Wall Street Journal front page article
D Klement
After I sent Darryl to Chapters today to find me Fridays WSJ I went on
newsgroups and found somebody had kindly posted the entire front page
article there.....
Enjoy....
Buzz(Debbie)
Home-Schooled Kids Defy
Stereotypes, Ace SAT Test
By DANIEL GOLDEN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
ATLANTA -- Jason Scoggins will never graduate from high
school,
have a class rank or be recommended by his guidance counselor. But
Oglethorpe
University wants him anyway.
Jason, who is 17 years old, was home-schooled by his mother.
After he scored 1,570 out of a possible 1,600 on his SAT
college-admissions
test -- with a perfect 800 in math -- Oglethorpe invited him to compete
with
other top applicants for five scholarships valued at about $100,000
apiece.
Of the 94 prospects in the Jan. 22 contest, eight were home-schoolers,
each with SATs above 1,300.
The high scores are no fluke. As the movement grows larger
and
more diverse, evidence is mounting that home-schooling, once confined to
the
political and religious fringe, has achieved results not only on par
with
public education, but in some ways surpassing it. Though home-schooling
may
never be feasible for most families, the data offer little comfort to
those
who advocate a standardized curriculum as the best hope for improving
American education. After all, each home-based
pupil follows a unique lesson plan.
Jason's twin brother, Jeremy, also home-schooled, scored
1,480
on his SAT. "I was afraid we were the rogues of the education
community,"
says Jeremy, who plans to attend the University of Georgia or the
Georgia
Institute of Technology. "It isn't that way anymore. People know that if
we've been home-schooled, we'll do a little better than everyone else."
Though it is hard to track a movement that remains partly
underground, advocates say that 1.5 million children nationwide are
being
taught at home; independent researchers put the figure closer to one
million.
The federal Education Department estimated the total in 1996 at 700,000
to
750,000; it expects to issue a revised count soon. In any case,
home-schoolers far outnumber the 400,000 students attending charter
schools,
a more mainstream alternative. Total public- and private-school
enrollment in the U.S. is about 50 million.
The growth in home-schooling reflects not only religious or
educational concerns, but also alarm over school violence. Soon after
last
spring's Columbine High School murders, one home-schooling magazine ran
the
headline: "Tragedy in Colorado: Isn't It Time Your Kids Were Safe at
Home?"
This past September, the start of the first new school year since the
slayings, the number of registered home-schoolers in Colorado surged
10.1%.
The SAT and the ACT, the nation's other major
college-entrance
test, have begun asking exam takers whether they were home-schooled. The
3,257 ACT takers and 2,219 SAT takers who last year identified
themselves as
home-schoolers are fewer than might be expected if a million or more
students are being educated at home. But researchers say such students
often are reluctant to declare themselves for privacy reasons or for
fear of
discrimination. Moreover, many taught at home in lower grades later
attend
high school.
Nonetheless, self-identified home-schoolers have bettered
the
national averages on the ACT for the past three years running, scoring
an
average 22.7 last year, compared with 21 for their more traditional
peers,
on a scale of one to 36. Home-schoolers scored 23.4 in English, well
above the
20.5 national average; and 24.4 in reading, compared with a mean of
21.4.
The gap was closer in science (21.9 vs. 21.0), and home-schoolers scored
below
the national average in math, 20.4 to 20.7.
On the SAT, which began its tracking last year,
home-schoolers
scored an average 1,083 (verbal 548, math 535), 67 points above the
national
average of 1,016. Similarly, on the 10 SAT2 achievement tests most
frequently
taken by home-schoolers, they surpassed the national average on nine,
including
writing, physics and French.
Income and Achievement
With average family incomes of $40,000 to $50,000, lower
than
the $50,000-to-$60,000 median rung, the home-schoolers defied the
demographic
correlation between high incomes and high SAT scores. They also
contradict
the stereotype that they are strictly rural white fundamentalists.
Nearly 4%
are black. Another 4% are Hispanic. And their parents have more
education
than the national norm.
Join the Discussion: What will the trend towards
home-schooling mean for the U.S. education system? Can home-schooling
techniques be used in public education?
Maralee Mayberry, chairwoman of the sociology department at
the
University of Nevada at Las Vegas and author of a book on
home-schooling,
warns that the data only document the existence of a top tier of
home-school
whiz kids; there also may be an unstudied bottom layer of failures.
Still,
she says, research has shown that the key elements in effective
education
are small class size, individualized instruction, and a disciplined,
nurturing
environment -- all characteristics of home-schooling.
