I am not sure where my daughter falls on the spectrum, but has some severe learning disabilities, and we plan to homeschool her in about 1.5 years. However, this court ruling just came out, and I thought it might be relevant to some parents here.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg....DTL&tsp=1
The ruling by the Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles said all children ages 6 to 18 must attend public or private school full-time until graduation from high school or be tutored at home by a credentialed teacher.
The ruling: To view the ruling by the Second District Court of Appeal, go to links.sfgate.com/ZCQR.
Do they have homeschooling out there in CA? Do you have Cyber Schools? I know PA is at the forefront with them. Hrick attends a Cyberschool. We receive his coursework through an accredited program, for us the University of Missouri. There is a special Education teacher that oversees and I adapt his materials and teach him on a daily basis at home. Students also have the option of self teaching or attending virtual classrooms taught by certified teachers (their choice) and lessons are submitted to school program for grading. The system has enabled us to give him the individualized education program he needed to continue to succeed in learning. He remains on par with what would be his regular education classmates. Without the Cyber program he would have been stuck learning in a special education classroom somewhere, having to receive a limited education because the teacher would never have been able to provide the daily accomadations/adaptations required. If you don't mind investing the time and actually know what your child needs to learn efficiently, I'd highly recommend it as an option.
They do currently have homeschooling here, you have many choices, from what I have found...
1) You can work with a CyberSchool
2) You can work through a local public school through their homeschooling program
3) You can choose to start your own private school, which can just be your kids with you teaching them, you just have to file with the state yearly
4) You can have a full time credentialed tutor
This ruling, however, takes all but the last option, and eliminates them. We will have to see what the lawmakers do with the ruling, but it throws into a complete mess of chaos our long term plans for homeschooling our daughter and the potential child we would still like to have.
Just wanted to get the word out there. I think that California homeschololing parents should join a Homeschooling rights group or three.
Korrigan
Do they have homeschooling out there in CA? Do you have Cyber Schools? I know PA is at the forefront with them. Hrick attends a Cyberschool. We receive his coursework through an accredited program, for us the University of Missouri. There is a special Education teacher that oversees and I adapt his materials and teach him on a daily basis at home. Students also have the option of self teaching or attending virtual classrooms taught by certified teachers (their choice) and lessons are submitted to school program for grading. The system has enabled us to give him the individualized education program he needed to continue to succeed in learning. He remains on par with what would be his regular education classmates. Without the Cyber program he would have been stuck learning in a special education classroom somewhere, having to receive a limited education because the teacher would never have been able to provide the daily accomadations/adaptations required. If you don't mind investing the time and actually know what your child needs to learn efficiently, I'd highly recommend it as an option.
Completely unrelated, but this comment on the 2nd page of the original link cracked me up...
smi2le wrote:
I ain't gonna send my kids to no public school. I'll learn em at home.
I do hope said poster typed in irony lol
My mum heard this old woman on the bus say something similar once.
"they ought to learn that Jade Goody to talk proper"
Like what we do.
Korrigan, there has been a lot of discussion about this case at another forum, and the key thing to remember is that there was a level of abuse involved in that home. The judge is basically telling the parents that they don't have an unmitigated constitutional right to homeschool, and that they need to agree to conditions that social services and the children's appointed lawyer have requested, if they want to keep their children. This was a case of parents choosing to homeschool because they wanted to force their own views on their children, and keep them from being exposed to ideas they disagreed with, which constrasts greatly with parents home schooling Aspie children because the child is unable to thrive in a classroom setting. I think Aspie parents should be able to distinguish their situations from the case and argue that the ruling does not apply.
Because of all the clamor, the governor has stepped in and suggested that the state establish some guidelines for home schooling, and that he most definitely wants the option to remain viable, without the requirement of credentialling. I personally think that is a very reasonable position, and the parents of Aspies I have heard from agree that some regulation or accountability is probably a good thing. The homeschooling organizations, which tend to be made up mostly of the value's based homeschoolers, oppose the idea, because they are worried it would infringe upon their freedom.
It is a good discussion to have, however. As someone pointed out, in the Los Angeles case, if the children had been going to school, a teacher would have spotted the signs of abuse and it would have been halted a long time ago. By home-schooling their children, they isolated them to the point of having no protection for the childrens' rights at all.
Yeah, I noticed that part about the Longs - I didn't know if it was my lefty ideas taking the hump at the whiff of homophobia in the household or not. Incidentally I don't see why anyone would pull their kid out of public school because they don't want them to learn about evolution. Thats kinda scary. If you said that in the UK, you'd be laughed at.
I personally prefer the idea of homeschooling because I have no faith in comprehensive (public) education systems. If I had the money, I'd send my kids to private school.
To me if you want your kids to get a good education, it involves teaching them about things that may go against your morals... but allowing them to develop enough intelligence that they can make their own reasonable judgements. I'd rather my kids questioned my moral values/politics rather than just believing anything I told them.
You would be surprised at how many families in the US pull their children out of public school because they don't want them taught about evolution. Then many more allow it to be taught, but teach against it at home. It has always seemed odd to me, because my Catholic faith allows evolution to co-exist with the Bible (they simply emphasize that it is all God-driven), but that is the way it is.
I agree with you, that education should challenge ideas and assumptions - that is part of learning to think. Alas, there is a huge percentage in this country that disagrees, and is very threatened by that concept.