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In the News
Home-schools gaining more students in Mississippi
This is a very encouraging news report about a regular homeschool family. Brita Wren is interviewed by WLOX News in Mississippi. ”I think I had higher expectations sometimes than the schools that they were in to begin with, that we expected them to do their best,” said Wren. “There’s no peer pressure, no bullying; there’s no busy work.” WLOX News
New law gives homeschoolers more respect, freedom
Minnesota parents who teach their children at home feel like they have received a promotion.
“The state is recognizing the validity of home education,” Lorna Cook of Willmar said of a new law that frees homeschoolers from most of the bureaucracy of old laws. “To those of us who are home educators, the statistics show that, overall for home education, parents are doing a pretty good job.” The Republican Eagle
Homeschooling: Right Choice for Your Child?
This is a great article by Fox News, with lots of interesting quotes. “I think for the parent’s perspective, research shows us it’s a better ride, but it’s not an easy ride,” says Ray. “You have to be intentional, thoughtful, humble, and talk to other people in your support group to get new ideas-it’s work, but it’s a different kind of work.” Fox Business
Des Moines teens could face pornography charges by The Associated Press Public school teens at a party shared cell phone video of classmates, and could be prosecuted for child pornography.
Firing at Garfield Stems from Nonexistent Class for Hoop Star By Mason Kelley. A Seattle Public Schools investigation found that two standout athletes were given passing grades for Spanish despite not doing any work. The incident led to the April 11 firing of Garfield athletic director Jim Valiere.
All three of these incidents were in my local area.
So, the next time someone asks you: “What about socialization?” send them this blog post.
Read “5 Things to Know About the 17-Year-Old Miss America” and read that Teresa Scanlan was homeschooled. People Magazine
Jets’ Jason Taylor was homeschooled
“More years ago than he’d care to admit, Jason Taylor was just a home-schooled kid doing some outdoor chores when he met the man who would change the course of his life.” Read more
SMARTwheel Homeschool Invention
“Tackling distracted driving is a matter of national debate, but few would expect six home-schooled children from Londonderry, N.H., to propose a solution so promising they’ve already met with President Obama and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.” Learn more
When your teen does something that makes the news, please let me know! I’d love to pass along those successes for others to see! It gives other parents great ideas for thinking outside the box.
For more information about marketing your child so they can compete for scholarships, you may want to look at my video“Getting the BIG Scholarships.” I will occasionally have a video presentation on myGold Care Clubwebsite called “College Scholarships for High School Credit” that describes how to apply for the smaller private scholarships.
Recently a website posted an article on “The World’s 15 Most Extraordinary Homeschoolers.” The people mentioned certainly aren’t ordinary. Nor are they ordinary homeschoolers.
Each of the homeschoolers on this list is highly gifted, and many are described as prodigies. Not ALL homeschoolers are highly gifted. However, homeschooling allows children of all abilities to learn at their level. Whether advanced or behind the bell curve, children who learn at their own level will learn more and learn better – and love learning as a result.
This is an interesting list, though.
1. Julian Assange: WikiLeaks
2. Margaret Atwood: Novelist, poet
3. Francis Collins: Human Genome Project
4. Erik Demaine: MIT professor, theoretician of Origami Mathematics
5. Blake Griffin: NBA Basketball
6. Jonas Brothers: entertainers
7. Akiane Kramarik: art and poetry prodigy
8. Jonathan Krohn: author and political commentator at 13
9. Joey Logano: NASCAR
10. Jedediah Purdy: author and law professor
11. Condoleezza Rice: former Secretary of State
12. Astra Taylor: film maker
13. Sunaura Taylor: activist for the disabled
14. Tim Tebow: Football player, Heisman Trophy winner
15. Sho Yano: earned a PhD at 18
What do homeschoolers have in common? One time I was speaking to legislators in Olympia, and I told them that homeschoolers have only one thing in common: they tend to be politically active for their right to homeschool. Don’t mess with homeschoolers, because we are computer savvy and we know how to get to our state capital when necessary, if our right to homeschool is threatened. Beyond that, though, all bets are off. There are a million different kinds of homeschoolers.
Are you ready to get serious about homeschooling high school? Send me anemailand let’s talk!
Have you heard about these FREE homeschool interviews? Kerry Beck is hosting interviews with some of the coolest people in the homeschool community – to get your homeschool year off to the right start!
Why is she doing this?
She knows what it is like to be in the trenches as a homeschool mom. Sometimes you need a little encouragement or a few fun tricks from experienced homeschoolers. Real homeschool parents who have real experience balancing school, family, cooking, cleaning, chauffeuring.
So, she is hosting interviews of 14 experts in the homeschooling community who have practical advice for you to get started on the right foot this year.
–>> It’s called Homeschool Super Heroes Week!
Actually, it’s the next 2 weeks of August and you can listen to the interviews each day for Free.
All you have to do is register for Homeschool Super Heroes Weekand you will have access each day to practical tips & tricks for you to start your year right.
No traveling to your state convention.
No hotel expenses.
No registration fees.
I’ll be talking to you soon during Homeschool Super Hero Week
If you are part of a local homeschool group or co-op, feel free to send them so they can listen to the interviews for free, also. http://budurl.com/hssuperheroes
To determine the winners, a three-step process was used. In Step 1, a statewide comparison was made to determine which schools were above average statistically.
According to the report: “We started by looking at reading and math results for all students on each state’s high school test.” The scores were adjusted by factoring the percentage of each school’s student body that could be classified as “economically disadvantaged (who tend to score lower)” to determine which schools were performing “better than statistical expectations.”
These measures leave me cold. Instead of all of the standardized scores and indices, how about measuring the effectiveness of high schools by the quality of graduates they produce. How many go on to pursue higher education? How many volunteer in the community? How many become contributing members of society?
