Apples and Oranges

On my mind once again is this issue of Parent Partnership Programs in the public school.  It seems a lot of people think this is homeschooling, but once more, for the record, it is not!

Parent Partnerships (PPPs), Alternative Learning Experiences (ALEs) or Alternative Learning Programs, (ALPs)  try... with public funding, to mix the concept of homeschooling with public education, but like mixing apples with oranges, what you end up with is not a your usual apple, and not an orange either.  Like some crazy mixed up fruit presentation, people think they are getting the best of both worlds, public school and homeschooling, and a person might even  be excited about how it works so well for them on a personal level, but do not be fooled.  Your Parent Partnership Program, or ALE or ALP,  is not the same thing as "homeschool."   Remember, the term homeschool refers to home based education.... it was coined that way.  PPPs might look good, taste great.... but they are fabricated fruit designed soley to please the family who might be interested in such an endeavor, but at their core.... they are not homeschooling under the terms of our state homeschool law that allows for homeschooling.  PPP's are public school.

Let's face it.  Raising kids is challenging and when it comes to education we all want the best for our kids. Is there anything wrong with wanting the best of both worlds?  Well, that depends.  There is such a thing and an apple and an orange.   Those grow on trees.  You see, this strange fruit... like the money that it costs to make it happen, doesn't grow on trees.  Keep in mind too, that these programs do happen to cost taxpayers a lot of money.

There is no such fruit.

Speaking of cost.... remember too that students in these programs allow schools the same funding per student regular classrooms, this without having to house and feed the student the student like other full time kids.  Some people want to know where this money is going.  Also these programs give our public school officials an added burden of responsibility of managing families in the program.  Instead of just ovrseeing kids, they are overseeing parents who act as off-campus teacher aids teaching the public school's corriculum.  The majority of the money probably goes to building classrooms, libraries and other amenities for these "at risk" students,  (ALEs were created for children deemed by schools to be "at risk,") to meet in once a week, and to pay personnel, (including parents who are put on payrolls when they teach classes in the PPP. )  About a fifth of those funds serves as an alloted financial resource for that individual student from which the parent of that student can choose the teaching materials for their own child.

Why cannot all parents of public school choose their own teachers, curriculum, and classes for their kids too?  Our schools of "equal opportunity" are supposed to be operated with equal opportunity for all people, but we see that Parent Partnership Programs are more like a private education... or maybe charter school, they are actually quite a fancy form of public funded school.

I happen to live in a community known for it's excellent public schools.  I know a lot of people with kids in them too, who love it.  Free public education has it's pluses and minuses, but I think it is sad that people so habitually bad-mouth the free public education offered to all of America's kids.  I also think it sad that some schools seem to be in dysfunctional status, and some bad reputations are sometimes warranted, of this I am sure.  It is however,  great to have schools that do have a good reputation, school that actually present a good education to our local kids.  But you know, homeschooling has a good reputation too.

We certainly have heard a lot about people homeschooling and how great homeschooling can be.... and how great it is for the kids to learn from home.  In fact, homeschooling was at one time so popular and in fashion that in some circles, it was almost commonly unspoken that if you did  not "homeschool" (if you dare publicly educate your kids) you were a less than admirable parent.

This, by the way, is ridiculous, but perception of being a good parent is important. isn't it? Especially if you are one.

In the world of educating children, many people have now latched on to the word, "homeschool."  "Homeschooler," their sign says.  Little do they know, apples grow on apple trees in an orchard and oranges grow on orange trees in a grove.  There is a difference between apples (pommes) and oranges (citrus.)  They grow in different climates.  Pommes have thin skinned fruit, Citrus are more thick.
both produce lovely fruit, but they are different tree.  Such is perhaps the difference between private school or homeschooling and the free education of the public school.

Do you wave the "homeschool" banner over your family?  Do you know what homeschooling is?
Because everyone wants to know what school your kids go to, we hold up in public that proverbial sign that say's "We homeschool!"  Being a homeschooler is a sort of identity for us.  Good or bad in public perception, it is something we stand for.  A lot of people like the banner that reads:

"Homeschool."

When the proverbial news reporters come with their cameras and ask you why you left the other options of private school or public school behind to "homeschool" your kids will you be able to speak up and defend your decision and position?  Will you know homeschooling issues?  Will you know about your rights and responsibilities?  Do you understand the difference between homeschooling and full time enrollment in an Alternative learning program at the local public school?  If you lack the conviction to utilize your American responsibility freedom to actually provide home based education, then do not carry the sign banner saying you are a homeschooler.  You might like the people caught on that video, be left speechless.

The beauty of homeschooling, is that it is is not just about being with our children all day, it is not just a matter of opening some schoolbooks and teaching them around the kitchen table in the home; homeschooling is a conviction of heart that home is a great place for learning and that a lot of good learning can actually take place outside of a peer oriented, four walled, publicly-funded, government regulated and funded institution.  It's the notion that parents have authority and can quite responsibly manage...without the state interference... making their own educational decisions for their families.    Homeschooling families do engage in lots of learning around the kitchen table with their books, but they do it, at least here in Washington State, on their own, happily independent of the local public school overseeing them and telling them what they can and cannot use for learning or when and where it must take place.

So when it comes to being in one of those alternative public school programs...  don't kids yourself into thinking that this is homeschooling.  It's not.  Remember, the public school classroom or a private school have learning opportunities as well.  Every parent desires good things for their family and every responsible citizen cares about the excellence of education of all kids.  We must remember, even as homeschoolers, that our struggling public school classrooms need parents who care about public education and who even have influence in classrooms that house their kids... just lets know what we are doing and why we do it, and not mix up apples with oranges.

If we wave the homeschooling banner, let's be people with conviction to homeschool.

Well, as a side note....
All this because I watched a video of people holding up signs in a rally this morning who were taking a stand politically on an issue.  There they were, waving their American flags, holding signs and banners to protest something and seemingly quite happy to be speaking out about.  Then, while they were waving their American flags, a man came up and started asking them on camera, "Why" they were doing what they were doing.  Their position lacked their personal convictions.

Seriously.  The protesters didn't have to much to say in defense of what their individual signs read.

One man's sign said, "Glen Beck is a Coward."  The man withthe camera behind him, asked,  "Why is Glen Beck a Coward?"  The protester couldn't say.  "What has Glen Beck lied about?" was a question.  "Probably everything!"  The answer came.

No facts.  No actual examples.  No personal conviction.

It was a good example to me of how easy it is for us human beings to simply do what others do.... do what we are told to do by someone else,  without really thinking much about it.  It's easy to be content... right or wrong... when we feel like-minded in a group of peers.... good or bad... just following the crowd.  It was a good example of the importance of having knowledge of an issue and of having a personal conviction.

Watch that video here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWlqiv-YL7c
It is called, Andrew Breitbart Confronts Protestors.