Home > Gwinnett > Rick Badie / My Opinion > Archives > 2008 > March > 29 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USCalifornia Reeling
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
An appeals court ruling in California that says home-schooling parents must have teaching credentials in order to educate their kids has some Gwinnett parents reeling.
“Everybody’s freaked out,” said Andrea Hermitt, a Lawrenceville mom who writes a home-school blog. “Completely freaked out.”
The Feb. 28 decision by a three-judge panel dealt with a child-welfare case. The 2nd District Court of Appeals in Los Angeles ruled that minor children must attend a public school unless they are in private school or are taught by a teacher/ tutor with a valid state teaching license, according to news reports.
In California, a campaign is under way to reverse the ruling. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he’d push for corrective legislation if it’s not overturned. The state appeals court expects to revisit the issue this summer.
Locally, home-schooling parents worry about the copy cat effect. States who see what has transpired in California might get bright ideas to adopt similar credential mandates, said Hermitt, a married mom who home-schools Jordan and Jackson.
“It might cause a ripple effect,” she said.
Georgia sets guidelines for home-school families, but none address teaching credentials.
“A parent or guardian who home schools must have a high school diploma and/or a GED, and can only teach their children,” said Dana Tofig, spokesman for the Georgia Department of Education.
The California ruling goes against the grain of parental responsibility. Mom and dad are supposed to be a child’s first teacher, whether they home-school or not.
The ruling appears even more absurd when you take education out the equation and apply it to other parental roles. Basically, it would mean that I can’t teach my son how to grill jerk chicken because I’m not a chef. I can’t teach my daughter how to parallel park because I’m not a certified driving instructor.
Credentials look good on a resume. They impress when hung on a wall. But you never know the holder’s quality and ability till it’s time to make the doughnuts.
I’ve had some really great public school teachers who earned degrees from marginal colleges. I’ve also had some drastically unfit ones who held high academic credentials and pedigree.
“Nobody, no teacher, principal or superintendent has (the complete) knowledge to teach a child,” Hermitt told me. “What a [home-schooling parent] needs is some good sense to know what they can teach, what they can’t teach, when to call somebody for help and when to join a program.”
Like Hermitt.
As the kids grew older, she realized she needed a better balance between her roles as school teacher and mom. So she enrolled the kids in the Masters Academy of Fine Arts, a private school for homeschoolers that has a Duluth location. Jordan, a sixth-grader and Jackson, an eighth-grader, attend two days a week.
“I needed to step back a little, just for the sake of our relationships,” Hermitt said. “They are performing fabulously.”
Rick Badie’s column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at 770-263-3875 or e-mail: rbadie@ajc.com.
Permalink | Comments (17) | Post your comment | Categories: Rick Badie
Comments
By Deborah Lee
March 30, 2008 7:47 AM | Link to this
This is a delicate subject. I remember a couple that took their three children out of school and they told everyone that to teach science they were going to take a tractor apart and put it back together. The other parents in the school went crazy and finally the people put their kids back into school. After my child graduated and seeing some of the teachers that he had I wish he could have taken the tractor class, he would have learned more.
By ELLE
March 30, 2008 12:28 PM | Link to this
This is truly a difficult issue. I don’t know enough about the California case to comment on the ruling.
I do know enough about home schooling / public / private schooling in Gwinnett county to comment.
There is a need to ensure that “home schooled” children are being taught, and not being abused.
You have some home schooling parents that are abusive. It is easier to hide this in a “home schooling” environment. The children are easily isolated.
There are GOOD and BAD in all. My children attended public and private.
I have several neighbors that home school. There are quite a few members of our former church that home school their children.
Our friends / neighbors seemed to have spent a great deal of time investigating which materials they would use to teach their children. Do all do this? I will bet not!
On the outside looking in, I am concerned about the children understanding or being exposed to BELIEFS other than their parents BELIEFS.
Eg. Mom / Dad says you are a sinner, their children will accept this as the gospel. They will shun you without any real discussion or understanding that this is an opinion.
The example above is one that I know personally about. Please know that the above example can work in the “home schooled”, public, or private sector.
In the public and private sector, children will have an opportunity to observe, and interact with the so called “sinners” and draw their own conclusions.
This is just my opinion based on my observations.
By Mark
March 30, 2008 12:55 PM | Link to this
I like the court ruling, and hope it trickles down to the south. Anyone stupid enough to have children are too stupid to educate them.
By Bruce Wilcox
March 30, 2008 1:05 PM | Link to this
“A parent or guardian who home schools must have a high school diploma and/or a GED, and can only teach their children,” thankfully they can only teach their own children.
