My big resolution for 2012 is "less blog, more ukulele!".
Last May, I realized that I had pretty much said all I've wanted to say on this blog about the path of homeschooling and the wonderful things we can access to support living and learning at home with our kids. Spending a year to share my own thoughts and ideas on the topic seemed about right to me and I was happy to let it wrap up naturally.
I even contemplated deleting the whole thing, but when I brought this up to home learning friends, they told me to give my head a shake. I've decided to archive instead.
I could just leave things here, status quo, but I find the blogger format a bit unwieldy in terms of indexing and organizing previous posts. So, over the next several months, things will disappear from this site and will show up on www.victoriahomeschooling.com (which will eventually assume the www.homelearningvictoria.com url).
The content on both sites will be pretty much static from this point on, but the posts that people frequent most often (mostly about homeschooling in BC and favourite resources) will still be available to you for future reference.
I also may have enough juice left to write one last article about learning music. Perhaps my ukulele will inspire me.
Happy New Year to you all. And may 2012 be your best adventure yet.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Diana Sandberg: Finding Community
Diana is a veteran homeschooling momma (and theatre goddess) from the lower mainland. She graciously consented to having the following comment posted on Home Learning Victoria.
My kids are grown and flown now, so perhaps I can offer a long view. We learned about homeschooling when I was pregnant with my first and, after doing some research (mostly library books, it's hard to remember those pre-computer days...), we happily resolved to take that route. We did, however, put both kids in preschool in our neighbourhood - mainly in the hopes of finding other local families with young children. Herewith, several observations:
1. In the total of 4 years of preschool for the 2 kids, we only connected socially with one family. We did just as well (also one family) with the community centre parent-and-tots program (that family also became homeschoolers). We did make the effort to get involved - they were both parent-participation schools, and, in fact, my husband volunteered and was elected president the 2nd year (the politics of *that* little world is a whole other story, lol!).
2. The first child's preschool was a "gentle immersion" French program. Essentially, the teachers switched back and forth with French and English. The kids didn't seem to notice, nor did they seem to pick up much French. For the second, we specifically picked a preschool that actually advertised that they did NOT teach reading and writing and other "school readiness" skills - their philosophy was all about play. This was 22 years ago, I'm guessing such a place might no longer exist, lol.
3. Things still happened that should not have. On one occasion, I arrived to pick up my daughter one afternoon to find her and another child with masking tape over their mouths. My daughter was at pains to explain that it was a "game", but she also said it was because the two of them "talked too much". I was such a wimp in those days I didn't actually rip the teacher into tiny pieces. It was only years later that my daughter told me about the pedal car - it was such a popular toy that use was time-limited *for boys* and girls were shooed off to play with other things! Ack!
4. The homeschooling community was MUCH smaller around here in those days. None of my research even really talked about homeschooling as a community endeavour. I was totally focused on going it alone and never thought to even look for other homeschoolers near me. It was only when my elder girl turned 5 and we started having the "No, not going to kindergarten next year, we're going to be homeschooling" conversation, that a local shopkeeper told me that she knew someone else who was doing that and put me in touch with her! From there we found the Greater Vancouver Homeschooling group, and within six months were hosting meetings in our home. That was a community that we connected with socially. Many of those parents and kids are still our friends all these years later.
* * *
My kids are grown and flown now, so perhaps I can offer a long view. We learned about homeschooling when I was pregnant with my first and, after doing some research (mostly library books, it's hard to remember those pre-computer days...), we happily resolved to take that route. We did, however, put both kids in preschool in our neighbourhood - mainly in the hopes of finding other local families with young children. Herewith, several observations:
1. In the total of 4 years of preschool for the 2 kids, we only connected socially with one family. We did just as well (also one family) with the community centre parent-and-tots program (that family also became homeschoolers). We did make the effort to get involved - they were both parent-participation schools, and, in fact, my husband volunteered and was elected president the 2nd year (the politics of *that* little world is a whole other story, lol!).
2. The first child's preschool was a "gentle immersion" French program. Essentially, the teachers switched back and forth with French and English. The kids didn't seem to notice, nor did they seem to pick up much French. For the second, we specifically picked a preschool that actually advertised that they did NOT teach reading and writing and other "school readiness" skills - their philosophy was all about play. This was 22 years ago, I'm guessing such a place might no longer exist, lol.
3. Things still happened that should not have. On one occasion, I arrived to pick up my daughter one afternoon to find her and another child with masking tape over their mouths. My daughter was at pains to explain that it was a "game", but she also said it was because the two of them "talked too much". I was such a wimp in those days I didn't actually rip the teacher into tiny pieces. It was only years later that my daughter told me about the pedal car - it was such a popular toy that use was time-limited *for boys* and girls were shooed off to play with other things! Ack!
4. The homeschooling community was MUCH smaller around here in those days. None of my research even really talked about homeschooling as a community endeavour. I was totally focused on going it alone and never thought to even look for other homeschoolers near me. It was only when my elder girl turned 5 and we started having the "No, not going to kindergarten next year, we're going to be homeschooling" conversation, that a local shopkeeper told me that she knew someone else who was doing that and put me in touch with her! From there we found the Greater Vancouver Homeschooling group, and within six months were hosting meetings in our home. That was a community that we connected with socially. Many of those parents and kids are still our friends all these years later.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Learning with Graphic Novels
We've always loved graphic novels. Ones that are done well are just... awesome.
