Child Abuse

Last night in class we went to the campus Library. The Librarian gave a nice presentation on the resources available to students of PBCC. I logged onto the web site again today and there is tons of information out there. I remember Mr. Foley talking about using the Library as a reference for our blogs, but somewhere along the way it slipped my mind. Anyhow, I searched under home school and found an article that really caught me by surprise. “Home School May Hide Parental Instability or Abuse.” What? This is something I never thought about before. So I had to open it up and read it. Most people think that the home school kids are isolated from the world. I think this way too. If a parent wanted to abuse their children keeping them home a perfect opportunity. Who is going to know? The child will have nowhere to go for help! Here is something else I didn’t know. Andrea Yates, that crazy !@#$%^& that drowned her five children. She home schooled them. What a nut job!! As I dug a little further, I realized she isn’t the only one. There have been numerous abuse cases around the country. There is little to none interference from the government as far as how a parent should educate their child. They just want to be left alone and for everyone to mind their own business. That sounds like someone a child would say not an adult. There is another form of child abuse that doesn’t include physical contact. This is when a child goes to a public school and gets in trouble repeatedly. The parents get called into conference and they do show up. OK-maybe the time conflicted with their work schedule. The conference is set for a different day and time. The parents are still a no show. Obviously because there is no change in the child’s behavior there has been no discipline action taken at home. The parents don’t care about the child or his education. You know if they don’t care about his education they don’t care about him at all. The child is still a behavior problem and missing a lot of school. The parents get sick of the phone calls from the school and decide to pull the child out of school all together. This is where the abuse comes in because you know good and well the parents have no intention of educating the kid. The parents themselves are probably not even educated. Just too lazy to be parents. To deprive a child of a decent education is abuse in my book.

How to Home School children

In my last entry I mentioned that I would like to explore the legalities and specifics of home schooling a child. With 55,000 Florida students registered in home school programs I figure there has to be some sort of rules and regulations governing this type of education. I went to the Palm Beach County School Board for answers.
First of all, parents need to send a written letter of intent to the Superintendent of the school district the child lives in. Other parental responsibilities are to maintain a portfolio of records, containing educational activities, writings, worksheets, and any other material used or created by the student. This information needs to be kept for 2 years and made available for inspection if requested by the superintendent. Since there is no attendance policy, an annual educational evaluation of the student’s progress is required and the law provides 5 evaluation methods for parents to choose from. Since there are no state funds available to parents choosing to home school their children there is an expense. There are websites and other vendors that supply workbook and textbooks to parents. Students can also take courses from the Florida Virtual School. It is a public online school providing free courses to middle and high school students. This seems like a good feature. It offers some sort of control and standardization over the child’s education. Again, I’m not real keen on this home school idea.
Home schooled students are eligible for Florida Bright Futures scholarships. They can take the general educational development (GED) test and receive a GED diploma. Home schooled children have the same opportunities as public school kids to enter a community college or State University of their choice. As for extracurricular activities a home schooled child has the opportunity to participate. Even if the activity occurs during school time such as band or chorus classes. The school district offers the student to opportunity to enroll in that class. A grade point average needs to be maintained just like the other public school kids. This will be agreed on by the principal of the school and the parent thru an evaluation process.
If a parent think their child has a learning disability, the school district is obligated to evaluate the child. This evaluation is at no cost to the parent. If the parent agrees that they cant properly care for the childs needs at home, the parent can enroll the child in public school. If the parents takes on the responsibility at home the school is not obligated but may offer some sort of assistance for the child. Such as speech or language classes.
I think there are some interesting aspect to home schooling. I still have no idea why anyone would want to go through all this trouble. It seems that the parents work closer with the school district than I thought. I am not fond of the free for all type curriculum that parents offer their students. It seems like they just “wing it” until the end of year evaluation comes around. What if their child is behind. I think at least the districts should monitor the students progress more often than once a year!! That’s it for now :o)

advantages of homeschooling

Ok-Last time I wrote on this blog website I told you what my initial thoughts were towards homeschooling. Well, I did a little investigating and I have discovered some advantages. First of all, as we all could figure out, home schooled kids have a flexiable schedule. The parent/teacher can tailor the cirriculum to suit the individual needs of the child. The child will get 100% of the insturctors attention. One on one teaching is very effective and of course impossible in a public school setting. Families have time to bond with eachother. Brings a sense of closeness between the parent and the child. The childs strengths and weakneses are reconized and the parent is able to devote more time towards the weaknesses.Parents can instill in their children morals and values that are important to them. Rather than left the schools dictate what is right and wrong. Peer pressure is obviously nonexistant, the chils should be able to make independant choices for his or her self. In the security of the childs home he or she should be comfortable enough to admit when they dont understand something. Some kids in a public school are embarrased or shy to raise their hand and ask a question. Children learn to repect their parents. They learn to value the views of their parents more so than the views of their friends. I'll have to come back to this later!!
I'm back. Where was I? The advantages of homeschooling. Besides having a flexible schedule, one on one attention no peer pressure home schooled children are suppose to do very well taking tests. They are said to score higher than public school kids. This is something I will have to look into in a blog or two. I think the next question and discussion on my list is how does the parent/teacher get the cirriculum for their child. There has to be some sort of guidline or standards they follow. How doe they get thier instruction for the lessons and how do they put together a test and who do they turn it in to? These are all things I want to explore on my next blog. I also need to know how in this day and age anyone can say they come from a single income family? Even if this is possible it takes a great deal of commitment from the parent to want to teach their child everyday. As you can see I am not a fane of homeschooling. even though I try to find the positive aspects I always revert back to the negitive and hardships. God, maybe I am old enough now to say that I am stuck in my ways. I hope not even though I turn 34 in less than two weeks. Ok- I will get back on the topic, the bottom line is that homeschooling is not for everyone, but more power to the Moms and Dads who actually want to try and take on that resposibility.