Sandra Feldman, president of the American Federation of
Teachers, says the test data don't cast doubt on the value of teachers.
"Why draw any grand conclusions?" she asks, since so few home-schoolers
take
the SAT and ACT. "I just say I'm happy for them. These are parents who
are very
highly motivated, teaching their kids at home and doing a very good
job," she says.
She adds, however, that public schools need to do more to challenge
gifted
students if they are to avoid losing some of them to home-schooling.
Once in college, home-schoolers appear to be living up to
their
test scores. Those enrolled at Boston University in the past four years
have
a 3.3 grade-point average, out of a perfect four. Similarly, Georgia's
Kennesaw State University found that its home-schooled students had
higher-than-average GPAs as college freshmen.
At Kennesaw State, both the president and the vice president
of
the student government were educated at home. The president, John M.
Fuchko
III, whose mother began teaching him after he was labeled hyperactive in
kindergarten, says home-schoolers will change college as much as college
changes them. He predicts that they will pressure colleges to
individualize
instruction and stop insisting on surve courses as prerequisites for
more
advanced studies.
"In home-schooling, you don't have to sit for half a year
studying something you already know," says the 22-year-old senior. "If
you're prepared to go to the next level, you take it to the next level.
Home-schooling breeds enterprising people."
That enterprise has impressed many secular colleges, and
most
have modified their admissions policies to accommodate home-schoolers. A
recent survey by the National Center for Home Education, a
Virginia-based
advocacy group, found that 68% of colleges now accept parent-prepared
transcripts or portfolios in place of an accredited diploma. That
includes
Stanford University, which last fall accepted 27% of home-schooled
applicants
-- nearly double its overall acceptance rate.
Valuable Skills
"Home-schoolers bring certain skills -- motivation,
curiosity,
the capacity to be responsible for their education -- that high schools
don't induce very well," says Jon Reider, Stanford's senior associate
director
of admissions.
Despite such inroads, religious colleges still draw a
disproportionate number of home-schoolers. For example, at Oral Roberts
University in Tulsa, Okla., 309 students -- more than 10% of the student
body were home-schooled for at least a year. Oral Roberts offers a
$2,000
scholarship for home-schoolers, while Nyack College, a Christian school
in
Nyack, N.Y., provides as much as $12,000. And this fall, Christian
home-schoolers are planning to open their own college in Purcellville,
Va.
Skepticism about home-schoolers' credentials lingers,
however.
The American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions
Officers
warned members last December that the rise in home-schooling creates
"significant potential for conflict" with applicants because colleges
may
need "supplementary materials" to gauge academic preparedness.
In 1997, North Carolina and New Mexico restricted public
colleges from asking home-schooled applicants to submit more test scores
than regular applicants. But that same year, Georgia's board of regents
tightened state-college admissions rules for home-schoolers, requiring
them
to pass eight SAT2 subject tests, which are entirely optional for other
students;
they also face hurdles in getting financial aid. Georgia's Hope
scholarship
program pays all tuition at state colleges for Georgia high-school
graduates
with B averages who don't get federal financial aid. But home-schoolers
qualify only retroactively, if they earn a B average as college
freshmen.
Exploiting a Niche
The disparity has angered home-schoolers -- and helped
created a
niche for Oglethorpe, which hopes to boost full-time enrollment to 1,000
from 800 and its endowment to $100 million from $32 million. "When we
started
going after home-schoolers, I thought it would be a gold mine," says
Admissions Director Barbara Henry. "The trouble is, other colleges
started
accepting them, too."
Mrs. Henry, who says she used to dismiss home-schoolers as
"crackpots" before she got to know them, has positioned Oglethorpe as
their
home away from home. The school hosts home-school curriculum fairs on
its
faux-Oxford campus, lets home-schoolers use its athletic facilities, and
encourages precocious 14- and 15-year-olds to enroll part time. To stay
ahead in the recruitment race, it also has started including
home-schoolers
in its annual scholarship competition. Last year, for the first time, a
home-schooler won one of the full scholarships.
Maggie Bryson, the winner, had become so bored in fifth
grade
that she refused to go back to school. Her mother, a nurse, shortened
her
own work hours and began home-schooling her daughter. When Maggie was
13, her
mother sent her for physical education to Oglethorpe, where track coach
Bob
Unger had started a weekly track-and-field class for home-schoolers. Two
years later, Maggie began taking academic courses there. With a 1,430
SAT
score, including 800 on the verbal, she applied
to eight colleges and was accepted at seven, including Oglethorpe.