Gareth Hinds has written and illustrated four "classic" graphic novels that we can't wait to get our hands on:
The Manga Guides move into more heavy duty topics such as calculus, biochemistry and relativity. These books are definitely for the teen (or older learner) who would like to dive into some fairly dense topics in a fun and straightforward way. For example, "In The Manga Guide to Calculus, you'll follow along with Noriko as she learns that calculus is more than just a class designed to weed out would-be science majors. You'll see that calculus is a useful way to understand the patterns in physics, economics, and the world around us, with help from real-world examples like probability, supply and demand curves, the economics of pollution, and the density of Shochu (a Japanese liquor)."
Other great books that are info-oriented and "graphic" are Larry Gonick's fabulous offerings (watch the age level ... and your parental comfort level), Jay Hosler's Clan Apis (about bees) and The Sandwalk Adventures (about Charles Darwin), Jim Ottaviani's fantastic books (such as T-Minus: The Race to the Moon and Two-Fisted Science), and Mark Shultz's The Stuff of Life: A Graphic Guide to Genetics and DNA. Great stuff.
Since writing down some of our favourites in the post linked to above, we've discovered even more graphic novels (for good reason -- more and more excellent ones are being published every month).
The common theme to the graphic novels in this post is information. The books listed below all deal with subject matter that we typically present in traditional (and somewhat boring) ways. The authors/illustrators take the content out of the typical and present it in a way that will intrigue and entice the reader. Booyah!
The books get great reviews, including one from Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson) regarding The Odyssey: "Gareth Hinds brings THE ODYSSEY to life in a masterful blend of art and storytelling. Vivid and exciting, this graphic novel is a worthy new interpretation of Homer’s epic."
We've also been collecting some of the Manga Shakespeare books. We bought our first one at the kiosk at Bard on the Beach and my pre-teen son just loved it (we had to go back and see the play)! So we've been buying more. There are 14 books published thus far and they are available at many different bookstores (including Amazon.ca).
Other great books that are info-oriented and "graphic" are Larry Gonick's fabulous offerings (watch the age level ... and your parental comfort level), Jay Hosler's Clan Apis (about bees) and The Sandwalk Adventures (about Charles Darwin), Jim Ottaviani's fantastic books (such as T-Minus: The Race to the Moon and Two-Fisted Science), and Mark Shultz's The Stuff of Life: A Graphic Guide to Genetics and DNA. Great stuff.
Some parents are concerned that graphic novels aren't as good as "real books" or that somehow they are a lesser species of book (or information source). For folks who may worry about that, perhaps think about your goals for your children's learning. Are you really wanting your children to read heavy texts, perhaps biting off more than they can currently chew and potentially turning them off classics or certain kinds of information for many years? Or do you want them to have to wait to read about these topics until they are ready to tackle them (based on skill development, cognitive development, or interest)? Or do you want to give them the opportunity to discover a new passion or interest, something that they may then follow-up on afterwards because they are fascinated and want to uncover more, regardless of how sturdy the topic?
Offerings like graphic novels, legitimate as they are in their own right, also plant seeds for deeper exploration -- if the child decides to follow through. These are perfect items for sharing ideas and topics with your kids, regardless of your learn-at-home philosophy. At our house, I strew them around. I don't have any agenda by doing that other than opening doors to possibilities, expanding my child's world (and my own) by bringing in a few more things that my child may enjoy or that will support his current interests. I see that as my primary role as a home educator and I'm grateful for resources like these that help make my job so much easier (and fun).
If you have other favourite graphic novel that are "info-based", kindly share the titles in the comments. I'd love to read your suggestions.
If you have other favourite graphic novel that are "info-based", kindly share the titles in the comments. I'd love to read your suggestions.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Matt Hern: Schools as Resources
from my archives...
Mighty Matt Hern was a colleague of mine as once upon a time (~20 years ago), we both operated alternate schools within the same umbrella organization. I had the privilege of hearing Matt speak a few years ago and although he's not a direct proponent of homeschooling (he sees it as somewhat elitist as usually only one-income, two-parent families can afford to do it), he has some interesting ideas about how to provide alternatives to schools (which he discusses in his book Field Day).
[If you get a chance to read it, Matt's book Deschooling Our Lives is awesome and is certainly worth the time. It's out of print, but you might find it at your local library or from Abe Books. The updated version, which is in print, is Everywhere All the Time: A New Deschooling Reader.]
Mighty Matt Hern was a colleague of mine as once upon a time (~20 years ago), we both operated alternate schools within the same umbrella organization. I had the privilege of hearing Matt speak a few years ago and although he's not a direct proponent of homeschooling (he sees it as somewhat elitist as usually only one-income, two-parent families can afford to do it), he has some interesting ideas about how to provide alternatives to schools (which he discusses in his book Field Day).
He feels that schools should be open, community resources where it is an individual choice as to when and how to access them (and what to do when one is there). His parallel illustration is a library. He asked us to imagine going to the library, being greeted at the door by the librarian, being shown where we were going to sit for the next two hours (without talking) and being given a pile of books that we were allowed to read that day (and no, we couldn't browse the stacks). Oh, yes. And we'd have to raise our hands to ask to use the bathroom. His point - how many of us would actually go to the library if it was like that?
What if schools were more like libraries? School resources would be available to all individuals (regardless of age) to use and to explore. Classes offered would be based on expressed interest rather than provincial or teacher-mandated curriculum. Activities would be "fun and useful" rather than rote and boring.
It's an interesting idea.
[If you get a chance to read it, Matt's book Deschooling Our Lives is awesome and is certainly worth the time. It's out of print, but you might find it at your local library or from Abe Books. The updated version, which is in print, is Everywhere All the Time: A New Deschooling Reader.]
