Home schoolers relish independence

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By TRAVIS PURSER
Express Staff Writer

This fall, as students return to public and private schools across the state of Idaho, many are staying home to be taught by their parents.

Just how many, nobody knows.

The Idaho Department of Education, while requiring home-schooled children to be "comparably" instructed in subjects commonly taught in Idaho public schools, does not require parents to register their home-schooled children, nor does it regulate or monitor the children in any way. In fact, as far as the state of Idaho is concerned, it’s the parents, not schools, who are responsible for their children’s education.

The state’s hands-off policy seems to come as a surprise to the Blaine County School District’s new superintendent and assistant superintendent, while at least two local parents who have home schooled their children find the policy a relief.

Mary Gervase moved from New Mexico this August to become the school district’s new assistant superintendent. In New Mexico, she said, home schooled students are required to register with their local school district and must take the same standardized state tests as public and private school students.

Gervase said she has not been with the district long enough to comment on whether the state’s hands-off policy is a problem or blessing for parents, schools and students. However, she did describe one local 17-year-old who missed grades 8 through 12, because his parents told the district he was being home schooled when he wasn’t. Now that student wants to return and get his diploma, Gervase said, adding that he’ll likely be 21 years old, in a class of 18-year-olds, before he does.

Idaho Code addresses truancy by stating that "whenever the parents or guardians of. . any child between the ages of seven. .. and 16 are failing, neglecting or refusing to place the child in school. . .or to have the child comparably instructed, or knowingly have allowed a pupil to become a habitual truant, proceedings shall be brought against the parent or guardian under provisions of the youth rehabilitation law."

The problem with that clause, district superintendent Jim Lewis said, is that parents only have to say the words "home school" and the district is "hands off."

What’s more, some educators believe the home school concept is a way out for a few parents to allow their children to be habitually truant,.

Another aspect of the hands-off policy that can possibly allow home-schooled students to slip through the cracks is that the state of Idaho currently does not have mandated curriculum standards to which home-schoolers can compare their curriculum. Instead, the State Board of Education lists seven broad-based, core instructional requirements for public schools, which are language arts and communication, mathematics, science, social studies, fine arts, health and physical education.

The state has, however, developed and published more detailed grade-level guidelines for public schools, which home-schoolers can use to determine the content of age-appropriate curriculum that would be comparable with public school instruction.

Also, the state is currently developing secondary exiting standards, which are available to schools and parents in draft form.

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It’s hard to generalize about why parents decide to home school their children. Some advocates say that public schools have the wrong influence and that they cannot find a private school they like or can afford. Others say that a child should not be taught but rather allowed to learn. Some have special beliefs—sometimes religious—about education. Sometimes, a child has special needs that cannot be met by public or private schools.

Karen Rickson, a 20-year Ketchum resident, home schooled her son Carlo because it allowed him the freedom to pursue ski racing.

"Skiing was the object of the whole thing," she said enthusiastically during an interview last week, adding that home schooling allows more freedom than public or private schools do.

Rickson began teaching Carlo at home beginning with the fifth grade. For the first three years, he attended public school until ski season began, and then he withdrew to study at home. By eighth grade, however, Carlo and his mother were so satisfied with home schooling that they began doing it full time.

Rickson, who is obviously proud of her son, said that she thinks temperament is crucial to the success of home-schoolers. She explained that Carlo has always been very independent and mature. After passing his General Education Development (GED) test recently, she said, he enrolled himself in a government class at the Silver Creek Alternative School without her knowing it. Both the GED and the government class are required for Carlo to receive his Idaho High School Equivalency Certificate.

For parents, she said, discipline is important, adding, "you set parameters and follow through."

One surprising parameter is the daily study schedule Rickson held Carlo to, which was just 4 1/2 hours of study weekday mornings. That might not seem like much, she explained, until you consider that in public school Carlo was wasting a lot of time riding the school bus, getting from class to class and sitting through role call.

Rickson also cited the multitude of curriculums available to home-schoolers as another advantage of keeping Carlo at home.

"It was great," she said. "You look around and you find a program that fits you."

Rickson said she got Carlo’s curriculum from the Educational Consulting Service in Utah, adding that The Community School in Sun Valley uses the service too. Also, she used a popular curriculum developed from a Christian program, called A-beka, adding that her family does not attend church, however. Another learning aid she found helpful was a series of electronic games, which she used to teach algebra.

But the greatest advantage, she said, of choosing their own curriculum is that Carlo could learn about something exactly when he was interested in it. He didn’t have to wait.

When asked about Idaho’s hands-off policy toward home schooling, Rickson said that she was grateful for the policy and that she wouldn’t have it any other way.

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Even though she found teaching her three children difficult, Anna Santiago is another valley resident grateful for the state’s position on home schooling.

"We’re fortunate to have the freedom to choose," the 31-year-old mother said during an interview at the Sun Valley Foursquare Church, where she is a day-care worker.

Santiago said her family moved to the valley 10 years ago from Brooklyn to give her children a better place to grow up. After enrolling her children in Blaine County Schools, however, she said she soon felt pressure from faculty who claimed her children suffered from Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), and who wanted a drug called Ritalin prescribed to the children to correct the disorder.

Doctors administer Ritalin like it’s candy, Santiago said, adding that she had her children tested by two separate physicians who concluded the children in fact did not suffer from ADD.

"We had friends who were home schooling," Santiago said, "and we decided to give it a try."

Like Rickson, Santiago used the A-beka curriculum, but she also selected books from several other Christian publishers, including Alpha Omega, the Bob Jones University and the Christian Liberty Press.

Santiago’s daughter was in kindergarten, and her two sons were in first and second grade, when she began home schooling them.

"Home teaching was a whole different ball of wax (from public schools)," Santiago said, adding that it didn’t work for her because she wasn’t able to effectively teach her three children simultaneously at three different grade levels—and stopped after two years.

Also, she said that during the second year of home schooling she and her children began to lose their motivation. "You have to be very disciplined to home school," she insisted.

Santiago’s children, who have run the gamut of educational possibilities in Blaine County from public schools to home schooling to private schools, are now back in public schools, where Santiago says they are doing well.

When asked what advice she would give to parents concerning their children’s education, Santiago said, "However you choose to educate your children is fine, but know beyond a shadow of a doubt what you’re getting into."