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"A primary purpose of the educational system is to train school children in good citizenship, patriotism and loyalty to the state and the nation as a means of protecting the public welfare," the judge wrote, quoting from a 1961 case on a similar issue.
Homeschoolers' setback sends shock waves through state
This is going to come as news to ed schools. (scroll down for the "rah rah America" passage)
see also:
ed school prof contemplates German aggression or lack thereof
Skewed Perspective
eduwonk on the whispering campaign
16 comments:
I'm so glad you pulled that upfront. The implications of the language throughout the document are unbelievable.
I'm just reading the newspapers!
Is there an ed school on the planet that would endorse the view that the purpose of public education is to produce "loyalty to the state"?
Somebody needs to Get Word to Columbia Teachers College.
(btw, the oh, snap blogger was at CTC I'm pretty sure.)
Wait, really, I'm confused: are there people here on this blog that don't understand the State has an interest in forming the behaviors of its citizens to be precisely those listed by the judge?
Second, OF COURSE ed schools think the purpose is to produce loyalty to the State!
That's not the question. The question has always been WHAT KIND OF STATE.
Ed schools currently support the notion that the schools are the place to form character education. They support the notion that exposure to the diversity of sexual orientation should be actively promoted in K-12 under their label of "increasing tolerance". And it's definitely ed schools that are promoting the perils of global warming, and encouraging the children to shame their parents into behaving in various "green" ways. In every case, the goal is to produce a child of a certain mindset who is more interested in state intervention on these issues, rather than a laissez faire approach to them.
Nearly all ed schools teach that if they could just keep the children away from those bad parental influences, things would be better.
Do they recognize themselves as the State? Perhaps not. But I think yes, they do, think that they can create a new State, a new citizenry, if they just get hold of the kids early enough and long enough.
"'We're happy,' said Lloyd Porter, who is on the California Teachers Association board of directors. 'We always think students should be taught by credentialed teachers, no matter what the setting.'"
I can't imagine he really wants this to become a big issue. It can't do them any good. They will lose either way.
"This outrageous ruling must be overturned by the courts and if the courts don't protect parents' rights then, as elected officials, we will."
This should be fun.
I particularly love the "no matter what the setting" part of the CTA director's statment. So, hypothetically, as long as the teacher is credentialed but is a)ineffective b)abusive c)choose your own nightmare public school scenario, then "we're happy."
Does credentialed ==> certified?
If you're college-educated, do you count as credentialed?
The ironic thing is that parents could be more well-published and hold more degrees than most of the teachers in their school district (and thus I would argue are more competent to teach their children), just that they don't have teachers' certification.
If you're bringing home the test scores (assuming that homeschooled teachers should take standardised state tests like everyone else) then surely this is proof that one's teachers are credentialed. Legally, anyway.
Does the judge also reject the validity of self-tutoring? Does he not look at the tens of thousands of kids who will take numerous AP exams without teacher instruction, for example?
The other thing is whether loyalty to the state equates to public welfare. I have a libertarian slant so I will argue that states will become increasingly irrelevant as globalisation progresses.
Check out what the children's lawyer had to say about the whole thing:
Heimov said her organization's chief concern was not the quality of the children's education, but their "being in a place daily where they would be observed by people who had a duty to ensure their ongoing safety."
San Francisco Chronicle
"If you're college-educated, do you count as credentialed?"
In California, no.
-Mark Roulo
I like "patriotism," dislike "loyalty to the state."
For some that will be semantics; for me, no.
Although...."loyalty to America" would work fine for me.
"Loyalty to the state" --- having metamorphosed into a small-l libertarian I feel the state needs quite a lot of monitoring.
The ironic thing is that parents could be more well-published and hold more degrees than most of the teachers in their school district
Professors aren't certified to teach in public schools.
ANY public schools, ANYWHERE, unless a state has an alternate certification route.
Ed can't teach history in our high school; I can't teach composition.
I can't imagine he really wants this to become a big issue. It can't do them any good. They will lose either way
NO SH** SHERLOCK
yowza
The teacher's union should just steer clear completely.
Let the ed schools fight it.
