Smrt Lernins

The Cobb County School Board (our local school system) has voted to end the balanced school year model it followed last year and go back to the longer summer, no fall/winter break model.

Why did they vote to make the change?
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Was it because students were performing poorly? Nope. A balanced school year improves learning retention and decreases the need for extensive review periods.

Was it because students were feeling burned due to the shorter summer break? Nope. The balanced calendar provided much more frequent breaks, approximately every 6-8 weeks and broke up the educational time into two relatively equal semesters.

Was it because parents didn’t like the balanced calendar? Nope. A poll sent to all Cobb parents found that over 70% voted in favor of the earlier “balanced calendar” start date.

Was it because teachers didn’t like the balanced calendar? Nope. 84% of Cobb teachers preferred the balanced calendar.

Was it because of overwhelming public outcry against the balanced calendar? Nope. School board members reported a flood of emails about the issue, with 2-2.5 times as many emails in favor of keeping the balanced calendar.

No, one of the main deciding factors of going back to the traditional long summer school year is apparently that a local water park lost business.

Priorities, folks. It’s all about priorities.

Michael Smith, author of several books geared towards public school teachers, principals, and administrators, and a school superintendent himself, thinks we should stop teaching kids how to write, type correctly, or spell. He also suggests we don’t need to teach the periodic table of elements, how to use a dictionary, the memorization of “useless” facts like the state capitals, or poetry.

Before I address his specific complaints, I’d like to make it clear that I have very little respect for anyone (let alone an educator) who brags that he made 12 typos in the writing of his blog post and was able to fix them with spell-check. Was I supposed to applaud? Is “Bad Educator” going to be the new “Bad Mom” trend? Considering how insufferable I find those Bad Moms who play up how disengaged they are with their children, how badly/frequently/proudly they’ve screwed up, and how much time their kids are likely to spend in therapy, I’m not on the short list of people who are going to line up to praise Bad Educator.

Consider yourself informed that I didn’t read Smith’s blog with a particularly open mind. Much of what he writes just reinforces my sense of relief that my child isn’t in public school. I think he’s an anti-intellectual and isn’t nearly as funny as he believes himself to be. On the whole, he pisses me off, so here are a few of his bones, from which I am picking the meat. Smith writes:

Penmanship is rarely used by most adults. Unless they are signing their name, so spending hundreds of hours teaching children how to make the perfect “Q” in cursive could be a waste of time.

Rarely used by some adults. Other adults use it quite often. I personally do a lot of my first drafts in longhand. My husband has to take legible notes when he’s out on call (good thing they’re legible, too, because sometimes he calls home for information and I have to retrieve it from his notebooks). It’s also pretty hard to take thorough notes on a laptop while trying to read from a large textbook. Take notes during a lecture, sure, but I can barely fit my laptop and, say, Bevington’s Complete Works of Shakespeare on my desk at the same time, let alone use the laptop to take good notes from the Bevington. Legible handwriting is also very important during the moony teen years, because only cursive can truly impart the angst and passion of teenage poetry. Typing simply will not cut it.

There are benefits to teaching proper handwriting that extend beyond writing letters or poetry or notes, however. It’s a way to develop fine motor skills (a different set from those used in typing). A 2006 study found an increase in letter confusion (specifically mixing letters up with their mirrors, d and b, for example) among those who first learned the letter through typing, and that the “stability of the characters’ representation in memory depends on the nature of the motor activity produced during learning.” In other words, writing letters by hand, not typing, more firmly and accurately implanted the letters into the memory. Handwriting, particularly cursive, stimulates the frontal cortex in a profound, lasting, and measurable (via PET scan) way, not only helping the student retain that skill, but greasing the pathways for later learning.

Keyboarding? Haven’t we progressed past the point of controlling our students by making them sit straight up and down with both feet on the floor while they type? I don’t know of any former students who have computer skills and weren’t hired for a job because they didn’t type fast enough or use the proper technique. Last time I checked, most elementary students know their way around a keyboard.

A) “Controlling our students?” Really, Michael Smith? Really?

