper towels.

There’s a bunch of other opinions from Dave in the middle of the article on gullible parents and wannabes and then this for the ending:

[Parents] would be wise to help their children and themselves by leaving the responsibility of teaching math, science, art, writing, history, geography and other subjects to those who are knowledgeable, trained and motivated to do the best job possible.

Anyway, you can read the article in its entirety yourself. Feel free to comment.

* I know some people say it’s a myth about coke working on cleaning batteries, but it made a huge difference on the piece of the battery cable that goes onto the battery’s terminal. It was really corroded and my daughter and I scraped and scratched at it with the brush and a pocketknife because my husband didn’t want his battery all stickied up with coke. So after much scraping, we used diet coke which isn’t sticky and we were able to quickly clean the ends of the battery cables. Result!

I’m confused. Again.

Read this:

At this point, though, one can only wonder what [Michael] Jackson’s kids are being taught, since their home schooling has taken them off the grid of any normalcy whatsoever.

For example: Even though Tom Cruise’s kids are home schooled (in Scientology, etc,) we at least see them at soccer games. (source)

Can we figure out what that first sentence is trying to convey?

The journalist thinks that “homeschooling has taken Jackson’s kids off the grid.” The grid they’ve been taken off of is the “normalcy grid.”

I really think that’s what that sentence says … looking at it grammatically. Wouldn’t you agree?

It sounds like the author of the article thinks that homeschoolers are off the grid of normalcy unless the homeschooled kids are seen at soccer games, as in Tom Cruise’s kids. I’m not sure I’ve got that right, though, because I still think that excerpt above is poorly written or maybe an exuberant editor got ahold of it.

One thing’s for sure, the author is taking a swipe at homeschooling. Too bad it’s not clearer.

Additionally, I think that if Michael Jackson’s kids are indeed off the normalcy grid, it’s not because of homeschooling.

Wow, can you believe some partiers in France punched a 4-inch hole in a Monet? Rather shocking. This article gives a good view of the actual tear along with the actual size of the painting. It’s a rather small painting, if you ask me. The title of the painting is Le Pont d’Argenteuil (The Bridge at Argenteuil).

So what can be discussed as a result of this news story? Oh, lots of stuff. Who Monet was. When he lived. What Impressionism is. Where Paris, France is. What river flows through Paris. And, of course, the possible results of getting tipsy in Paris during Nuit Blanche — an annual all-night musical and cultural event. I guess it could read like this: Bottle of French wine, $6.74, Admission to Orsay Museum, $10.53, Ripping a hole in a Monet … Priceless.

I couldn’t believe it when I read that the famed (possibly notorious) Northwest Passage had been opened up. What would Captain Cook, Sir John Franklin, and Henry Hudson, etc., etc., etc., think?!?! Wow! But yes, it was open earlier this year as revealed in this BBC article (map inc.). I know you probably already know about it, but we found the info of interest … what was it? … about a month ago now. And to think that Hudson, Franklin, and Cook, etc., spent so many years searching for it. Without them what would Turnagain Arm or Hudson Bay be called? Did Franklin name anything after himself? If he did, I don’t know it about it. All I know is that he died somewhere up near Nunavut.

So now Canada, the US, and the UN are fighting over the Northwest Passage. Should we expect anything less?

Canada says it has full rights over those parts of the Northwest Passage that pass through its territory and that it can bar transit there.

But this has been disputed by the US and the European Union.

They argue that the new route should be an international strait that any vessel can use. (from above article)

Canada and the US are also engaged in a dispute over the future of the Northwest Passage, the partially frozen waterway that links the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

The US says it regards it as an international strait but Mr Harper [Canadian PM] has vociferously defended the passage as Canadian territory.

He has already announced plans to build six naval patrol vessels to secure the route. (source)

Lastly, the new theory about the appendix is startling. You know, how they always say that the appendix is useless and unnecessary. Well, now they claim that possibly it’s used by the body to repopulate the large intestine with healthy intestinal flora after illness, that the appendix reboots (so to speak) the digestive system. Cool, huh? It sounds reasonable to me.

So, what can we discuss after reading this article with our students? That good bacteria live in the intestines. We can look up the appendix in the Body Atlas. Learn the warning signs of appendicitis. Learn about cholera and dysentery … not exactly a light-hearted subject. And that drinking drinking fresh water is important.

So, that’s three subjects touched on: Art, History/Geography, and Biology.

Here’s the link to an article about a family who uses The Well-Trained Mind in their homeschool.

The article discusses how the Shatsky family homeschools, but then gives some information based on a 23-family survey completed by 27% of the homeschool families in Lake Oswego. The survey is part of the Lake Oswego School District’s new marketing plan.

Canadian think tank, The Fraser Institute, recently released a report on homeschooling and it’s making a little bit of news. (Article 1, Article 2).

A few of the findings (paraphrased by me):

• Homeschooled students do well even when parents’ educational levels are low.
• Homeschooled students are not isolated social misfits.
• Homeschooling costs less than classroom schooling.

Here’s quote from the actual news release :

Hepburn said evidence clearly demonstrates that home education may help reduce the negative effects of some background factors that many educators believe affects a child’s ability to learn, such as low family income, low parental educational attainment, parents not having formal training as teachers, race or ethnicity of the student, gender of the student, not having a computer in the home, and infrequent usage of public libraries.

“The research shows that the level of education of a child’s parents, gender of the child, and income of family has less to do with a child’s academic achievement than it does in public schools.”

I think this is fairly critical. It sounds like homeschooling sort of “levels the playing field” for those whose socio-economic standing isn’t considered ideal.

In public schools, a student’s income level seems to play a role in how well a student performs academically. Yet this study shows that income isn’t a factor in homeschooling. Why might that be? Do you think the public school teacher inadvertently gives the better dressed students higher grades? Or does she teach the better dressed students with more vigor? Maybe she just ignores the students in high-water pants a little bit, but still enough to make a difference in what the student learns.

While public school teachers are surely trying to be impartial, they are human and prone to forms of prejudice just like everyone else. Has there ever been a study done on public school teachers’ prejudices and the effect on student outcomes? One thing’s for sure, a homeschooling parent is not going to be prejudiced by the income level of their own students. That might explain why “… income of [homeschooling] family has less to do with a child’s academic achievement than it does in public schools.”

Maybe there’s some other explanation for this “leveling of the playing field” effect. Any ideas?