Vocal and Direct
Now a freshman, Ms. Bryson has an A-minus average and is
teaching herself Arabic and ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics in her spare
time. But she still is adapting to classroom etiquette. "We
home-schoolers
tend to be very vocal and talk to the professor directly," she says.
"It might bother other students a little bit."
Jason Scoggins is no intellectual wallflower, either. He was
so
infuriated at being ineligible for a "star student" honor given by a
teachers' union -- the award is based partly on class rank -- he
consulted a
lawyer. He has written to Georgia state universities, criticizing extra
testing requirements for home-schoolers. Both he and Jeremy, who have
entered into a friendly test-taking rivalry, aced the SAT2 subject tests
and
have taken so many advanced-placement tests, which are scored on a
one-to-five
scale and confer college credits, that they could enter college as
sophomores.
"I've taken eight advanced-placement exams and gotten fives
on
all of them," says Jason. "He's taken seven and gotten fives on four of
them."
"He can't stand for me to score better than he does," Jeremy
shrugs. "So far, I haven't."
Financial aid is likely to determine where the twins go to
college, and whether they can afford to live on campus. Their father,
Mickey
Scoggins, who didn't attend college, supports his wife and five children
--
the twins; Joshua, 15; Jonathan, 9; and baby Joanna -- with his job as a
furniture-store manager. But the Scogginses, who own a modest house on a
three-acre wooded lot in Monroe, 35 miles east of Atlanta, say they
don't
have enough money for college tuitions.
The twins have been taught at home since fourth grade by
their
mother, Ellen Scoggins, who is also teaching Joshua and Jonathan. A
devout
Christian and former public-school teacher, with a master's degree in
education, she believes that academics come first; neither twin may have
a
girlfriend before college.
Virtual-Reality Frogs
At first, Mrs. Scoggins used a curriculum from Bob Jones
University in Greenville, S.C., which sells texts and educational
services
for home-schoolers. Later, she experimented with other materials. The
family
spends $3,000 a year on textbooks, computer programs and exam fees and
makes
extensive use of the local library. The twins use the Internet as well,
dissecting virtual-reality frogs for biology.
Their mother grades their schoolwork. Jason's grade-point average is
3.97,
marred only by a B in Latin. Jeremy is a close second, at 3.91.
In his spare time, Jason participates in 4-H and Gavel Club,
a
public-speaking organization, or watches his favorite TV show, "Who
Wants to
Be a Millionaire?" To his regret, he is a year too young to be a
contestant.
But he can pursue another lucrative prize -- the Oglethorpe scholarship.
In the lobby of the Oglethorpe performing-arts center, many
of
the contestants are fidgeting, aware that their comments in two
seminars,
and a writing assignment, will determine their financial aid. (Losers
are
guaranteed $10,500 a year, or $42,000.) But Jason seems serene. "It's
almost
like a nice philosophical debate with some friends," he says.
Once they split into groups for the first seminar, he is
ready.
His head cocked to one side, Jason listens as other students begin
discussing
a subject he has considered before: the travails of American education
--
and, specifically, the work of E.D. Hirsch Jr., a leading proponent of
the
idea that schools are failing because there is no national canon.
Jason has another view: Public schools will never excel
because
they lack "intellectual capital" and have to compensate for too many
social
problems. "They have drug-education programs that take away from the
three
R's," he says. "I haven't been in real schools very often. But when I've
seen them, they're wild. The parents don't care enough. I know it's said
that
schools should be agents of socialization. But that's not their role.
Their
role is to impart knowledge."
The other students gape, astonished by the attack, and
somewhat
defensive. "My friends are all ghetto kids," says Joseph "Jo Jo"
Brisendine
from Rockdale County High School in Conyers, Ga. "They're smarter than
you
give them credit for."
The next day, an ice storm shuts down Oglethorpe's phones.
But
Dennis Matthews, dean of enrollment management, reaches the Scogginses
on a
cell phone with the news. Jason has tied for the top score and won a
full
scholarship. Less demonstrative than the TV millionaires, Jason quietly
says, "Thank you." Then he gives his mother, who is coaxing the baby
to take a nap,the thumbs-up sign.
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Klement Family "Education is what survives when
Darryl, Debbie, what has been learned has been
Kathleen, Nathan & forgotten"
Samantha B.F. Skinner in "New Scientist".
e-mail- klement@...
