Homeschoolers against NEA philosophy

10:12 pm PDT, Mar 19, Cee Fsh, Texas
I believe homeschooling provides our..OUR...children with a better, more rounded education than public schools, who pigeon-hole our kids. My child suffered years of bullying and humiliation at the hands of the public school system. It was a 4 year battle for us,until I said NO MORE! We gave our children life, surely we can give them and education as well!!

5:47 am PDT, Mar 19, Kimberly Irving, Virginia
This is very important to all homeschooler's. Please take a look and act now!!!

Presently homeschool

5:49 pm PDT, Mar 16, Marion Thompson, Florida

2:26 pm PDT, Mar 12, Emmy Undem, Austria
I myself am homeschooled, and I find what the NEA said not only insulting but terribly naive.

I graduated from High school one year earlier that my old classmates. I am in a college program and in 2 different AP classes. Homeschooled children get good educations !!!!!

12:47 pm PDT, Mar 12, Dawn Dinoto, Michigan
I believe it is a fundamental right to educate your child any way you choose, including at home. The history of homeschooling speaks for itself - there are many individuals coming from a homeschool background that are excelling at tests, bees, etc., and most importantly, in life!

4:51 pm PDT, Mar 10, Toija Fitzgerald, California
As we are all created unique individuals, homeschooling should be one of many viable alternatives to education. If the parents feel confident and willing to participate in such a manner for their children, I believe that homeschooling is the best possible education a child can receive. Public schooling in many cases is "good enough", but it is a cookie cutter education that does not, because it cannot, address individual students' needs or gifts completely. I have seen this first hand for over ten years as a public school teacher (teaching grades 2, 5, 8, and 11).

I am a credentialed teacher and now, more proudly, a second year homeschooling mom.

4:30 pm PDT, Mar 10, Amanda Carson, Washington

3:08 am PDT, Mar 10, Christopher Arias, Florida
Though homeschooling is protected by the Constitution, a constitutional right isn't even necessary because according to the Declaration of Independence this right is already granted to us by our creator.

Chief Administrative Officer, Vice President, and Associate Editor for Liberty Sentinel Media Inc. and its publication, The Liberty Sentinel

6:15 pm PDT, Mar 9, Laura Bagg, Connecticut
It is my profound belief that it should be the parents responsibility to train up their child, including educating them according to their principles and values. I do not believe in subjecting my child to the brainwashing that is going on in our public schools today.

I plan to home school my child when she comes of age.

10:46 am PDT, Mar 9, Debbie Butz, Illinois

7:28 am PST, Mar 8, Darlene Moore, Tennessee
I would think the test scores and performances of homeschoolers at various competitions would speak for themselves. We have benefited greatly from co-op situations where my children have learned from others and have been able to interact with other students.

Homeschooling mom for 10 years

11:32 pm PST, Mar 7, Dean Gurr, South Dakota
NEA, Please do some research and don't judge all the apples by a few bad ones

Homeschool parent

4:42 pm PST, Mar 7, Carla Wisehart, Illinois
As a homeschooling parent, I choose to give my son a better education than what he would receive in the public educational system and in an environment where he is allowed to pursue his interests and not be forced to adhere to a timed schedule, which teaches children to conform and limit their reasoning skills. My choice is certainly not based on any religious beliefs.

4:35 pm PST, Mar 7, Bruce Rock, Virginia
2 of my grandchildren are homeschooled and both EXCEL in school! They both are well rounded students. I am a firm believer in home schooling. My grandchildren are receiving a quality education and have ample opportunities for social interactions with ballet, swimming etc I would have it no other way!