B) We haven’t progressed past the point of back problems, carpal tunnel, or a host of other posture-related health problems that are in large part the result of incorrect body and arm positioning at the keyboard. Why not help our kids develop the muscle memory to hold their bodies in a more optimal position while typing and help decrease their risk of these conditions? When I’m having back/hip pain or my wrists are starting to hurt, I’m always amazed (though no longer surprised) by how much better I feel when I put my feet flat on the floor, sit up with a straight back, and position my hands properly on the keys.

C) He’s never met anyone who wasn’t hired for a job because they lacked adequate typing speed? I suppose none of his students have ever been an administrative/personal assistant, then, as typing speed is still pretty important. When being hired for data entry jobs, as well, the ability to quickly and accurately enter the data actually plays a role in getting the job. In my line of work (writing/editing), speed and accuracy in typing may not be a determining factor in getting a contract, but definitely can mean the difference between meeting deadlines (and getting paid) or not, between turning in usable work or not. The faster and more accurately I could type, the more contracts I could take, the more work I could do, and the more money I could make.

D) Captain Science has been using a keyboard since he was 2 or 3. He still has to hunt and peck when asked to type an essay. Playing games online requires the mouse and a few keys, while writing papers takes the full keyboard and very little mouse usage. Please don’t confuse computer gaming proficiency with typing proficiency. Or, as the Nana so eloquently put it, “There is a vast difference in the keyboarding skills needed to hack NASA and the skills needed to write an eloquent term paper.”

Lastly, what’s with all the time on spelling? Do we really need to know how to spell in this day and age? Can’t we just come close when we are typing and then let the computer correct us? During the typing of this blog, I misspelled 12 words. Maybe it’s my keyboarding skills, maybe I’m just stupid.

Oh yes! Let’s just let the machines do all the thinking for us. What could possibly go wrong?

I’m dumbfounded by Michael Smith’s hoisting of the banners of “Meh. Close enough.” Here you have an educator who is not only not particularly concerned that we are, as a nation, becoming dumber (or maybe, to be more fair, lowering our expectations and then falling to meet them), but is actually encouraging it! While I don’t think spelling is a barometer of intelligence (I know of one incredibly gifted girl who struggles with spelling, but excels in practically everything else), I do think that spelling has an important place in a well-rounded education. Far from being a mere “exercise in confusion” that we should get rid of, as Smith extols in another post, or foist off on a computer game (really? do we need less human interaction in education?), spelling teaches patterns, reveals roots of words, and allows for a tremendous degree of playfulness with language. A spell-check program can’t tell which of a set of homophones is appropriate in a given context. Did you really mean that kind of meat, Mr. Smith?

Stop with the memorizing state capitals. [...] If you find yourself desperately needing to know the capital of Delaware… look it up. [..]]I haven’t even gotten to the Periodic Table, poetry [...]

How trendy! Someone in education knocking the value of memorization!

Of course, many professions require an extensive amount of memorization. Think of what doctors have to memorize to graduate medical school, of the laws and cases lawyers must remember to pass their bar exams, of the codes and pathways that programmers must remember. If college is the first time in your life you’re called upon to memorize a large amount of information, you’re going to be in for a real treat.

Smith mentions poetry as one of the things to ditch from education. Memorizing poetry isn’t just a tedious task for filling classroom hours. Poetry teaches us about language patterns, stimulates parts of our brain we don’t normally use, imparts important lessons about rhythm into our cores. I won’t belabor this point too much, because Michael Knox Beran did a far superior job in his In Defense of Memorization. Suffice it to say, it’s not about the importance of knowing the state capitals (though it’s amazing how many times in my life that knowledge has come in hand), but about the importance of the art of learning by rote (or as Michael Clay Thompson prefers to call it, by heart).

Now, don’t get me wrong. I think I understand the point Smith is trying, but ultimately failing, to make. Technology must, absolutely must, play a more central role in our children’s educations. Technical literacy is becoming increasingly important in colleges and careers. Not only should children know how to use a computer for things like typing, graphic design, and programming, but they need to learn how to become fully participating online citizens. They need to be conversant in social media, because it has an undeniable power. Blogging reaches people in ways that other media can’t. Failure to respect the permanence and reach of anything that happens online has cost more than one job, friendship, or marriage. While my digital literacy soapbox can wait for another day, I wholeheartedly agree that digital literacy must be taught in public schools, private schools, home schools.

