Homeschooling

2007-04-19T23:18:46Z

Ews:

Homeschooling students get some or all of their education outside of traditional schools. The general term "homeschooling" includes a wide range of educational options and philosophies.

Homeschooling parents oversee their children’s education, usually providing some of the instruction themselves. In addition, they can mix-and-match other instructional approaches, including hiring a tutor; using a correspondence school (or the modern video- or computer-based equivalent); taking classes at local museums or nature centers; joining with other families to share teaching responsibilities in a co-op; and encouraging the student to self-instruct using library books, traditional textbooks or workbooks, knowledgeable mentors and/or hands-on experiences. Some homeschoolers also include local "after school" enrichment programs like scouts, 4-H, sports, music lessons, karate or dance classes, public library programs, and summer camps as part of their educational program.

In the United States, as of 2003, an estimated 1.1 million students - about 2.2% of children in grades K-12 - were homeschooled. <ref>[http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/homeschool/estimated.asp] Homeschooling in the United States: 2003 Statistical Analysis Report, National Center for Educational Statistics, NCES 2006-042, Feb 2006</ref>

Families who homeschool do so for a number of reasons. Frequently mentioned reasons include concern about safety, drugs, and peer pressure at other schools, dissatisfaction with academic instruction at other schools, the ability to provide religious or moral instruction along with academics, the ability to control what the child is being taught, flexibility in meeting the needs of a child with special needs (such as a physical or mental health problem, a temporary illness, or giftedness), and flexibility in scheduling family life. <ref>[http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/homeschool/TableDisplay.asp?TablePath=TablesHTML/table_4.asp ] Homeschooling in the United States: 2003 Statistical Analysis Report, National Center for Educational Statistics, NCES 2006-042, Feb 2006</ref>

In the United States, opting out of public schools is not new. When Thomas Edison's public school teacher said he was "addled," Edison's mother took him out of public school and taught him at home. But because of compulsory education laws—the first was passed in Massachusetts in 1852, and by 1918 every state had them—schooling at home was a violation of truancy laws, and was rare until the 1970s.

The origin of the U. S. homeschooling movement is often credited to John Holt and his 1964 book ''How Children Fail.'' Holt was "a left-winger who regarded schools as instruments of the bureaucratic-industrial complex."<ref>Micklethwait, John and Adrian Wooldridge, ''The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America.'' Penguin, 2004. pp. 190-1</ref> However, the movement was also catalyzed when social conservatives became alarmed at the 1962 U. S. Supreme Court ruling which banned school-sponsored prayer in public schools.

Truancy laws brought pioneering homeschoolers into conflict with local officials. The first New York Times story on "home schooling" appeared in 1974, and concerned two parents charged with "educational neglect" by the Westchester County Department of Social Services. Tests showed that they performed at or about grade level "except for one who is a little slow in reading," and the parents received strong support from a state senator.<ref>"Parents Accused in Home Schooling," ''The New York Times,'' July 28, 1974, p. 45</ref> By the mid-1980s the ''Times'' was running articles with titles like "Schooling in the Home: A Growing Alternative" and "There Are Benefits In Homeschooling," and states were legalizing homeschooling<ref>Belluck, Pam (1998), "Life After Home Schooling," ''The New York Times,'' November 1, 1998, p. ED26: "Some 15 years after states began legalizing home schooling in earnest, these early graduates are starting to make their way in the world."</ref> A 1997 article said "It's not only Christian fundamentalists any more" and a 2003 article noted "Unhappy in Class, More Are Learning at Home."

== High-achieving Christians who were educated at home ==
Some high achievers have throughout history have been Christians who were educated at home, though it should be noted that prior to the 19th century most children worldwide were educated within their family. Here is a list of some of them:
 

 [[Leonardo da Vinci]]{{fact}}
 [[Claude Monet]]{{fact}}
 [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart]]{{fact}}
 
 [[Stonewall Jackson]]{{fact}}
 [[John Paul Jones]]{{fact}}
 [[Robert E. Lee]]{{fact}}
 [[Douglas MacArthur]]{{fact}}
 [[George Patton]]{{fact}}
 
 [[Thomas Edison]]{{fact}}
 [[Cyrus McCormick]]{{fact}}
 
 [[George Washington]]{{fact}}
 [[John Adams|John Quincy Adams]]{{fact}}
 [[James Madison]]{{fact}}
 [[William Henry Harrison]]{{fact}}
 [[John Tyler]]{{fact}}
 [[Abraham Lincoln]]{{fact}}
 [[Theodore Roosevelt]]{{fact}}
 
