"I go to Hogwarts!" My daughter replies with a smile. This provokes a questioning glance at me, and I smile.
"She is home schooled with courses from Hogwarts Correspondence School through Owl Mail." I confirm.
Then they either look at me oddly and walk away, change the subject or start peppering me with questions. Usually they are polite and often genuinely interested. But, sometimes they are not so nice. Even some of my closest friends have been disparaging of our choices. The questions seem to fall into two categories: Home schooling in general and using Hogwarts as a curriculum. I’ll answer the general questions first, because if you don’t understand or approve of that then the Hogwarts won’t go over well either.
What is home schooling?
Home schooling encompasses all forms of educating away from a physical school, whether it is a independent study program through a public or private school or parent designed curriculum, or no set curriculum at all, just following the interests of the child. I am not an expert on styles of home schooling, but that’s my short and sweet answer. My style of home schooling is referred to as eclectic as far as I can tell. I use both sit down, scheduled activities, as well as setting up an environment with educational activities for her to explore, and watch what she is interested in and discuss it with her.
Is it legal?
I had a long term friend get furious at me that I would deprive my daughter of an education by not sending her to a public school. He said it was illegal and borderline abuse to home school. He was positive that only credentialed teachers were allowed to educate children. I don’t have a credential. I am still a few classes short of an AA. So I would be breaking the law by home schooling. But, though legal scholar he may be on other subjects, on this he was mistaken. According to the Home School Legal Defense Association, http://www.hslda.org/laws/default.asp?State=CA , home schooling can be legally done four ways.
1. Enroll in a Independent Study or home school program through your local public school district. This is the option most public school officials push if you talk to them about it. The district still gets the money they would if your child was enrolled in a standard school, but only has to employ a teacher for a few hrs per child per month depending on the age and the program. They are free to the parents for the most part though. Some assign the curriculum but allow the child to go at their own speed, some just peruse the parent’s curriculum to assure that it follows the state’s and leave the parents to actually plan, assign, and correct the work. They usually have some sort of resources available to assist the parents such as textbook, video, recording or other curriculum library, extra curricular activities, field trips, possibly even a group.
2. Enroll in a private school with an Independent Study or Home school program.
These vary as much as the local public school programs only often with less support for the parents. These programs cost and the cost varies. They are based all over the country and you are not required to attend one in your own state. Schoolwork is sent through the USPS or through email, completed and sent back or in some cases parents grade it and send a end of the semester or end of the year note to the school. Some have chat room or email support, some have small local groups that gather for field trips.
3. Employ a private tutor. You can hire a credentialed teacher to teach your
children. They must teach your child 3 hours a day for 175 days over the year for this to be considered legal. They must keep up, academically, with the local public schools, but can go about that as the parents and tutor see fit.
4. You can file as a private school yourself. You must send in an affidavit
between October 1st and 15th each year to declare that you “are capable of teaching” the children you teach. You must keep an attendance record, but that’s about it.
Doesn’t it drive you crazy to spend all day with your child?
Sometimes, yes, but most of the time we have a grand time. But I have worked with kids in Childcare centers and nurseries all my life. And while those kids go home at night (or I do when I was a nanny), my daughter is always around. But, I can send her to her room to play. I can turn on a video. Sometimes I can do something in another room while she reads, plays or studies if I am needing some time away. And as my husband and some of my friends can attest I sometimes will call to “talk to an adult” if it gets too bad. I usually only need fifteen or twenty minutes away to recharge my batteries. . At least so far I get an hour or two while she naps, (yes she naps at nearly six years). Even if she doesn’t sleep, which is rare, I tell her she needs to be quiet for an hour in her room.
What do you do all day?
We snuggle and watch PBS. We do some of her school activities, like practicing this week’s spelling on my back. She does some on her own. We go for walks. We visit kid friendly attractions, (Tech museum, children’s museum, parks) when other kids are in school so we don’t have the crowds. There are some home school groups around and go play in the park with them. We are looking into getting her in ballet, gymnastics or swim classes soon, but haven’t yet.
What about socialization?
There are home school groups that meat in nearby parks or at the library or other places. There are field trip groups that organize trips to educational sites. There are classes at the community center or through other resources. And is public school really the socialization I want for her anyway? No. She can do without the stigmatization, ridicule, cliques, peer pressure, and other negative influences. I won’t worry about another kid bringing a gun to school, or a knife or bomb. I won’t have to worry about someone snatching her from school property like has happened twice in the greater bay area in the last few weeks. Her friends share our values and I know their parents and we all know our children are behaving and safe.
Why do you do it?
We chose to home school for several reasons, The main ones are I had a lousy school life, My husband had a lousy school life and what I have seen of today’s schools, I am very concerned.
I had very little positive experiences in public school. Most of what I learned, I learned on my own. I had few friends. I got labeled early as a trouble maker because my father sued the school and my mother was, (and still is), unable to get anywhere on time. I was bored and got into trouble because I had nothing better to do.
My husband was also bored in school. He has a discipline letter from his Kindergarten teacher saying he was caught reading the Wall Street Journal in class again. He aced tests but, slept through class. He had a horrible GPA because he never did homework, but not bad enough to fail. If he were in school now he would have been expelled if not arrested as he was interviewed by the Department of Defense in jr. high and voted most likely to blow up a building in high school.
I’ve talked to neighbor kids who don’t know the city they live in, or address at 8. They count on their fingers to do simple equations. Art, music and many other subjects have been cut or cut back on. School libraries are closing. More and more activities are being banned from schools “for the children’s own good”. Competitive games like Tag are not allowed because there is “physical and emotional” risks to the children. I found high school sports teams who couldn’t make change at a fund raiser, but hey neither could their coach. I have talked to teens who can’t wear hats of any kind or blue jeans to school because “they may be gang signifiers”. In her school the not only had fire and earthquake drills, but shooting drills where they sit quietly on the floor and put a sign on the door saying “All Safe”. And that was in a very wealthy community .
I also am seeing more and more kids being “diagnosed” in public schools. In the past fifteen years, working in child care, I have gone from not having heard of ADD or ADHD to having every boy in public school I’ve had talked to having been tested for it, and most being medicated. Behavior that I have always been told is just “boy behavior” is now being medicated. Talking cure, http://www.talkingcure.com/archives.asp?id=133, talks about the rise in the use of mental health drugs in public schools, the studies done on results of such medications, and other issues. A less publicized trend is the decline of physical Education in public schools. The SF Chronicle had an article about schools not doing the required twenty minutes fn PE per day required by law, http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/08/BAG46JAKDG1.DTL. And there is a whole underground campaign that has gained momentum due to cartoon network’s interest to save recess as 40%of schools either have or are considering cutting recess, http://www.rescuingrecess.com/. OK, skimping on PE, cutting recess, and they wonder why kids can’t sit still and focus without medication, and the child obesity rates are sky rocketing.
(stepping down from soap box, sheepishly)