Monday, July 18, 2011
Diana Sandberg: On Support Groups
Diana Sandberg is a veteran homeschooling mom from Vancouver, BC. She recently responded to a request made on a Canada-wide email list: do you have any thoughts, tips or feedback on how your support group runs? I loved her response so much I asked to share it here!
Everybody - and every body, I guess - is different. I can say that when I was involved with the support group that was a major mainstay of our homeschooling lives, we were proud to say that it was a functional anarchy. We had no officers and no membership requirements. Anybody could come to anything, anybody could plan anything, or host anything. If nobody did, then....nothing happened. We had a few dry spells, but the desire to get together and stay in contact overcame inertia fairly quickly. It did help that we had one place - our house - which was comfortably large enough to host pretty big gatherings every month - at the annual potluck in December we often had over 100 people stuffing the house, the deck and the yard, lol. The other meetings weren't THAT big, but 40-50 people was not unusual. And we hosted that monthly evening meeting for 13 years.
When the meeting became large, we did have a spell where the kids were beginning to have some issues with each other during the playtime. Some kids felt excluded from activities, other kids felt pressured to participate when they didn't really want to. So we held a special meeting; parents and kids discussed their issues before coming to the meeting, and then everybody had an opportunity to speak. Most of the speakers were kids; everybody listened, everybody heard different perspectives and opinions and together we hammered out a set of rules for the kids at the meeting - I can't recall what all was on it now, but the salient point was that the kids worked it out, with the support of the parents, and after that things were much better.
What is your objection to people joining and not participating? And, come to think of it, what do you mean by "joining"? We used to keep a contact list with members' names and addresses, and there would be one taped to the table at meetings, where anybody could add their name. Just to keep it from getting too unwieldy, I would tend to prune the list every so often if there were names on it that I didn't recognize after several months, but otherwise...[shrug].
As to how the group ran, it was entirely free-form. As a visible member, people did used to approach me from time to time with suggestions about what the group ought to "offer". My response was always to smile cheerily and give them my permission to go right ahead and organize that. It worked surprisingly well. For quite a while, in the early days, when homeschooling was still pretty rare around here (Vancouver area), and there wasn't much available for us to do with our kids during the days, one of us would organize weekly field trips - it could be just a park play day, or a trip to a museum, a veterinarian's office, a shoe factory, the port authority, the stock exchange.... I can tell you that that day was sacred in our family, nothing else was scheduled for that day. The activity of the day wasn't always of enormous interest, and until the kids were upwards of 9 or 10, they weren't terribly needy for other kids' company, but by golly I was eager to spend some time with other homeschooling parents! The person who organized the field trips would tend to plan ahead and circulate the list of planned trips a few weeks in advance. Very rarely was it necessary to spend any money on these things, but if it was, we learned to collect the money in advance - otherwise, regrettably, people would tend not to show up at the last minute, which was occasionally problematic. As to who was the field trip organizer, this was, again, left to Fate. What tended to happen was that someone would do it for several months and then sort of burn out. Another person would take up the chore, sometimes right away, sometimes after a bit of a drought. People who had done it before would tend to pass along lists of contacts they had acquired, which was always helpful. Nothing wrong with going back to some of the same places from time to time.
Another parent-organized event that happened during the years we were participants was Theme Day - very popular - in which the host family would suggest a theme for a monthly gathering: boats, say, or Japan, or ancient toys, or musical instruments. The participating families would give some kind of short presentation involving that theme, and boy was there a diversity of ideas. Kids were, of course, encouraged to be the presenters, but parents were allowed as well. My kids learned quite a lot from watching me prepare and present the odd Theme Day presentation, and eventually decided to contribute themselves. One thing that really helped get this ball rolling was the original host mom, when suggesting the monthly theme, would also hand out a sheet of ideas - have you ever been to Japan? what kind of food do they eat there? what is interesting about their traditional architecture? traditional clothing? do they have unusual folk tales? what is their music like? etc., etc...
Parents also organized weekly or monthly gatherings for creative writing, science experiments, math practice, game playing, basketball, ice skating, and Shakespearean theatrical production, among others. Families participated in these things as they felt inclined. If they involved hiring instructors (we had Karen Magnussen for skating for years, and professional Shakespearean actors for our theatrics), then obviously a time and money commitment might be required.
I would encourage you not to worry too much about whether people are or are not making a big contribution at any point in time. Everybody's availability for that sort of thing varies over time. And some people are just generally more...available...than others. I wouldn't let the non-contributors dictate what is or isn't being done, but if they want to show up for stuff, why not? You may find they will become more involved as their sense of belonging grows, and their family situation shifts.
Cheers and good luck,
Diana
Everybody - and every body, I guess - is different. I can say that when I was involved with the support group that was a major mainstay of our homeschooling lives, we were proud to say that it was a functional anarchy. We had no officers and no membership requirements. Anybody could come to anything, anybody could plan anything, or host anything. If nobody did, then....nothing happened. We had a few dry spells, but the desire to get together and stay in contact overcame inertia fairly quickly. It did help that we had one place - our house - which was comfortably large enough to host pretty big gatherings every month - at the annual potluck in December we often had over 100 people stuffing the house, the deck and the yard, lol. The other meetings weren't THAT big, but 40-50 people was not unusual. And we hosted that monthly evening meeting for 13 years.