There should be a higher standard set than a high school diploma or a GED even to teach your own children. Parents should be required to take and pass an intenseive course on the very basics of teaching techniques.
But I think I’m going to cash in on the home schooling craze, I’ll make bumper stickers with “My Child is a Honor Student at Home”, address will be optional at five cents a letter.
By ELLE
March 30, 2008 1:10 PM | Link to this
Sorry… I did not complete my thoughts prior to submitting above.
The point I want to make is to require “teaching credentials” or not does not deal with abuse in some “home schooling” environments.
You can have the credentials and still be a BAD teacher (home schooling, public or private).
I believe the most “home schooling” parents are doing it to provide what they believe to be the BEST teaching environment for their children.
Do you need “teaching credentials” to do this? I can’t say that “I THink that” you do.
By Michael H. Smith
March 30, 2008 3:58 PM | Link to this
The following are requirements for home study programs:
Parent or guardian must annually submit to the superintendent of the local school district a Declaration of Intent to Utilize a Home Study Program by September 1 or within 30 days after a program is established. The local school superintendent will provide a form upon request for this purpose to be returned to that office.
The declaration must include the names and ages of the students, the address where the program is located, and the dates of the school year.
Parents or guardians may teach only their own children in the home study program provided the teaching parent or guardian possesses at least a high school diploma or a general educational development (GED) equivalency diploma, but the parents or guardians may employ a tutor who holds at least a high school diploma or a general education diploma to teach such children.
The home study program must include, but is not limited to, instruction in reading, language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science.
The school year must include the equivalent of 180 days of at least 4-1/2 hours of instruction per day unless the child is physically unable to comply with this requirement.
Monthly attendance reports must be sent to the local superintendent at the end of each month. The local school superintendent will, upon request, provide the reporting forms.
Students in home study programs shall be subject to an appropriate nationally standardized testing program administered in consultation with a person trained in the administration and interpretation of norm referenced tests. The student must be evaluated at least every three years beginning at the end of the third grade. Records of such tests shall be retained.
The instructor shall write an annual progress assessment report in each required subject area for each student. These reports shall be retained for at least three years.
For additional information contact the local school superintendent, visiting teacher, attendance officer, or other designee. If further information is needed, contact the Georgia Department of Education at (404) 656-2800 or (800) 311-3627.
~
Pray tell anyone, is there a fly in this ointment?
Like, what happens when the home-schooled fail to meet the nationally standardized learning objectives or pass an appropriate nationally standardized test?
The student must be evaluated at least every three years beginning at the end of the third grade?
YIKES!
Nah, don’t worry about Cally-fornia (sic) or that District Court ruling which only pertains to said 2nd district in Los Angels.
These state requirements need greater accountability standards imposed.
By MJK
March 30, 2008 5:53 PM | Link to this
Perhaps some public and private school teachers are no better, and even worse, than some home school teachers but there is some sort of accreditation process in place to establish standards in order to make some sort of baseline determination.
Allowing parents with only a high school diploma or a GED to assume the daunting responsibility of educating children without training or accreditation standards in place seems to be a very bad idea. If these parents were only teaching their children how to make jerk chicken, parallel part, or make the dough nuts I wouldn’t be so concerned.
I think California may be leading an “industry” that is need of oversight in the right direction.
By BARRY MORSE
March 30, 2008 6:35 PM | Link to this
FREE WRITING PROGRAM FOR THE HOME SCHOOLEDWWW.THEEASYESSAY.COM IS A FREE SITE THAT MAKES PASSING THE WRITING SECTION OF THE SAT, ACT AND FCAT MUCH EASIER AND IT ONLY TAKES 5 MIN. TO LEARN.
Our concept is based on our belief that in most conversations, the majority of the conversation deals with one person telling the other person why something is true; that is, giving reasons for its validity. That is all that we ask you to do on this site, except in writing. We use the essay form because it is the most efficient form of organization available and we automate the organization so that you limit your statements to proving only the things that you have already stated were true.
www.theeasyessay.com, an automated information organization program is also of use for business reports, inter-office communications, special and rehabilitative education, as well as speech organization.
It has been taught to individuals from eight to eighty and been used from elementary education to post graduate work.
For longer papers it can automatically expand into a 17 paragraph thesis and is usable in any language.
If you find the program as effective as I believe it to be, please pass this information on to the media so that the site can get more publicity and help more people, but in any case:
PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO WHERE EVER IT CAN HELP.