That doesn’t mean it needs to be taught to the exclusion of everything else. There are benefits to most aspects of a classical education that extend beyond memorizing a poem in that moment, studying Latin or Latinate vocabulary in that moment. Education isn’t just (or even primarily) about what happens in that moment, but about the big picture of lifelong learning, and Michael Smith’s inability to see that big picture is troubling. It’s particularly troubling that he is giving advice to teachers and (worse) administrators, urging them to sacrifice skills that have much greater benefit than what is seen in that moment.

Incidentally, Mr. Smith, spell-check may have corrected your 12 spelling mistakes, but not your attitude. Do you think they make a computer game that can address that one?

This question wasn’t so much submitted as brought up in general education-related conversation. A single dad friend of mine found himself in the precarious situation of having his living situation shaken up rather suddenly on Friday and having no idea in what school district his child would need to be on a Monday. He dropped me a quick message asking a) how hard it would be to get them registered as homeschoolers, at least for the short term and b) if he was crazy for taking on homeschooling as a work-from-home single dad.

The answer to the second question is that being crazy is one of the most important prerequisites for homeschooling. The answer to the first question was “not that hard, but…” and I offered him a third option, using the free Georgia K12 Cyber Academy (virtual public school, done at home). He looked through the info, we talked about different ways he could go about it, how he could integrate other homeschooling stuff as needed, that there are many resources for homeschoolers locally and online (including resources for his 2e son) and he asked a semi-joking, semi-serious question, which becomes our “Ask a [Smrt] Homeschooler” question of the day, “If it’s this easy to homeschool in Georgia, why doesn’t everybody do it?”

So, why don’t all parents choose to homeschool?

“I don’t want to.” I guess the most obvious answer would be that not everybody wants to. Some people have no desire at all to homeschool their children. They’re perfectly content with the education their children are receiving elsewhere, with knowing their children are in a safe and controlled environment for 8 or so hours a day (handy if both parents work outside the home), and with the current education status quo. They figure if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and if they’re happy, their kids are happy, and the education their children are receiving meet everybody’s basic needs, more power to them. I wouldn’t try to talk happy away-schoolers into homeschooling.

“I work full time.” Parents who work outside the home would definitely have additional difficulties attempting to homeschool. The child care issue is just one part of it. Finding affordable child care for the 8+ hours both parents are working puts homeschooling outside the realm of possibility for many families. Some still find a way to make it work, though. Some parents find ways to move their shifts around, so one parent or the other is home with the children for most of the day. Some manage to telecommute some or all of the time or find work-at-home jobs that allow them to be present in the home during the day. Some parents, the ones who do have someone to watch the kids during the day, homeschool in the hours after work. It’s not impossible, but it’s definitely not easy.

“I wouldn’t do a good job.” Some parents fall into the trap that I was once caught in, of believing that they wouldn’t be capable of homeschooling or couldn’t do it “right.” The idea of homeschooling being like the Highlander (there can be only ONE way to homeschool!) is a little comical now, but was certainly a fear at the beginning. As a prospective homeschooling parent, you worry about a lot of things. Will I cover the right material? Will I cover enough material? Will I be able to teach my child (more on this in a minute)? Will my child be unsocialized (also more on this)? What on earth am I supposed to be doing every day? Luckily, if this is the major stumbling block between you and homeschooling, it’s amazingly easy to overcome it. Start by reading The Well-Trained Mind, because it gives you a handy-dandy outline for what your child should be covering at roughly every grade level. You can tweak the suggestions up or down based on your child(ren)’s abilities. You can talk to other parents about which curricula they use. You can get a homeschool mentor to walk you through her daily, weekly, and yearly schedules. The panic-inducing question of what you’re supposed to cover and when can go piffle out the window with a little research and friendly assistance — so if you’re considering homeschooling, don’t let that fear stop you!

