Yearly Archives: 2011

Craig’s Blog: Schools are time wasters

Posted on by

Schools are time wasters

When I talk to people about home education, you simply cannot help but compare and contrast with the alternate product, the one most people think to use first: the state schools. One point I make is that they are horrible wasters of time.

I said for years that you could accomplish in 2 hours of focussed work at home what would take you 2 weeks to accomplish at school. Now, I have been known to resort to hyperbole on occasion. And so I would wonder, now and again, whether I was perhaps exaggerating a bit when I said this. Could I actually make a good case to support this accusation?

Please understand that I did not make this particular claim in a vacuum: I had good reasons. First off, you just know that one can do so much more in a one-on-one situation (like home education) than in a group scenario (like the classroom). Second, we fostered children for many years and heard all kinds of stories about what goes on within those hallowed halls of learning. And don’t forget, I spent 17 years of my life in state-subsidised classrooms, from Kindergarten through to gaining a BA degree. I know very well what goes on.

One of the best stories ever was the mum I met here in Palmerston North when I was a door to door salesman. She considered herself a dummy: she had to leave school at age 14 and never did any good anyway. Well, when her 10-year-old daughter got glandular fever or some such thing that forced her to stay at home for three months, the mum had no idea how her daughter would keep up. Sure, the school gave her some text books and said they’d more or less cover this and that, but the girl was ill and the mum was a “dummy.” Hoping for the best, they did a little bit in the text books each day, not much as the girl was ill. So when she went back to school after three months, the mum discovered she was a full month ahead of the rest of her class! Not surprisingly the mum, a big burly woman with a loud voice, demanded of the teacher what on earth they do each day in the classroom. She did not receive a satisfactory answer, but nothing changed either.

Anyway, when our daughter Charmagne was about 15, I asked if she’d like to spend a couple days at a school, just to see what it was like. She was horrified! But I mentioned it would be like a field trip, that she’d need to go with a friend and just tag along from class to class, and all with the permission of the school authorities, of course. No, she was not going to be enrolled! So she relaxed and saw the fun side of it. She got all the permissions and organised to meet with friends as they got off the bus as it arrived at the school, a once-private Protestant church school that had now integrated. While waiting for her friends, she, her siblings and I looked at the moon still in the sky, and I told them a bit about earth rotations, moon phases and the like. Then the bus came, her friends appeared and we waved goodbye.

At 3:15 that after noon when I picked her up, she just let out a weary sigh. “Dad,” she said, “I used to think you were exaggerating when you said one could accomplish in 2 hours at home what would take 2 weeks to do at school. But now I think you have been understating the case! I learned more in those few minutes talking about the moon this morning than I learned in all of the rest of the day. I just didn’t believe it was possible to waste so much time in a single day. But I do now.”

I rest my case.

Craig’s blog: What does it mean by “Registered School” in the NZ Education Act?

Posted on by

What does it mean by “Registered School” in the

NZ Education Act?

Because the NZ Education Act says that one who wants to home educate must “satisfy” the Ministry of Education that the child “will be taught at lease as regularly and well as in a registered school,” I always explain to enquirers what it means by “registered school.”

It means any school that exists out there in Kiwiland…all schools are registered, or else the government does not allow them to stay open. That is, we’re not just talking about government or state schools but also about any of those weird and wonderful alternative schools, church schools, integrated schools, Hare Krishna, Hindu, Muslim…you name it.

To illustrate what that meant by way of “as regularly and well as”, I would then describe what I imagined would go on at two “alternative” schools I know of down in Christchurch. Discovery I is a state school and Tamariki is an integrated private school. If Johnny bothered to turn up, a teacher would say, “Oh, Johnny, it’s so good to see you! What would you like to do today?”

Johnny: “Gidday Jim. [No such thing as a respectful “Teacher” or “Sir”…just“Jim”.] What I’d really like to do today is sit in the beanbags and watch videos.”

Jim: “Johnny…there are the bean bags…there are the videos…see you at lunch time.”

One day I was telling this story to a mum who rang for some guidance about the exemption process, and she began to laugh uproariously.

“What’s the story?” I tried to probe, a little bit wary of striking someone who just thought I was telling a whopper and was laughing at me with scorn and derision.

“I attended a school exactly like that!” she declared. “That’s just how they operate!”

“Where was that?” I asked.

“Up in Auckland,” she said.

“That wasn’t Metropolitan College, was it?”

“Yes, it was!” she replied. “How on earth did you know?”

Well, I felt doubly justified. I’d heard plenty about all three of these schools, and now here was a graduate of one of them telling me I was describing them faithfully.

Metropolitan College failed its ERO reviews eight years in a row. It was finally closed down. So when the ERO would fail a home educator, with maybe 4 children, and tell them they had to send them to school, why is it they never told Metropolitan College, with dozens of students, to close down until after most of those students had spent up to four years in the place? Shouldn’t they let home educators fail their ERO reviews for an equitable eight years running…you know, to be fair and all that.

Actually, this mum went on to say that she never saw a more accomplished group of people than her fellow Metropolitan College graduates: yes, they were all non-conformists but went on to be very successful in businesses, performing arts and entrepreneurial enterprises. Non-conformity was a value of Metropolitan, just as it is a value of all home educators (whether they consciously think so or not). It is (to a large degree) this crushing conformity which is unrelentingly imposed upon conventionally schooled children that causes me to plead with parents to rescue their children from these places of institutionalised child abuse, otherwise known as public schools.

