- Homeschooling Odyssey
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- by Matt James should be required reading for every parent.
It provides an exciting and rewarding alternative to public school
education. It offers hope for the parent who is mired in a
world of defiant teenagers, drugged youngsters and bored students.
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- This family's personal odyssey began when Matt enrolled
his young daughter Jenny in first grade in a public school
Jenny was a young bookworm with a passion for reading. And
so, when Jenny's teacher told Matt and his wife Barb that Jenny was struggling
with her reading, they were incredulous. What had happened to that bright
eyed youngster's love of literature? How had her reading skills,
vocabulary and enthusiasm regressed? Matt went to the school to investigate
the reason for this com plete disintegration in Jenny's performance.
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- In Matt's words:
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- " I went to the school and spent a couple of
hours reviewing the elementary readers. As I read, my eyes opened
wider and wider. I had assumed the purpose of the reading curriculum was
to stimulate the juvenile imagination and teach reading skills. Instead,
I saw material saturated with, to borrow another parent's language, "an
unadvertised agenda promoting parental alienation, loss of identity and
self-confidence, group-dependence, passivity, and anti-intellectualism."
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- As he read the stories and poems in Jenny's readers,
Matt was astonished to discover that they were alive, in their own way,
with the theories and practices of Pavlov and Skinner.
- Jenny was being programmed !
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- " Animal dads, moms, and grandparents were
portrayed over and over in various combinations as mean, stupid, unreliable,
bungling, impotent or incompetent. Relationships with their children
were almost always dysfunctional; communication and reciprocal trust were
non-existent. A toxic mom or dad, for instance, might have stepped
in to help our youthful squirrel repair his wagon, only to make matters
worse and wreak emotional havoc in the process."
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- The stories constantly portrayed parent/child relationships
as strained, cruel, and/or distant. After a thorough investigation,
Matt determined that he had not only uncovered Jenny's problem but he had,
in addition, uncov ered the cause of American's illiteracy crisis.
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- Matt determined "It is the reading curriculum in
our schools. Unfortunately, the damage to children appears to extend
way beyond reading failure. One wonders if the hidden agenda in the
readers has created our victim culture, a generation of withdrawn and resentful
children, alienated from themselves, their parents, society, books and
ideas."
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- Jenny's first grade experience convinced Matt and his
wife to pull her out of school.
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- In the spring of 1981, toward the end of Jenny's first
year in school at home, the family moved a few miles onto some mountain
acreage
- . The nearest elementary school was
ten miles away. It w as small, with maybe 10 students per grade level.
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- "We spoke to the second-grade teacher about the
possibility of Jenny attending school the following year under special
conditions. We proposed that she read from books of her choice, that
she not be tested for comprehension, and that she be challenged as far
as possible in math and other subjects."
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- The teacher was wonderfully cooperative and went
along with their suggestions as well as providing some of her
own. Jenny's second grade experience was a positive one thanks to the
supportive and cooperative teacher.
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- However, Matt and Barb were not as fortunate when
Jenny entered the third grade. This teacher was resistant
to their suggestions and told them that she had been teaching
for twenty-five years, and knew how to deal with parents like
them. She would require Jenny to work out of third grade readers
and math texts along with her classmates
- .
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- Barb and Matt removed Jenny from public school for the
second time. Since the nearest private school was approximately
thirty miles away, "home" became their school once more.
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- A momentary snag occurred when the superintendent of
the local school district refused to sanction their homeschooling
decision. He made some flimsy arguments about public
school attendance and socialization. Matt and Barb wondered
why the junior high school had such a problem with drugs and pregnancies
if schools were such great factories for socialization.
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- Homechooling presented challenges for the family but
it was also filled with rewards. In Matt and Barb's experience, the
rewards far outweighed the challenges. Yes, Barb had to travel great
distances in an effort to maintain Jenny's friendships and to keep her
involved in dancing and swimming. In addition, the family had
to make sacrifices to sustain Jenny's academic growth, but Jenny was,
at the same time, af forded opportunities that the average school child
does not receive.
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- Matt describes: "The woods and meadows provided
infinite fascination. Wild animals abounded: deer, elk, grouse, pheasants,
pileated woodpeckers, blue jays, hawks, owls, coyotes, porcupines, squirrels,
chipmunks, etc. In our homeschool, the outdoors-with its sights,
sounds, smells and seasons-was a curriculum in itself."
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- As Matt recounts the story of his "Homeschooling
Odyssey" he relates:
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- " Looking back, it seems that Barb and I instinctively
nurtured and protected the unbounded passion for life that was burning
in the eyes of each of our children, as it is in all children, on the day
they were born. We supported this birthright when it collided head-on
with the defining institutions of our age. Our kids were not born
to be bottle-fed, day-cared, reared by the boob tube, or dumbed down in
pubic schools. We have been rewarded for allowing our parental
instincts to operate. Without knowing, we were laying the foundations
for our children to grow up as best friends to each other and to us - as
lights bright with curiosity, creativity, industry, and love. "
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- The homeschool experiment confirmed for Matt and
Barb the great truth found in novels by authors such as Alcott, Dickens
and Tolstoy. It confirmed what was written in their heart of
hearts from the first day. CHILDREN ARE BEST RAISED BY LOVING PARENTS.
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- "Homeschooling Odyssey" by Matt James, is both
heartwarming and educational. It provides a wonderful alternative for
parents who are presently struggling with the inadequacies of their
public school and the dramas of their children's chaotic lives.
However, parents must be ready for to meet inherent challenges with creative
solutions and loving patience.
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- Matt and Barb conclude:
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- "The results have been wonderful. Now that
a few of our kids are grown, I can tell you that homeschooling works, and
it is rewarding in more ways than we ever imagined."
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- Don't miss the opportunity to journey along with Matt
and Barb in their "Homeschooling Odyssey" It
just may change your life.
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- Judy Andreas is an Internet essayist and author of Judyisms
- Through The Eyes Of Essayist Judy Andreas. Her essays are
featured at www.judyandreas.com as well as www.rense.com
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