The good news: New Hampshire shot down an onerous bill that would have placed draconian restrictions on homeschoolers.
The bad news: The chattering classes still look upon homeschoolers like they are aliens with three heads.
Subscribe to my RSS feedSorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
 |
I am the Director of Evangelization for the Diocese of Venice in Florida.
I began my study of the Catholic faith in 1991 as an Evangelical Protestant, converting to the Catholic Church in 1993.
I regularly speak to parish groups and other organizations on a variety of topics - contact me to schedule a talk for your group.
You can email me at eric@ericsammons.com.
So, children that are home schooled are held to a lower standard than students in public education, and the New Hampshire legislature is fine with that.
I think the point is that regulation is frequently abused and since most homeschoolers come away with as good an education as their peers (if not superior) under the current system, why introduce that temptation. I — and I imagine many homeschoolers — would have nothing against annual testing, on core subjects set at an appropriate level, but what subjects would the State decide to make compulsory? Would secular convictions and values be included in any way? And what precisely would the State propose to do if the child failed their tests?
In New Zealand (my patria), the homeschooling parent has to make an annual declaration that they are educating their child themself to at least the same standard as they would receive in the public system and then is left to do so unless challenged by an outside party. The government ran a random auditing system for years but recently did away with it — presumably because it was deemed unneccessary.
Billy,
I just wish that public school students were held to the same standard as the typical home-schooled student.