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Educating the School Board

Laws & Policies /

The following letter was sent by a home schooling parent, Fred Joblin, to his local school board.  This letter was one of several communications back and forth that Mr. Joblin had with the superintendent of the Near North Board of Education as well as the school attendance counsellor. Apparently, the Near North Board of Education decided to take a proactive stance and began contacting home schooling families in an attempt to perform assessments. Mr. Joblin speculated that this was due in part to the fact that some person or persons called the board about seeing children around town during the school day. The correspondence was in regards to the proposed board guidelines on homeschooling to which Mr. Joblin took issue with several points in the guidelines. He made a presentation to the board on November 23, 1999. He received a letter from the board chair thanking him for his presentation and was assured that he would be informed when the guidelines were revised. Fred Joblin, and his wife Kathie, are the parents of Ted, a 17 year-old unschooler. Fred is a former elementary school teacher, owner of a learning centre, adult education teacher, and coordinator of the (Parry Sound/Muskoka area) Whitepine Homeschooling Network. Currently, he works as a writer, an editor, and a partner in an energy management company. He is also a partner in the beginnings of an intentional community and spiritual retreat centre. Don Cowan Near North Board of Education Parry Sound, Ontario November 17, 1999 Dear Don, Thank you for your letter of November 4, 1999. Having read it, I feel there are two key points that I would like to reiterate to you and other concerned people on the board. 1. The most basic point that I, and many homeschoolers with whom I have spoken (the “”we”” that follows), wish to make is that we simply do not accept any authority from the board. Phone calls and letters and assessments are undesired because we claim the historic right to raise and educate our children as we see fit, without government questioning or interference. We have opted out of the school system and therefore do not feel obligated to the board (beyond letting it know we are homeschooling) or to its beliefs or its methods of instruction and assessment. 2. We recognize the board has the right to request an inquiry by the Provincial Attendance Counsellor, should it have a concern that satisfactory instruction is not being received, but how the board makes such a determination should in no way infringe on the rights of families as provided in the Education Code. I appreciate your letter’’s confirmation that families may decline giving information and receiving an assessment; I trust, then, that sections 1.1, 1.6, 1.8, and Appendices 1, 2, 3, and 5 in the revised guidelines will clearly state so. Letters and communications would be in the form of requests or offers, with no presumption of requirement. Section 4c of the Home Schooling Procedure, indicating an inquiry recommendation for families who “”refuse to cooperate”,” would be deleted. Editor’’s Notes:  Section 1.1 states that ““When a parent/guardian informs a principal that he/she will be providing a homeschooling program or the principal learns that information through other means; the principal will ask the parent/guardian to write a letter to the superintendent of program and schools indicating: name, birth date, sex and grade of each child; address; telephone number; name of school where child is attending or should be attending; reason for providing a homeschooling program and signature of parents.” Section 1.6 states that ““Once the attendance counsellor ascertains that a homeschooling program is being offered, she/he will write a letter to the parent acknowledging that a program is being provided. A copy of the letter will be sent to the principal and superintendent of program and schools. The attendance counsellor will enter the name in the Homeschooling Registry.” Section 1.8 states that “”As soon as the superintendent receives the copy of the letter from the attendance counsellor, he/she shall at least once in each school year make all necessary arrangements for the assessment of the child which may be based on: assessment using standardized test; evaluation of growth of child in Reading, Writing, Arithmetic; examination of written work of child and discussions with child and/or parent.” Appendix 1: Suggested Framework for Homeschooling Letter from Parent (notifying school of intention to homeschool); Appendix 2: Basic Expectations of Parents and Guardians; Appendix 3: Sample Letters from Attendance Counsellor to Parents; Appendix 5: Suggested Framework for Letter to Parents Explaining Purpose of Meeting. I could end my letter there. If the above points were to be recognized then that might be sufficient communication between us. However, I appreciate your willingness to dialogue, and I feel I can be of some value in sharing the whys and wherefores of the burgeoning home schooling movement. Thus, I will respond to your letter in detail, recognizing there will be some repetition from my last letter, although perhaps with more detail and explanation. I do so not in any personal way concerning teachers or administrators regarding their intentions (after all, I’’m personally answerable to 19 teachers and administrators in 3 generations on both sides of the family!). I do so to communicate a position as clearly as I can, so you can understand our concerns and wishes. What I (and many others) challenge is an educational system that has an unspoken agenda of ““power and control”” over people’’s lives (control of what is learned, when it is learned, and how it is learned; control of assessment, control of rewards and punishments, control of time, and even control of destiny). Public education is, from an historical perspective, an outgrowth of European colonialism, and its “”we know what’’s best for you”” approach. In time, it will be interesting how history judges this recent (150 year-old) invention, although history has already judged a specific aspect of it: Native residential schools. My own vision of learning is Aboriginal-based; you

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Changes in Parents’ Motivation to Home Educate

