The following comes from a Nov. 29 story on the Cardinal Newman Society site.
Evidence shows that parents are choosing to homeschool their children in order to escape the Common Core State Standards, two leaders in the Catholic homeschooling field told The Cardinal Newman Society.
Recent findings in several states indicate that there has been a significant increase in parents who choose to homeschool their children in order to avoid the Common Core standards being implemented in public and private schools, according to reports by Heartlander Magazine and EAGnews.org.
“Common Core has become a major concern for some parents in North Carolina, a state where homeschooling grew by 14 percent during the last academic year,” Heartlander reported. “More and more private traditional schools are choosing to align to the Standards,” a North Carolina parent stated to Heartlander. As a result, parents are reportedly “escaping Common Core Standards via home education because the traditional system is failing their families.”
EAGnews reported that Virginia “has seen homeschooling rates nearly double over the last decade,” with the amount of the student-age population being home-schooled growing from 1.8 percent in 2002 to 2.7 percent in 2013.
Sylvia Diaz, coordinator of the Tri-State Homeschoolers Association, told EAGnews that the Common Core “has wreaked havoc with a lot of parents, and they say their children are confused and anxious.”
Laura Berquist, founder and director of the Catholic distance homeschooling program Mother of Divine Grace School based in Ojai, Calif., indicated that there is a strong link between increased homeschooling and Common Core implementation.
“Significant numbers of parents have told our office staff that they are enrolling to get away from the Common Core,” Berquist told the Newman Society. “In addition, a consideration of our enrollment statistics for the past two years shows a swift upswing in enrollments that matches up with the timeline of the increase in dialogue relating to institution of the Common Core standards….”
To read the entire story, click here.
One caution: picking and choosing among the ideas of Common Core is not the same as “aligning”. Private and parochial schools have always kept an eye on the “publics”, both in self-defense and because once in a while something useful does show up. You can shop without buying the whole store.
And don’t forget that textbooks are changed, as are tests that are used to compare each other (there is a lot of money to be made in both).
God has always mandated that parents are the primary educators of their children. Whenever we begin to water down any truth even a little bit, we need to understand that years later the truth will be watered down to the point that all you have left is ‘water’.
I beginning to see push back in all areas of our society. I am meeting young adults, who may not even be Catholic, who are looking at the history of the Middle Ages with new eyes. They long for the authentic ‘drink’.
From what I have observed, mostly in the press although I have a daughter who teaches public high school, the new standards for common core represent a dumbing down of the educational system. On the other hand, students who can take AP courses are getting a great education. The issue of having common standards across the country is devoutly to be wished, but they need to be real standards. The issue of home schooling is another issue for concern. I have a college degree, have graduate courses in my background, have certificates from colleges, etc. and a life time high school teaching credential. But I am nowhere near qualified to teach math and science at today’s requirements. I suspect that most math and science teachers don’t feel competent to teach the social sciences, lit and rhetoric. This all puts us between a rock and a hard spot. Home schooling likely does a better job of teaching values and morals, christian beliefs, etc. but public schools offer other things too. What is a parent to do?
That is why – Bob One there are excellent resources available in all subjects – grade/age appropriate for home schooling.
I have a granddaughter who was home schooled for all of Junior High.
My daughter’s degree is Computer Science, not other disciplines.
When my granddaughter started public high school last year, she was so far ahead of everyone her own age in all classes including the Sciences, Math, Literature, foreign language, and American and State government, that she not only takes AP classes but will be graduating a year early.
(Btw the public school system is that of Northern VA, – affluent and not far from Washington DC.)
We really should do away with the Federal Dept of Education, and leave education to the State, Localities, and Parents as appropriate.
Federal Government (public) education is merely used to indoctrinate as the government deems appropriate.