“My child and I wouldn’t be get along.” I also believed, before I became a homeschooler, that there was no way I could handle being with my child all day long, let alone actually manage get along with him well enough to hep him learn anything. We fought so badly about homework every night, how could we possibly do school work all day long together? What I discovered, however, is that this wasn’t at all the case — it’s a much different beast to homeschool than to do homework every night. While we do occasionally butt heads over an assignment, it’s nothing like the constant bickering and nagging and whining that used to be involved with homework. As for being able to stand having my kids home all day, now I couldn’t imagine wanting to send them away five days a week! Homeschooling vastly improved the qualify of my relationship with my older son, but I never would have thought that could be true before I was a homeschooler.

“My child wouldn’t be socialized.” Other parents may have concerns about socialization. They worry that keeping their kids home could hinder them socially, emotionally, or developmentally. There’s a common belief that homeschoolers are unsocialized, simply because they don’t spend all day, every day with children their own age. I’ve found the opposite to be true for many homeschoolers, though. True, it’s not a constant mingling with same-age children, but there’s a lot more interaction with a wide array of ages, people, and situations throughout the day. It also means that the child’s peer group can be much more interest and ability based than age based, so the connection with peers (at co-ops, clubs, or other activities) can run a lot deeper. Homeschoolers may be differently socialized, but different doesn’t mean un. If this is what’s keeping you from homeschooling, put that fear aside.

“I’m not a teacher!” (also known as “I’m not qualified!”) Another concern parents have is that they aren’t qualified to teach their children, because they don’t have teaching degrees or subject-area expertise. Folks, you’ve been teaching your child since s/he was born! You know how your children learn; don’t buy into the propaganda that you suddenly lose that knowledge when math or language arts is involved. You don’t have to have a teaching license to know that your child learns best through reading, that she does really well if she can use manipulatives for math, that he responds great to timed tests. The key is finding curricula that match up with those learning styles (another place where a mentor is helpful) and either finding additional resources (co-ops, tutors, etc.) for the subject areas where you have less knowledge, finding curricula that explains the materials in such a way that you don’t have to have the knowledge yourself, or (and here’s my favorite) learn the subject along with your child! Life of Fred has really helped refresh some of my math skills and our Michael Clay Thompson language arts has brushed up my grammar. No one is more qualified than an involved, dedicated parent.

“I’m not religious/evangelical/a creationist.” I think the idea of homeschooling as being a strictly fundamentalist Christian pursuit is on the way out, but some people still have concerns that there’s no room in homeschooling for secular, evolutionist, etc. families. It’s true that the bulk of homeschooling materials do have a decidedly Christian flavor, but even this is starting to change. Secular or inclusive homeschool groups are cropping up in many parts of the country and many curriculum options are available for nonreligious families. Homeschooling isn’t just for people who don’t want to see evolution or sex ed taught in school. Many people homeschool to give their children better and more expansive education in those areas! Christians and non-Christians alike have found a home in homeschooling, so don’t let your own religious beliefs (or lack thereof) be the reason you don’t homeschool.

Those are some reasons the [Smrt] Homeschoolers can think of that might keep parents from choosing to homeschool. Some are very reasonable and some are based in misconceptions, understandable though they might be. Whether you choose to homeschool exclusively or to send your children to a public, private, or parochial school, however, don’t make that decision based on unfounded concerns, but on the educational choices that are best for your children.

What do you think about the “so glad to send the kids back to school” sentiment from people whose children are in public/private school? This topic came up on the Well Trained Mind forums, and opinions were mixed.

Some people felt like it was merely an expression of relief to return to a familiar routine. I’m sure that’s part of it, and is perhaps the actual intent behind some parents’ jubilation over the return to school, though that might be somewhat belied by the sheer exuberance about the children being gone for the day.

Some people felt it was expressive of sometimes we all (even homeschoolers) feel, which is “I’d like ONE FRIGGIN QUIET MINUTE TO MYSELF NOW PLEASE THANK YOU!” Definitely a sentiment with which I can empathize, as I dearly enjoy a brief break from the constant demands of parenting, though I don’t think I’m in any way entitled to a 7-8 hour break, 5 days a week.

Some people felt like it was indicative of an unhealthy mentality about what our “real lives” are or should be and how we must send children away in order to have those “real lives.” I think this is the crux of it and this is far from the only area where this mentality manifests. I also don’t think this is something people are making up in their own heads; there’s serious social pressure to divorce our “real” identities from parenting and to celebrate opportunities to not be beholden to our children’s needs.

