Archive for May, 2008

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Eagle Scout soars to get all badges

Thursday, May 29th, 2008

”No other Boy Scout in the history of the Great Trail Council which serves Medina, Summit, Portage and northern Wayne counties has ever earned every merit badge,” said a still-amazed Jim Shimko, the council’s program director.

”In fact, the Boy Scouts’ National Council indicates that fewer than 1,000 scouts in the organization’s 98-year history have equaled Will Saxon’s accomplishment.

”I think you’d have to say Will is a real ‘exception to the rule.’ ”

Will is the son of Steve and Darlene Saxon. He was adopted when he was 1 day old through open adoption and is in touch with his birth mother and other siblings in Texas.

Exploring career options

Darlene Saxon said the main reason her son pursued all of the merit badges was ”because he wanted to find out what he wanted to do as a career.”

He’s now thinking about something in veterinary science.

Will, who is home-schooled from 5 a.m. to 11 a.m. weekdays by his father, carries a 4.0 grade-point average. The Saxons chose home schooling as a way to ensure their son grew up with proper values….”

To read more of this story go to: http://www.ohio.com/news/19311654.html?page=2&c=y

Posted in Extra Curricular Activities, Ohio | No Comments »

Home school students saddened by Subway contest

Thursday, May 29th, 2008

“…Michelle Johnson says one of the biggest challenges of home schooling her children is finding creative teaching tools that will help interest and inspire them. She was excited about a national writing contest sponsored by Subway Restaurant, until she found out her kids were not allowed to participate.

“They feel overlooked and feel like people don’t count us as real people,” said Johnson. “We want the opportunity to teach our children just as much as the public school students do.”

On its Web site, Subway states that no home schools will be accepted in the contest.

“It is a valid point. We have had thousands of parents call us about this. We didn’t mean to slight anyone,” said Mack Bridenbaker, spokesperson for Subway’s national headquarters in Milford, Conn.

While Subway is offering many different prizes including gift baskets of books and gift cards to Subway, it is the grand prize, Bridenbaker says, that poses the problem for home school students. The grand prize is $5,000 of athletic equipment that will be donated to their school. He says home school students obviously don’t have a school to donate the prize to. …”

For the complete story please visit:  http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=92620

Posted in Colorado, Extra Curricular Activities, National News, athletics | No Comments »

Home-schoolers of color

Tuesday, May 27th, 2008

“…That year, Barco pulled all her sons out of Vance Elementary School in Raleigh. She has been home-schooling them since.

The Barcos join an increasing number of black families in the Triangle and across the country who choose to home-school their children. Of the estimated 1.1 million home-schooled children in the U.S., about 10 percent are black, according to the most recent federal statistics from the U.S. Department of Education.

Blacks are the fastest-growing demographic among home-schoolers, said Jennifer James, a Boone mother of two who in 2003 founded the National African-American Homeschoolers Alliance, a nonreligious group that provides online information and support to about 3,000 home-schoolers….”

For the complete article visit: http://www.newsobserver.com/105/story/1086306.html

Posted in African American, North Carolina | No Comments »

Mineral BOE set to address home schooling policy

Monday, May 26th, 2008

“Liz Beavers
Cumberland Times-News
The Mineral County Board of Education is scheduled on Tuesday to take up the topic of home schooling once again.

A proposed policy for home school instruction, which the board members have not yet decided they even need, is on the agenda.

The issue has been a hot one for the board since early April, when a large number of home school supporters crowded into the board meeting room in protest of the removal of three students from classes they were taking at county schools.

The controversy centered around what constitutes a home-schooled student as opposed to a full-time public school student, and whether Superintendent of Schools Skip Hackworth had the authority to have the students removed from all but two of their classes in February.

When he took the action, Hackworth said home-schooled students could take no more than 50 percent of their classes in school without being classified as a full-time public school student.

The home school supporters questioned how he had the authority to make that decision without an official county policy in place…”

For the complete article visit: http://www.times-news.com/local/local_story_146230651.html

Posted in Board of Education, West Virginia, legislative | No Comments »

Home-school parents balk at state plan

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

“RESTRICTIONS: Proposed changes would also require districts to exert greater control over the curriculum.

By MELODIE WRIGHT

ANCHORAGE — Some home-schooling parents may go their own way if the state Education Department moves ahead with a plan to strengthen its control of publicly funded correspondence and home-school programs, according to home-school proponents.

The state Department of Education and Early Development intends to increase the amount home-schooling parents may spend on fine arts, music and physical education.

That increase, however, will be capped, which does not sit well with parents who educate their children via in-district home-school programs, which do not have a cap.

The proposed changes would also require individual school districts to exert greater control over the curriculum available to parents who educate their children at home….”

For more of this story visit:

http://www.adn.com/matsu/story/405298.html

Posted in Alaska, Board of Education, legislative | No Comments »

Thousands in SA opt for home-schooling

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

“Dineo Matomela EDUCATION REPORTER

MORE and more parents are opting for home-schooling because they are dissatisfied not only with exorbitant fees but with the education being offered at government schools.

They complain classes are too large, stationery does not arrive in time, there is an element of violence and very little control. Some feel children are being indoctrinated.

