Thoughts on Standards and Credentials

Well, I am at it again! I read a newspaper article from Seattle that profiled a program in which the public schools provided some services to homeschooling families in the area. Foolishly, I went to the discussion board for the article. Naturally the discussions used the article as a starting point for discussions about a lot of concerns regarding homeschooling. One such discussion was about standards and whether "amateurs" could teach their children properly. In other words, the concern is about credentials for teaching.

I couldn't help it--I just spent about 2 hours crafting an essay in response. It that forum, it is probably pearls before...well, it is probably politically incorrect to finish that sentence, but you know what I mean! :) Here is an abbreviated version of what I said:

About Educational Standards:
There has been much discussion about standards. I hold a public school teaching license (Secondary Science/Math/Social Studies and K-12 Special Education).I taught public school for 10 years. In my experience, the standards we are required to teach to are often vague, poorly stated, or so numerous that they cannot be met in the 180-day school year. I served on an advisory board for the science standards in my state when I was teaching genetics at the university level. I learned that the development of standards is often a political process in which it was more important to use politically correct jargon and to make sure not to offend anyone than it was to make sure that our students graduate with the content knowledge and skills necessary to function in an increasingly "flat world."

Am I against the very concept of standards? Not at all. The standards that I use to educate my son are higher than those of the public schools in which I taught. I demand that he can not only read and report back what what he reads (decoding and comprehension), but that he gains the background to ask questions about what he reads and compare the ideas in a particular piece of writing to other ideas that he knows about. I am educating my son to participate in the "great conversation" that is Western Civilization, and to appreciate how his life and his ideas are part of something much greater than himself; something that preceded his stay on the planet and that will continue after he is gone. My issue with the current standards movement is not that standards are bad. It is that standards ought to proceed from an integrated set of ideas about what education is and what it ought to accomplish. I do not see that in the standards that are being promulgated in my state at this time, and I do not believe that that the the current emphasis on testing can solve our current educational problems because the standards upon which they are based do not rest on a solid foundation of a well thought out set of ideas. I have many other concerns about NCLB that are tangential to this conversation about standards, but that is another discussion.

Are parents amateurs if they do not hold teaching credentials?
Most of the parents I know who are homeschooling their children are college educated people who have at least a BA or BS in their field. That is what is required of a public school teacher. The courses in education that I took focused primarily on classroom management, discipline, the legal responsibilities of a teacher, testing and other topics of importance to someone who is going to need to teach and manage large groups of other people's children. These skills are not terribly important in the situation of homeschooling because the parent is not managing large groups of other people's children. In this case, the concern about "amateur" v. "professional" is like comparing apples to oranges because the situations are not the same. The characteristics that made me a "good teacher" in the sense of being someone who could organize and convey information in a way that students could understand were not taught to me in any school of education. Rather, they came from my content knowledge, my experience and the experiences shared with me by veteran teachers. Much of what it takes to be a good teacher in this sense comes from the ability to observe a child and learn what it is that he (or she!) needs in order to learn. When I was teaching, parents were often my best source of information about the children I taught, because they knew their child intimately.

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There it is!

No photos, no anecdotes, today!
Tomorrow I will be more chatty! Today, I just had to put my thoughts down--somewhere!

Academic Progress? Real-world Assessment

It's N.'s 13th birthday today!
N. is now starting his 14th trip around the sun and he is now responsible for his own sins--I am off the hook except as an advisor and Jewish Mother.
I, his mother, feel a lot better today than I did 13 years ago! It was a complicated pregnancy and they induced labor so it was a fast and hard ride! But I still remember the joy of greeting my newborn son.

I have been thinking that we have been so caught up in the Bar Mitzvah that we have not done "school" much lately. I was actually getting myself all worried that we are getting "behind." In this our first year of homeschooling, I am still learning to let go of the kind of school organization that one does teaching in an actual school. I think that transfering from the school world view to the homeschool world view may be harder on those of us who have formally taught in school.

So I sat down to write a list of what we have accomplished in the past three weeks:

• checked off the response cards for the Kiddush Luncheon against our guest list
• made hotel reservations for out-of-town guests
• made a list and script for N. to call people whom we want to honor with Aliyah (being called to bless Torah) and other honors.
• made arrangements to host a Shabbat dinner for our out-of-town guests at the hotel (picked menu, added prices, etc.)
• perfected the chanting of N.'s Torah portion from the scroll (no vowels or cantillation marks are in the scroll)
• read N.'s Torah portion for content and meaning
• discussed N.'s portion with the rabbi in order to develop an outline for N.'s D'var Torah (THE SPEECH)
• developed and fleshed out the outline for the D'var Torah (used the computer)
• Used the outline to write the speech (used the computer)
• edited for grammar, spelling, mechanics and content (used the computer)
• began practicing making a speech--gestures, cadence, tone, transitions, etc.
• began practicing chanting N.'s Haftarah
• read N.'s Haftarah for content and meaning
• researched current needs at the animal shelter (internet)
• planned a charity drive to make "take-home" baskets for 12 people who adopt animals at the animal shelter

These activities meet standards in Reading and Language Arts, Foreign Language, Music, Art, Public Performance, Math,Social Studies, Organizational Skills, Computers and Technology, and Community Service Learning. Even better, they meet the criteria for bringing the world into N.'s studies--because all the preparation is for a real event in which N. has to lead a service, give a D'var Torah, do a community service project and plan. Yes, he is being assisted in all of these areas--we call this teaching! According to all the evidence from Gifted Education--the real-world component is the most important for actual learning of skills. The social component is also involved. N. has had to interact with people of all ages by phone and in person. He is practicing social skills important to collaboration with others to accomplish a goal, and social skills that involve anticipating the needs and comfort of guests, as well as appropriate manners for greeting his well-wishers. He is also learning to use formal language and how to conduct himself in a formal setting.

And I will not need any tests to measure N.'s progress. The successful completion of the Bar Mitzvah Ceremony, the Kiddush Luncheon, and the family Shabbat Dinner on Friday and the family Havdalah and Seudah Shlishi (3rd meal) on Saturday evening will demonstrate N.'s progress without any doubts. This is alternative assessment that schools can only dream about!

I worry too much!

By the way, N. had graciously granted me permission to post his speech--after the Bar Mitzvah. He does not want me to steal his thunder.

Nine days until the Bar Mitzvah! (Breath, Elie, breath)!

It's snowing--again!