interesting perspective from another loop on the latest media coverage

[mbell]

Divide and Conquer
Posted by: "roboqueen"
Tue Apr 20, 2010 11:12 pm (PDT)


Based on what I have observed over the last 2 days I believe there is
an
effort under way to divide the homeschooling community from within,
and
to create an environment that supports increased regulation.

Yesterday Good Morning America featured a piece on unschooling, an
educational philosophy embraced by an unknown number of homeschooling
families.

The term unschooling was coined in the late 1970s by John Holt, a
former
New York City public school teacher. He described unschooling as
educating a child outside the institution of school without the need
to
replicate school at home.

Unschooling is one of many philosophies of education, and has much in
common with these approaches -
* The Montessori Method
* Relaxed Homeschooling
* The Open Classroom
* Child Directed Learning
* The Sudbury Valley private school model

Unschooling looks different in each family, because each family is
different. Some families apply the principles of unschooling to their
approach to parenting, and embrace what is known as radical
unschooling.

The Good Morning America piece gets many of the facts wrong, draws
inaccurate conclusions, and is classic "gotcha" journalism.

A reporter profiles two families who use the unschooling approach and
presents it in a very negative light. The piece also features
negative
comments about unschooling from an expert in education. The host asks
viewers to send in questions and comments.

The parents of one of the featured families appeared on the show
today
for a live interview, along with an expert who gave a positive view
of
unschooling. In today's interview the host holds a stack of viewer
questions and comments they received by email, and says many of them
are
from parents who "homeschool their own children but were against
unschooling."

Part of the ABC piece was included in today's HLN news loop. HLN,
formerly known as Headline News, is a cable news network owned by
CNN.
They run the same stories over and over throughout the day, and run
prime time programming at night.

Each time the story ran, the HLN anchor asked viewers to call in with
questions and comments. One of my sons saw some of these segments. He
said the callers they put on the air represented those who both
support
and oppose the idea of unschooling. But the way the anchor responded
to
those who called in to support unschooling was more "gotcha"
journalism.
The parents of the unschooling family that appeared this morning on
Good
Morning America are scheduled to appear tonight in HLNs time
programming
lineup on the Joy Behar Show.

It is interesting to note that ABC and HLN are not affiliated
networks.

ABC is owned by Disney.

CNN is owned by Time Warner.

Running a story the same day on three different shows on unaffiliated
networks is not a coincidence. These things must be planned days in
advance.

I believe that running the same story the same day on three different
shows on unaffiliated networks is part of a strategy to divide the
homeschooling community from within. If a small faction can be
portrayed
as a fringe group, it is possible to promote dissension within the
homeschooling community and generate support for increased regulation
of
homeschooling at both the state and national level.

Unschooling is one of many education philosophies embraced by
families
within the homeschooling community. Our family embraced unschooling 7
years ago, and it has been a great fit for us.

Please be aware that other media is also being used to create
division
in the homeschool community. On Wikipedia, those who choose to
unschool
are described in terms of divisive language - the are described as
being
"estranged" from the homeschool community.

I don't feel estranged.

The Good Morning America pieces are here.

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Parenting/video/extreme-parenting-radical-unschooling-10413158

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Parenting/video/parents-defend-unschooling-10422983&tab=9482931&section=1206835&playlist=1363742&page=1

I have been an observer of the homeschool movement in our nation for
the
past 10 years. Public opinion currently heavily favors homeschooling.
A
recent Costco/Parade Magazine poll showed 97% of Americans support
homeschooling. The number of families who choose to homeschool
continues
to grow every year. Those who wish to prevent homeschooling from
becoming more widely adopted have attempted many strategies in the
past
that have so far been unsuccessful.

For many years they created mechanisms to track the academic
achievement
of homeschoolers, in what I believe was an attempt to portray
homeschooled students as low achievers.

This effort backfired. The data showed that those who choose to
homeschool achieve at higher rates than their non-homeschooling
counterparts at every level of K-12, undergraduate, graduate, and
postgraduate levels of education. A summary of some recent efforts to
portray homeschooling in a negative light is below.

Each family has its own reasons for choosing to homeschool.

Each family is free to choose among many philosophies of education as
they craft their homeschooling approach.

If homeschooling is to continue to survive and thrive in our nation
as
an educational choice, we must be prepared to support others who may
chose an approach that is different from our own.

Karen Smith
**********************************
If you are not familiar with unschooling, please feel free to email
me
off list and will be glad to answer your questions about how
unschooling
works in our family.

Here are some places online to learn more.

http://lifewithoutschool.typepad.com/lifewithoutschool/2007/09/what-is-unschoo.html

http://www.christian-unschooling.com/

http://sandradodd.com/unschooling.html

http://www.holtgws.com/whatisunschoolin.html

***********************************

* Last year a piece in a prominent public policy journal
characterized
those who choose to homeschool as being at war with mainstream
culture.
The author defines homeschooling in terms of war, antagonism, and
illegitimacy. The author calls for state regulation of homeschooling
and
quotes others who call for national regulation. He says state
legislatures have "strayed from taking steps to regulate
homeschooling." He advocates what he calls "sensible oversight,"
"meaningful homeschool reform," and "small step(s) to improve
homeschooling."
http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture-society/don-t-tread-on-me-i-homeschool-6198/

* Last year the US Department of Education published a report that
defines those who choose to homeschool based on race. I believe this
is
part of an effort to portray those who choose to homeschool as part of
a
racist movement.

* A national expert on homeschool college admissions recently
published
a report in a prominent college admissions journal that defines
homeschoolers based on race. I believe this report is part of an
effort
to lay the groundwork among college admissions officers to portray
those
who choose to homeschool as part of a racist movement.

* Two years ago there was attempt to keep those who choose to
homeschool
out of the state university system joint enrollment program here in
Georgia.

* Two years ago a court decision in California ruled that parents
must
be certified teachers in order to homeschool. The outcry was so great
that the court withdrew its ruling.

* Last year those who choose to homeschool were portrayed in USA
Today
as dangerous to public health, because some homeschool families
choose
to not vaccinate. No mention was made of the growing number of
parents
of children in public and private schools who choose to not vaccinate.


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