Protect Your Home School
If you are a homeschooler who uses either Bob Jones or A Beka for your curriculum, have you been keeping an eye on what is happening in California with the UC case? SpunkyHomeschool gives a thoughtful and thorough report of this in her article, “Another California Ruling”. What does this mean for home education? The fact that there is a debate about whether or not your homeschool curriculum will be accepted by a college or university should be enough to make you stand up and take notice.
After reading the most recent ruling, without getting into whether or not your right to educate your child can be legislated by the government, it appears that there are specific issues with the courses that were not accepted. The English course did not have students read entire texts of good literature, but instead offered only excerpts. The other problems focused mainly on crtitical and analytical thinking skills. These issues are important to note because good educational practice includes both of tehse elements.
What are you doing to address these areas of your children’s education? First, it is essential that you are keeping organized records of your children’s work. Documentation is helpful for you for assessment purposes, but it is also essential to have good records for your school district in case there are ever any concerns. With thorough documentation, you can prove that your curriculum is meeting all of the requirements.
If you find that you are not really addressing critical thinking skills, which involves expecting your child to put information together in order to solve problems and form opinions, you can build it into your program on your own. When you do that, make sure that you keep good records about it. If your curriculum only includes excerpts from good literature, make sure that you document all of the reading that your children do outside of the textbook. Use the excerpts as a jumping board, but read the piece in its entirety.
Take a look at your curriculum to find any holes. Document your work. Follow the UC case closely. Protect your home school by following good teaching practices.
6 Responses to “Protect Your Home School”
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The arguement that there is no socialization fell through, then the questions about how a parent with no credintials could teach effectivly fell through, so now they are attacking homeschooling on new front. Let’s attack WHAT they teach.
The problem for “them” is simple: Homeschooling works. We can educate our children for a FRACTION of the cost the public schools claimed without the expensive training the colleges insist are needed.
I almost didn’t believe this story when I first read it, however you make good points about keeping records and providing a well rounded curriculum.
Universities have a right to set standards. If a school doesn’t offer algebra or their English curriculum doesn’t cover the basics then universities and colleges should not be forced to accept them. All colleges have basic admission requirements and students who do not take courses that cover the required material simply have not met the minimum standard and their application does not have to be considered.
Thank you for your comment. It is great to hear a variety of opinions about this case.
I agree that universities have the right to set standards. It is wise for homeschoolers to educate themselves about what the requirements are for admission to colleges and universities and make sure that they have the documentation to prove that they have met those requirements. Without that, it is difficult for anyone to decide whether or not a student is fairly considered for enrollment.
“Universities have a right to set standards. If a school doesn’t offer algebra or their English curriculum doesn’t cover the basics then universities and colleges should not be forced to accept them. All colleges have basic admission requirements and students who do not take courses that cover the required material simply have not met the minimum standard and their application does not have to be considered.”
You make a good point and would be right, but the problem is they are not considering applications becuase of a minimum standard, they have decided that any science with any Christian Creation wording is not valid. They will not look at the science involed (from my observations the “Christian” science materials are more up to date & accuate than the public school resources) . If it has ANY mention of God, it is rejected. That is the real issue. The universities have decided that since they do not believe in God, no one should be taught that way.
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