"This outrageous ruling must be overturned by the courts and if the courts don't protect parents' rights then, as elected officials, we will."
This should be fun.
No kidding. A teensy bit harrowing, but fun.
I'm going to write down my semi-predictions and see how they pan out.
Actually, I don't have any predictions at the moment....what I have is a gut feeling that this is a worse moment for ed schools than it is for homeschoolers.
I think it's a bad moment for public schools, too.
I'm going to guess we'll start seeing LOTS of homeschooled-kids-do-better data pouring into the media.
Interesting factoid: the new Ed Next says that college educated people and Hispanics are ... hmmm. I should check. They're pretty strongly supportive of charter schools. I'll put it that way.
It's a tiny step from "I'm college educated and I support charter schools" to "I'm college educated and if I wanted to I could do a good job homeschooling my 7 year old."
Those are the people writing the news stories on this.
I was interested to see that the first stories out the gate (the ones I saw) didn't play up the crazy-Christians-depriving-their- children-of-the-theory-of-evolution angle.
Instead the language was emotional: "homeschoolars are frightened" - that kind of thing.
If the media decides to write about college educated people who want to teach their kids Latin .... this ruling is not going to go well for public school.
Do they recognize themselves as the State? Perhaps not. But I think yes, they do, think that they can create a new State, a new citizenry, if they just get hold of the kids early enough and long enough.
I think that's a pretty fair statement, overall.
I'm no lawyer, but I've been surrounded by lawyers from birth so have something of the lawyer's mind. It strikes me as highly likely this judgment will be overturned (and homeschooling organizations are certain to challenge it).
It also has a flip side that is not so positive for public schools. If parents are required, against their will, to send their children to public school BECAUSE they must have "credentialed" teachers and must receive effective education in (citizenship, literacy, whatever), then what happens if the school system does not provide these things?
California has legions of uncertified teachers, outcomes are highly variable, student safety cannot even be guaranteed. As to being certified to teach the appropriate grade -- tens of thousands, maybe millions, of teachers are teaching grades or subjects for which they are not certified. This problem is endemic across the country. So does that mean if your child is taught by a math or science teacher who is not certified in that field, that you can take the school to court? Woo hoo!
Enterprising parents will be all set to sue school systems on a variety of counts, for failing to ensure the welfare of children by teaching the basic skills, for allowing schools where crisis and violence are rife to remain open, for failing to control bullying, for using unlicensed teachers -- the possibilities are endless. Parents could file some sort of legal statement of enrolment under protest when they enrol their child in a public school, and at the first sign of the school's failure to live up to its side of the bargain, they could file suit. Given our litigious society, plenty are likely to do so.
The law always cuts both ways. If parents are compelled to send their children to public school because only the public school is deemed capable of providing X and Y, then the school can be held liable if it does *not* provide this.
Lawyers must be salivating at the prospects.....
From our state web site.
"Those applicants who have not completed an approved program, as defined in 1-B, shall present
evidence of six (6) semester hours of student teaching in the elementary grades and not less than twenty four (24) semester hours of course work to include work in each of the following content areas:
Child Growth & Development; Methods and Materials of Teaching Reading, Math Language Arts,
Science, Social Studies in the Elementary Schools; The Arts; Identification of and Service to
Special Needs Children; and Foundations of Education."
Translation:
Child Growth & Development = Kids will learn when they are ready.
Methods and Materials of Teaching Reading = Picture books with words underneath.
Math Language Arts = manipulables.
["Language Arts"? What is your favorite number?]
Science = How to make a volcano.
Social Studies = Thematic studies of a little Aleut boy who has two names and lives somewhere in a cold place. My son had this before they ever said anything about continents.
The Arts = All learning is done through art.
[Speaking or art, my son has a piano competition today where he has to play 10-15 minutes of music from memory, but he has a diorama (instead of a book report) and a poster on germs and washing your hands due tomorrow. I'm doing most of the diorama.]
Identification of and Service to Special Needs Children = Identification? Kids who don't do well in class.
Foundations of Education = The upside-down pyramid. All you need is critical thinking and Google.
Now what content, exactly, does certification require. Let's see the syllabi.
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