About OFTP Members /

The following is a summary of a 21-page research paper by Bruce Arai, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo. The paper is entitled “Ideologues”, “Pedagogues” and “Mainstreamers”: Changes in Parents’ Motivations for Homeschooling. This paper is currently under review for publication by a scholarly journal. [Web Editor’s Note: this likely refers to this publication: Arai, A. Bruce (2000) Changing Motivations for Homeschooling in Canada. Canadian Journal of Education, 25(3): 204-17.] The purpose of this paper was to investigate some of the reasons parents choose to homeschool their children.  Prof. Arai reviewed the findings on homeschooling (mainly from the U.S. since there is very little available in Canada) to develop a picture of what is known about the practice. He also did interviews with homeschooling families in Ontario and B.C. Finally, it is argued that Canadian homeschoolers are different from their American counterparts on several important dimensions and that these differences reflect a recent change in the nature of homeschooling. The existing literature on homeschooling shows that, in general, parents either did not accept the content of the school’’s curriculum (referred to as “ideologues”) or were unhappy with the institutionalized nature of schooling (referred to as “pedagogues”). The ideological homeschoolers had a diversity of reasons for their dissatisfaction: 1) public schools did not provide either enough or the right kind of religious education; 2) parents of “gifted” or “bright” children felt that the regular school curriculum was not demanding enough to provide a challenge for their children. Among the pedagogical homeschoolers the “negative socialization” was a concern for the majority of parents — i.e. teasing, pranks and exclusionary behaviour could be extremely damaging to their child’s sense of self. Other pedagogues felt that learning in a highly structured environment was wrong and many parents rejected the hierarchical learning situation in schools. Both the ideologues and pedagogues did share some reasons for wanting to homeschool their children, such as: 1) creating a stronger family bond (family unity); 2) homeschooling provides a way to practice an alternative lifestyle (getting away from materialist and consumerist values); 3) many parents themselves had unpleasant memories of school when they were children; 4) homeschooling allows parents the right to be responsible for their children’s’ education. There are reasons to expect that homeschooling in Canada will be different than in the U.S. There are different legal contexts surrounding homeschooling in the two countries. Rules governing homeschooling vary from state to state and province to province. Also, much of the research in the past is about 10 years old, and there has been a rapid growth recently in homeschooling— — people’s reasons for homeschooling may have changed. In the 1990s, as homeschooling becomes more accepted and as debates about educational choice continue, there are more opportunities for families to choose homeschooling as an option for their children. In the past, parents usually had strong philosophical beliefs about homeschooling because of legal difficulties and negative perceptions of homeschooling. Homeschooling today is becoming easier due to the fact that battles about the legality of homeschooling are being resolved and there has been an explosion in the number of support groups and organizations. Data for this research were collected through interviews with 23 homeschooling families in Ontario and in B.C. Each interview lasted approximately 2 hours. Discussions also took place with key people in three provincial homeschooling organizations in B.C. and Ontario as well as attendance at three different homeschooling conferences in Ontario. The goal of this research paper is to provide an initial look at motivations for homeschooling in Canada which is informed by the results from U.S. studies. The basic interview schedule contained questions about: 1) parent’s motives for homeschooling; 2) how they arrived at the decision to homeschool; 3) how they actually accomplish homeschooling on a daily basis; 4) what are their perceptions of various aspects of the educational system; 5) what are their thoughts about parental and state rights and responsibilities for education. As other topics arose, they were pursued with alternatives lines of questioning. The results were organized into four sections: 1) characteristics of homeschooling parents, 2) coming to the decision to homeschool, 3) motivations for homeschooling and 4) attitudes towards the public education system. 1) Characteristics of Homeschooling Parents Some of the parents interviewed had not completed high school while others had post-graduate degrees. The vast majority had completed high school and had some post-secondary education. None of the parents were currently employed as teachers, although four had degrees in education. All of the families knew of at least one family that was currently homeschooling where one or both parents were teachers. Virtually all of the families lived on one income. There was also diversity in the length of time that families had been homeschooling. Thirteen families had only started homeschooling within the last four years, while the rest had homeschooled for longer periods. Almost all of the homeschoolers expressed a strong spiritual or religious commitment, however, this was not a major motivation for homeschooling for most of them. 2) Coming to the decision to homeschool For most participants in this study, the decision to homeschool was not precipitated by a specific incident. Many parents arrived at the decision gradually over a period of months or years. The process usually started with a general dissatisfaction with elements of the public school which led to an investigation of alternatives, usually private school. For people who had begun homeschooling more than four years ago, they did not know that homeschooling was out there as an option. In several cases parents had decided to homeschool their children before they even attended school. This was almost exclusive among those families who had begun homeschooling less than four years ago. 3) Motivations for homeschooling Only two people in this research made a specific connection between bad personal experiences at school and their decision to homeschool. Negative memories of school do not appear to be a major motivation for homeschooling among Canadian parents. Canadian homeschoolers do not appear to