Home schooled

3:41 pm PST, Mar 7, Name not displayed, Colorado
As a citizen of this country I have been given the right to raise my children in what I feel is their best interest. I became pregnant, I gave birth, I feed, clothe and bath them, I make sure they are healthy and I believe that I have a right to choose the best method to educate them. If you try to take away our basic rights as parents what will come next mandated birth control or euthanasia. Why does the public system even want more responsibility? As a homeschooler I have relieved the system of the need to educate my children. I pay for all of our own supplies and receive no assistance from the local system. I wouldn't have it any other way. What would happen to the system if the 2 million homeschoolers decided you were right how could the system even handle it, financially or logistically? The schools are having problems with the current number of students it is responsible for. How about the public school system clean up the mess they have made of their charges and leave parents who want to be responsible for their children alone. You don't need any more than you already have. Our current school system is archaic and a complete failure. We pulled our older children out of school after 9/11. They were spending more time outside on the PE field than in school because of all of the bomb threats, at least twice a month. I knew I could do better than that! I have a close friend who sends her 2 children to public school. It was just revealed last month that he has been regularly molested by a schoolmate since November and he is only in kindergarden! The school is taking NO responsiblity. NEA don't throw stones from a glass house. Improve YOUR system that should easily keep you busy for the next hundred years.

6 year homeschooler of 5 who has graduated 1 who went straight into a well respected high ranking college with half a year of college credit under her belt before taking one class on campus

3:18 pm PST, Mar 7, Laura Thomas, California

3:16 pm PST, Mar 7, Lynn Snyder, California
It is NOT the government's right to determine which method of education is best for my children.

Planning to homeschool

7:57 am PST, Mar 7, Murray Strauss, Florida
Since NO one in 2 states could address my daughters needs we have. Do NOT put your NEA rquirements ahead of my children

6:52 pm PST, Mar 6, Name not displayed, California
As a parent who only wants the best for her children, this issues upsets me. There are so many things going on in the world and I personally know that I cannot protect my children from everything, but I would love for them to have the best education that I can give them. Where I live, the schools are not the best and if it worries me that my children have to go to school, that isn't a good thing. A school experience should be a happy and fun ordeal. Not everyone is blessed with the ability to homeschool their children, but those of us who choose to homeschool and are blessed with this, we should not be told that we cannot do so. I do not think that any loving/caring parent would put their child in harms way, nor would they put their children in homeschooling if that was not the best thing for them. There are a million different reasons why children are homeschooled..very bright children who need to be challenged, children with a 'learning' disability that need more one on one, bad schools, traveling parents..etc.. I went to a public school and survived, but it is not where I want my children to go. My daughter is in the first grade, 6 years old and is at a 3rd grade level, my son is in preschool, 4 years old and is doing kindergarten work, now, if I am doing something wrong as a homeschooling parent, then I would love to see how homeschooling is a bad thing or should not be allowed to us parents who work so hard for our children's futures! I think that our government, society should look at the public/private schools and see what is going on wrong there, instead of trying to make homeschooling parents and children be looked down on.

Proud homeschooling mom for two very wonderful, talented, creative children, 6 and 4. I have been homeschooling for 'technically' three years, but I know I have been my children's teacher all their lives!

11:04 am PST, Mar 5, Name not displayed, Iowa
Please do not take away my rights as a genuinely caring parent. I want the best education for my children. I went through the public school system and it was awful when I attended. I've heard from anyone else I've asked (whose kids are in public school) that the situation has gotten worse. I do not wish to put my kids through that.

Current homeschooler

5:22 am PST, Mar 5, Name not displayed, Japan
Although I live in Japan now, I am an American citizen. I am also VERY concerned about this issue! It sounds as though the NEA is trying to take away the rights of parents! Why?? If I lived in The US, I would be teaching my children Japanese along with Biblical truths and any other thing THEY needed, whether or not I chose to homeschool full-time!

English teacher in Japan. Looking to partially homeschool my children when they reaches an appropriate age. I know that they won't get enough English education in a Japanese school.