When a woman gets pregnant, she’s bombarded with social messages that tell her she is supposed to “want her body back,” and the pressure begins to keep pregnancy as short as possible. When she breastfeeds, she’s not only told she’s supposed to “want her body back,” but to “want her life back,” something that can only be done by weaning the baby, of course, since breastfeeding is clearly not a part of life and “life” seems to be comprised of as many tactics as possible to physically distance yourself from your offspring. Case in point, when her child becomes school age, the woman is supposed to rejoice in sending the child away (to “real” school, of course), so she can finally “have her life back” again.

“Life,” by the way, doesn’t mean the responsible thing you’re living, with a spouse/partner, children, and a job. “Life” actually means that thing you were doing BEFORE kids, BEFORE responsibility, when everything was fun, fun, fun and you were only responsible for yourself. There’s this emphasis on the false notion of “adult life,” which seems to actually be code for “second youth,” a period of late teen/early 20s-like self-indulgence, partying, and forgetting (temporarily, at least) that one even has children. Most of the people I encounter who are longing for this “adult life” aren’t talking about added responsibility or maturity, but time without children in order to act like children. This is adulthood? This is “real” life?

This isn’t a mentality found solely in public school parents. If anything, I think it’s a generational problem. Gen X grew up, with all their extra self esteems and misplaced sense of entitlement (seriously, I’ve read articles written by Gen Xers saying Baby Boomers should retire, because they’re selfishly keeping all the good jobs), and they’ve had a hard time adjusting to the fact that they are no longer the center of the universe or life of the party. I feel perfectly comfortable saying this, since I’m at the tail end of the Gen X generation, and I have seen it in so many of my peers over the years. I think my generation is getting far worse with age, actually, because that self-involvement that was charming in a teen and tolerable in a 20-something has become very tired in a 30-something. Gen X can’t pull its head out of its collective asses long enough to realize that this message of “real” life that they’re buying into so completely isn’t real at all. It’s fabricated by people who are selling something, be it baby formula or school supplies or a mentality about your “real” life.

Why are they so happy their kids are going back to school? They’re told they’re supposed to be.

And they bought it.

The Institute for Democratic Education in America (IDEA) posted a great article today, “The Teacher as Soldier,” addressing statements by public figures about recruiting an “army of teachers” and questioning what war, exactly, these teachers are fighting. The author presents the troubling paradigm of, “Generals and leaders – Administration and the government; Privates/Soldiers – teachers; Civilians/those to be “aided” – students ([...]the group that needs to be fought for – to have things done for them because we don’t see them fit to achieve for themselves) [...] = The War for Education.”

Teachers as low ranked soldiers in a battle (against whom?) to educate passive, helpless student learners; administrators and politicians as detached leaders of a battle in which they aren’t even getting their hands dirty. Not a pretty picture. Not a picture the author enjoys. Is it really that far from the truth, though?

I think public education has become a combat scenario, to some extent, but it’s not a war for education. I’m not sure it’s a war for anything. It’s a skirmish between players with little vested interest, like politicians with children in private school. It’s a battle between Republican tax cuts and the systems that are now so underfunded that they can’t let staff into the building until the day school starts, leaving schedules unfinished, classrooms not set up, curriculum not set in stone. It’s a conflict between the few teachers who are genuinely invested in the success of their students and the administrative status quo that is focused solely on test scores. In this scenario, students are not the citizens being helped, but the friendly fire casualties of a large system floundering and firing randomly, hoping to hit a target they can’t even agree upon.

This is a pretty bleak picture of public education. It’s not an accurate portrayal of every teacher, school, administration, or system. There’s no denying that there’s a strong element of this in public education as a whole, however. Our own experiences in public education certainly point to that. No one was fighting on Captain Science’s behalf but us, and it was a fight we were well aware we shouldn’t have to fight: a fight for him to not be bullied by a teacher who felt threatened by gifted students, a fight for him to spend his days doing something other than worksheets, a fight to have any expression of creativity not squashed out of hand.