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Definitions

Homeschool /

Homeschooling, homeschoolers First parents realized they could do the same things teachers did in public schools, and often much better. They began to reclaim their children and families and it was called “homeschooling.” There was the idea of trying to duplicate, as much as possible, what public schools were doing it, but doing it at home. At the extreme end, parents tried to turn their homes into schools. There was lots of pressure at that stage and worry: “Am I duplicating school well enough?” There was still the programming that state employees were the authorities in their children’s education. State school officials, threatened by a movement that could jeopardize their jobs, resisted the movement both overtly and clandestinely. (One of the main tactics was the “official homeschooling” program run by the school, which was not true homeschooling, but a deeper invasion of the state into the family grounds.) Unschooling, unschoolers Then two things started happening with some families: First, they noticed that many of their children actually learned better and became more educated through leaving them alone and just supporting them in following their interests. (The same way an adult best learns!) Given the emotional security that comes with constant proximity to your parent, and a modicum of the world’s natural stimulation, children showed themselves as prodigious and constant learners when allowed to “follow their bliss.” They were even learning to read with just a handful of informal lessons; kids were following passions that led to all kinds of integrated, meaningful knowledge. Kids were finding their bliss and their passions at early ages. This was a miraculous realization and showed the full tragedy of the forced-learning experiment of public school. The quicker parents, they realized that this was the superior way to education in the first place, and that children are insatiable and prodigious learners if left alone to pursue interests, with even spontaneous formal instruction when hungry for it. They began questioning the basic premise of a “school” as necessary to learning–or whether it is even helpful. These ones adopted the term “unschooling.” By using the term “unschooling,” the parents are saying: “We don’t buy the idea that schools are necessary to true education, and we have no need of turning our family into a school.” Later, as parents regained the power they once gave up to the state, they remembered that it was entirely their cultural and spiritual right to decide what was most important for their children to know. They realized that this had been their unalienable right all along. Instead of “homeschooling,” the movement became known as “full parenting,” or “raising your own children.” A mother decided one day that it was more important for her daughter to know how to grow every kind of yam that month than to learn another software program or another tampered history. Another day a father interested his son in the stars through a telescope, Another taught his daughter the ancient mysteries of his astrology profession. Children became versatile and skilled in a hundred meaningful things, became virtuous people, and mature for their age, yet more childlike and appealing, than their institutionalized cousins. They received the intellectual, emotional and spiritual baton that they came here to receive from their parents. Neighborhoods began to be neighborhoods again. Families began to be families again. Fathers began to teach their sons again. Mothers began to mother again. People began to be around in their homes during the day. Relatives began to visit and tell stories that were meaningful and never forgotten. Villages began to return that were more fascinating than anything on a CD-Rom disk, and safer and more stimulating than the parking-lots and corridors of any state institution. Eventually, the welfare state and a cop on every corner were no longer necessary. The United Nations dissolved into a planet of peaceful tribes. People became human again while cities became green and filled with walking folks. Children played among them in safety throughout town and village, around the green, and by the sea.

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Learning to Tell Time the Unschooling Way

Homeschool /

Most parents who are new to homeschooling, probably put in more hours than are necessary, making it more like school than it needs to be. Since my children have never been to school, this has made it easier to steer clear of unnecessary structure.  I have just continued with the sort of life we led when the kids were younger. I provide them with fun books, toys, art and craft materials, computer games, etc., and let them at them and help them pursue areas of interest. My daughter Erin (aged 5) recently asked for help learning to tell time. No one was telling her this was what she needed to know next, but she knew this was something she was ready for. I’ve always talked to her about time; if she asked me at age three “when can we go to the park” I’d say “in fifteen minutes, when the big hand on the clock is pointing here”, rather than “once I’m done this, in a few minutes”. So she saw clocks being used in her world. When she wanted to learn herself, she had some conceptual framework to put it into, and she already knew how it would help her in her day-to-day existence. Erin had become fascinated with a classical music/story tape we were loaned called “Maestro Orpheus and the World Clock”, a fantasy story about the grandson of a clockmaker. It integrates music, time and memory in a poetic way, and Erin had been playing the tape several times a day. She then dredged up the works from a broken clock, begged a battery and carried her “pet Clockie” around with her, telling stories about it, talking to it, watching the second-hand and minute-hand move. At my suggestion, we made a learning clock together from the workings of an old clock.  We made a cardboard face, drawing out the numbers, measuring angles, using a compass and protractor and so on (I did this part, but she watched, and I explained what I was doing). Once it was made, she was able to move the hands around and ask me “what time is this?” and “is this 4:30?”. We found a shareware time-telling game on the internet and downloaded that. She spent about 45 minutes total on it, on her own. After two days Erin was able to tell time. I don’t know how long it takes most teachers in public school to “teach” time-telling, but I bet it’s a lot more than the 25 minutes I spent with Erin making our learning clock and answering a few quick questions. Probably weeks of sequential learning tasks: counting by fives, recognizing quarter-circles and half-circles, drawing clock faces, drawing in hands of clocks on worksheets. What made our approach so quick and enjoyable was that I waited until Erin wanted to do it herself.  She chose to learn this quite early, but if she’d not been interested until she turned eight, I would have done my best to wait patiently. Miranda Hughes is a homeschooling mom of three “preschoolers” in the British Columbia Interior town of New Denver.  She also works part-time as a physician and as a Suzuki violin teacher and does a little freelance writing.