A growing number of parents work from dawn to dusk every day teaching their children the basics – reading, writing and arithmetic.

Home schooling is legal in South Africa and recognised by the education department. Depending on whether their children are at pre-primary, primary or high school level, parents spent 1½ to eight hours daily teaching them.

While they have no relevant qualifications in teaching, the parents involved in home schooling are driven by a passion for imparting knowledge to their children and cementing family relations. Not only do they teach from study guides, but they use everything at their disposal to help their children learn, and also encourage them to develop their interests from an early age….”

for the complete text please visit:

http://www.theherald.co.za/herald/news/n05_19052008.htm

Posted in South Africa | No Comments »

Home-schooling on the rise

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

“By TOMOKO OTAKE

Staff writer

…”Many nations, including Japan, are getting the so-called ‘PISA shock,’ scrambling to do something about (their dismal results),” Nagata says. “In that sense, more attention is being paid to school-based education. But at the same time, the definition of academic competency is diversifying as well. Alternative education could be better at helping children acquire problem-solving skills, insight and wisdom.”

Indeed, as British home-educated teenagers participating in a Tokyo robotics competition demonstrated (see main story), home-educated children are often advanced learners in certain areas, because they are not forced to study fixed subjects. According to a 2002 report by Paula Rothermel of the U.K.’s Durham University, which assessed the psychosocial and academic development of home-schoolers aged 11 and younger, home-educated children were found to be socially adept and better academic achievers than school-educated children.

Heidi De Wet, one of three mentors accompanying the British children to Tokyo, countered popular perceptions that home-schoolers lack social skills, saying home-educated children mix well with people in different age groups….

…In Japan, where attending school is compulsory, home education has not been a popular option, despite the truancy problem that affects more than 120,000 elementary and junior-high-school students and bullying being a perpetual problem. Many parents do not even know that the idea of educating children outside school exists, says Kyoko Aizawa, the founder of Otherwise Japan, a support group for home education here, noting that many children and families who practice home education do so privately, often enduring discrimination from the communities in which they live….”

For the complete article visit:

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fs20080520a4.html

Posted in Japan, homeschooling | No Comments »

A new game in town: Home-schooled team Covenant Central has successful first year

Monday, May 19th, 2008

“By TREVOR ZION BAUKNIGHT
Item Sports Writer

There was a time when the Sumter County Recreation and Parks Department’s youth soccer season came to an end, home-schooled students were out of luck when it came to playing organized soccer unless it was with a travel team. Now there’s a new game in town.

Covenant Central, a 1-year-old independent, coeducational athletics program which wrapped up its inaugural season earlier this month, offered the chance for those students to compete against school-sponsored teams during the regular season. And if the Cougars’ initial campaign is any indication, they’ll represent a potent force….”

For the complete story visit:  http://www.theitem.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080519/ITSPORTS01/293624234

Posted in Extra Curricular Activities, South Carolina, athletics | No Comments »

Homeschooling bill kept alive by House

Friday, May 16th, 2008

CONCORD – The House of Representatives voted Wednesday to keep alive legislation that would impose new requirements on parents who homeschool their children.

The House voted to strike from this bill (SB 337) a requirement that new parents submit a curriculum plan to state officials.

Lawmakers had repealed that requirement two years ago.

The state Senate passed this bill with a curriculum mandate.

The House plan still requires that parents notify state or local officials each year if they intend to keep homeschooling their children.

It would also make parents notify state or local officials they were taking their children out of the public school within five days of commencing homeschooling.

Current law gives parents 30 days to inform state or local educators.

The 188-168 vote sends this bill back to the Senate that must decide whether to accept the changes.

– KEVIN LANDRIGAN”

For the original source visit:

http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080515/NEWS02/405686163/-1/news

Posted in New Hampshire, legislative | No Comments »

Should home-schooled kids be allowed to join clubs?

Monday, May 12th, 2008
“By Stephen Sacco
Times Herald-Record
May 12, 2008 In the Port Jervis School District, there are 71 home-schooled students — 32 of them are in seventh to 12th grade. In the Delaware Valley School District, just over the state line in Pike County, Pa., there are a total of 68 home-schooled kids.

The two districts have different policies about home-schoolers participating in extracurricular activities. Those in Delaware Valley are welcome to take part; in the Port Jervis district they’re not. But that might change.

Terry Phillips, who is home schooling her two children, has asked the Port Jervis school board to allow home-schoolers to participate in activities like band, drama and school clubs. Phillips’ argument is simple: We pay taxes; we’d like to participate.

The school board has agreed to knock the dust off of its current home-school policy — which hasn’t been revised since the 1980s — and take a look at it.

“We have to stop thinking about our students and home-schooled students,” Port Jervis school board President Ken Jones said in a telephone interview, “They are all our students.”

New York law bans home-schooled students from interscholastic sports, but allows individual school districts to set the policy on other activities.

In 2005, Pennsylvania enacted a law that made both sports and extracurricular activities open to home-schooled children….”

For the complete article visit: http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080512/NEWS/805120317

Posted in Board of Education, Extra Curricular Activities, New York, Pennsylvania, athletics, legislative | No Comments »

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