[HSList] need help for homeschooling in alabama
Melissa Wise
Candice,
> i would like to homeschool my five year old who will be starting
> kindergarten this fall...i just dont know where to go to find the info i
> need to homeschool in alabama...if anyone could help me...
Chances are your local school disttict will have details for you.
Melissa
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Melissa Wise
mw...@simreal.com
Breat...@aol.com
Hi Candace,
Just wanted to know where you live, as I live in Alabama, too. I live
outside of Hartselle, ( in north Al).
The laws in Al. are pretty easy on homeschoolers. I would be happy to
answer any on the legal requirements off the list if you e-mail me any
questions you have.
Otherwise, you can go to a good bookstore and get books about starting
homeschooling, (also a good library will have some). I just read a bunch of
anything I could get my hands on and when I have doubts about making mistakes,
I just look at what my son was doing in school, and I know that I can't mess
up as bad as that!
Anyway, good luck. Learn all you can and go for it.
Carol Hughes
GRain...@aol.com
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Hi Candance,
I agree with Carol. Learn all you can and go for it. I am forwarding you a
very interesting e-mail that was forwarded to me. I am not from Alabama,
nor Michigan. But I have a feeling
things are happening in all states. This is just one thing among many why
homeschooling is growing fast.
Fowarding>>>
State fingerprints 5th-graders
By Charles Hurt / The Detroit News
Administrators of the state's standardized education test apparently
broke the law this month by requiring Michigan's 122,000 public school fifth-
graders to submit their fingerprints in class without their parents'
permission.
"It's offensive," said Andrea Lang, a St. Clair Shores mother who
learned this week that her 10-year-old daughter gave fingerprints in class
last
week. "It's an invasion of privacy. Only criminals get their fingerprints
taken." Children provided their inky prints as part of a science segment in
this year's Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) test, which are
continuing in some communities this week.
All fifth-graders had to fill in a "Fingerprint Investigation Journal" that
includes the outline of a small hand to which students were told to
apply their fingerprints.
Peter Bunton, with the state's MEAP office, said the test was merely
a hands-on experiment designed to make the science portion of the MEAP
more interesting.
"No, we are not fingerprinting kids and sending their prints to the
FBI or filing them in Lansing," Bunton said Wednesday. The fingerprint
journals are "thrown away, torn up, discarded, or sent home with the kids."
Still, some parents didn't want their children's prints surrendered
to school officials under any circumstances without their permission.
"I worry about the potential for misuse," said Diane Barnes, an
Eastpointe mother whose 12-year-old son was fingerprinted at Pleasantview
Elementary. Besides upsetting parents, the new portion of the annual
standardized test violates the 1985 Child Identification and Protection Act,
said Taylor lawyer Kerry Morgan, who was contacted by an angry parent.
State law requires written permission for children to be
fingerprinted unless the child is a delinquent or otherwise ordered to be
fingerprinted by a judge.
"The law doesn't care if you throw it away," Morgan said. "It just
says you can't do it."
Robert Sedler, a Wayne State University law professor, agreed.
"Fingerprints are something that are private," he said. "They should
only be disclosed voluntarily or in limited circumstances of a criminal
investigation."
Bunton, who said the project was completely "innocent," said he did
not know about the law until contacted by The Detroit News on Wednesday.
"I understand (parents') concerns and I appreciate their concerns.
I'm very sorry parents may have misunderstood this," he said.
"We will not be doing anymore fingerprinting in a classroom ever
again." Marion Gorton, spokeswoman for the Attorney General's Office, said
that agency had received no complaints, but would look into the
fingerprinting.
The test, written by Michigan educators, includes several questions
pertaining to students' Fingerprint Investigation Journals. Some parents
wondered why fifth-graders need to learn about forensics - using science
to solve crimes - in the first place.
One multiple choice question asks students why "some cities want to
get the fingerprints of all little children." The answer is clearly so "a
lost child could be identified."
The question was designed to train children that volunteering such
personal information to authorities is harmless, Sedler of WSU
speculated.
"That is a stupid question," he said. "They have no need to take
fingerprints to answer those questions."
He called the entire exercise "casual legitimacy," or conditioning
children to think something is acceptable.
"It's like a casual way of saying it's OK for those in authority to
invade your privacy and take you fingerprints," he said.
Bunton disagreed. "This really is an innocent fifth-grade project,"
he said. Barnes, the Eastpointe mother, said she will be glad when that
portion is erased from next year's MEAP test.
"There are so many morals and values that are rammed through under
the guise of curriculum," Barnes said. "It's just another assault on
parental authority."
'Fingerprint Investigation Journal' questions
Fifth-graders statewide are asked to answer these five questions
with their self-fingerprinting exercise.
* Which tool would be used to find out if all fingerprints are the
same size?
A. Metric ruler.
B. Measuring cup.
C. Balance.
D. Clock.
* Some cities want to get the fingerprints of all little children.
This would be useful because:
A. A lost child could be identified.
B. Fingerprinting doesn't hurt.
C. Fingerprints can be kept a long time.
D. All fingerprints are the same.
* Which characteristic of fingerprints makes them most useful?
A. They are all the same.
B. They are all different.
C. Some are the same and others are different.
D. Fingerprints have no useful characteristics.
* Fingerprinting is most useful in which of these jobs?
A. Police work, to help in crime fighting.
B. Window washing, to help clean windows.
C. Auto mechanics, to help cars run better.
D. Teaching, to help kids learn to multiply.
* Someone in Mrs. Warren's class touched a clean piece of glass and
left a fingerprint from one finger on her right hand. Give at least three
steps
of the procedure that must be followed to find out who touched the glass.
<Picture: detnews.com home page>Copyright 1998, The Detroit News
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