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A Day In The Life of an Unschooling Family

About OFTP Members /

My husband Jim and I have 5 children (yes, they are ALL ours) 4 of whom learn at home, one started high school in grade 9. We have come to believe learning is more effective when it is self-directed, and so we try our very best not to inflict uninvited teaching upon our children. They are free to choose their topics and methods of study. We are there to help. Often I am asked “so what do you all DO on an average day?” I have documented a real day for our family. I haven’t pieced together what ‘might’ happen — I actually carried around a piece of paper and logged in the activities of our 7 member brood — at least those activities I was aware were happening. Please remember that it doesn’t include reading, writing, music practice, etc., that the children were doing in the privacy of their own rooms or while I was away from them. 5:55 a.m. — Home, Pickering, Ontario The alarm goes off, but I’ve been awake for about 20 minutes. Even though she’s 2 floors above me, Emily’s morning shower always wakes me. It doesn’t make it any easier to drag myself out of my warm, cosy bed into the cold morning air in our basement bedroom. Jim kindly turns on the light as I grope for my glasses. I don my smelly old running clothes (laundry today???) and come upstairs to 3 teenagers shuffling around the main floor. 6:30 a.m. — Our church, Ajax, Ontario Jordan 18, Emily 18, and Joshua 16, are in their Seminary class at church and I have an hour to walk/run, depending on how old my bones are feeling today. 7:30 a.m. Not bad. I ran 2/3 of my 6K route today! We drive Emily to school. She is in grade 12 and is thoroughly enjoying it. We stop at the store for a newspaper and head home. 7:50 a.m. — Home Jordan heads back to bed, she needs to be at work at 11:00 am today. Josh checks his e-mail and I put on the kettle. Jim has left for work while we were gone. Usually he works from the house, but has been consulting with a little company in Toronto for the past month. 8:15 a.m. I am relaxing with an herbal tea and the morning paper as Edward (Ted, 9) makes his way downstairs in satin boxing shorts given to him by Jim’s friend who is a champion boxer. Ted snuggles up with me on the couch and looks over the newspaper with me. Josh finishes on the computer and heads up to bed for another hour’s sleep. Ted takes over on the computer, landing in his favourite new site where he can play chess with partners around the world. Great! A partner is found — someone in New Zealand. I continue to enjoy the paper and my tea, occasionally calling out the spelling of words down to Ted who is chatting with his partner while playing chess. 8:30 a.m. Alison (13) comes downstairs fully dressed and ready for work…she walks a little boy to and from nursery school each day. 8:45 a.m. When Alison arrives home, she brings Posey her guinea pig down to the kitchen for her medication. Posey has conjunctivitis and needs ointment in her affected eye twice a day (the result of a visit to the Vet yesterday that cost more than the guinea pig did!) Nevertheless, the substitute Vet turned out to be an eager sharer-of-information, teaching Alison what symptoms to watch for in piggies, showing her how to listen to Posey’s heart, how to weigh her, and trimming her nails. After Posey’s administration of medication, Alison and Ted (who lost his chess game) prepare breakfast together. 9:15 a.m. Alison cleans and cares for her guinea pigs Posey and Dot. Ted continues work on a large, detailed diagram of a pirate ship he has been working on the past few days. I shuffle the piles around on my drafting table (I have several illustrations that need to be started) and then check my e-mail. 10:00 a.m. Alison takes our border collie Bingo out back for a run. Ted and I laugh at some poems from the book “Where the Sidewalk Ends”. He chooses one to memorize for his cub badge. Jordan emerges, having had an extra hour’s sleep, a shower and now getting ready for work. I announce a trip to the library and Jordan asks if I can return a book for her. A Clockwork Orange. Was it good? “Not really. I didn’t enjoy it. But my friends at school HAD to read it and I was curious as to what the required reading was this term.” 10:30 a.m. Emily arrives home from school for breakfast/lunch before she leaves for a co-op placement at our local elementary school. 10:45 a.m. — Library, Pickering, Ontario Alison chooses to stay home, while Ted opts to join me at the library. We drive Jordan to work beforehand. At the library Ted chooses 3 books on dinosaurs, which surprises me. The past few weeks he has been devouring pirates and ships. Hmmmmm, a new interest developing? Ted plops himself at a table in the adult section entranced with his books while I find several books on frogs and toads in Ontario, having recently been bitten by the ‘nature journal’ bug thanks to Fred and Aleta! We share our favourite parts of our new books. We also choose 2 CDs: the soundtrack to Fiddler on the Roof, and a classical violin CD by Midori. Ted chooses a video and we are off. 12:00 p.m. — Home Lunch. Josh works on his new website. He recently started his own website design business and has his first paying client, a trucking company in Toronto. Ted and Alison play upstairs. I relax with my books from the library. Various reading of books by everyone happens in the living room over the next couple of hours

