 |
| SUMMIT PHOTO BY MARY LODEN
Science experiments are one thing home schooled students in the Britt Home School Group enjoy doing together twice a month. |
Staying home for an education
Home-school advocates are adamant they teach at ‘real schools'
By Mary Loden
Of The Summit
Home schooling is one of the largest growing educational alternatives in the United States.
In 1999, the National Household Educational Surveys program (NHES) revealed that 1.7 percent of all school aged children, or 850,000, in the United States were home schooled.
By 2003, that number had increased by 29 percent to 1.1 million children or 2.2 percent of the entire school age population.
Children in Winnebago and Hancock counties are part of those numbers. The reasons are many.
“Some people are weird about it. They used to say, ‘don't you want to go to a real school,' to my kids,” said Kay Johnson, a rural Leland mother who has been home schooling since 1993. “This is a real school!”
And it is. Home schoolers must meet the same state requirements as children in public schools, they just do it in a home environment and sometimes use different learning formats.
There are several reasons why a family might choose to home school their children but from a report by the NHES the primary reason was either concern about the environment of other schools or a desire to provide religious or moral instruction.
“I wanted to be the biggest influence in my kids' lives and that is hard to do when they are gone eight hours a day,” said Johnson, who has already graduated three daughters and whose son is a high school senior. “You want to instill your values all the way down to good work ethics and good morals.”
Kay and her husband Steve are both youth pastors, and they say that having their children learn from a Christian perspective was also very high on their list of requirements.
After graduating from college, Johnson said she taught at a Christian school in Minneapolis for a year and loved it, but after reading books about home schooling she knew that was the way she wanted to go when she had children of her own.
As a certified teacher she realizes that some parents home school to help their children get ahead. “My oldest daughter did two years of school in one and graduated early. It worked well for her,” she said.
“For us it was a logistics thing,” said Kim McNeese of Britt who began home schooling her children in 1997.
Their oldest child was 4 when her parents started to give the idea serious thought. Living in Oklahoma at the time, the family made nine trips back to Britt in one year and they realized how much school their child would be missing. They ended up moving back to Britt the following year, but the decision had already been made.
“We talked about Christian school but it was too expensive, home school was cheaper. But my prevailing attitude was I'll never put my kids in public school,” said McNeese, who is also a licensed teacher.
While doing her student teaching in Britt she heard the comment made, “parents are stupid, we're here to teach their kids,” she said. “No one was appalled by that but me. That was it - that pushed me out.”
Besides giving her children the best education she possibly can, McNeese said she feels home schooling is about parents taking responsibility.
“I'm there when they need discipline. I'm there when they are snotty or rude. At school you turn over that responsibility,” she said.
Students receiving their education at home must meet very strict guidelines established by the state, McNeese said, and there are three options for parents to choose from.
€ Students can be supervised by a licensed teacher, which means that teacher meets with them at least four times a year to check their progress.
€ Students can take a yearly Iowa Test of Basic Skills.
€ Parents can submit an entire year's worth of work to a certified teacher for a portfolio review.
“I supervise ourselves and several other families and I do a few portfolio reviews and submit grades,” McNeese said while Johnson chose the ITBS route, which compares a child's competency against other children in the state.
“I do not like standardized tests to prove a child has progressed. It is ridiculous to assume that every 10-year-old should be at the same level. Basic skills are so skewed. They don't really tell what kids know, “ McNeese said. “Home schoolers can move at their own pace. Ultimately, I want four competent adults that can take care of themselves and I don't care how he (youngest son) compares to another 10 year old.”
For parents who choose to go the home school route, there is virtually no limit to the curriculum available.
“There are so many home school materials - over 300 vendors. I go twice a year to conventions,” McNeese said. “It is mind-boggling that there are so many options for parents.”
Some curriculum is Christian-based; some is not. Some parents choose to use an instructional DVD led by a teacher, interactive games, satellite classes or use Internet on-line courses. Some parents do their own record keeping and some programs will keep track of a child's educational records and build a transcript for them.
“I use the same [curriculum] as the Forest City Christian school. I'm familiar with it since I subbed there,” Johnson said. “It is accelerated in a lot of ways. In math they are ahead of the public school by at least a grade level.”
She is well aware, though, that not everything can come from a textbook.
“A text book is not where you learn. When I baked, the girls were always with me and Jordan works with Steve,” Johnson said.
There is also the option of dual-enrolling a student if they are interested in extra-curricular activities. “Joanie wanted to try track so she dual-enrolled and Jamie wanted to take photography,” Johnson said.
Home schooling can sometimes be a lonely voyage, especially for someone who is just beginning, and also a bit overwhelming. There comes a time when a parent may feel they want more and that is where home school groups come into play.
While music, art and physical education are not required in Iowa, Johnson knew they were necessary for a well-rounded education and were just a fun way to break up the day.
The Britt Home School Group got started in 1991 for exactly that purpose. Soon up to five families, including the Johnsons, were meeting together once a week. When that five more than doubled they started meeting at the Britt Evangelical Free Church.
Kids were able to sing and share their music if they played the piano or an instrument and one of the mothers, a certified art instructor, led them beyond the regular arts and crafts.
The group held Thanksgiving and Christmas parties, made donations to a service organization and took a monthly field trip.
The group and what they offer have evolved since the early days. Families currently come from Britt, Garner, Klemme, Kanawha, Algona, Lake Mills, Leland, Buffalo Center, Thompson and Rake.
“We've grown now to 30 families and 100 kids,” said McNeese, who has served as the group secretary for several years now. The group meets every other Friday at the church for music and art and they have recently added elementary science. Each year they hold a Science, Culture and Art fair in March to showcase what they have learned.
Although McNeese doesn't like using textbooks much for elementary students, she said they have found a book that allows for plenty of hands-on learning as well as a Website where they can download study pages to make their own notebooks.
“This year we're doing nothing but astronomy,” said McNeese as she passed out Styrofoam balls, strings, globes and flashlights to groups of multi-aged children who were studying the hows and whys of solar eclipses.
There would definitely be advantages to teaching a child at home and one of those would be following your own schedule.
“There's pressure in home-schooling too, but not as much as trying to get everyone up, fed, out the door and in car seats to get to school on time,” said Johnson, who added that in the ministry she and her husband would often have late nights and waking early was sometimes difficult.
Even with a later start from time to time, Johnson said they were usually finished with all their studies by noon and, “when kids are excited with a subject they really love they can spend extra time to do extra things,” she said.
Fitting in vacations or day trips is no problem - just double up on lessons for a few days - and afternoons can be spent exploring options public school kids wouldn't have time for.
McNeese's oldest son spends his afternoons working with his dad in his shop.
“He rebuilt the motor in his car and four wheelers and he can change tractor rears,” she said proudly. “And he is looking at employment options he never would be able to do working with a (normal) school schedule. He has the opportunity to try and to see if he likes it or not.”
Perhaps the biggest advantage of educating a child at home is, “they grow up with a strong sense of who they are. They have a purpose in life,” Johnson said. “The kids are way more self confident because no one is telling them they are dumb and is not making fun of them. Some kids are more susceptible to stuff than others.”
Home schooling isn't the easiest option. It takes motivation and organization, but it may be the most rewarding.
“My dad was in the executive world and he was always keeping on me about the kids getting a good education. Steve's parents were worried about good morals, loving the Lord and being good workers. I had a good support base. They kept me on track and made sure I wasn't slacking,” Johnson said fondly. “Now three have graduated and my dad is so impressed. They are normal kids - good kids.”
Story created Oct 14, 2008 - 16:18:22 CDT.
|
