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Is this illegal?
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Posted 26 weeks 3 days ago
Has home schooling just been outlawed in California?
The news certainly seems alarming to home schooling families across the political spectrum: A California appeals court has ruled that parents need a teaching credential in order to home school their children. But critics say that breathless coverage misinterprets the court, which they say actually deals with obscure rules governing charter schools.
Is home schooling a right or a privilege? Or is this issue a bunch of fuss over very little?
Thoughts
Home schooling has both
Submitted on August 12th, 2008 by AnonymousHome schooling has both advantages and disadvantages. Of course the kid needs company and needs break to play with other children, but with home schooling at least you can see for sure how he is teach, and you have a safety net in this case. And if you want to teach him a little business read this disc mojo review.
credentials
Submitted on March 8th, 2008 by AnonymousSeems odd that the parents without credentials are good enough to teach the kid when they come with 2-3 hours of homework after they spent all day in a public school. Home school the kid learns more in less time. This is unreal, what's next?
Credentializing Thought: The Real Reasons They Ban Homeschooling
Submitted on March 7th, 2008 by Chuck_JohnsonThe latest battle in the fight for homeschooling rights had an opening salvo today. I would bet on this issue working its way up to the State Supreme Court quickly. There are potentially 166,000 parents who have become criminals by this decision.
I take Ed Whelan's view of the whole situation: that the correct remedy is statutory, not through the courts.
This strategy might be best for the homeschooling supporters, who, tied to religious groups and politicians might have the right to pressure to get the legislation they want, but is it best for California?
Why should parents have to fight in the Courtroom or at the ballot box for the ability to decide what's best for their child?
The ruling in this case suggests that parents must get credentials to educate their own kids. What's next? Making them get licensed to have children?
In part, this decision should have been predictable. Whereas we once required lawyers to study Blackstone and take the bar, we now require attorneys to go to law school. The costs for all of us are enormous.
So too do the credential nuts want to take away education from the "amateurs" or the "religious." Little do they understand that the greatest teachers never had credentials. Would these credential supporters require Socrates or Jesus to get a license?
Of course they would.
But surely the right to decide what's best for your family precedes the artificial bureaucratization of education.
Chuck Johnson is a student at Claremont McKenna College. Feel free to contact him.
Chuck Johnson is a student at Claremont McKenna College. Feel free to contact him.
Credentials might be overrated
Submitted on March 7th, 2008 by BenResist the cult of specialization. We don't require credentials for parenting -- and God forbid we ever should -- why should we require credentials for teaching reading, writing and arithmetic? You could make an argument for credentialing teachers in advanced subjects, I suppose. But even then I would be reluctant to bar an expert in a field -- physics, say, or mathematics -- from teaching high school kids simply because he didn't sit through a year of tedious courses on "the theory and practice of pedagogy" or "John Dewey 101."
I haven't covered education policy as closely as I did in the 1990s, but it was clear in those heady days before No Child Left Behind enshrined credentialing in federal law, that a teaching credential was no guarantee of good teaching. I'd recommend "Ed School Follies," by Rita Kramer for the comprehensive case against credentialing and why education schools are an oxymoron.
homeschooling
Submitted on March 7th, 2008 by AnonymousIf you want to home school your child, you ought to be expected to gain at least a minimum level of higher education yourself. I see no problem with requiring parents that want to homeschool to gain some sort of teaching credentials.
** as freedom fries **
Submitted on March 7th, 2008 by AnonymousI will defend to the death my Christian God given right to raise my child to be as ignorant as I am. Also, I am anti-union. And, I shop at Wal-Mart.