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Ideas (Financial) to Help you Stay at Home with Your Child

Homeschool /

The inspiration to develop this site came from an email exchange that I read on one of our member’s discussion groups. It went like this: Hi there, I’m a “wannabe Stay at home mom”. I have a six month old baby girl (Pride and Joy)… My maternity leave is about to run out in about 4 weeks and I don’t want to leave my baby. I’ve been trying to find some children to watch so that I can supplement my income, but no luck. I feel like crying each time I think about leaving her for over 9 hours a day, and being home just in time to put her to bed (and she’ll look at me wondering where I’ve been all this time and why did I leave her). Unfortunately, situations have arisen that I cannot just forsake my income for even a short while. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I may try next? I’m searching for a part time job right now, but SIGH… No luck there either. I am interested in creative answers to this question (Can a single mom realistically homeschool etc.?) I do not receive child support, and I am not interested in a welfare existence (been there, done that…). I have been working hard at furthering my education. Sometimes I feel very far from my connection as a parent, and I see how society is just “taking over” in the rearing of my children. I have felt so undermined as a mother. I find it exhausting to live up to my highest values as a parent (i.e. healthy eating…). In fact, since I became a “single mom” our diet has really suffered because it seems impossible to have the time and energy necessary to cook properly. I dream of living amidst nature, with far less stress, and with more time to be a better mother, according to MY values. It seems like an impossible dream. It is sad. Any comments? Thank you. Good for you for being so aware of your children and parenting. I am not a single parent, but do struggle with money issues. We have taken boarders in for extra money. Now I provide home day care for money. As others have said, it really only is a couple of hours a day for home learning, if that is the style you choose. Learning is a natural process children don’t need to be taught. Answer their questions honestly, teach them other resources like the library or the computer. Then they are learning even more avenues for knowledge. A priceless gift for your children. Meal time is very family oriented for us. My kids are 9, 7, 5 and 2 & 1/2. They all love to help prepare meals. They see I enjoy doing it so they want to get involved too. We talk about food groups, where food comes from (geography & science). What foods need to grow. We use measuring for math and double recipes (more math). We also grocery shop together and that gives them a real awareness of money and the cost of items and cost comparing. My 9 year old will tell me when something else is a better deal, if I miss it. I believe that, because of our financial position, they have learned a lot about social values too. They have learned that things are not important but people are. I try to turn everyday “chores” into fun things. I actually enjoy hanging out the laundry. I listen to music, sing to myself and enjoy the fresh air and sounds of the birds. I try to have my kids do the same. Housework goes a lot faster when you have upbeat music on and you dance while you dust and vacuum. I also realize that everyday my house does not have to look like a Country Living Magazine front cover. One place I do not scrimp is on meals. I have a lot of possible health issues that are all kept under control by being aware of the food I eat. Food is the basic building block to all of our cells and to our emotional well-being. The cook book Whole Foods for the Whole Family is excellent. It has simple recipes that are delicious. I was very ill a couple of years ago and almost hospitalized. It was then that I realized I really needed to get myself together for myself and my family. Diet change was important but paramount was attitude. I haven’t looked back since. I wish you the best in finding whatever it is you need for yourself and your children. Do not feel undermined as a mother, it sounds like mothering is very important to you, that will show through in parenting your children. How lucky your children are to have you as their mom. As your values are so important to you, share them with your children whenever you can. There comes a day when they will see something against their values and they will point it out to you. What a wonderful feeling that is. It is all worth it. Love yourself and love your children as you want them to love you back. Good Luck and keep in touch to let us know how things are going. Take Care. Web Sites on Income Issues Web Editor’s Note: [updated April 2018] — Five of the original links have been removed, as they are no longer valid. WAHM.com – The Newsletter and Online Magazine for Work at Home Moms Intervision – Canadian Youth Business Foundation On-Line fambiz.com Web Sites on Living Frugally 2013 Web Editor’s Note: All 4 original links have been removed, as they are no longer valid. You could try an internet search for “frugal living” or “voluntary simplicity” or something similar. Practical Ideas Challenge the popular advertising beliefs that drive the economic side of our culture. Newer is not necessarily better. Using recycled (used) items saves money, sustains goods that might prematurely go

