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Students Going Home Again - for Learning
Parents Share Tips on 'Unschooling'
By Christina A. Samuels, Washington Post, September 15,
2002
For more articles on disabilities and special ed visit
www.bridges4kids.org
and
www.educationnews.org.
What do you do when it's back to school time and your kids
aren't going "back" to any school?
For parents who home-school their children in Northern
Virginia, it was back to Locust Shade Park in Triangle for a
"Not Back to School" picnic. The event allowed parents to
catch up with friends and swap textbooks, while the children
played with other home-schoolers. About 100 people came and
went over the course of the day.
The "Not Back to School" picnic Monday was promoted through an
online group created by Shay Seaborne of Woodbridge. Seaborne
has two children, 12 and 9, and has been home-schooling for
eight years.
"There's every kind of variety of home-schooler you can
imagine on there," Seaborne said.
As of September 2001, the latest date for which statistics are
available, 899 Prince William County children were
home-schooled. In Manassas, 115 students were home-schooled,
34 in Manassas Park, and 385 in Stafford County.
Seaborne said she started her online group as a way to get
away from the religious proselytizing of some home-schooling
networks. The home-schoolers on VaEclecticHomeschool, which
can be accessed at groups.yahoo.com/group/VaEclecticHomeschool/,
range from those who use structured curriculums with textbooks
and work sheets to those who practice "unschooling," a method
that lets children's interests direct their learning.
Seaborne said the networking also allows parent to dispel the
negative aura that some associate with home-schooling: that
parents are trying to isolate their children from the world.
"There's a difference between positive socialization and
negative socialization," Seaborne said. "Positive
socialization is learning how to interact with all different
types of people, and that's what we're doing. We're out in the
world, showing them these things."
Laurie Badley of Woodbridge, a home-schooler for more than
nine years, said she first thought about home-schooling when,
as a caregiver for her sister's children, she saw how they
were treated.
"I didn't like how the children's interests had to be shifted
based on the lessons plans," said Badley, who has two sons. "I
also didn't like how boys were treated. They seem to be in
trouble just for being little boys."
Badley's sons, Alex, 9 and Andrew, 5, now learn using an "unschooling"
method.
"We will support what our children's interests seem to be,"
Badley said. At the same time, parents provide guidance
through enriching materials. "Our home is set up so that
there's thousands of books. So it doesn't totally stem from
them."
Marie Audino, whose children are 8 and 7, is a former
elementary school teacher in Vermont. Her children learn a
structured, classical curriculum.
"I was being paid to teach other people's children, and I
wanted to stay home with mine," said Audino, who now lives in
Prince William. "I'll do it as long as it's working."
Home-schoolers in Virginia are required to show evidence of
progress yearly. Parents can do that by presenting a portfolio
of work, getting an independent evaluation, or passing a
national test such as the Stanford 9, the Iowa Test of Basic
Skills or the California Achievement Tests.
Parents interested in home-schooling are required to file a
yearly notice of intent with their local school system.
Response appears to be mixed. Seaborne said some Prince
William parents are asked to provide more information than the
state requires. Others have no problems. And in a few
counties, such as Stafford, children can take some classes in
public schools and still be considered home-schoolers, a
policy that is not in place in Prince William, Manassas or
Manassas Park.
"When you start adding up the cost savings, they ought to be
glad of people doing this, which Stafford is. They're very
friendly toward home-schoolers," said Alicia Knight of
Stafford, who has home-schooled her sons Roger, 12, and Lee,
9, for a year and a half.
Roger asked to be home-schooled, Knight said. The family
wrestled with the decision.
"My husband, Dan, said, 'What if we fail?' I told him, 'We're
failing now,' " said Knight, who said she still goes through
"tons of moments" where she wonders whether she's doing the
right thing.
"But the thing that I have to remember is that I have to trust
my child. I truly believe that children are driven to learn,
until we drive it out of them."
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