Parents have to fight with teachers and administrators to have their children’s most basic educational needs met, and while we’re doing that fighting, more and more funds are diverted away from the children who need them most. It’s obvious who the administration values — not the gifted students and not the special needs students. For the parents of those children, public education can be a constant battle.

The author of the IDEA piece writes, “Learning is not a war, it is an adventure. While it can be used as a tool to equip oneself with the awareness necessary to achieve justice, learning overall is discovery and an intriguing challenge.”

She’s right. Learning is not a war. Education, however, is most certainly a battlefield.

My friend Heather’s oldest daughter is about to do something absolutely ridiculous: start first grade. I’m pretty sure she’s not allowed to be old enough to do that. In the spirit of preparing for this next stage in academic development, she IM’d me with this cute little message:

So, things homeschoolers never worry about:
1) Will the new teacher like my child?
2) Will my daughter make friends?
3) What if she doesn’t have any of her friends from last year in her new class?
4) Why am I sharpening so many damned pencils?

Oh, sweetie! Have I lead you to believe that the life of a homeschooler is a really so carefree? What a travesty! True, I don’t have to worry about teachers liking my child, but other than that? I have worries! I’m not worry free!

I worry about, on any given day:

1. Will my child be able to maintain his friendships with his public school friends?
2. Will my child have ample opportunities to socialize w/ homeschooling friends?
3. Will we cover all the subjects we need to cover?
4. Will getting in to college be too hard?
5. Does he hate homeschooling?
6. Does he hate me?
7. Would we all be happier if he were still enrolled in public school?
8. How on earth will I cover everything we need to cover?
9. Am I a failure for not having started Latin yet?
10. How about a modern foreign language?
11. Do my kids dress funny?
12. Are my kids well-adjusted?
13. Will my kids manage to actually pass those standardized tests?
14. If they don’t, what does that say about them?
15. If they don’t, what does that say about me?
16. Will I ever get a chance to sleep in again?
17. Do people think I’m doing this because I’m obsessed with Jesus?
18. What would Jesus think about this whole homeshooling business?
19. Am I way more boring than I used to be?
20. Why am I sharpening so many damn pencils?

See, Heather? We worry, too. We probably worry more, because the buck stops here. If our kids are all screwed up, we have no one else to blame but ourselves…and everyone KNOWS it!

Enjoy your babygirl’s first grade year and don’t feel too envious of us homeschoolers. We have it pretty good, but we don’t have it worry-free.

Do public schools kill creativity?

Yes, I think they do. I watched Captain Science’s ability to think outside the box be slowly crushed during the course of his 3rd grade year, until he was afraid to think creatively (at least within the context of education) out of concern of chastisement by a disapproving authority figure. I saw the traits that made him unique treated as character flaws or manifestations of a disorder. I even went along with it at first, worried that I had simply been misinterpreting aberrant behavior as creativity.

Our story isn’t that unusual. It should be unusual. It should be completely off the wall, but it isn’t.

A friend recently shared some examples of class rules sent home by her daughter’s third grade teacher. The packet contained fifty rules that the children must follow. Not simple, two or three word rules, either, but fifty rules that meticulously spell out the exact behavior students were to exhibit under nearly every imaginable circumstance. Some examples:

Rule #3 of 50 — If someone in the class wins a game or does something well, we will congratulate that person. Claps should be at least three seconds in length with the full part of both hands meeting in a manner that will give the appropriate clap volume.

Rule #17 of 50 — We should be consistently be able to turn from one book to another, complete with all homework and necessary materials, as quickly as possible. The opportune amount of time to spend in transition should be less than ten seconds, and we will work toward a goal of seven seconds.

Rule #23 of 50 — Quickly learn the names of other teachers in the school and greet them by saying things like, “Good morning, Mrs. Graham,” or “Good afternoon, Ms. Ortiz. That is a very pretty dress.” Note: If you are in line with the rest of the class, you are not allowed to speak to the teachers at that time because the no talking rule is in effect.

Imagine your eight-year-old children receiving a list of fifty such rules. Do you see a lot of room for expressions of individuality within those rules? Would your child come out of that classroom more creative or less? Is this classroom, and the others like it, helping mold a generation of independent and abstract thinkers?