11:50 pm PST, Mar 4, Name not displayed, California
After 4 years of private school education (since the public school option in our neighborhood was terrible), we decided to take our kids out of the "box" and let them learn at home. What a wonderful difference. To have a child with a high IQ become depressed, angry, and full of self doubt by the tender age of 8, who then turned around completely to be happy, hopeful, and full of self-worth, is all I need to remind me that homeschooling was the right choice for him, and his younger sister who was following the same path. He has won honors, first place awards in State science competitions and film competitions, and is currently having a blast in a production of "The Matchmaker" with a local youth theater group. He plans to be an attorney as his first profession, and is keeping track of his other ideas, inventions, and problem-solving concepts like how to help the blind get around on their own using echo-location devices. Before the freedom to be who he was inside, we were told to put our son on Ridalin. What a joke. Our daughter is now 10 and shows a completely different set of skills and challenges and she will also have the benefit and rewards that only homeschooling can offer. Our country's educational system is a mess. To claim that homeschooling is not a viable option for those of us who are willing and able to take this matter into our own hands, is like telling us we are not capable of raising children in the first place. This appears to me to be about getting the public funding in the hands of the schools while the real issue of our children's future is ignored. We are parents who are adamently involved in the future of our children, more so than most people are capable of understanding without experiencing what homeschooling is like, firsthand. To choose to keep your child at home, in order to help them learn what they each need - one on one, giving them the time they need in a particular area, or letting them move on when they clearly understand a concept - really... what a concept!!! To work with a child's ability and interest in order to help them develop into the absolute best they can be - who is arguing with this idea? All I know is that my children are thriving and happy and their future is unlimited now that they are not burdoned with the negative junk that traditional school offered them. I would leave the country before anyone forced me to put my kids back in a room full of chaos where real learning was very low on the agenda.

College-educated parents, own our own business, home, and cars! Pay taxes, vote in all elections. No religious affiliations (OK, we're athiests - I said it!) Volunteer with local neighborhood organizations and youth groups.

11:07 pm PST, Mar 4, Name not displayed, Florida
I know plently of people that got homeschooled, and there is nothing wrong with it. A vast majority of homeschooled kids are smarted than public school kids. Public school isn't for everyone. I think homeschooling is great.

9:22 am PST, Mar 4, Jessica Mellett, Kentucky
My children were both in the public school system and were not given a stable teacher for their entire year. The instability was very hard on them and they were not thriving. My son's reading scores have always been 2 years ahead of his grade but he got very bored with the lack of challenge in public school. I'm glad I have had the opportunity to homeschool him so he doesn't get held back with all the struggling readers. He can go at his own pace.

Current christian homeschooler of 3 very intelligent children

6:22 am PST, Mar 4, Jennifer Crump, North Carolina
Our homeschooling co-op provides the ability to meet up with other families that share the same interests. It offers our kids the opportunity to learn social skills. It also offers the oportunity for our children to benefit from the experiences of others. We have chess clubs that compete actively, Hiking and camping clubs. We have a retired music instructor who teaches our children to sing and play instruments. We have an active gavel club and several environmental clubs. The co-op can be a wonderful thing for families and offers what we may not have thought of ourselves.

I am a homeschooling mom to three wonderful children. I started homeschooling my son when I realized that he was being passed onto the next grade without truly understanding the material based solely on his ability to test well. I began homeschooling my oldest daughter after she was given detention for asking too many questions of the teacher. The teacher told me that she veiwed all the questions disruptive and unneeded. Funny. I though that was how one learned. My middle daughter I began homeschooling when the teachers told me they could no longer teach her at the level she was at. She had reached the point where the school system had no more advanced classes to offer. All three children are doing wonderfully. My son has now caught up and is really understanding thw material, my oldest daughter begins early college next spring and my middle daughter is teaching herself six different languages. The most important thing that homeschooling offers me is the ability to teach my children the way that I want them to act in the world. They don't need to deal with the issues that are so often found in public schools. I can teach them the morals andfaith that I want them to have.