Craig’s blog: Early Release Exemption

Posted on by

Early Release Exemption

“Hi Craig and Barbara
We are a homeschooling family, and I’ve enjoyed reading your Keystone Articles over the last few years.  Thank you.  They so often confirm things to me, when I have my doubts.
A query….our eldest turns 16 in May 2011, and we have been looking at doing a Telford Agricultural Polytechnic Correspondence Course.  It will be educating my child in the right track for the ultimate dream of an animal park or vet nursing. Am I doing the right thing by getting an exemption to ‘leave school’ early in order to slot into one of these courses in January, or is there a benefit in waiting till May.  Can we enrol in a course then and can we still get the Homeschool Allowance while my child studies since my child would then be 16.  I’m having problems trying to source this information from the MOE website, and thought you might have some greater insight into this.
Thanks for your time.”

Good questions.

The early release exemption, letting 15-year-olds get out early, is an option designed for drongos and trouble makers. Teachers under Labour last political term made too much use of this option, and so it has been pretty well closed off. You’d need to put a pretty good case to the MoE in order for them to consider it.

It is a real hassle, isn’t it, that the Polytechs generally are not allowed to enrol someone until they turn 16. You may be able to enrol your child by simply doing it and not mentioningthe child’s age…they may or may not check. This obviously is not a very satisfying way to go. However, if you can make a good case, being very insistent, the Polytech may be able to make an exception…the admission officers do have a degree of discretion and can get exemptions, if needed, from the MoE. I don’t have any idea how difficult such a move is.

Here is the deal with the home schooling allowance:

The exemption is automatically cancelled by law as soon as your child turns 16. However, the MoE will keep your child on its database as a home educator, and will continue to pay out the allowance, until the 1st of January after your child’s 19th birthday as long as you can keep signing the statutory declarations. So the question is, can your child enrol at Polytech and still get the allowance?

The MoE decided that one can enrol in the NZ Correspondence School for one or two papers (three is considered by them a full-time student) and still get the allowance. The NZ Correspondence School trades notes with the MoE, looking for home educators, so if you take three papers or more, they’ll find you out. I don’t know if they have a similar deal with any Polytech. I don’t see why not, if your child only takes one or two papers, but sadly, I’m not the one who makes the decisions. You may need to contact the MoE to get a ruling on that.

Is getting the NCEA qualification an issue for you at all? The NZ Correspondence School now gives its lessons free of charge to all 16, 17, 18 and 19 year olds so that they can study at home to get the NCEA Levels 1, 2 or 3. One does not need to get Levels 1 and 2 in order to get Level 3, but can enrol straight into Level 3 as a 16 year old…if you’d want NCEA Level 3. It is a University Entrance qualification.

If you find you’re stuck waiting until your child turns 16 and then having to wait for the Polytech’s starting date to roll around again, your child can make good use of his/her time in self-study and paid or voluntary work with vet clubs around the place…most of them are quite happy to take on genuinely interested volunteers.

Trust that helps! All the best!

In His service,
Craig Smith

Kiwis among best and worst readers: Our answer Homeschool

Posted on by

Kiwis among best and worst readers

Anahera Harris and Kimiora Nathan say books don't appeal.

Anahera Harris and Kimiora Nathan say books don’t appeal.

Kiwi pupils are both some of the best and worst readers worldwide, an OECD report suggests.

A 65-country study, comparing 475,000 15-year-olds on reading, mathematical and scientific literacy, places New Zealand fifth, fifth and 10th.

But the study, the third in an OECD triennial programme, also shows New Zealand has one of the widest gaps between the top and bottom 5 per cent of pupils – with Maori and Pasifika pupils languishing near the bottom.

The average reading performance for 15-year-olds did not change between 2000 and 2009.

Wellington High School pupils Anahera Harris and Kimiora Nathan, both 15, identified themselves as poor readers who did not enjoy reading. “[It’s] not interesting. I used to like it [but] I just got over it,” Kimiora said.

The report identifies a correlation between pupils who enjoy reading and their ability – most prominently in New Zealand.

Anahera said reading was not well taught at her school. “They do tell us to [read] but we just don’t.” She would read more if the books that were set appealed to her.

The girls said they were more interested in sport and spending time with friends than reading.

Education Minister Anne Tolley said more needed to be done to lift achievement for Kiwi pupils across the board. “There is an urgent need to lift achievement levels.”

Education Ministry curriculum manager Mary Chamberlain said New Zealand had world-leading primary school reading and reading recovery programmes.

“The majority of our young people are really well-served by the system … but we have these groups of kids and the pattern’s remained the same since 2000, that we are not doing well for.”

National standards, to be introduced into primary schools next year, would identify pupils who needed extra help with reading early on.

“If you don’t intervene early and you don’t start to accelerate their progress if they’re falling behind … then all the data shows that grows bigger over time.”

The primary school teachers’ union says the report is being used “mischievously” to justify national standards.

Institute of Education president Frances Nelson said the report showed the country was performing well ahead of others, with even the 14 per cent of New Zealand participants classified as bottom readers above the overall mean of 19 per cent.

“This is a very, very, good news report and I think it’s mischievous of the ministry to tell people it’s not.” Teachers knew who underperforming pupils were. “National standards won’t help a single jot, good teaching will help.”

INTERESTING READING

The 65-country, three-yearly report shows national and international trends:

European and Asian pupils are more likely to perform highly and Maori and Pasifika pupils are over-represented in low performance.

Compared to the eight top or high-performing countries, New Zealand has the widest range of scores between the highest 5 per cent and lowest 5 per cent performing pupils.

Girls outperform boys in every participating country. Among the top and high-performing countries, New Zealand has one of the largest differences between girls and boys.

In the 2009 report, 3 per cent fewer pupils were at the highest reading proficiency levels than in the 2000 report.

– The Dominion Post

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/4433643/Kiwis-among-best-and-worst-readers