This article is worth reading by Kylie Smith

Photo: Shutterstock

Our current models are as dusty and broken. They’re too expensive, they’re too rigid, they don’t meet the needs of the students and they waste massive amounts of time.

We created an assembly-line system meant to churn out assembly-line workers, writes law professor Glenn Reynolds in his book “The New School: How the Information Age Will Save American Education from Itself” (Encounter Books). The bell rings, you move to where the schedule puts you, the bell rings again, you do as you’re told. Everyone gets processed in the same way, and at the end of the line you emerge with a certificate of quality.

“How many 19th century business models do you see flourishing, here in the 21st?” asks Reynolds.

Education must now do more than create factory workers, yet it remains one of the few areas of life almost untouched by technology (apart from dopey ideas to give iPads to kids). Why can’t school be as individually tailored to your needs as your computer’s desktop? And why, in an age in which more and more luxuries become affordable, does schooling keep getting more expensive (outpacing even the growth of health-care spending) even as test scores remain roughly flat?

New solutions are already here. Reynolds points out that his teen daughter calculated that, of every eight hours spent in school, only about 2¹/2 was actually spent learning, with the rest being wasted on DARE lectures and other nonacademic activities. She enrolled in an online high school, graduated at 16 and was accepted at a selective university. Meanwhile, the flexibility of her schedule allowed her to hold down a good job — researching and writing for programs shown on the Biography Channel and A&E.

Spending less time with fellow teens and more with adults is likely to be an instructive process. We think of teenagers as products of biology — they act that way because of their raging hormones — but really they’re a social construct. Teens spend bored years sheltered from reality (in California, you can’t even get a paper route until you’re 18) and herded together with others the same age. Popularity with peers may depend on engaging in risky behaviors like drug-taking and early sex.

A hundred years ago, we didn’t have “teenagers” — we had young adults and apprentices who were expected to produce, not just consume, and contributed a third of family income. Young people mostly were surrounded by adults and learned adult values and habits like punctuality and responsibility.

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Jane Hope with her children, Miriam, Sally and Caleb. Picture: Lawrence Pinder. Leader

THE number of children being homeschooled in Victoria is skyrocketing, yet unlike other states, there are no checks in place here to monitor standards.

And the Victorian Department of Education’s senior media officer, Stuart Teather, is refusing to comment on whether safeguards would be implemented in the future, saying only that all complaints were followed up to ensure children received “appropriate education”.

Would you homeschool your child, and should there be checks in place to ensure it is being done properly? Tell us below – (Here:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/east/more-children-being-homeschooled/story-fngnvlxu-1226620651388)

Between 2008 and 2012, the number of Victorian children registered to be homeschooled almost doubled, according to the Government’s Victorian Registration & Qualifications Authority.

Numbers jumped from 1829 children in 2008 to 3435 children last year.

Since 2011, the number of homeschooled children has increased by about 10 per cent each year.

In the Queensland homeschool system, annual reports with samples of the child’s work must be submitted to the Government’s Homeschool Education Unit to log their progress.

In NSW, before a parent’s registration to homeschool is accepted, an education official visits the home and assesses documentation showing how the child will be schooled. Applications can be rejected if they are deemed unsatisfactory.

In Victoria, these checks do not exist.

Instead, parents are only required to register their children and sign a yearly commitment form.

“It is a requirement of registration that parents must commit to providing regular and efficient instruction that substantially addresses eight learning areas,” Mr Teather said…

Social children prove critics wrongGEMBROOK homeschooling mum Jane Hope laughs when asked whether her three children are socialised enough.

“Anyone who thought homeschooling meant that children were not socialised properly would change their minds if they met my kids, who are very confident and happy,” she said.

Mrs Hope said she was not “anti-school” but felt strongly that a homeschooling environment was ideal for Caleb, 10, Miriam, 8, and Sally, 3.

She said her husband Steve, who worked full time, was also involved with the children’s education.

Mrs Hope has homeschooled since Caleb was 3 1/2 years old and said a typical day could include cooking lessons, gardening, history and excursions.

“I start the children’s day with 45 minutes each of book work – reading, writing, spelling – and I like that so I can look at what they are doing.”

Mrs Hope said she interacted with other homeschooling families and friends several times a week and operated on an “education barter system”.

A Portuguese speaker, Mrs Hope said she would take groups for language lessons at the family’s 9ha property and then another parent might cook the family dinner or teach her children to sew.

“I always look at what is successful for my children and what their interests are and tailor their learning.”

Mrs Hope said she wanted to homeschool her children through secondary school but would take a “wait and see” approach.

Caleb said he was curious to experience a traditional classroom setting but loved the way he learned.

Nothing but praise for homeschooling

SELF-DISCIPLINE, self-motivated learning – and cheap holidays – are major perks of homeschooling.

That’s according to Wantirna mother of three Janet Himstedt, who has been homeschooling her children for the past six years.

Although they are primary-school aged, she fully intends to homeschool them until they are 18.

Mrs Himstedt discovered homeschooling after moving to Thailand, where the only other option her family faced was international schools.

When the Leader visited the Himstedts’ home it was a hive of activity.

Jada, 12, was at the piano learning scales.