Sir Ken Robinson thinks public schools are killing, rather than nurturing, creativity, and speaks eloquently about it:

I’m still on our county’s school district mailing list. Just a few minutes ago, I received an email letting me know what will be cut from the budget for the 2010-2011 school year in order to make up the $126.7 million budget shortfall. Please let it be noted that property taxes have not only NOT been increased (our schools here are funded through property tax and SPLOST), but were decreased by approximately 10%.

Instead of additional (or maintained) property tax, our county’s school district budget cuts will include, among other things, increasing classroom size, decreasing the instructional supply allotment, “restructuring” the alternative education program, and cutting the number of teachers (by over 600) and guidance counselors/graduation coaches (by 55).

The email had this to say about classroom size:

Increasing class sizes creates the greatest budget cost-savings – as class sizes increase the district needs fewer teachers. Earlier this month, the Georgia Department of Education waived all restrictions on class size to help school districts across the state contend with the economic crisis. In [our county], where class sizes already were well below the state maximum at every grade level, schools can expect to see classes increase on average by approximately three students. That number is averaged, so some classes may be higher and others lower.

Yup. Our state no longer has ANY class size restrictions. While our county’s schools were under the maximum classroom size, many schools in less economically affluent counties are already at the maximum. Can you imagine what this will do to classroom size in rural schools? Is schools that have mostly low income and/or renting (non property tax paying) families? Schools with high seasonal migrant worker populations (such as in Vidalia onion-growing country)? How large will classrooms become in this “economic crisis?”

As for reducing instructional supply allotment, well, that means the teachers are either going to have to greatly increase the amount of money they spend on classroom supplies (everything from printing paper to crayons to maps and other supplemental materials to Kleenex and hand sanitizer) OR that will be passed along to the parents, whose list of required supplies for each new school year gets longer and longer. The last year Captain Science was in public school, we provided two packs of computer paper, crayons, glue sticks, scissors, tape, folders, tissues, hand sanitizer, soap, and quite a few other sundry items I don’t recall right off the top of my head. These items were all for general, not personal use.

Guidance counselors are often portrayed as being superfluous or even goofy (even if they’re adorably goofy, like Emma on Glee), but for some students, the help of a guidance counselor in high school is how they get into a college or get the scholarship to pay for a college. Some students don’t have access to therapists/counselors outside of school, due to parental unwillingness, lack of insurance, or other reasons. Remove guidance counselors from schools and students may lose that one small place where they can seek help.

Sure, these cuts might make fiscal sense in the short term, but what are the long term ramifications? How well will students learn in classrooms of 25, 30, 35+ students? Who will help these students with college applications or crises? What will classrooms be like when teachers have had their classroom budgets stripped to nothing?

While I think our county has a good public education system (in comparison to other public education), I am increasingly grateful that we removed our children from it. Thank goodness for the option to homeschool in these tough economic times!

PhD in Parenting has been writing about homeschooling lately. She currently lives in Germany, where homeschooling is illegal and children are under legal compulsion to attend public school. Today, she wrote a post about different schooling methods and how she views them through the lens of the “right and duty to learn.”

On the whole, I found her opinions on homeschooling to be quite positive, but I take issue with some of the concerns she mentions in her post:

At the same time, there are things that concern me about home education:

• I worry that parents who homeschool for ideological reasons may be shielding their children from the realities of the world (other belief systems, other cultures) and their selves (sexuality, gender issues, personal expression), which I believe is dangerous for the individual and for society.
• I worry that a small minority of parents who homeschool for ideological reasons may be doing so specifically to pass on discriminatory and hateful viewpoints to their children.
• I worry that parents who take their children out of school out of frustration with the school system (generally or for their specific child) may feel forced into home educating their children when really the school system should be changing and adapting to address those concerns.
• I worry that children who grow up under the guidance of the most gentle, patient, loving and inspiring parents without being exposed to teachers who are strict, ineffective, jerks, play favourites, or use coercive methods may not learn how to deal with those types of people before entering the workforce and may be at a disadvantage (although to be fair, a lot of today’s schooled youth aren’t dealing with them themselves anyway – they are getting mommy and daddy to do it for them).