When the meeting became large, we did have a spell where the kids were beginning to have some issues with each other during the playtime. Some kids felt excluded from activities, other kids felt pressured to participate when they didn't really want to. So we held a special meeting; parents and kids discussed their issues before coming to the meeting, and then everybody had an opportunity to speak. Most of the speakers were kids; everybody listened, everybody heard different perspectives and opinions and together we hammered out a set of rules for the kids at the meeting - I can't recall what all was on it now, but the salient point was that the kids worked it out, with the support of the parents, and after that things were much better.
What is your objection to people joining and not participating? And, come to think of it, what do you mean by "joining"? We used to keep a contact list with members' names and addresses, and there would be one taped to the table at meetings, where anybody could add their name. Just to keep it from getting too unwieldy, I would tend to prune the list every so often if there were names on it that I didn't recognize after several months, but otherwise...[shrug].
As to how the group ran, it was entirely free-form. As a visible member, people did used to approach me from time to time with suggestions about what the group ought to "offer". My response was always to smile cheerily and give them my permission to go right ahead and organize that. It worked surprisingly well. For quite a while, in the early days, when homeschooling was still pretty rare around here (Vancouver area), and there wasn't much available for us to do with our kids during the days, one of us would organize weekly field trips - it could be just a park play day, or a trip to a museum, a veterinarian's office, a shoe factory, the port authority, the stock exchange.... I can tell you that that day was sacred in our family, nothing else was scheduled for that day. The activity of the day wasn't always of enormous interest, and until the kids were upwards of 9 or 10, they weren't terribly needy for other kids' company, but by golly I was eager to spend some time with other homeschooling parents! The person who organized the field trips would tend to plan ahead and circulate the list of planned trips a few weeks in advance. Very rarely was it necessary to spend any money on these things, but if it was, we learned to collect the money in advance - otherwise, regrettably, people would tend not to show up at the last minute, which was occasionally problematic. As to who was the field trip organizer, this was, again, left to Fate. What tended to happen was that someone would do it for several months and then sort of burn out. Another person would take up the chore, sometimes right away, sometimes after a bit of a drought. People who had done it before would tend to pass along lists of contacts they had acquired, which was always helpful. Nothing wrong with going back to some of the same places from time to time.
Another parent-organized event that happened during the years we were participants was Theme Day - very popular - in which the host family would suggest a theme for a monthly gathering: boats, say, or Japan, or ancient toys, or musical instruments. The participating families would give some kind of short presentation involving that theme, and boy was there a diversity of ideas. Kids were, of course, encouraged to be the presenters, but parents were allowed as well
Parents also organized weekly or monthly gatherings for creative writing, science experiments, math practice, game playing, basketball, ice skating, and Shakespearean theatrical production, among others. Families participated in these things as they felt inclined. If they involved hiring instructors (we had Karen Magnussen for skating for years, and professional Shakespearean actors for our theatrics), then obviously a time and money commitment might be required.
I would encourage you not to worry too much about whether people are or are not making a big contribution at any point in time. Everybody's availability for that sort of thing varies over time. And some people are just generally more...available...than others. I wouldn't let the non-contributors dictate what is or isn't being done, but if they want to show up for stuff, why not? You may find they will become more involved as their sense of belonging grows, and their family situation shifts.
Cheers and good luck,
Diana
Sunday, July 10, 2011
The Utopia of Sweden?
Not for home educators. On June 22, 2010, the Swedish Parliament passed a new school law that is so restrictive it makes homeschooling illegal except in "exceptional cases".
Because the social values in Sweden are written into law, the government feels that any objections to public schooling a parent might have based on religious or philosophical grounds have been addressed, so there is no reason these types of objections could support a parent's desire to have a child learn at home.
Sweden is the only democratic country that has made homeschooling illegal (with the exception of Germany in 1938, if it was in fact "democratic" at that time).
Jonas Himmelstrand, who is a proponent of both home education and attachment parenting (and is an associate of Gordon Neufeld), is a founder of ROHUS, the Swedish Association for Home Education.
On May 5, 2011, Jonas Himmelstrand spoke at the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada (which was started by Focus on the Family Canada, an evangelical Christian organization).
In his informative (and areligious) presentation, he gives a very stark picture of the state of family values in Sweden and how families simply are not allowed to have values other than what the state dictates.
Apparently, there are only 100 children being home educated in Sweden.
These families face some peculiar forms of persecution: fines of up to $40,000 CA for a year of homeschooling; repeated visits from social workers in an attempt to find something "wrong" with the family so the children can be forced to school or removed from the home; removal from the home of children as in the case of Domenic Johansson, who was removed two years ago (before homeschooling became legally impossible) without any reason other than the fact he hadn't attended daycare or school. (See minute 19:56 on the above video.)
On June 25, 2009, Domenic was removed from a plane that was preparing for take-off to India where his mother's family lives. He was 8-years-old. His parents were given no reason for his removal until after Dominic had been apprehended and placed under the care of the state. The parents are allowed supervised visits once every 5 or 6 weeks (and is mother is not allowed to cry during visits under the threat of having the visits revoked).
I have worked with troubled family situations in the past and my first reaction to the situation with the Johanssons is that there must be some back story that no one knows about, something "more" to the situation than meets the eye. In Canada, my experience has been that social services does everything possible to keep children with their families and it is only in cases where the parents cannot get it together for some reason that the children remain in care. In the above video, however, Jonas Himmelstrand says that one of the verdicts for the Johansson case states that because Domenic has not been in daycare and has not been in school, he has been harmed. The child also wasn't vaccinated and had a small cavity in one of his baby teeth. That's it in terms of the court documents.
It's outrageous.
