Quote:
I believe that ALL forms of alternative education (not public/private brick and mortar schooling) should be available and encouraged. Each one meets a set of needs and combined they provide a rich set of opportunities to educate our children in the way we deem best. The problem I (and possibly others here) have with calling all schooling that takes place in the home "homeschooling" is that it blurs the distinctions and puts those of us who are opposed to government controlled schooling at risk of seeing the freedoms that the pioneers of this movement worked so hard for eroded away. HSLDA...for all the good things they do...are too in bed with the ideals of the NEA to suit me. I think it is telling of the blurring that Mike Huckabee can be endorsed simultaneously by both groups. When I say the VA's are not homeschooling it is because it is CRITICAL to maintaining my freedoms as a homeschooler to be distinct about what each type of alternative education actually IS and is not. As a homeschooler I am saying that my child's education is 100% MY concern and responsibility. I do not accept the government's assertion that because my child is some arbitrary age I must now turn their education over to the state in any way shape form or fashion. I don't cast stones at those who choose to use VA's I think that for some they can be a wonderful educational choice but they are NOT homeschooling.
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That.
<donning my well-worn I Love Terri hat>