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A Perception of OFTP

About OFTP Members /

Recently OFTP received a letter which elicited a lot of response from the membership on the oftp email list. It is quite possible that the views expressed are common among people considering home education as a means of choosing something besides a problem-ridden public school system. The writer, more than likely not conversant with home education philosophy, expresses concern over the following issues that are a result of reading the OFTP web site: the great amount of detail on regulation/monitoring, and personal choice of curriculum; the tendency away from structured curriculum toward putting one’’s trust into a child-centered curriculum. Questions are raised such as: ““How do you teach your children to cope with a formal setting?”” “”How do you teach your children to know how to learn from a book?” ““Is homeschooling more for children not suited to post secondary education?” The writer equates guidelines with quality control, and quality control with a successful finished product (the product in this case being a skilled worker who can compete for jobs and live with others successfully in society). The vision of life is one of a very competitive market, if not presently then certainly in the future. The thought is that an educational approach which was learner-directed would not achieve these goals. ““The other thing that concerns us is the lack of guidelines.””  ““Despite your dislike for guidelines and government curriculum, it is a reality.”” The question OFTP needs to ask itself is whether this writer’’s perception of us from our website is universal for the uninitiated parent who has little or no knowledge of home learning. The following statement is somewhat alarming as it is gained after reading our website: ““I couldn’t imagine ‘’going with the flow’’ until my child was left behind in the dust.”” Here is the writer’s original text: I, along with two other mothers are seriously considering home education.  Not because our children are being left behind, but because we felt that they would move ahead at a faster pace than they are with one teacher spread over 25 children. After reading your site it seems a bit scary! We may be a little overprotective or maybe not picking up on what you are trying to get across, but, it seems like you want to wing it with your children, and are happy with them learning to read and add as long as they have fun and pick up other more important things like what shapes we can find in the clouds?  Where does the preparation for formal education, when you can no longer just have them help cut a pie as math class? My daughter decided to be a vet when she was three and really wanted to reach that goal, I obviously can’’t teach her medical school, so how do you teach your children to cope with a formal setting. To know how to learn from a book?  Or is homeschooling more for children not suited to post secondary education. The other thing that concerns us is the lack of guidelines. What can be done if you let your child relax and learn things like reading when they are 10-12.  How does he fit in with peers? Is this fair to your child? We assumed homeschooling was a better alternative because of the individual attention each child would receive, but after reading your site, we feel like we are setting our children up for failure, a fun childhood but ultimately failure in society.  Really how many jobs are there where there is no structure and you can just do as you like all day and work when you ‘’feel’’ like it?  It almost sounds like the Montessori disaster that some children have been exposed to. Not that I am any happier with our school system, everyone (except one little girl) in our group is highly motivated and way ahead of their class, essentially bored with school.  I would really like to get a better feel for this so we will be picking up the books you recommended and hopefully it will have a different tone than the website that just seems to go on and on about no curriculum or standardized testing as guidelines for homeschooling. Personally that would make me, and it is unanimous in our group, feel much better. To know that we have taught our children so well they can compete or bypass the education level of children at the same learning stage (i.e. my 6 year old passing a typical grade 2 or 3 test) . I couldn’’t imagine ‘’going with the flow’’ until my child was left behind in the dust. Despite your dislike for guidelines and government curriculum, it is a reality and with homeschooling only making up 1% of the school age children population, one day our children will have to compete for jobs, etc. with the school-educated child. Our goal is to have them much better equipped than the school taught child.  If there is anyone in my area that you could recommend us talking with we would really appreciate any help offered. Some OFTP members chose to respond to the writer’s concerns. Here are some excerpts from their letters: Structure and lack of structure in home education curriculum, Bruce writes: “One of the great benefits of homeschooling over the school system is that you can design your program with as much or as little structure, include or exclude topics, and teach or let your children learn in whatever way you see fit. Some of your concern about the school system is probably your dislike of the fact that in school, your kids must learn a certain topic, at a certain time, in a certain way, and if your kids are ahead or behind that arbitrary schedule, it’’s too bad for them. If you homeschool your children, you determine how much structure and how much curricular material you need. There are several good curricula out there for purchase. Moreover, not all homeschoolers are completely unstructured

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Comments on Satisfactory Instruction

