Korean Job Discussion Forums

[igotthisguitar]

Criminalizing Home Schoolers
By KRISTIN KLOBERDANZ/MODESTO
Sat Mar 8, 9:45 AM ET

Parents of the approximately 200,000 home-schooled children in California are reeling from the possibility that they may have to shutter their classrooms
- and go back to school themselves - if they want to continue teaching their own kids.

On Feb. 28, Judge H. Walter Croskey of the Second District Court of Appeals in Los Angeles ruled that children ages six to 18 may be taught only by credentialed teachers in public or private schools - or at home by Mom and Dad, but only if they have a teaching degree.

Citing state law that goes back to the early 1950s, Croskey declared that "California courts have held that under provisions in the Education Code, parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children."

Furthermore, the judge wrote, if instructors teach without credentials they will be subject to criminal action.

MORE ...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20080308/us_time/criminalizinghomeschoolers
;_ylt=AjCfy2zVzPLOqFQvxsyyl2MDW7oF

[Big_Bird]

Fair enough in some ways. Lots of kids might be getting sh.ort-changed by their not-too-bright parents.

[igotthisguitar]

The public school system indoctrinates, stymies truth-seeking, promotes thought-control & exposes children to many unhealthy cultural influences.

While i'm hardly surprised, criminalizing home schooling is all too sinister.

[Ya-ta Boy]

[nicholas_chiasson]

-So your argument is that if your Kids are going to be brain washed better the state than the parents?

[Ya-ta Boy]

In a public school education, a student will be exposed to several dozen adult minds, some of whom will have new points of view. In addition, a student will be exposed to classmates who have a divergent point of view.

How much variation of viewpoint will a home schooled kid get?

[mistermasan]

are home schoolers still banned from the nationl spelling bee after winning it consecutively for several years?

[dogbert]

A travesty.

[JMO]

So a child needed to be taught by a qualified teacher. Seems fair.

[mithridates]

Let's put the shoe on the other foot. You're raising your child in Korea and are teaching him/her in English and maybe French (let's say you're from Quebec) because you'll be going back to Canada in ten years or so after you've purchased a house. Next year the Korean government mandates that your child has to go to their school and that means mandatory English classes taught by a dude that can't speak English to save his life and wields a mean switch. Plus weekly activities on how to save Dokdo from Japan. Good?

[JMO]

[Kuros]

Okay, I decided to look this case up. The reporting is rather infuriating.

Listen, the Education Code mandates that a child must attend some sort of schooling. The parent may teach the child PROVIDED he/she has a valid state license. I do not find this to be too controversial. In modern times, an untrained parent probably does not have all the educational expertise needed to train his/her children in all the areas the children need to be proficient in. For me, it falls on how restrictive and difficult it would be for parents to receive the license.

Note that in the case itself, one of the reasons the father cited against having the children educated in school was fear of exposure to 'snitches.'

Note that a previous dependency court decided that the home-schooling the children had received was "lousy" and "meager." Even then, the original court did not force the children to be enrolled in school. Nevertheless, California case law suggests that the actual education received does not bear on decisions, and the 2nd District mandated that home-schoolers must comply with the law, whether or not they try to establish that the home-schooling itself is adequate or inadequate.

Of course, the parents argued that their religious beliefs prevented them from sending their children to school. Interestingly, California provides this exception for the Amish, reasoning that the interests of the Amish community and the training that may be provided by the Amish for their children would be better served by an exemption. But here's the thing: the law allows the court to carve their own exceptions.

My guess is that this will go to the Supreme Court of California.

[wannago]

Is it too much to ask the state to look at this on a case-by-case basis?

In the place where I taught public school in the States, the home-schooling families got together for their own "social" gatherings, athletic events, music ensembles, etc. so your arguments about socializing with other kids just doesn't cut it. Frankly, these folks don't want to put their kids in the public schools and expose them to all of the crap that comes with putting your kids under the sway of a bunch of godless, moral relativist idiots...and I certainly don't blame them.

Before you get your panties in a wad, no, not all public school employees are godless and moral relativist but an increasing number are and I can't blame people who want to turn their back on a public school system that is a train wreck.

Also, I've seen many, many home-schooled kids kick the holy living shit out of public school kids academically so the whole argument about home-schooling being an inferior education gets flushed as well.

Why can't the government let people educate their own kids? This is just another step in the government becoming a nanny rather than doing the job it was originally designed to do.

[Kuros]

[Ya-ta Boy]

I don't object to home schooling. As a classroom teacher, I'd far rather have the religious nuts keep their kid at home, rather than send him to me and give me one more thing to worry about. Have you ever thought what it is like to teach Ancient History and get to the chapter on Israel? Do you really want to have to deal with God bringing down the walls of Jericho and the other miracles?

I always enjoy comments like wannago's. Of course some parents are capable of teaching their kids and can drag up some home schooler who won a spelling bee. Whoopee. What about the other 95% of the home schooled? Kids do have a right to an adequate education and it is the state's responsibility to see that the parents are capable of delivering it.

Many Koreans have the idea that 'anyone' can teach. Many of you have worked with people who demonstrate the fallacy of that point of view. Even with the programmed texts available to English teachers and home schoolers, not everyone can do it.

Another aspect of this is who can afford to home school? It's an option that is out of reach for many families.

Without bringing up the extremes as examples of the typical, are public schools really train wrecks?