Some comments on home schooling in general. First, it doesn't necessarily mean "parent" schooling, just not institutionally directed schooling. My children (long since grown and through college) were homeschooled for part of there learning years, and several homeschooling families organized to provide "specialists" to teach interested students in specific fields. I taught math, physics, and computers, and my students did well - partly because I really was proficient in those areas, partly because I enjoyed those areas, but mostly because the students choose to study the subjects at that time.

That leads to my second comment about homeschooling: although a sizeable number of parents choose homeschooling for religious reasons, many parents become aware that their children do not necessarily do well when math is taught from 10:25am to 11:05am whether you like it or not (except for tuesday when the entire class walks to the music room to sing whether they like it or not!) Most real-world students get interested in a subject and want to immerse themselves it in for a while. The current subject might be astronomy or cooking or reading or painting. Most of us accept that you cannot cook anything in 35 minutes, and that 9:20 in the morning might not be the best time to cook! Public (or private) schools simply cannot support focused learning like that. Parents decide on homeschooling so their children can concentrate on what excites them, believing (sometimes with some nudging) their children will get a well-rounded education over time, but that it isn't necessary that their education be rounded every single day (or week, or month).

The third point brings in education facilities such as the one that has gotten your attention. Many parents are very open to getting educational input from organized facilities, as long as the facility doesn't try to run the whole show. Many school districts have set up a small unit, staffed with teachers, to work with homeschooling families. Personally, I think this is a very efficient way to help students learn!

Pete

www.homeschoolisolatinginvisible torture.com

If you didn't experience a great deal of isolating as a child for many years, then you didn't learn the mental torture home school children all experience.

Why not simply rewrite the laws so that homeschoolers don't test, don't receive state funding, and are free to teach their kids in whatever way is deemed appropriate? Let's look at the facts here...homeschooled children perform better in college testing than their public schooled peers, they often work at a level one or two years above their peers, and they know how to learn independant of a school (forced) environment. They are literally sought after by the top universities in this country. So obviously something they are doing is working, why not just let them alone to continue loving and teaching their kids?

I just looked at Mr. Shearer website. He has his opinion. And we have ours! This will be our 2nd yr homeschooling our son. He will be in the 5th grade. I could not stand by and watch him pushed to the side at public schools any longer. My son has hearing loss which requires the use of hearing aides. He also has CAPD (central auditory processing disorder). Between the so called peers at the public school teasing him, not wanting to play with him, taking his hearing aides from him and hiding them, teachers not doing anything about that, and watching him sit alone on the playground because nobody wanting to play with him because of his size (for his age, tall and big boned). We pulled him out of public school. He is a lot happier now. Likes to learn now. Yes, he does have interaction with other kids that are homeschooled and they treat him alot better and are more understanding to his disabilities.

Re homeschooling as "torture" or "child abuse," you might ask my children how "isolated" or "abused" they feel. We were driving home from a play rehearsal not long ago, and my daughter, age 11, was enumerating all the children of various ages whom she knows and considers friends, in (and out) of schools all over the city, just through her involvement in the theatre. "You know," she said, "I'd never know all those people if I went to school."

In her four years of school -- in England, as it happens -- what she largely experienced was knowing a lot of people who weren't necessarily her friends, and whose manner of interaction was so stressful to her that for the last term she attended she literally cried herself to sleep every night. Funnily enough, since we began homeschooling (two years ago now), her shyness and social stress have mysteriously evaporated. The same child who used to break down in tears if a teacher asked her a question recently wrote a speech and delivered it to the mayor and aldermen of our town to protest the threatened closure of the same children's theatre which has provided her with so many friends. I didn't prompt her to do it -- in fact, I didn't know she had done it until I saw her stand up and speak, eloquently and with great, though controlled, passion. So much for creating an emotional and social cripple. And if it's a "pathetic" excuse for education that she spent a day recently reading "Paradise Lost" of her own volition instead of being in school -- well, ok. I think I like "pathetic."

We are not Oregonians, so I can't speak to the taxpayer issues before you. In our own state, homeschoolers certainly receive no public monies. Our state law mandates that homeschoolers either register with the state as "independent" homeschoolers or affiliate with a private school program as a "satellite campus;" either way, we are held accountable for our children's progress, either through state-mandated testing if registered with the state, or under whatever measurement scheme a private school might implement. This arrangement mirrors pretty accurately the standards of accountability to which public or private schools in general are held.

Certainly there are parents who do a poor job of educating their children. There are plenty of certified teachers in public and private schools also doing a pretty poor job of educating lots of children: as a former public school teacher, I can attest to that in spades. There are homeschoolers who excel and those who don't, but the same is true of any population of children in any edcuational setting.

Statistics and my own experience both seem to indicate that by and large, homeschooled children not only perform well academically but are heavily involved in many rewarding activities -- arts, community service, sports, etc -- which expose them to a far broader spectrum of friends than the age-peers with whom the schooled child is more or less isolated for twelve years. Adults who were homeschooled as children seem no more likely to be socially maladjusted or in any way disadvantaged than their institutionally-schooled peers.