Haven, 7, was at her laptop in the “school room” surrounded by books, charts and a skeleton affectionately known as Billy Bones.

And in the backyard, Tia, 9, was at recess, playing by herself.

Mrs Himstedt, who is not a qualified teacher, does not follow a set curriculum but formulates her own, depending on her children’s interests and needs.

She pulls together lesson plans from both the US and Australia.

Subjects are often taught online or through a video.

The girls meet up with other homeschooled children as part of a group called the Melbourne East Co-op, which is a support group for homeschool parents and their children.

Here they take classes such as sport, dance or music.

There are more than 50 families on the MEC waiting list.

With homeschooling comes the flexibility of class time and term time.

To read the rest of the article and to comment please go to: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/east/more-children-being-homeschooled/story-fngnvlxu-1226620651388

• Malcolm Smith Posted at 1:22 PM April 17, 2013

  Come on. Australian universities run new entrants programs because apparently 12 years / 6 hours a day of public school is not enough for them to learn basic grammar. How about we fix the public schools first? Most home-school families make a significant sacrifice in their income for many, many years so they can educate their own children and provide what they consider to be a better education. Sending children to school is by far the easier option, and those who choose a far more difficult road should not be held to account by a system that doesn’t have their own back yard in order: One in four Year 4 students struggle to understand what they read. Almost one in three Year 4 students canâ??t apply what they have learnt in maths.

• Susan Wight of Australia Posted at 11:15 AM April 17, 2013

  Home education exposes children to the real world more than school does. Nobody cares about children like their parents do so they don’t need checking up on

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  From the Smiths:

  https://hef.org.nz/2011/craig-smith-26-january-1951-to-30-september-2011/

  Updated 2 February 2013:  One year on (Craig Smith’s Health) page 7 click here

  *****

  Needing help for your home schooling journey:

  https://hef.org.nz/2011/needing-help-for-your-home-schooling-journey-2/

  And

  Here are a couple of links to get you started home schooling:

  https://hef.org.nz/getting-started-2/

  and

  https://hef.org.nz/exemptions/

  This link is motivational: https://hef.org.nz/2012/home-schooling-what-is-it-all-about/

  Exemption Form online: https://hef.org.nz/2012/home-schooling-exemption-form-now-online/

  Coming Events: https://hef.org.nz/2013/some-coming-events-for-home-education-during-2013-2/

  Beneficiaries: https://hef.org.nz/2013/where-to-for-beneficiary-families-now-that-the-social-security-benefit-categories-and-work-focus-amendment-bill-has-passed-its-third-reading/

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

Ben Johnson : May 8, 2012 : LifeSiteNews.com

“That’s huge. Having the support of the Vatican ambassador will be invaluable to the homeschool movement.” -Jeremiah Lorrig, HSLDA

(Turtle Bay, NY)—In a significant victory for parental rights worldwide, a Vatican representative said all parents have the right to homeschool their children.

“The State should respect the choices that parents make for their children and avoid attempts at ideological indoctrination,” the permanent observer mission of the Holy See to the United Nations wrote in a statement released on April 24.

Parents, it said, “have the right and duty to choose schools inclusive of homeschooling, and they must possess the freedom to do so, which in turn, must be respected and facilitated by the State.”

“That’s huge,” said Jeremiah Lorrig, director of media relations at the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA). “Having the support of the Vatican ambassador will be invaluable to the homeschool movement.”

“It’s a constant tug-of-war between homeschool liberty and the desire to control parents,” Lorrig said.

Read Full Story…

Pals … but kids told to form groups

By HARRY HAWKINS

Published: 19th March 2012

Instead, the primary pupils are being encouraged to play in large groups.

Educational psychologist Gaynor Sbuttoni said the policy has been used at schools in Kingston, South West London, and Surrey.

She added: “I have noticed that teachers tell children they shouldn’t have a best friend and that everyone should play together.

“They are doing it because they want to save the child the pain of splitting up from their best friend. But it is natural for some children to want a best friend. If they break up, they have to feel the pain because they’re learning to deal with it.”

Russell Hobby, of the National Association of Head Teachers, confirmed some schools were adopting best-friend bans.

He said: “I don’t think it is widespread but it is clearly happening. It seems bizarre.

“I don’t see how you can stop people from forming close friendships. We make and lose friends throughout our lives.” The Campaign for Real Education, which wants more parental choice in state education, said the “ridiculous” policy was robbing children of their childhood.

Spokesman Chris McGovern added: “Children take things very seriously and if you tell them they can’t have a best friend it can be seriously damaging to them. They need to learn about relationships.”

h.hawkins@the-sun.co.uk

myView (Deidre)

By DEIDRE SANDERS, Sun Agony Aunt

THIS policy doesn’t just fly in the face of common sense, it’s chilling.

Our childhood friendships are how we begin to learn about love and commitment. Of course they often break up, and that is how we learn resilience so we can cope with rejection later.

Such a ruling has stemmed from teachers lacking confidence and skills to deal with the fall-out from classmates’ rows. But seeing teachers — and parents — cope calmly with conflict and hurt is what our children model themselves on.

Read more here: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4203460/Schools-ban-children-making-best-friends.html