By barry51
March 30, 2008 6:38 PM | Link to this
FREE WRITING PROGRAM FOR THE HOME SCHOOLEDWWW.THEEASYESSAY.COM IS A FREE SITE THAT MAKES PASSING THE WRITING SECTION OF THE SAT, ACT AND FCAT MUCH EASIER AND IT ONLY TAKES 5 MIN. TO LEARN.
Our concept is based on our belief that in most conversations, the majority of the conversation deals with one person telling the other person why something is true; that is, giving reasons for its validity. That is all that we ask you to do on this site, except in writing. We use the essay form because it is the most efficient form of organization available and we automate the organization so that you limit your statements to proving only the things that you have already stated were true.
www.theeasyessay.com, an automated information organization program is also of use for business reports, inter-office communications, special and rehabilitative education, as well as speech organization.
It has been taught to individuals from eight to eighty and been used from elementary education to post graduate work.
For longer papers it can automatically expand into a 17 paragraph thesis and is usable in any language.
If you find the program as effective as I believe it to be, please pass this information on to the media so that the site can get more publicity and help more people, but in any case:
PLEASE PASS THIS ON TO WHERE EVER IT CAN HELP.
By Paula
March 31, 2008 12:00 AM | Link to this
While I agree that there should be more accountability for homeschoolers, this should also apply to private schools. Did you know that teachers in private schools are not required to be certified, and that often private schools are not accredited? Our daughter briefly attended a very low quality, yet supposedly prestigious, private school.. where the science teacher could not even pronounce many of the words in her 6th & 7th grade lessons! We were told that the teachers were not required to be certified or even educated beyond high school, but were only required to have a “Christian testimony”. After investigating other private schools, we discovered this was not unusual among them. I am very surprised that this has not been as much an issue in the news as the homeschool regulations.
By MJK
March 31, 2008 9:48 AM | Link to this
Paula - Thanks for the clarification on the lack of certification required of private school teachers as well. I wasn’t aware and made the mistake of assuming that there was more oversight in place.
Why should only public school students be entitled to testing, standards, certification of instructors and oversight measures to try to gauge their progress? Is the progress and education home school and private school students less important?
By Michael H. Smith
March 31, 2008 12:27 PM | Link to this
Every teacher and student should undergo a yearly evaluation regardless of the type of school and corrective steps should be taken when deficiencies are discovered. It might make parents, teachers, students and teachers unions uneasy but so be it.
By LT5000
March 31, 2008 2:20 PM | Link to this
Hmm. The average homeschooled kid score about 20-25% higher than the average public school kid. So California decided the parents of homeschoolers need to have teaching credentials. Oh, the irony.
http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000010/200410250.asp
Let’s abolish the Dept of Education, the monstrosity was created by Jimmy Carter.
This strengthened the NEA, who in turn, now has churned out a few generations of idiots. Through such teaching experiments as “Sight Words” and “New Math”.
No wonder parents homeschool.
LT5000
By AHermitt
April 1, 2008 10:02 AM | Link to this
Hermitt here. The problem with some of the comments here are the same problems with the case in California. Child abuse and education oversight are being combined. They are two separate things. Abuse is more likely to be discovered by family, extended family, and neighbors than a teacher.
If family stopped looking the other way in abuse cases, then there would be alot less child deaths. There are many school children whose teachers never suspect a thing. Sending homeschooled kids to school will not protect them from child abuse.
By Jonny
April 1, 2008 1:00 PM | Link to this
As a current student of law, I have learned a few things. One of those things is California courts are a mess. A ripple effect from la la land? Yeah, and the ripple effect for medical pot is going to make it to Georgia too! And sex change operations are going to be part of medical benefits any of our cities offers. The list goes on. CA law and values are both jokes.
By Dennis
April 6, 2008 11:57 AM | Link to this
Basically, it would mean that I can’t teach my son how to grill jerk chicken because I’m not a chef. I can’t teach my daughter how to parallel park because I’m not a certified driving instructor. Rick, There is no comparison between homeschooling and teaching a basic task at home like cooking or even Math or how to balance a checkbook. Home Schooling literally replaces over 100 college graduates in 12 years of grade school that give meaning to a high school diploma or ged. And what about social skills? There should be more to home schooling than having finished high school.
By gary
June 27, 2008 10:37 AM | Link to this
Don’t home schooled kids fare better on tests? I understand the desire/need to ensure parents are able to teach all the curriculum that is asked of students these days. http://www.phoenix-life-insurance.com