 [[Joan of Arc]]{{fact}}

 [[William Cary]]{{fact}}
 [[Jonathan Edwards]]{{fact}}
 [[Dwight L. Moody]]{{fact}}
 [[John Newton]]{{fact}}
 [[Charles Wesley]]{{fact}}
 [[John Wesley]]{{fact}}
 [[Brigham Young]]{{fact}}
 
 [[George Washington Carver]]{{fact}}
 [[Pierre Curie]]{{fact}}
 [[Charles Louis Montesquieu]]{{fact}}
 [[Blaise Pascal]]{{fact}}
 [[Bernhard Riemann]]{{fact}}
 [[Booker T. Washington]]{{fact}}
 [[Adam Yahiye Gadahn]][http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/070122fa_fact_khatchadourian]
 [[John Walker Lindh]][http://www.blessedcause.org/BlessedCause%20Exclusives%20II/ReelingFromLiesofHM.htm] Checkered educational history, in and out of public schools, partly homeschooled
 [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]][http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/glossary/roosevelt-franklin.htm] (private tutors at home through age 14, then entered Groton)
 

 [[Patrick Henry]]{{fact}}
 [[William Penn]]{{fact}}
 [[Henry Clay]]{{fact}}
 
 [[John Jay]]{{fact}}
 [[John Marshall]]{{fact}}
 [[John Rutledge]]{{fact}}
 
 [[Hans Christian Andersen]]{{fact}}
 [[Pearl S. Buck]]{{fact}}
 [[Agatha Christie]]{{fact}}
 [[Charles Dickens]]{{fact}}
 [[Bret Harte]]{{fact}}
 [[C.S. Lewis]]{{fact}}
 [[Sean O’Casey]]{{fact}}
 [[Daniel Webster]]{{fact}}
 
 [[George Clymer]]{{fact}}
 [[William Livingston]]{{fact}}
 [[George Mason]]{{fact}}
 [[Charles Pickney III]]{{fact}}
 [[George Wyeth]]{{fact}}
 
 [[Ansel Adams]]{{fact}}
 [[Clara Barton]]{{fact}}
 [[John Burroughs]]{{fact}}
 [[Andrew Carnegie]]{{fact}}
 [[George Rogers Clark]]{{fact}}
 [[Florence Nightingale]]{{fact}}
 [[Leo Tolstoy]]{{fact}}
 
 [[Charles Fletcher Lummis]]{{fact}}
 [[Christopher Paolini]]{{fact}}

==Persons of the Bible==
 [[John the Baptist]]{{fact}}
 [[Jesus|Jesus Christ]]

== Other Homeschoolers ==
[[Andrew Wyeth]] (1917- ), American artist, was tutored at home until he was 18. <ref>[http://www.nfgcc.org/51.htm] The Homeschooling of Andrew Wyeth, A Conversation with the Artist, Gifted Children Monthly, May 1986, Vol 7 No. 5.</ref>

[[Mary Breckinridge]] (1881-1965), pioneering American midwife and founder of Kentucky's Frontier Nursing Service. Mary's father was a diplomat, and she was educated in America and abroad by private tutors.<ref>[http://www.frontiernursing.org/History/MaryBreckinridge.shtm] Frontier Nursing Service</ref>

==Footnotes==

<references/>

Mallard Fillmore

2007-04-19T23:08:42Z

Ews:

'''Mallard Fillmore''' is a newspaper comic strip with a conservative point of view, by cartoonist Bruce Tinsley. It appears in about four hundred U. S. newspapers. The title character is in fact a mallard duck. It first appeared in the Charlottesville, Va ''Daily Progress,'' but was dropped when Tinsley refused to tone down its conservative politics; it was subsequently picked up by ''The [[Washington Times]].''<ref>[http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/mallard/aboutMaina.php Mallard Fillmore], King Features Syndicate site.</ref>

During the week of June 10, 2002 the strip dealt with the success of home-schooled students in non-dating-related areas.<ref>[http://jewishworldreview.com/strips/mallard/2000/mallard061002.asp Mallard Fillmore, 06/10/2002]</ref>

==Controversies==

The January 4, 2005 cartoon carried a picture of a television executive, which some readers felt was a [[Jewish]] caricature.<ref>Jewish World review http://jewishworldreview.com/strips/mallard/2000/MFT50104.jpg </ref>

==References==
<references/>

==See also==
*[[Millard Fillmore]], 13th President of the United States

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Homeschooling

Mallard Fillmore