You all know how I feel about the “school as a place to learn to toughen up for the ‘real world’” stance, so I’ll just link to my comment I left on the PhD in Parenting blog and leave it at that.

What about her other concerns, like the idea that parents who homeschool may be doing so to instill hateful or dangerous ideologies in their children? How harmful is “immersing [our] children in [our] beliefs and shielding them from others?” Are parents really more or less likely to attempt to instill their ideologies in their children based on where their child schools? Are homeschooled children more likely to be racist, bigoted, etc. than their institutionally-schooled counterparts? To what extent should the State or the collective get to choose the ideologies to which your child should be exposed?

And what about her assertion that “in most cases [parents choose to homeschool because] there are perfectly reasonable and factual things taught as part of the school curriculum that the parents do not want their children to learn (evolution, birth control, homosexuality, other religious beliefs)?” Was this a motivating factor for you? For the homeschoolers you know? To what extent? Was it because the curricula covered topics you felt were inaccurate or inappropriate? Was it because the curricula were too religious or not religious enough?

And finally, what about her statement that she “believe[s] more strongly in the child’s right to an education than [she] do[es] in the parent’s right to raise their children any way they want?”  Is a child’s right to a specific set of academic knowledge greater than your rights as a parent to pass on your morality, ethics, culture, or ideology? If you’re an unschooler or (I am warming to this term) “life learner,” do you think the child’s right to an education is more or less important than his freedom to make his own decisions, even if those choices are towards the less academic?

I know my answers to these questions. I’ve read some of the exceptionally thoughtful comments to her blog (like Kelly and Kim @ Beautiful Wreck’s). Now, I’d like to hear yours.

Lo, so many times doth I find myself declaring thusly, “This is why I homeschool!”

Today, at Olan Mills photography, the photographer argued with me over comma placement in the title on a photograph collage. The main picture was of all three of my beautiful, talented, and delightful children (whose behavior while Nana and I looked at photo proofs was such that they are lucky I did not devour them on the spot like a disgruntled hamster), with one small photo of Tank and Captain Science and one small photo of Babypie below. The collage was captioned “Captain Science, Tank & Babypie.”

I protested the lack of Oxford comma between “Tank” and “&” (the “&” was necessary in lieu of “and,” due to the length of Tank’s real name), only to have the photographer tell me, “No, that’s right. I thought it was supposed to be the way you’re saying it, but an English teacher was in here the other day and said this is the right way.”

I responded, “Well, I have a master’s degree in writing and editing. I can assure you that it’s supposed to have a comma,” then said to my mother, “This is why I homeschool!”

While it turned out to be a non-issue, as an additional comma wouldn’t fit on the line, I will not accept the dropping of the Oxford (or “serial”) comma simply because some English teacher says so. Dropping that comma may be acceptable in AP style, which is designed to minimize space, but dropping the serial comma is not otherwise acceptable to me. Unless the final two items are together (“peanut butter & jelly,” for instance, or even “Captain Science and Tank,” since they were in the same photograph, while Babypie was in her own), that comma belongs in that list.

But me no buts* about how this is acceptable in non-academic American written grammar, because Americans say and do many things that are an abject butchery of proper grammar and usage. American writers have become lazy, American grammarians have lost their spine, and American teachers are failing to impart a respect for proper punctuation in their students. If it’s good enough for Strunk and White, the MLA Style Manual and The Chicago Manual of Style, it’s good enough for me, and it should be good enough for you, dammit.

Yes, when Lynne Truss (author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves) talks about not getting between those on opposing sides of the Oxford comma issue when drink is involved, she is, in fact, talking about me.

Considering that most public schools use MLA writing guidelines, which advocate the use of the Oxford comma, the idea of a public school English teacher telling a photographer that the comma isn’t necessary incites me to a new level of grammatically righteous anger. I’ve tolerated too many notes (both from Captain Science’s old public school and Tank’s private preschool) that pluralized with an apostrophe or misused “to” and “too” (No! You do not have “to many volunteers!”). While I often have a playful relationship with English, I will not give up my commas without a fight!

*Neither Officer Daddyman nor Patchfire have heard the phrase “but me no buts.” They both thought it was a typo. I promise that it is not. Here is a nice article about the “X me no X’s” model.