Legal issues on the homeschool front

two similar events happening in homeschooling lately here in Canada.

1. in Alberta they want to pass a law saying that every child educated whether in public, private or homeschool needs to be educated in the same way regardless of religious convictions.   

ERGO: if the government says that it's okay to be gay/lesbian.. then you MUST teach your children that it's okay as well.  

In spite of the well articulated concerns of homeschooling families, the Alberta Government is continuing to drive toward the swift passage of their intrusive legislation.  Bill 2 is the new Education Act that will mandate compliance with the Alberta Human Rights legislation for all students in Alberta, including homeschooled students in their own homes.  The government’s spokesperson, Donna McColl, has stated, “Whatever the nature of schooling – homeschool, private school, Catholic school – we do not tolerate disrespect for differences.” Although these statements were later repudiated, they clearly show that even within the government, there are those who would use this legislation to limit the freedom of parents to pass their beliefs on to their children

 My concern with this law is two-fold
1. how can they prove if a person educated (as part of their schooling) that we must love each other but we can disapprove of sin being actively lived out or if one is merely educating their children in one's faith stance?
2. it's putting an extra requirement on homeschooling families that they aren't putting on same faith, non-homeschooled families.
Since I don't live in Alberta I'm not sure if there is much I can do.   But I'll be looking into it.


More information can be found here at the HSLDA blog.   understanding what to do politically can be found here.

2. in Ontario they want to pass a law saying kinda the same thing but they don't specifically mention homeschoolers.   This is a bill that is anti-bullying.  Sounds good eh?  BUT when one group or groups  is/are elevated over other groups it just becomes government mandated bullying over the non-protected groups.  The legislation will only address bullying on a selective basis, and will discriminate against children with traditional faith values.

here is where you can learn about bill 13. 

based on the statistics given, out of 1000 students, 330 report feeling unsafe in school but only 13 of those students on this special interest group.  So I have to ask why is the legislation focusing so much attention and resources on a special interest group – favouring the 13 LGBT students who “feel unsafe” when 330 other students actually report being bullied?

The school director has stated the human rights come before faith issues and the human rights commission does not take a pro-faith stand.    So where does this leave children of faith?   How are they protected?

write your MPP, become acquainted with this law, and let's see what we can do to help our fellow brothers and sisters in the faith.   Seriously.  If we do nothing... the social engineering of the government wins out and our children lose.

Word Studies in Math...what is appropriate or not

a facebook friend directed me to this post about using a historical event in math.

Parents of students at Beaver Ridge Elementary School in Norcross, Ga., are outraged at the school district's response to the reports of using examples of slavery in math word problems, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

The word problems in questions include references to slavery and "beatings," according to the paper.

"Each tree had 56 oranges. If 8 slaves pick them equally, then how much would each slave pick?" and

"If Frederick got two beatings per day, how many beatings did he get in 1 week?"

It's not just the word problems that are sparking criticism, but the way it's being handled. According to the AJC, district officials said the elementary school's principal will "work with teachers to come up with more appropriate lessons."

District spokesperson Sloan Roach told the station the teachers were trying to incorporate social studies lessons in math problems for a "cross-curricular activity."

Roach went on to tell My Fox Atlanta that, while the the questions were inappropriate, she doesn't believe the teachers meant any harm.

"This is simply a case of creating a bad question," Roach told the station.

Parent Terrance Barnett told WSB TV that having to explain the questions to his child was painful.

"Something like shouldn't be imbedded into a kid of the 3rd, 4th, 5th, any grade," Barnett told WSB TV. "I'm having to explain to my 8-year-old why slavery or slaves or beatings are in a math problem. That hurts."

I have to ask as a homeschooler....how is this any different than using a Christmas theme, or a hallowe'en them or a theme on Egypt or the Middle Ages?

Granted... I doubt that as a parent/teacher I would put in a question of "how many beatings a day did this slave get"... but I fail to see why people are getting so bent out of shape.

Slavery was an event that happened in history. It is. Yes, it has emotional impact. Yes, it was a difficult and dangerous period of time. I get that. I understand it. But as a unit study loving mother/teacher... I don't understand the furor being created over it.

I would hope that the teachers aren't just throwing the information into the math questions but are actually using the math as an integral unit. As in... we are learning about slavery now and these are the issues around it, and yes, we do math as part of the learning process. IF the math is being used in a way that is divorced from the larger teaching aspect of slavery then I would have more of an issue. In that case I could see it is being inflammatory. but done within a teaching unit...I would have no issues.

What do you think? Am I missing something?

Facts vs Ideas

I get alot of email from a variety of sources and sometimes I actually read them.

This morning I read an email from Simply Charlotte Mason. Which if you want to sign up for you can go here. I am not a Charlotte Mason teacher, but I think there is value in a variety of approaches to teaching.

Anyways, in this newsletter they were talking about Facts vs Ideas.

The author mentioned

how a living book should give our children ideas, not just facts.

The author went on to explain

Let's take a Bible character most of us already know about in order to illustrate the difference. Let's look at Joseph.

A typical factual summary of Joseph's life might read something like this:

Joseph, the eleventh and favored son of Jacob, was sold into slavery by his brothers and carried to Egypt. Because he accurately interpreted Pharaoh's dreams, he was appointed second in command over all the land. His good management of resources resulted in Egypt's survival during a seven-year famine and eventually the salvation of his whole family from starvation.

But if we read Joseph's story, told as a narrative in Genesis 37-50, we will get the facts, yes; but we can also pull from it all kinds of ideas like this:

• Inter-family relations and sibling rivalry; how it can be enflamed by words and actions,

• Diligence and trustworthiness in assigned responsibilities,

• Sometimes good choices result in painful circumstances,

• God is in control,

• Circumstances can change in a moment,

• People will disappoint you,

• Forgiveness,

• Managing resources in feast and in famine,

• Giving glory to God before authorities; courage.

There are probably several other ideas you can think of that I didn't list here.

Do you see the difference? The facts are just something that happened to someone else. The factual account takes all the emotional and human experience aspects out of the equation. But the ideas are common human experiences and emotions that we can relate to and learn from.

I enjoy reading books to the lad that cause him to ask questions, OR that I can ask questions of him. If he asks questions I know that he is listening and that the information will come out later in play or in connections that he gets from other things that he is learning.

Ideas I find often spark further learning.

THIS is what I want to inspire in my lad... that desire to learn more.

My boy is Three

Boy are the questions starting to come.

When I am going to put him in preschool?
Why I am not teaching him right now?
How am I going to give him social time with other children?
What's wrong with the public system...it's working for our children.
Do you realize how much time it's going to take you to do this?

Yes..... I knew there would be questions....

But some questions come so laden with "attitude" I have to be careful not to give attitude back.
Inform, educate, explain...don't be attitudinal.

ARGH!!!!!!!!! :)