Recently, the social workers have been telling the courts that the father is "weird" (despite psychiatric assessments that say otherwise) and is obsessed with human rights. Well, after two years of not having the custody of your child, I think anyone might be "obsessed" with human rights. I don't think that's a good enough reason to deny parents custody of a child.
There has been a recent petition circulating for people to sign that asks for Domenic to be returned to his parents. It has been timed to coincide with a political festival in the Johansson's hometown, Visby -- and today is the last day of this festival! I don't know if it will help for people outside of Sweden to sign, but it will show international support for the family and for home education freedoms in Sweden.
If you want to help the family with their legal costs, you can donate via PayPal. Please note that the HSLDA is involved in the case, if that matters to you.
You can also write letters of support to the family. The address is listed on this blog: Friends of Domenic Johansson.
If you want to show support for home education in Sweden, then you can sign a petition on the Rohus website. Only Germany and Sweden currently have laws restricting home education, whereas it is allowed in other European countries. Both Norway and Finland, Sweden's next door neighbours, are home education "friendly". Himmelstrand says that we will have to wait and see if other countries will follow Sweden's lead.
I think it's important to look at the progression in Sweden that has made a situation like this possible: national daycare (where daycare is a "right" of a child), early daycare entry and a push for women to re-enter the workforce when their children are 12 months old. In addition, Himmelstrand talks about how the social provision of parenting outside the home strips the parents of their sense of responsibility for their children's development and negatively affects healthy family attachments, creating a whole generation of insecure and troubled youths. He actually uses the words "home parenting" to describe what his family is trying to do, which I found to be rather effective in terms of helping me understand how far things have gone in Sweden.
He cautions Canada to not adopt the Swedish model of child care without studying it carefully first. As our province moves toward full-day kindergarten this coming fall (in all schools in BC) and considers providing pre-kindergarten for 3- and 4-year-olds in future years, his words should give us pause for thought.
Because the social values in Sweden are written into law, the government feels that any objections to public schooling a parent might have based on religious or philosophical grounds have been addressed, so there is no reason these types of objections could support a parent's desire to have a child learn at home.
"Current school conventions make it clear that the education in school shall be comprehensive and objective, and thereby be created so that all pupils can participate, no matter what religious or philosophical views the pupil or its legal guardian/s may have. In accordance with this it is the opinion of the Government that there is no need of a law to make possible homeschooling based on the religious or philosophical views of the family."
Page 523 in Prop. 2009/10:165 (Swedish Government proposition)
Sweden is the only democratic country that has made homeschooling illegal (with the exception of Germany in 1938, if it was in fact "democratic" at that time).
Jonas Himmelstrand, who is a proponent of both home education and attachment parenting (and is an associate of Gordon Neufeld), is a founder of ROHUS, the Swedish Association for Home Education.
On May 5, 2011, Jonas Himmelstrand spoke at the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada (which was started by Focus on the Family Canada, an evangelical Christian organization).
In his informative (and areligious) presentation, he gives a very stark picture of the state of family values in Sweden and how families simply are not allowed to have values other than what the state dictates.
Apparently, there are only 100 children being home educated in Sweden.
These families face some peculiar forms of persecution: fines of up to $40,000 CA for a year of homeschooling; repeated visits from social workers in an attempt to find something "wrong" with the family so the children can be forced to school or removed from the home; removal from the home of children as in the case of Domenic Johansson, who was removed two years ago (before homeschooling became legally impossible) without any reason other than the fact he hadn't attended daycare or school. (See minute 19:56 on the above video.)
On June 25, 2009, Domenic was removed from a plane that was preparing for take-off to India where his mother's family lives. He was 8-years-old. His parents were given no reason for his removal until after Dominic had been apprehended and placed under the care of the state. The parents are allowed supervised visits once every 5 or 6 weeks (and is mother is not allowed to cry during visits under the threat of having the visits revoked).
I have worked with troubled family situations in the past and my first reaction to the situation with the Johanssons is that there must be some back story that no one knows about, something "more" to the situation than meets the eye. In Canada, my experience has been that social services does everything possible to keep children with their families and it is only in cases where the parents cannot get it together for some reason that the children remain in care. In the above video, however, Jonas Himmelstrand says that one of the verdicts for the Johansson case states that because Domenic has not been in daycare and has not been in school, he has been harmed. The child also wasn't vaccinated and had a small cavity in one of his baby teeth. That's it in terms of the court documents.
It's outrageous.
Recently, the social workers have been telling the courts that the father is "weird" (despite psychiatric assessments that say otherwise) and is obsessed with human rights. Well, after two years of not having the custody of your child, I think anyone might be "obsessed" with human rights. I don't think that's a good enough reason to deny parents custody of a child.
There has been a recent petition circulating for people to sign that asks for Domenic to be returned to his parents. It has been timed to coincide with a political festival in the Johansson's hometown, Visby -- and today is the last day of this festival! I don't know if it will help for people outside of Sweden to sign, but it will show international support for the family and for home education freedoms in Sweden.
If you want to help the family with their legal costs, you can donate via PayPal. Please note that the HSLDA is involved in the case, if that matters to you.
You can also write letters of support to the family. The address is listed on this blog: Friends of Domenic Johansson.
If you want to show support for home education in Sweden, then you can sign a petition on the Rohus website. Only Germany and Sweden currently have laws restricting home education, whereas it is allowed in other European countries. Both Norway and Finland, Sweden's next door neighbours, are home education "friendly". Himmelstrand says that we will have to wait and see if other countries will follow Sweden's lead.