A closing anecdote: my husband is a college professor, and recently, at the end of the term, we invited a small group of his students over for a barbecue. The talk turned to homeschooling, and my husband asked if anyone among that group of students had been homeschooled themselves. Five out of seven people raised their hands -- five out of seven bright, articulate, focused, thoughtful, personable people, the products of homeschooling. By its fruit the tree is known.

I homeschooled my children from my knee, through 6th grade. They tested consistently in the 99 percentile across the board in Oregon. I was among parents who opted to have them join activities at churches and in community groups rather than participate in state school offerings which carried with them the price of the state school dictating scholastic content. They were in dramas, help groups, dance, sports (not organized for competition, but on a casual basis) and full of joy. They are not only bright children, but physically beautiful and never knew an enemy.

I watched them learn to think for themselves, have bright, caring personalities. They reached out to other children who were hurting. I felt one of the most precious things I was accomplishing was to keep them in an environment where learning was a joy and nurtured in the moment of interest with often one-on-one, hands-on, joyful activity. Furthermore, my daughter who was wiggly did not get labeled hyper, was not punished for moving and laughing (as is almost necessary, when trying to instruct 25 students at once. ( I have extensive classroom experience). My children did not immediately take on the most immature values of whatever peer happened to be dominant, in order to survive. I taught them about all the scientitsts and inventors, explorers, statesmen of history, as well as the politically correct ones required by today's racial quotas. They loved old histories that told personal stories of figures from a past era. Together we studied nature in life, not just in books, cooked to measure, experimented, used math manipulatives and found figures everywhere. By the ages of two and three they were delighting medical office personnel with pointing out systems and organs they had learned in games.

In 6th grade we moved out of state. They were accepted on the basis of their tests. They read 11 years estimate beyond their peers. They were each valedictorian of their eighth grade classs and have colleges, "Who's Who, Nobel, etc. pursuing them in their freshman and sophomore high school years. Teachers are formally commending them for their behavior and scholarship. This is not because I'm phenomenal, but because personal attention is always better. Different children cannot always have their learning style addressed in a classroom or have the assurance of mastery before continuing to the next point. Teachers might love to see it, but it is very difficult to do in a classroom where more and more content is required to be skimmed through on a daily basis to teach to tests. A thorough grasp, in a calm approach means greater comprehension and efficiency in learning after the basics are lain down firmly. A child can breeze through in three hours what their peers go through in a week. Then they have free time to develop socially, artistically, creatively, mentally and even in a business-mode, as they enjoy. I descry the move in this nation to force children earlier and earlier into Headstart programs and early learning. I've watched nervous little chldren, who do not have the hand and eye coordination for what they are attempting to do, get shaky, trying to please. Sometimes they still are punished somehow for not having the skills to keep up. They hate school from the git-go. Many want everything "spoon-fed" to them. Those who make it through the public school system with a good education are often those who have the most help at home. Every child has need of parental involvement. If we could only give them caring, drug-free parents who had benefitted from their own education. So many homeschooled children are fortunate to have this.

The year before last, I took my daughter out to homeschool her one year. She had had the misfortune to get into a class that had the reputation in the whole school for being cruel and unaccepting when she entered school. The teachers loved her and told me the children were not giving her a chance because she wasn't from here. She was terribly unhappy and suddenly withdrawn. She is much better after a year in home school, but this state allowed her work to be passed over despite the fact that she was under the required umbrella school and enrolled online as well. They ignored every credit she got that the local high school didn't offer and she had to test out of every subject she took, despite having 99 percentile in all the standardized tests the public school students took. I had paid so she could have the online material. She and others who were homeschooled were all made to sit out for an entire day and start their classes late despite being pre-registered. It was done just to humiliate them. She is still an A student despite having been entered into Algebra mid-way through the school year. She was only able to have gotten into her sophomore year, she was fortunate to have, for her appointed counselor, a teacher who had transferred upward from her grade school. She knew her and went to bat for her.

My son started out in my daughter's sixt grade class but was removed, despite being the top student, because county regional officials thought he was too young. It turned out to be a blessing, because the boys in his class were very unruly and mean. The class he was placed in was very open and accepting and he has all confidence. He has been active in Academic Bowl and county math competitions and done well. Other home schoolers who have no one to help them get eaten up by the system, sometimes by spiteful educators who "hate homeschoolers", more often than by social ineptitude. Other educaters are good to them.

I've seen a very small number of homeschoolers whose parents were not up to the task of teaching them or who were perhaps abused, but not nearly the number of products of abusive parents I've seen in the public school system.

I stand in awe of some excellent teachers who give much more one-on-one in the classroom than people would ever realize. But I am amazed how little others accomplish with far more resources than most homeschool parents could ever afford. Neither situation is always perfect, but both are viable and neither is less worthy of state approval or monies.

Unfortunately, if the state dictates the standards, homeschooling loses part of the very element that gives it charm and flexibility. The only reason I quit homeschooling was that working full-time outside my home, gave me less time to do it justice.