{"id":269,"date":"2005-08-17T20:52:36","date_gmt":"2005-08-17T20:52:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/?p=269"},"modified":"2010-05-08T20:53:03","modified_gmt":"2010-05-08T20:53:03","slug":"jumping-through-government-hoops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/jumping-through-government-hoops\/","title":{"rendered":"Jumping through Government Hoops"},"content":{"rendered":"

I hope you’ll indulge me as I write about something not directly<\/em> related to particular books . . . but ultimately it has a lot to do with books, and who chooses them, and how we use them.<\/p>\n

I just finished filling out the “Certificate of Enrollment” for each of my three compulsory-attendance age sons.\u00a0 This is Mississippi’s only requirement for homeschoolers, and it seems fairly mild compared to some states’ Big Brotheresque regulations.<\/p>\n

Yet somehow it\u00a0both amuses and irks me.\u00a0 Amuses me\u00a0because of\u00a0the irony of filling out a document titled “Certificate of Enrollment” when the whole point is that we’re not<\/em> enrolling.\u00a0\u00a0Amuses me that the\u00a0official to whom we must submit this form is called an “Attendance Officer” (and we’re not<\/em> attending), just as many small-town schools (at least here\u00a0in Mississippi) were given the name\u00a0“attendance centers” back in the days of consolidation.\u00a0 Attendance, not education, seems to be the primary concern of the government school system.<\/p>\n

And it irks me because it seems wildly inappropriate for an independent educator to have to report in any way to the government educational system.\u00a0 Makes about as much sense as requiring\u00a0independent restaurants (Joe’s Diner)\u00a0to report to McDonald’s each year.\u00a0 Or no, actually it’s more like requiring all home cooks to register with, report to, or, in some states, submit detailed menu plans and sample ingredients to the State Board of Health.<\/p>\n

Nobody else cares as much about my children’s education as I do.\u00a0 Nobody else knows them as intimately or understands their interests, abilities, talents, and challenges as well as I do. And God has given me\u2014not the government, not the local “attendance officer”\u2014responsibility for training and educating my children.<\/span><\/p>\n

I don’t keep track of “school hours.”\u00a0I don’t keep a record of “attendance.” (Fortunately my state doesn’t require such nonsense.)\u00a0 My boys\u00a0are “attending” life and learning\u00a024\/7.\u00a0\u00a0How could I possibly compartmentalize their minutes and hours and days and say “this is school” and “this is not school”? <\/span><\/p>\n

Is it “school” when my 13yo goes on a mission trip to Peru or attends an Internet marketing conference with me or reads a book about ancient Greece just for the fun of it or earns his swimming merit badge at Boy Scout camp?\u00a0 Is it “school” when my 10yo\u00a0interrupts watering his sunflower garden to inspect an interesting insect and runs inside for his beloved field guide so he can identify it?\u00a0 Is it “school” when my almost-9yo discovers a new drawing technique by trial and error or asks interesting theological questions out of the blue?\u00a0 Is it “school” when my almost-5yo snuggles in my lap for a story and later acts out the plot with his stuffed animals?<\/span><\/p>\n

I don’t know whether these activities are officially classified as “school,” and, truth be told, I really don’t care.\u00a0 What I do know is that these activities are just as educational as the more formal lessons I assign.\u00a0 Perhaps more so.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mary Jo<\/span><\/p>\n

who delights in keeping her children supplied with books about business, Greece, gardening, insects, drawing, Winnie the Pooh, and much more . . . available 24\/7 on the shelves of our very eclectic home library<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I hope you’ll indulge me as I write about something not directly related to particular books . . . but ultimately it has a lot to do with books, and who chooses them, and how we use them. I just finished filling out the “Certificate of Enrollment” for each of my three compulsory-attendance age sons.\u00a0 … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eclectic-bibliophile.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}