11:36 pm PST, Mar 3, JOCELYNE ANNIE, Canada

9:48 pm PST, Mar 3, Jessica Walker, California
I am a young, stay-at-home-mother of two bright girls. I was never homeschooled or even arounds others who were homeschooled, but as I researched where I wanted to send my precious children, I felt that at home one-on-one, with a learning style geared just for their unique personalities, the control over negative outside influence and so much more, I made my mind up to take their education into my own hands.

I am about to begin our first year of homeschooling this september, 2008.

1:55 pm PST, Mar 2, Katie Anderson, Michigan
Please do not assume because members of the NEA went to college to be a public school teacher that they are the best people to teach my children. For now, in our country, we still have the right to choose what is best for our own children and though we may not have a teaching degree, we are a group of educated, concerned parents who know what is right for our family.

Current homeschool parent, college educated, still attending college, Christian.

2:18 pm PST, Mar 1, Name not displayed, Colorado

4:42 am PST, Feb 29, Wendi Zimmerman, Indiana
It is ignorant to think that there is only one way to learn and that one size fits all. What happened to expanding the mind? My child is in public school and your "licensed" teacher has taught him so well that he has failed his statewide testing. Why aren't you outraged about that?

I have a college degree (graduated summa cum laude). Not a current homeschool parent, yet.

9:37 pm PST, Feb 20, Jennifer Posanka, Illinois

11:59 am PST, Feb 18, Name not displayed, Michigan
Homeschooling provides opportunities that public schooling never could. Parents as teachers aren't limited by classroom. They aren't limited by the need to "teach to the middle" that is a necessity when you have 20+ students in a classroom. In addition, nobody cares more about the success of an individual student than their own parent(s). In addition, as a system, national public education in America wasn't even developed until the mid-19th century. The majority of the men and women we honor in history, that have made the BIGGEST impacts on our country, and the world, were, by far, ALL homeschooled: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and most every other president until the mid-1800s, as well as brilliant minds like Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein. The truth is, the NEA NEEDS public education way more than education (in ANY form) needs the NEA.

Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, homeschooling father of 4 (soon to be 5), husband to woman holding both Bachelors and Masters Degrees. We STRONGLY believe in education. However, we don't believe the NEA, or the public school system has the best interests of our country's children at heart.

5:40 pm PST, Feb 17, Name not displayed, Florida

11:35 am PST, Feb 14, Mia Mays, California

6:20 pm PST, Feb 12, Joanna Carr, Kentucky
I know many home schoolers who have been in my classes and they have actually done better than those who have attended and graduated from our public school system. Where I live our homeschoolers are allowed to participate in sports and other activities with the other children. Every working adult pays taxes to pays for these activities so it is not fair to deny the children from these events. I do not agree from a professional or a personal standard that the NEA is right ti discrimate against homeschooled students. I have even run home schools for some of my clients for many reasons when I as a nanny. They child does better with the adapted classes. Some students can even move at thier own pass and graduate before others of thier age group. I think that for some children homeschools are a better way to go.

College Instructor at National College-Lousivlle Campus

4:23 pm PST, Feb 12, Judith Drayton, Arkansas

12:31 am PST, Feb 12, Victoria Thomas, Wyoming

6:38 am PST, Feb 11, Michele Chester, Vermont
Homeschooling is an excellent choice for any parent. A degree in education is not needed, just the desire to do what is best for your children! But, in case you want your children to learn all about how to do drugs, become sexualized at a very young age, choose to be a homosexual, become a sheep, not know the difference between a Republic and Communism, disrespect elders, and not have any critical thinking skills public schools are awesome!

Homeschooling Mother of Three (Conservative but not Christian)

2:42 pm PST, Feb 8, Steve Dale, Australia

8:28 am PST, Feb 8, Name not displayed, Texas

6:26 am PST, Feb 8, Name not displayed, Louisiana
I am a stay at home mom and this is our second year of home schooling.