I think it's important to look at the progression in Sweden that has made a situation like this possible: national daycare (where daycare is a "right" of a child), early daycare entry and a push for women to re-enter the workforce when their children are 12 months old. In addition, Himmelstrand talks about how the social provision of parenting outside the home strips the parents of their sense of responsibility for their children's development and negatively affects healthy family attachments, creating a whole generation of insecure and troubled youths. He actually uses the words "home parenting" to describe what his family is trying to do, which I found to be rather effective in terms of helping me understand how far things have gone in Sweden.
He cautions Canada to not adopt the Swedish model of child care without studying it carefully first. As our province moves toward full-day kindergarten this coming fall (in all schools in BC) and considers providing pre-kindergarten for 3- and 4-year-olds in future years, his words should give us pause for thought.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
About the money...
Home learning families often limp along on one income. It's the reality of choosing to have your children with you 24/7: someone needs to be available to be the caregiver for the children, to give them support and attention as fits their developmental and emotional needs. Often, depending on the ages of the kids, that's a full-time job right there.
Families have different ways of making it work, but it often comes down to figuring it out on a penny by penny basis.
This is one of the reasons why Distributed Learning (DL) schools, especially with the current cornucopia of choice, are so popular among home learners. Many parents cannot walk away from difference that $1000, $3000, or even $5000 (in large families!) can make in the lives of their children. I have often heard of children who would not be able to afford to pursue passions like music or dance or sports if it wasn't for the money provided through a DL school.
It's also a fact that there are home learning families who, if not "for the money", would gladly choose registration and the freedom from government oversight over enrollment. And, from time to time, people in this situation may feel that it's unfair that DLs appear to be receiving financial preferential treatment from the government, almost as though the registration option is not worth notice. These parents may wish to rattle some cages and ask the Ministry of Education to provide more money for registered families.
But that's because they may not understand this one vitally important thing: the money is never for the family.
School Funding
No DL or registering school in this province is required to give any home learning family any money in any form. In fact, they do not have the legal right, in the case of DL, to provide direct reimbursement, in the form of a cheque or cash, to parents.
Why? Because the money is not for the child or the family. It's for the school.
DL schools are obligated to use school funding to provide an educational program to a child (and that includes children eligible for a special education grant). It's up to them to determine how they will deliver that, including materials, resources, instruction, and support. Because home learning families are a choosy crowd, many DLs do the same thing -- they figure out a way to provide materials and services of a family's choosing through purchase orders or a reloadable Visa card or direct payment to a community-based service provider (like a dance school or music teacher). No money is to land directly in a parent's hand.
Why is that? In 2006, Bill 33 changed the School Act and made it legally clear that DL enrollment is not the same as section 13 registration.
Because, according to law, schools can reimburse section 13 families for home education related expenses--at their discretion. They don't have to, but they most certainly can.
Incentive-Free DL
Earlier in the 2000's, DL schools were competing for students by means of reimbursements. More learners means more money for their programs (and school districts).
Bill 33 clarified that money cannot go to parents by legally identifying Distributed Learning (DL) as a regular school program, bound by the requirements and expectations of every other school in the province. In addition, the DL school contracts with the Ministry clarified that no DLs are allowed to use funds as an enrollment incentive. The Independent DL school agreement, which covers the majority of K to 9 DL enrollment in this province, states that a DL "may not provide financial payments or reimbursements to students or the parents or guardians of Students" and "may not use any of the funding... as an incentive to have a Student enroll."
It's pretty clear. There is no money, not officially, for families enrolling in a DL program. The money is for the school alone. If they choose to supply materials or classes or resources and have figured out a way to pay for those things in a way that fits the law and their MinEd contract, then that's the way it currently works. And, as things currently stand, it means it works for a lot of families.
By the way, the law also says:
Registration and the Law
We often get as far as sections 12 through 14 in the School Act when it comes to registered home education in BC and that's where we stop. But there is a lot more there, including "the money" and what a school's responsibilities are to a registered homeschooler.
But there is nothing written that suggests that registered learners are entitled to any money at all.
In fact, as it stands, the Minister of Education, as per the School Act, has the jurisdiction to make orders:
Fees for Students Registered Under Section 13
Here's an interesting tidbit. According to the School Act, all schools, including those providing registration under section 13 of the School Act, can charge fees.
What Must Schools Offer as Part of Section 13 Registration?
It's all in the School Regulation.
There is additional Ministry of Education policy about the responsibilities of Registering Schools (although policies are much easier to change than statutes).
Bottom Line
The government does not want to directly give DL families financial compensation for learning at home.
I suspect that public schools were not providing much in the way of access to resources to home educating students, so the amounts were dialed down to cover administration costs only. It may also have been that the government was thinking that more money required greater accountability and, instead of increasing oversight, decided to decrease funding. I don't know for sure.
The Alberta government, however, minces no words on the matter. As per the Alberta Home Education Handbook: "The Alberta government uses public dollars to fund education. Funding varies according to the level of public accountability in the program. School authority programs are subject to a higher level of public accountability than home education programs and so receive a higher level of funding."
More money for registering schools would very likely mean more oversight for registered families. Money always requires increased accountability to government and to tax payers -- not just for how the money is used, but how effectively the money is being used.
We don't want that.
We don't want to go the way of Alberta where even the least intrusive option (where parents do not follow the Alberta Programs of Studies) requires two home visits a year from certified teachers who "measure progress" based on parent developed learning outcomes as well as basic provincially determined learning outcomes.