It seems like we are so focused on numbers that we lose sight of the purpose of education – growing good citizens and an educated populous. And because “that which gets measured gets done,” we are in danger of producing a sterile, passionless workforce that can perform mathematics on command but can’t compete in an increasingly complex and relational world.
Besides, we all know the BEST high schools are homeschools, right?
The HomeScholar Gold Care Club will give you the comprehensive help you need tohomeschool high school.
Results from both of the major college entrance exams demonstrate that few high school seniors are well-prepared for college. The 2008 ACT, the second-most widely administered college entrance exam, demonstrated that less than a quarter of test-takers who graduated in spring of 2009 demonstrated in all subjects the skills they would need to do well in college. Just as with the SAT, ACT test-takers are a subset of all students, and should be the students most likely to succeed in college.
ACT Inc. surveys thousands of high school and college instructors about the skills students need to succeed in entry-level college courses. The ACT is intended to test these skills, and test-score cutoffs in each subject can predict whether a student has a 75% chance of earning at least a C in an introductory class in that subject. The average composite ACT score in 2008 was 21.1 out of 36. 67% of test-takers met the college-ready benchmark in English, 53% in reading, 42% in math, and 28% in science. Only 23% of students met the college-ready cutoff in all four subjects – meaning that not even one in four test-takers has a 75% chance of earning at least a C in every freshman course. (Education Week, 8-26-09) Given high levels of grade inflation over the past several decades (See Education Reporter, July 2009), a C at most schools does not demonstrate an adequate understanding of course material.
Students who took the SAT last year averaged 515 out of 800 in math, 501 out of 800 in critical reading, and 493 out of 800 in writing. The composite average score on the test was the lowest this decade, and the 510 in critical reading was the lowest since 1994. 46% of students who graduate from high school take the SAT, normally in their junior year for the purpose of college admissions. The test is designed as an objective measure of students’ academic abilities and a predictor of their success in college.
The SAT results showed a wide disparity in the scores of various racial and ethnic groups. On the math section, which shows the greatest disparity across different groups, Asian-American students scored 72 points higher than the overall average, and African-American students scored 89 points below the average. Asian-American students showed the most improvement of any racial group, with the average Asian-American test-taker scoring a 587 in math, a six-point improvement over the year before.
Both the ACT and SAT score sets look even worse in light of the billions of new dollars federal and state governments have added to education budgets in the past 25 years. “This is a nearly unrelenting tale of woe and disappointment,” said Chester E. Finn Jr. of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. “If there’s any good news here, I can’t find it.”
Gaston Caperton, president of the College Board, was able to find some good news in the fact that more students, from more diverse backgrounds, are now taking the tests. More students took the SAT in 2009 than ever before. About 40% of the 1.53 million test-takers were of minority descent, compared to just 29% of test-takers ten years ago. (Wall Street Journal, 8-26-09)
Make special note of this comment: “The SAT results showed a wide disparity in the scores of various racial and ethnic groups.” That disparity doesn’t show up among homeschooling students. Not only that, homeschoolers score in the 80th percentile on these standardized tests regardless of race, gender, parental income, parental education. Homeschooling just works better.
Check out my new profile on The Old Schoolhouse’s Speakers Bureau, and then ask you conference coordinator to invite me to come speak to your conference in 2010!
Michael Phelps has ADD – did you know that? His mother was able to take what could have been a detriment, and turned it into a huge advantage. I love this article titled “Michael Phelps’ Mom on How to Raise an ADHD Superstar.” It states that “Behind almost every ADHD success story is a devoted parent (or two).” Read the article from ADDitudemag.com
Did you read about my newsletter article about the boy homeschool graduate with learning disabilities? He went on to earn ELEVEN graduate degrees! Here is the article in USA Today.
I encourage you to find the Superhero within your own child! My husband has written a series of articles about finding the superhero your own homeschooled children. Read more!
Did you know that you can consult with me for free? This month you can call me on my toll free number, on Wednesdays between 1:00 and 2:00 pm, Pacific Time, and consult for up to 10 minutes for free. You missed me today, but call me next week! It’s fun – and free!
Once upon a time, my children went to public school. In fourth grade, they invited my son Kevin into the prestigious “Academically Capable” program. We had lots of trouble that year, but nothing so profound as the “Oregon Trail” fiasco. You may well wonder what could possibly go wrong in an Oregon trail unit study! Each student was given a family identity, and followed them through the Oregon Trial. One day the teacher told the students that they might have to fight, steal, or kill in order to get food for their families. That evening, my husband and I began to “debrief” Kevin, and explain that there are OTHER options besides breaking the Ten Commandments. The next day, the teacher again stressed situational ethics. In the evening, more debriefing. Poor Kevin, who was only in fourth grade, was so confused by the contradictory messages coming from parents and teacher! Even after I spoke to the teacher, she still stressed the importance of doing “whatever it takes” to obtain supplies on the Oregon Trail.
That was when we knew we had to homeschool our children. We could not continue to allow our children to learn messages that contradicted everything our family believes in.
Fast forward ten years. In the news yesterday was a story about the effect of situational ethics in modern young adults. Here is a link:
“Law catches up with modern-day Bonnie and Clyde … They stole credit-card and bank-account information from friends, co-workers and neighbors to finance lavish purchases and travel, prosecutors said.”
You have probably seen it on your news as well, since it made the local, national and international news. Guess what? The young man in the story – our young “Clyde” – lived five doors away from us in our old neighborhood. He attended the same elementary school and was in the same “academically capable” program. His parents are wonderful, caring, and sweet individuals. On the video clip you can see the street we lived on a few years ago. We were shocked!
But not surprised…. Why should we expect a better result when the public schools teach children that values are conditional and truth is relative?
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