Canadian homeschool page: http:\\www.flora.org/homeschool-ca/
Ont. Federation of Teaching Parents: http:\\www.flora.org/oftp/
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
newsgroups and found somebody had kindly posted the entire front page
article there.....
Enjoy....
Buzz(Debbie)
Home-Schooled Kids Defy
Stereotypes, Ace SAT Test
By DANIEL GOLDEN
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
ATLANTA -- Jason Scoggins will never graduate from high
school,
have a class rank or be recommended by his guidance counselor. But
Oglethorpe
University wants him anyway.
Jason, who is 17 years old, was home-schooled by his mother.
After he scored 1,570 out of a possible 1,600 on his SAT
college-admissions
test -- with a perfect 800 in math -- Oglethorpe invited him to compete
with
other top applicants for five scholarships valued at about $100,000
apiece.
Of the 94 prospects in the Jan. 22 contest, eight were home-schoolers,
each with SATs above 1,300.
The high scores are no fluke. As the movement grows larger
and
more diverse, evidence is mounting that home-schooling, once confined to
the
political and religious fringe, has achieved results not only on par
with
public education, but in some ways surpassing it. Though home-schooling
may
never be feasible for most families, the data offer little comfort to
those
who advocate a standardized curriculum as the best hope for improving
American education. After all, each home-based
pupil follows a unique lesson plan.
Jason's twin brother, Jeremy, also home-schooled, scored
1,480
on his SAT. "I was afraid we were the rogues of the education
community,"
says Jeremy, who plans to attend the University of Georgia or the
Georgia
Institute of Technology. "It isn't that way anymore. People know that if
we've been home-schooled, we'll do a little better than everyone else."
Though it is hard to track a movement that remains partly
underground, advocates say that 1.5 million children nationwide are
being
taught at home; independent researchers put the figure closer to one
million.
The federal Education Department estimated the total in 1996 at 700,000
to
750,000; it expects to issue a revised count soon. In any case,
home-schoolers far outnumber the 400,000 students attending charter
schools,
a more mainstream alternative. Total public- and private-school
enrollment in the U.S. is about 50 million.
The growth in home-schooling reflects not only religious or
educational concerns, but also alarm over school violence. Soon after
last
spring's Columbine High School murders, one home-schooling magazine ran
the
headline: "Tragedy in Colorado: Isn't It Time Your Kids Were Safe at
Home?"
This past September, the start of the first new school year since the
slayings, the number of registered home-schoolers in Colorado surged
10.1%.
The SAT and the ACT, the nation's other major
college-entrance
test, have begun asking exam takers whether they were home-schooled. The
3,257 ACT takers and 2,219 SAT takers who last year identified
themselves as
home-schoolers are fewer than might be expected if a million or more
students are being educated at home. But researchers say such students
often are reluctant to declare themselves for privacy reasons or for
fear of
discrimination. Moreover, many taught at home in lower grades later
attend
high school.
Nonetheless, self-identified home-schoolers have bettered
the
national averages on the ACT for the past three years running, scoring
an
average 22.7 last year, compared with 21 for their more traditional
peers,
on a scale of one to 36. Home-schoolers scored 23.4 in English, well
above the
20.5 national average; and 24.4 in reading, compared with a mean of
21.4.
The gap was closer in science (21.9 vs. 21.0), and home-schoolers scored
below
the national average in math, 20.4 to 20.7.
On the SAT, which began its tracking last year,
home-schoolers
scored an average 1,083 (verbal 548, math 535), 67 points above the
national
average of 1,016. Similarly, on the 10 SAT2 achievement tests most
frequently
taken by home-schoolers, they surpassed the national average on nine,
including
writing, physics and French.
Income and Achievement
With average family incomes of $40,000 to $50,000, lower
than
the $50,000-to-$60,000 median rung, the home-schoolers defied the
demographic
correlation between high incomes and high SAT scores. They also
contradict
the stereotype that they are strictly rural white fundamentalists.
Nearly 4%
are black. Another 4% are Hispanic. And their parents have more
education
than the national norm.
Join the Discussion: What will the trend towards
home-schooling mean for the U.S. education system? Can home-schooling
techniques be used in public education?
Maralee Mayberry, chairwoman of the sociology department at
the
University of Nevada at Las Vegas and author of a book on
home-schooling,
warns that the data only document the existence of a top tier of
home-school
whiz kids; there also may be an unstudied bottom layer of failures.
Still,
she says, research has shown that the key elements in effective
education
are small class size, individualized instruction, and a disciplined,
nurturing
environment -- all characteristics of home-schooling.