This is not even the "online learning program" option, which would be the equivalent to DL in our province. This is the equivalent to our sections 12 and 13, and is much more intrusive than many BC DL options. Sure, home educators get more money per child, but is it worth the price?
It's the same in the Yukon, which once had laws similar to ours that were changed in 2002... and where there is no financial compensation for home educators in any form. Now, "as part of registration, parents are required to submit an education plan. The plan includes the methods of teaching and the resources you will use for the subjects of literacy and numeracy [including "the skills of literacy, listening, speaking, reading, writing, numeracy, mathematics, analysis, problem solving, information processing computing"]. There is no requirement to provide this information for other subject areas." In addition, the children are subject to testing and "the Minister may, in writing, terminate the home education program if the Minister is of the opinion... that the student has failed to meet standards of student achievement, as measured by achievement testing, comparable to schools operated by the Minister or a School Board."
This is very different from BC where it's stated in both law and policy "The school has no authority to approve or supervise the educational program of a homeschooled child."
This is the beauty of registration in BC. This is why our legal status under sections 12 through 14 of the School Act is so precious and deserves to be protected as is. Parents truly are in charge of their children's learning without having to submit plans and learning outcomes to schools or Ministry officials. Our children are not poked and prodded with respect to what and how much they know (and neither are their parents). It is educational freedom at its best.
If preserving our statutory rights to educate our children free of government oversight and involvement means not taking "the money", so be it!
Families have different ways of making it work, but it often comes down to figuring it out on a penny by penny basis.
This is one of the reasons why Distributed Learning (DL) schools, especially with the current cornucopia of choice, are so popular among home learners. Many parents cannot walk away from difference that $1000, $3000, or even $5000 (in large families!) can make in the lives of their children. I have often heard of children who would not be able to afford to pursue passions like music or dance or sports if it wasn't for the money provided through a DL school.
It's also a fact that there are home learning families who, if not "for the money", would gladly choose registration and the freedom from government oversight over enrollment. And, from time to time, people in this situation may feel that it's unfair that DLs appear to be receiving financial preferential treatment from the government, almost as though the registration option is not worth notice. These parents may wish to rattle some cages and ask the Ministry of Education to provide more money for registered families.
But that's because they may not understand this one vitally important thing: the money is never for the family.
School Funding
No DL or registering school in this province is required to give any home learning family any money in any form. In fact, they do not have the legal right, in the case of DL, to provide direct reimbursement, in the form of a cheque or cash, to parents.
Why? Because the money is not for the child or the family. It's for the school.
DL schools are obligated to use school funding to provide an educational program to a child (and that includes children eligible for a special education grant). It's up to them to determine how they will deliver that, including materials, resources, instruction, and support. Because home learning families are a choosy crowd, many DLs do the same thing -- they figure out a way to provide materials and services of a family's choosing through purchase orders or a reloadable Visa card or direct payment to a community-based service provider (like a dance school or music teacher). No money is to land directly in a parent's hand.
Why is that? In 2006, Bill 33 changed the School Act and made it legally clear that DL enrollment is not the same as section 13 registration.
Because, according to law, schools can reimburse section 13 families for home education related expenses--at their discretion. They don't have to, but they most certainly can.
Incentive-Free DL
Earlier in the 2000's, DL schools were competing for students by means of reimbursements. More learners means more money for their programs (and school districts).
Bill 33 clarified that money cannot go to parents by legally identifying Distributed Learning (DL) as a regular school program, bound by the requirements and expectations of every other school in the province. In addition, the DL school contracts with the Ministry clarified that no DLs are allowed to use funds as an enrollment incentive. The Independent DL school agreement, which covers the majority of K to 9 DL enrollment in this province, states that a DL "may not provide financial payments or reimbursements to students or the parents or guardians of Students" and "may not use any of the funding... as an incentive to have a Student enroll."
It's pretty clear. There is no money, not officially, for families enrolling in a DL program. The money is for the school alone. If they choose to supply materials or classes or resources and have figured out a way to pay for those things in a way that fits the law and their MinEd contract, then that's the way it currently works. And, as things currently stand, it means it works for a lot of families.
By the way, the law also says:
(I suspect this means your child should never have to pay additional fees to participate in a class or program offered by your child's DL, but you could check with the Ministry of Education to clarify.)82 (1) A board must provide free of charge to every student of school age resident in British Columbia and enrolled in an educational program in a school operated by the board,(a) instruction in an educational program sufficient to meet the general requirements for graduation,...(c) educational resource materials necessary to participate in the educational program.
Registration and the Law
We often get as far as sections 12 through 14 in the School Act when it comes to registered home education in BC and that's where we stop. But there is a lot more there, including "the money" and what a school's responsibilities are to a registered homeschooler.
But there is nothing written that suggests that registered learners are entitled to any money at all.
In fact, as it stands, the Minister of Education, as per the School Act, has the jurisdiction to make orders:
It's all in the Minster of Education's hands.168 (1) (j.2). establishing, for the purposes of section 168.1, the amount a student or a child registered under section 13 may be reimbursed, including(i) setting the maximum amount that may be paid,(ii) establishing a limit on the number of educational activities or categories of educational activities for which reimbursement may be made, and(iii) setting different amounts and different limits for different educational activities or different categories of educational activities,
168.1 The minister may reimburse a student or a child registered under section 13 for expenses incurred for instruction, examination or certification with respect to an educational activity or a category of educational activities designated by the minister, in the amount established by the minister, if the student or child(a) is of school age,(b) is resident in British Columbia, within the meaning of section 82 (2), and(c) demonstrates a standard of achievement, satisfactory to the minister, in the designated educational activity or category of educational activities.