Homeschool /

1. As we know, inquiries can be requested by school boards and conducted by the ministry. They must be conducted under Section 24(2) of the Education Act. This allows the Provincial School Attendance Counsellor (PSAC) to appoint one or more persons who are not employees of the board that operates the school that the child in question has the right to attend. When a parent/guardian of a child has informed the school or school board that the child will not be attending school because, “the child is receiving satisfactory instruction at home or elsewhere,” Section 21(2)(a)., the child is legally “excused” from attendance at school. Thus truancy charges under Section 30 do not apply. A “satisfactory instruction” inquiry may be called when there is an opposite opinion from the parent/guardian. 2. In 1981, the Ministry of Education and Training ( MET ) issued the Johnson memorandum, “Suggested Criteria to Determine Satisfactory Instruction,” to school boards to use as a basis for formulating “home schooling” policy. It would also serve as a useful document in any subsequent inquiry. It has been used extensively to both ends. The format of inquiries have changed over the years. In the 1980’s it was common to see a three person tribunal to oversee these. To conserve costs, the MET has adopted the one person inquiry in the recent past and present practice. Nevertheless, the criteria in the Johnson memorandum have always been used and are still being used in these inquiries. 3. Of important note: neither this Johnson Memorandum nor any other document on home schooling has ever been approved by our elected officials. There is no “official” policy on home schooling in Ontario. Web Editor’s Note: This is no longer true. We now have PPM131. 4. The MET bureaucrats have not sanctioned any guidelines or approach to home schooling  other than what is found in the Johnson memorandum. 5. “Compelling Interest & Due Diligence”  These two phrases are, in effect, the same. Yes, the MET and school board officials are responsible for the education of all those between the ages of 6 and 16 in their jurisdiction. When home schooling is the option parents choose under Section 21(2)(a) and the school board is made aware of this, the school board may exercise its compelling interest/ due diligence, if it disagrees, using Section 24(2). However, the school board must treat all equally under the Charter of Rights & Freedoms. The board shall not ask more of those parents who choose home schooling versus those parents who choose private schools. All are excused under the same section of the Education Act. 6. Must all inquiries be conducted the same way? I do not know. I do know that school board and MET officials have no right to enter your home unless you invite them or unless they have a warrant from a court. Should you cooperate with them? To the extent of answering their questions honestly, yes. Should you have a witness or other representative with you when school board or MET people visit & talk to you? At least for now, yes. 7. Does OFTP provide legal counsel? Yes, Chris Corkery has agreed to act on behalf of OFTP member families requiring help. Please be advised, however, to work out a cost sharing agreement with OFTP and the lawyer.

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Homeschooling: Creating Alternatives To Education

Learning /

Editor’s note: Patrick Farenga of Holt Associates/Growing Without Schooling, presented a speech at Pennsylvania State University’s Conference, “Education and Technology: Asking the Right Questions,” in October 1997. Here are excerpts from that speech. However, to me and many people, the effectiveness of homeschooling is not measured by school test scores. Among the many reasons for this is the simple one that these tests do not cover areas outside the narrow school curriculum in which homeschooled children may be learning; schools often do not count what children can do with their days besides jump through curricular hoops. My oldest daughter, Lauren, who is now 11, spent large blocks of time over the past year learning American sign language, archaeology and dance, none of which are part of most school curricula, though they may be extra-curricular offerings in some schools. Lauren learned math, science, history, reading, writing, social skills, and more, but she learned them in the course of her pursuit of these other subjects. These skills and tools were learned and used to achieve her larger goals, rather than merely being ends in themselves. We helped by providing materials, reading to her, arranging meetings or classes with other homeschoolers, exploring museums and historical sites, as well as through a variety of private and public programs. My wife even discovered an opportunity for Lauren to spend a day at a real dig and converse freely with an archaeologist. This is how we speak of our lives to school officials, and to most people, because this is how they seem to understand homeschooling, as a program that we are administering to our children. We often don’t mention to people, especially school people, that the vast majority of time our children spend during school hours is playing with their sisters and friends or alone. Dolls, dress-ups, made-up plays, music and movies, spontaneous invented play and games, reading and conversing with us and others, solitary reflection, arguing and resolving differences, helping around the house, talking on the phone with friends. These are some of the vital parts of our children’s lives that we see makes their mental, physical and spiritual competence grow yet we cannot speak openly about them. Instead we learn to report their young lives as curricula and then get on with our lives. However, my wife and I aren’t managing child development; we are simply nurturing our children. Neil Postman notes how the concept of school-managed child development came to be: …by writing sequenced textbooks and by organizing school classes according to calendar age, schoolmasters invented, as it were, the stages of childhood. Our notions of what a child can learn or ought to learn, and at what ages, were largely derived from the concept of sequenced curriculum; that is to say, from the concept of the prerequisite. …the point is that the mastery of the alphabet and the mastery of all the skills and knowledge that were arranged to follow constituted not merely a curriculum but a definition of child development. By creating a concept of a hierarchy of knowledge and skills, adults invented the structure of child development. Homeschoolers who do not use this structure of child development discover that children learn at widely varying rates; for instance, some homeschooled children do not learn to read until they are ten or twelve, others learn at much younger ages. Some children who are labeled learning disabled in school lose that behavior when they learn outside of conventional school, indicating that, for some, the learning environment may be more toxic to learning than the child’s genes. (1) Rather than follow a teacher-proof or developmentally correct curriculum (some are marketed that way to homeschoolers) my wife and I follow our children’s interests. We think of ourselves as general contractors, subcontracting what we don’t know how to do to others, be they people, books, or other resources. If we could, we might use public school facilities, but my school district does not encourage homeschoolers to participate in local school activities. (1) Neil Postman, The Disappearance of Childhood (New York: Delacorte, 1982), pp. 45-46 Reprinted with permission of Holt Associates/Growing Without Schooling [contact info removed as no longer valid; website is now www.johnholtgws.com as of May 2013]

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A brief look at comparisons of standardized test results for home educated students and public school students.

