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Saturday, March 29, 2008
California 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.
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