Fees for Students Registered Under Section 13
Here's an interesting tidbit. According to the School Act, all schools, including those providing registration under section 13 of the School Act, can charge fees.
And...82 (6) A board must publish a schedule of the fees to be charged and deposits required and must make the schedule available to students and to children registered under section 13 and to the parents of those students and children before the beginning of the school year.
82 (4) A board may require a deposit for educational resource materials provided to students and to children registered under section 13.(5) If a board requires a deposit under subsection (4), it must refund all or part of the deposit to the student or child on return of the educational resource materials.
What Must Schools Offer as Part of Section 13 Registration?
It's all in the School Regulation.
3. (1) A school or francophone school that registers a child under section 13 of the Act must offer
(a) evaluation and assessment services sufficient to enable the parents of the child to determine the educational progress achieved by the child in relation to students of similar age and ability, and
(b) the loan of educational resource materials that are authorized and recommended by the minister,
(i) which, in the board's opinion, are sufficient to enable the child to pursue his or her educational program, and
(ii) which will be offered to the child on a similar basis to the offer of such educational resource materials to students.
(2) With the permission of a board, a child registered in a school or francophone school under section 13 of the Act may audit educational programs offered by the board subject to any terms and conditions established by the board, including the payment of any fee.
(3) A child in grade 10, 11, or 12 registered in school francophone school, or independent school under section 13 of the Act may enroll in all or part of an educational program that is
(a) offered by a board or an independent school, and
(b) delivered through distributed learning.
Note: If your child in grade 10, 11, or 12 enrolls in a class in a Brick and Mortar school, he will lose his registered status. Your child in those grades can, however, take as many DL courses as she likes without losing her registered status.
There is additional Ministry of Education policy about the responsibilities of Registering Schools (although policies are much easier to change than statutes).
Bottom Line
The government does not want to directly give DL families financial compensation for learning at home.
DL money is for the DL school, so the school can provide an educational program to the enrolled students.
Why? Because it's not fair to the Brick and Mortar families. The Ministry doesn't want to differentiate between the two types of enrollment in terms of services, administration, or relationship to families. The only difference is mode of delivery or "venue".
Unlike DL, however, registered families can receive compensation for educational expenses. But only to a point. When Sections 12 and 13 became part of the School Act in 1989, public schools received $1200 for each registered homeschooler and independent schools received $600. By 1994, that number had been decreased to its current levels of $250 per learner for a public school and $175 per learner for an independent school. Why?
Unlike DL, however, registered families can receive compensation for educational expenses. But only to a point. When Sections 12 and 13 became part of the School Act in 1989, public schools received $1200 for each registered homeschooler and independent schools received $600. By 1994, that number had been decreased to its current levels of $250 per learner for a public school and $175 per learner for an independent school. Why?
Registration money is for the registering school so it can do the administrivial tasks required and be compensated for the time involved.
I suspect that public schools were not providing much in the way of access to resources to home educating students, so the amounts were dialed down to cover administration costs only. It may also have been that the government was thinking that more money required greater accountability and, instead of increasing oversight, decided to decrease funding. I don't know for sure.
The Alberta government, however, minces no words on the matter. As per the Alberta Home Education Handbook: "The Alberta government uses public dollars to fund education. Funding varies according to the level of public accountability in the program. School authority programs are subject to a higher level of public accountability than home education programs and so receive a higher level of funding."
I'm always amazed at registering independent schools in BC who, at their own discretion, provide up to $150 to compensate home learning families for materials and resources. I'm very grateful to them. And I know that independent schools offer this reimbursement to families as it then takes care of their obligation to loan materials (a headache to administer). Money, however, is not something that registered homeschoolers are entitled to receive. In fact, independent schools, unlike public schools, don't even have to register anyone if they don't want to. They provide this service as a kindness.
No More Money
Most currently registered homeschooling families would balk at "more money". Here's why.
We don't want that.
We don't want to go the way of Alberta where even the least intrusive option (where parents do not follow the Alberta Programs of Studies) requires two home visits a year from certified teachers who "measure progress" based on parent developed learning outcomes as well as basic provincially determined learning outcomes.
This is not even the "online learning program" option, which would be the equivalent to DL in our province. This is the equivalent to our sections 12 and 13, and is much more intrusive than many BC DL options. Sure, home educators get more money per child, but is it worth the price?
It's the same in the Yukon, which once had laws similar to ours that were changed in 2002... and where there is no financial compensation for home educators in any form. Now, "as part of registration, parents are required to submit an education plan. The plan includes the methods of teaching and the resources you will use for the subjects of literacy and numeracy [including "the skills of literacy, listening, speaking, reading, writing, numeracy, mathematics, analysis, problem solving, information processing computing"]. There is no requirement to provide this information for other subject areas." In addition, the children are subject to testing and "the Minister may, in writing, terminate the home education program if the Minister is of the opinion... that the student has failed to meet standards of student achievement, as measured by achievement testing, comparable to schools operated by the Minister or a School Board."
This is very different from BC where it's stated in both law and policy "The school has no authority to approve or supervise the educational program of a homeschooled child."
This is the beauty of registration in BC. This is why our legal status under sections 12 through 14 of the School Act is so precious and deserves to be protected as is. Parents truly are in charge of their children's learning without having to submit plans and learning outcomes to schools or Ministry officials. Our children are not poked and prodded with respect to what and how much they know (and neither are their parents). It is educational freedom at its best.
If preserving our statutory rights to educate our children free of government oversight and involvement means not taking "the money", so be it!
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