Opinions

Opinions regarding homeschooling issues of all kinds. Familiar names like Samuel Blumenfeld,  John Taylor Gatto and some not so familiar names like Kay Brooks ;-) are included  in here. Kay Brooks, owner of TnHomeEd get's her own section entitled "Kay Comments".

• The State of Homeschooling in Tennessee 2002

  by Kay Brooks of TnHomeEd. Her overview of our current situation.

• "No Thank You, We don't believe in Socialization!"  
  

  Lisa Russell addresses this issue with some truths with a humorous touch

  
  

• "The Politics of Survival: Home Schoolers and the Law"
  

  by Scott W. Somerville of HSLDA
  http://www.hslda.org/docs/nche/000010/politicsofsurvival.asp
  An overview of the legal path of homeschooling from the viewpoint of the Home School Legal Defense Association. You may want to contract this view with the ones below--specifically, Linda Dobson and Cheryl Seelhoff .
  

  
  
  
• Linda Dobson's "A Brief History of American Homeschooling"

  Temporarily hosted at http://TnHomeEd.com/BriefHistory.html with the author's permission.
  

• How Home Schooling Will Change Public Education by Paul T. Hill.
  
  
• Government school programs attracting homeschoolers

  are on the rise, says education reporter Peggy Farber in the Harvard Education Letter. "[A]lmost all [parents] are reentering the school system, having earlier opted out." (No longer available on the web.)

   
• "The Seduction of Homeschooling Families."

  Chris Cardiff warned about the dangers of government programs aimed at homeschool families, in his 1998 article,
  

• THE PERFECT CRIME: HOW PSYCHOLOGY AND HIGH-TECH MARKETING HAVE "DEFORMED" EDUCATION

  by Beverly K. Eakman
  January 27, 2001

B.K. Eakman is executive director of the National Education Consortium and the author of the book, Cloning of the American Mind: Eradicating Morality Through Education.
(snip)
Over the course of four years of teacher training and nine years teaching, I found public schools to be places where bad ideas are legitimized. My role wasn’t to transmit "basics," or literacy, or proficiency at anything, but rather to promote "mental health." Accountability meant satisfying government mandates and bureaucrats, not answering to parents.
(snip)
The perfect crime, Ladies and Gentlemen, isn’t getting away with something after you’re caught red-handed. The perfect crime is the one nobody knows was committed.

• The New Face of Homeschooling
  by Peggy J. Farber as printed in the Harvard Education Letter of March/April 2001.

As their ranks increase homeschoolers are tapping public schools for curriculum, part-time classes, extracurricular services and online learning. (No longer available on the web.

• Why the Question of Homeschoolers' Playing
  Public School Sports Affects All Homeschoolers
  by Larry Sue Kaseman
  http://www.home-ed-magazine.com/HEM/173.00/mj_clmn_tch.html

Should homeschoolers be allowed to play on public school sports teams? This question is being asked around the country, especially as the number of homeschoolers of high school age increases and as homeschooling gains wider acceptance.

At first glance, having homeschoolers on public school sports teams might seem like a good idea...

• Homeschooling comes of age
  by Patricia M. Lines
  First published in "The Public Interest" July 1, 2000

"The rise of homeschooling is one of the most significant social trends of the past half century. This reemergence of what is in fact an old practice has occurred for a distinctly modern reason: a desire to wrest control from the education bureaucrats and reestablish the family as central to a child's learning. "
http://www.discovery.org/embeddedRecentArticles.php3?id=277

• Homeschoolers History of Homeschooling Series by Cheryl Lindsey Seelhoff 

You'll need the Adobe Acrobat Reader in order to read or print these.
Part 1: Early American Education through 1990
http://www.gentlespirit.com/gs6n09/hsh1.pdf

Part 2: Influences: Unschooling--Raymond and Dorothy Moore--Secular Humanism Perceived as a Threat--Bill Gothard
http://www.gentlespirit.com/gs6n10/HSH2.pdf

Part 3: 1990-1992
http://www.gentlespirit.com/gs6n11/hsh3b.pdf

Part 4: H.R. 6
http://www.gentlespirit.com/gs7n01/hsh4.pdf

Part 5: The Gentle Spirit Controversy Summer of 1994-Winter of 1995 Home-Centered Living; House Church Movement; Matthew 18 Church Discipline
http://www.gentlespirit.com/GS7N02/HSH5.pdf

Part 6: Religious Freedom Restoration Act; Sons of RFRA: The Parental Rights and Responsibilities Act and the Restoring Local Schools Act, The Madison Project; Rosenberger v. University of Virginia
http://www.gentlespirit.com/GS7N04/HSH6.pdf

• When Home Schoolers Go to School:
  A Partnership Between Families and Schools

Patricia M. Lines
Peabody Journal of Education
October 1, 2000
 (No longer available on the web.)

• Thinking of homeschooling? By Samuel L. Blumenfeld

"Granted, that many working parents wouldn't dream of homeschooling. Yet there is enough growing concern among some parents that is leading them to think of homeschooling as an alternative to the public school. And if you, dear reader, happen to be one of those parents, the best thing you can do to help you make that fateful decision is to read a new book about homeschooling, written by two veteran homeschoolers, Mary and Michael Leppert. The book's title is "The Homeschooling Almanac, 2000-2001." It provides the most cogent arguments in favor of homeschooling and the best picture of what it's like to homeschool I've read anywhere."


• Dr. Raymond Moore's White Paper

  entitled: "The Ravage of Home Education Through Exclusion by Religion". Dr. Moore, a pillar in his own right in the homeschool community has a bone to pick with Gregg Harris, Sue Welch, HSLDA and Mike Farris.