Sandra Feldman, president of the American Federation of
Teachers, says the test data don't cast doubt on the value of teachers.
"Why draw any grand conclusions?" she asks, since so few home-schoolers
take
the SAT and ACT. "I just say I'm happy for them. These are parents who
are very
highly motivated, teaching their kids at home and doing a very good
job," she says.
She adds, however, that public schools need to do more to challenge
gifted
students if they are to avoid losing some of them to home-schooling.
Once in college, home-schoolers appear to be living up to
their
test scores. Those enrolled at Boston University in the past four years
have
a 3.3 grade-point average, out of a perfect four. Similarly, Georgia's
Kennesaw State University found that its home-schooled students had
higher-than-average GPAs as college freshmen.
At Kennesaw State, both the president and the vice president
of
the student government were educated at home. The president, John M.
Fuchko
III, whose mother began teaching him after he was labeled hyperactive in
kindergarten, says home-schoolers will change college as much as college
changes them. He predicts that they will pressure colleges to
individualize
instruction and stop insisting on surve courses as prerequisites for
more
advanced studies.
"In home-schooling, you don't have to sit for half a year
studying something you already know," says the 22-year-old senior. "If
you're prepared to go to the next level, you take it to the next level.
Home-schooling breeds enterprising people."
That enterprise has impressed many secular colleges, and
most
have modified their admissions policies to accommodate home-schoolers. A
recent survey by the National Center for Home Education, a
Virginia-based
advocacy group, found that 68% of colleges now accept parent-prepared
transcripts or portfolios in place of an accredited diploma. That
includes
Stanford University, which last fall accepted 27% of home-schooled
applicants
-- nearly double its overall acceptance rate.
Valuable Skills
"Home-schoolers bring certain skills -- motivation,
curiosity,
the capacity to be responsible for their education -- that high schools
don't induce very well," says Jon Reider, Stanford's senior associate
director
of admissions.
Despite such inroads, religious colleges still draw a
disproportionate number of home-schoolers. For example, at Oral Roberts
University in Tulsa, Okla., 309 students -- more than 10% of the student
body were home-schooled for at least a year. Oral Roberts offers a
$2,000
scholarship for home-schoolers, while Nyack College, a Christian school
in
Nyack, N.Y., provides as much as $12,000. And this fall, Christian
home-schoolers are planning to open their own college in Purcellville,
Va.
Skepticism about home-schoolers' credentials lingers,
however.
The American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions
Officers
warned members last December that the rise in home-schooling creates
"significant potential for conflict" with applicants because colleges
may
need "supplementary materials" to gauge academic preparedness.
In 1997, North Carolina and New Mexico restricted public
colleges from asking home-schooled applicants to submit more test scores
than regular applicants. But that same year, Georgia's board of regents
tightened state-college admissions rules for home-schoolers, requiring
them
to pass eight SAT2 subject tests, which are entirely optional for other
students;
they also face hurdles in getting financial aid. Georgia's Hope
scholarship
program pays all tuition at state colleges for Georgia high-school
graduates
with B averages who don't get federal financial aid. But home-schoolers
qualify only retroactively, if they earn a B average as college
freshmen.
Exploiting a Niche
The disparity has angered home-schoolers -- and helped
created a
niche for Oglethorpe, which hopes to boost full-time enrollment to 1,000
from 800 and its endowment to $100 million from $32 million. "When we
started
going after home-schoolers, I thought it would be a gold mine," says
Admissions Director Barbara Henry. "The trouble is, other colleges
started
accepting them, too."
Mrs. Henry, who says she used to dismiss home-schoolers as
"crackpots" before she got to know them, has positioned Oglethorpe as
their
home away from home. The school hosts home-school curriculum fairs on
its
faux-Oxford campus, lets home-schoolers use its athletic facilities, and
encourages precocious 14- and 15-year-olds to enroll part time. To stay
ahead in the recruitment race, it also has started including
home-schoolers
in its annual scholarship competition. Last year, for the first time, a
home-schooler won one of the full scholarships.
Maggie Bryson, the winner, had become so bored in fifth
grade
that she refused to go back to school. Her mother, a nurse, shortened
her
own work hours and began home-schooling her daughter. When Maggie was
13, her
mother sent her for physical education to Oglethorpe, where track coach
Bob
Unger had started a weekly track-and-field class for home-schoolers. Two
years later, Maggie began taking academic courses there. With a 1,430
SAT
score, including 800 on the verbal, she applied
to eight colleges and was accepted at seven, including Oglethorpe.