Homeschooling in the News /

© 1998 Mary Shaw There is an assumption in Western Society that education is necessary to a higher quality of life; it is also a general belief that education and schooling are synonymous. Society also assumes that the education provided in our public schools is the best that can be experienced. A look at the results of standardized tests indicates that children taught at home by their parents perform at a higher level on such tests than their contemporaries who enjoy the benefits of traditional public schooling. Such tests are not the sole criteria in determining the efficacy of an educational program but they are a generally-accepted indicator of academic success and achievement. The first criterion in selecting research for this paper was for findings that used the same testing instrument, in this case the Stanford Achievement Test (SAT). A second criterion was for a significant sample size; in the two examined here, one had a sample of 873 home schooled children (Wartes, J.,1988) and the second, a sample of 84 home educated students (Daane, C.J. & Rakestraw J.,1989). Both studies were summarized and reported upon in educational journals and were reviewed by the researchers’ peers and other educational critics. The use of the same standardized test results allows for a ready comparison of results between two different studies, which, in this case, were from disparate areas of the U.S. It must be noted that not everyone is in agreement about the validity of such testing. The National Center for Fair and Open Testing (FairTest), an organization of parents, educators and policy makers in the United States, has expressed their concerns since 1985. Their criticisms include the contention that standardized tests are not a true measure of the strengths and weaknesses of students, that there is insufficient access to testing data for independent researchers, including evidence of test reliability, and that such tests contain racial, ethnic, gender and class biases inherent in their makeup. (FairTest: Statement of Goals and Principles, 1985). Researchers also are critical of standardized tests, claiming that those home schooling parents identified as Ideologues may spend more time on workbooks and other conventional teaching modes, which “could lead to high achievement scores, but not necessarily to well-educated people.” (Ray, 1988, p.27) For the purpose of this paper, it is not necessary to resolve the contestation; it is only worth noting insofar as the results of such studies are often the basis for government and school board policy decisions that have long-range implications for many students. The Stanford Achievement Test examines basic skills in a number of areas. Scores on individual skill areas are averaged to give a final score reported as a percentile. The tests are norm-referenced, meaning that, for all students who take the test at a given time under the same circumstances, the greatest number of individual scores will be at or around the 50th percentile, or within one Standard Deviation of it. Similarly, the mean, or average for such test results for all children would be the 50th percentile. In both studies, however, the mean scores of home schooled students were much higher than their schooled peers. Both Wartes and Rakestraw drew comparisons in skills areas of reading, language, listening, and mathematics. Wartes (1988) found the mean scores of home educated children were at the 68th percentile, with scores in science, listening vocabulary and reading reaching beyond the 70th percentile. Rakestraw (1989) also concluded that “on tests of basic skills, these home-schooled children did as well or better than children in public elementary schools in Alabama.” (page 26). Reviews of other studies using different achievement tests measuring the same skills reached similar conclusions. (Ray 1988, Mayberry 1988, 1989) An interesting note to the Washington state research was the mathematical skills test finding. Although median score of home schooled children was low in mathematical computation (42nd percentile) the median score for the same group in math application skills was a strong 65th percentile. (Wartes1988) An extensive review of this and other home schooling research was written and reported by Brian D. Ray (1988). He summarizes that, “The available evidence indicates that home school youth of compulsory education age have been scoring equal to or better than their conventional school peers” (page 25). Furthermore, he claims to have found no evidence to contradict that statement. Gene Frost, Director of Education at Chicago Research and Training, was critical of some research for the reason that two of the three studies he examined were conducted by home schooling advocacy groups. (1988) However, J. Gregory Cizek, in a paper presented to the American Educational Research Association in 1993, declared that more than half of the 19 researchers who responded to his survey had not engaged in home education themselves and that almost half maintained no interest in home education research. Do these studies have any relevance to Canadian education or is this merely an American phenomenon? Ray (1988) examined test scores from Western Australia and found similar results. He has also analyzed the performance on standardized tests of 524 Canadian homeschooled children (1994). In the Canadian study, the mean score of the home educated students, was at or above the 76th percentile with scores in a number of individual skill areas well above the 80th percentile. It is clear, from this literature, that the fact of superior performance on standardized tests by home schooled students is not an issue and that restrictions or objections to home schooling cannot be made on the basis of academic achievements. What does remain as a matter of contention is the interpretation of this data and explorations of their greater ramifications. Ray (1988) contends that “achievement scores may not tell the whole story about home education outcomes” (page 27) and that more research should be conducted. He suggests a look at the ascertaining of parent goals for their children and whether or not these goals are achieved through home schooling. He also suggests longitudinal studies of home schooled children to examine how these

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