Vocal and Direct
Now a freshman, Ms. Bryson has an A-minus average and is
teaching herself Arabic and ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics in her spare
time. But she still is adapting to classroom etiquette. "We
home-schoolers
tend to be very vocal and talk to the professor directly," she says.
"It might bother other students a little bit."
Jason Scoggins is no intellectual wallflower, either. He was
so
infuriated at being ineligible for a "star student" honor given by a
teachers' union -- the award is based partly on class rank -- he
consulted a
lawyer. He has written to Georgia state universities, criticizing extra
testing requirements for home-schoolers. Both he and Jeremy, who have
entered into a friendly test-taking rivalry, aced the SAT2 subject tests
and
have taken so many advanced-placement tests, which are scored on a
one-to-five
scale and confer college credits, that they could enter college as
sophomores.
"I've taken eight advanced-placement exams and gotten fives
on
all of them," says Jason. "He's taken seven and gotten fives on four of
them."
"He can't stand for me to score better than he does," Jeremy
shrugs. "So far, I haven't."
Financial aid is likely to determine where the twins go to
college, and whether they can afford to live on campus. Their father,
Mickey
Scoggins, who didn't attend college, supports his wife and five children
--
the twins; Joshua, 15; Jonathan, 9; and baby Joanna -- with his job as a
furniture-store manager. But the Scogginses, who own a modest house on a
three-acre wooded lot in Monroe, 35 miles east of Atlanta, say they
don't
have enough money for college tuitions.
The twins have been taught at home since fourth grade by
their
mother, Ellen Scoggins, who is also teaching Joshua and Jonathan. A
devout
Christian and former public-school teacher, with a master's degree in
education, she believes that academics come first; neither twin may have
a
girlfriend before college.
Virtual-Reality Frogs
At first, Mrs. Scoggins used a curriculum from Bob Jones
University in Greenville, S.C., which sells texts and educational
services
for home-schoolers. Later, she experimented with other materials. The
family
spends $3,000 a year on textbooks, computer programs and exam fees and
makes
extensive use of the local library. The twins use the Internet as well,
dissecting virtual-reality frogs for biology.
Their mother grades their schoolwork. Jason's grade-point average is
3.97,
marred only by a B in Latin. Jeremy is a close second, at 3.91.
In his spare time, Jason participates in 4-H and Gavel Club,
a
public-speaking organization, or watches his favorite TV show, "Who
Wants to
Be a Millionaire?" To his regret, he is a year too young to be a
contestant.
But he can pursue another lucrative prize -- the Oglethorpe scholarship.
In the lobby of the Oglethorpe performing-arts center, many
of
the contestants are fidgeting, aware that their comments in two
seminars,
and a writing assignment, will determine their financial aid. (Losers
are
guaranteed $10,500 a year, or $42,000.) But Jason seems serene. "It's
almost
like a nice philosophical debate with some friends," he says.
Once they split into groups for the first seminar, he is
ready.
His head cocked to one side, Jason listens as other students begin
discussing
a subject he has considered before: the travails of American education
--
and, specifically, the work of E.D. Hirsch Jr., a leading proponent of
the
idea that schools are failing because there is no national canon.
Jason has another view: Public schools will never excel
because
they lack "intellectual capital" and have to compensate for too many
social
problems. "They have drug-education programs that take away from the
three
R's," he says. "I haven't been in real schools very often. But when I've
seen them, they're wild. The parents don't care enough. I know it's said
that
schools should be agents of socialization. But that's not their role.
Their
role is to impart knowledge."
The other students gape, astonished by the attack, and
somewhat
defensive. "My friends are all ghetto kids," says Joseph "Jo Jo"
Brisendine
from Rockdale County High School in Conyers, Ga. "They're smarter than
you
give them credit for."
The next day, an ice storm shuts down Oglethorpe's phones.
But
Dennis Matthews, dean of enrollment management, reaches the Scogginses
on a
cell phone with the news. Jason has tied for the top score and won a
full
scholarship. Less demonstrative than the TV millionaires, Jason quietly
says, "Thank you." Then he gives his mother, who is coaxing the baby
to take a nap,the thumbs-up sign.
--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Klement Family "Education is what survives when
Darryl, Debbie, what has been learned has been
Kathleen, Nathan & forgotten"
Samantha B.F. Skinner in "New Scientist".
e-mail- klement@...
Canadian homeschool page: http:\\www.flora.org/homeschool-ca/
Ont. Federation of Teaching Parents: http:\\www.flora.org/oftp/
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